The curious case of The Monkees

A deep dive into the phenomena behind the world's first 'industry plant'.

Here we come
Walkin' down the street
We get the funniest looks from
Everyone we meet

So goes the opening verse of The Monkees’ theme song. The television series that turned four aspiring young artists into four A-list celebrities, giving birth to the phenomenon known as Monkeemania. I strongly believe that buried within each of us lies at least one Monkees hit single waiting to be rediscovered. Today, I am happy to take on the role of unearthing these hidden gems and bringing them back to the surface.

I assume most of my readers are from the same generation as I am, and if this theory is correct then many of you folks will be familiar with the Smash Mouth rendition of I’m a Believer, made for the first Shrek movie. Ogres and onions alike, the lore centred around The Monkees is a layered one.

To introduce you to these four primates, I will take you on a journey in my virtual time-machine to the sixties. From 1966 to 1968 families throughout the U.S. gathered around their TV sets every Monday evening to enjoy the crazy antics that Davy, Micky, Mike and Peter got themselves into. The plot of The Monkees is a simple one, especially if you’re familiar with Nickelodeon’s Big Time Rush, it follows a band of four youngsters living in California, trying to make it in the music business. The way they do so is by getting into a lot of trouble. The comic elements provided in each episode can only be categorised as strange, surreal and simply silly as the band keeps searching for their big break.

The entire series consists of 58 episodes of 25 minutes, with each episode having a stand-alone storyline such as Peter accidentally selling his soul to the devil in order to be able to play the harp or The Monkees incidentally agreeing to take care of a horse and having to hide it from their landlord. This was accompanied by various “romps” with the four running around, acting funny, set to a Monkees song. In retrospect, these vignettes now look very much like music videos: short, self-contained films of songs.

Much like the age-old question of who came first, the chicken or the egg, you're probably wondering what came first in this case: The Monkees or the music? To provide an answer, I will now take on the moniker of ‘professor Jente’ as I guide you through a brief history lesson on the OG industry plants.

In 1964, the following ad attracted 437 young men to try out and become one of the lucky four: ‘Madness!! Auditions. Folk & Roll Musicians-Singers for acting roles in new TV series. Running parts for 4 insane boys, age 17-21. Want spirited Ben Frank's-types. Have courage to work. Must come down for interview.’

The four fortunate enough to make the cut were musicians Michael Nesmith and Peter Tork, established theatre actor and singer David Jones (the British one) and Micky Dolenz who had previously dipped his toes in both pools, having experience as a child actor and playing in a band at the time.

The concept of The Monkees sitcom wasn’t completely new, as it was inspired by fellow rockers from the other side of the pond: The Beatles and their films Help! And A Hard Day’s Night. The series however gets great praise for introducing a number of innovative new-wave film techniques to television and won two Emmy Awards on top of that: one for Outstanding Comedy Series and one for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Comedy.

The first two albums of The Monkees served solely to provide the soundtrack to the first season of the series. With hits like Last Train to Clarksville, I’m a Believer and (I’m not) Your Steppin’ Stone, The Monkees quickly catapulted to stardom with Monkeemania causing casualties all over the country. However, they got met with major criticism as well, and I’m not just talking about them getting critiqued for being ‘long-haired weirdos’. There was a lot of speculation around the fact if the band were able to play their own instruments, as shown in the series. Even after extensive touring and performing, it remained difficult for them to shake off this rumour. One of the main reasons this was hard to let go was because of music supervisor Don Kirshner. 

The music for these two records was written and produced without including the band in the process, with them only providing vocals in the studio, aside from a few songs penned by Nesmith. While all four Monkees had experience as working musicians prior to auditioning, Kirshner preferred to record with more seasoned studio musicians like Carole King and songwriting duo Boyce & Hart, whose time wasn't taken up with shooting a series. This subsequently resulted in a massive conflict between the two parties by 1967. There’s even a story that Nesmith punched a hole in the wall because of his anger and need for creative freedom for the band. Fortunately for his sanity (and mine) the foursome achieved what they hoped for and were able to fully give themselves over to their music from then on.

While the first season has some very fun episodes and provides a great introduction to the band, it's no surprise that season two is the fan favourite. It allowed the boys to improvise a lot more, showcase their comic talents, blurring the lines between fantasy and reality, creating a theatre for the absurd that has no doubt inspired David Lynch, with a dash of camp sprinkled throughout. As a cherry on top, viewers were able to enjoy music that the band stood fully behind, with their following three albums providing the soundtrack this time around.

This is where I wrap up our little history lesson, but not to worry, if you paid attention the upcoming exam won’t prove any difficulty. Normally this is around the time I would say ‘all jokes aside’ but this month we are doing the opposite as we’re taking a magnifying glass onto the comedy this series provides as well as having a look at the serious elements hidden underneath. Ultimately, providing an overview of the cultural impact of The Monkees beyond the television screen.

Title cards for season 1 and season 2.

Although the series only ran for two years, having been cancelled after its second season since the band wanted to take it into different directions that NBC didn’t sign off on, its legacy is indisputable. Through its syndication and re-runs, the series got exposed to many generations after its initial run. But during its weekly airtime every Monday evening in the sixties, The Monkees quickly became a cultural phenomenon, blurring the lines between television watchers, radio listeners and record collectors alike.

During an era of formulaic sitcoms, the show was innovative and identifiable by its distinctive visual style, absurdist sense of humour and unusual story structure. Stylistically, the series showed much ambition, utilising techniques like breaking the fourth wall, addressing viewers by talking into the camera, its usage of freeze frames with graphics on top, slow motion and sped-up bits.

The first season is packed with a towering 32 episodes guaranteed to provide laughs. Some of my favourite moments happen when the writers abandon all logic, for instance in the Captain Crocodile episode, the band tries to get a slot on a kids TV show as the musical act but the host has other plans. There’s a sequence in which the Monkees begin having visions of appearing on other TV shows, including:

• The evening news with Mike attempting to do a weather forecast before a violent rainstorm takes over the studio.

• A medley of game shows, including ‘To Tell A Fib’, which has three Monkees claim they are the real Davy Jones. When host Micky prompted, "Will the real Davy Jones please stand up," Davy humorously responded with, "I am standing up." as he was only 5’3.

• A superhero send-up parodying the popular Batman series of the time, applying tilted camera angles and onomatopoeic words as they appear in comic books.

Once in a while the show would allow viewers a peek behind the scenes, utilising the actual film set as a set for certain scenes to take place, adding to the charm of the series. The show takes it one step further in the short interviews that took place after plenty of the episodes. Episodes frequently finished short of the allotted time, leading to candid interviews and even showing the screen tests of Davy and Mike after the pilot finished.

Examples of The Monkees utilising freeze frames with graphics on top.

The show runners knew how to pack a plethora of set-ups in only a 25-minute run per episode, which took an insane amount as they mostly used one camera per take. Alongside that, The Monkees were also praised for being at the birth of what we now call music videos because of the aforementioned “romps”. Nesmith took this one step further later on in his post-Monkees career, making promotional films for his music and creating a show called PopClips around this concept, serving as the predecessor of MTV.

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During the second year, The Monkees swerved even more into the avant-garde with the creators getting inspired by film techniques used in European films at the time like quick cuts, jump cuts and free flowing loose narratives. Nesmith recounts how early on the narrative wasn’t as important as the energy, which according to him was over the top, loud, fast and upbeat. While the earlier episodes might lack continuity, it was definitely part of its childlike charm. The creators truly believed in the program's ability to appeal to the youth masses: framing the kids as heroes and having an adult portray the villain-of-the-week.

By the time the second season aired, The Monkees proved themselves as masters of absurdity with their characteristic off beat approach to television. Much like with their early music, they didn’t have much creative input in the shows until later on. As the show developed, viewers will notice a shift within each Monkee as they were feeling their oats, grew more spontaneous and developed their own style of comedy all while growing closer as friends alongside it. At this point, anarchy and hubris ruled, a show innovative for its mixture of music and comedy and quirky humour turned into the product of four friends going ape and the editors working their magic to create a coherent product that is completely whacked yet timeless.

One of the episodes that jumps out is Fairy Tale, which includes Nesmith portraying a loudmouth princess with an exaggerated Texan accent and a set completely made out of cardboard. His drama major back in college and the improv classes clearly paid off. Another one of my favourites is The Devil and Peter Tork, which is the one episode that made me cry and of course the last episode to air The Frodis Caper written and directed by drummer-boy with the voice of an angel: Micky Dolenz. For those unaware, frodis is a slang-term for weed that Micky popularised in the sixties.

On top of that, the series doesn’t shy away from satirising itself: pointing out that they are trapped in a TV show, critiquing the script, pointing out that the character you see portrayed is played by the prop designer or even complimenting each other on the delivery of a line. During the episode Monkees in Paris, Mike even points out that if you’ve seen one episode of The Monkees, you’ve seen them all, calling out to the audience that they were aware things got repetitive.

Stills from Fairy Tale, The Devil and Peter Tork, The Frodis Caper and The Monkees in Paris (with director James Frawley appearing on screen after Mike breaks the fourth wall).

As the fictional band grew into a real band, they became aware of the influence they had beyond the television screen, using their platform to become spokespersons for the youth at home and give exposure to different musicians like Frank Zappa and Tim Buckley making an appearance. Because of this success, The Monkees became a real band for the first time in December 1966, when they made their live debut in Hawaii and continued touring until May 1967, proving once again that they had merit as musicians. Alongside that, one of the craziest Monkees stories includes Jimi Hendrix opening their first tour, getting angry because the Monkees teeny-boppers fans wanted to see Davy, followed by him throwing his guitar angrily into the audience (and rightfully so).

As alluded in the theme song, the goal audience for The Monkees were the young generation and they had something to say! The show is a stand-out for the social commentary they provided at the time; touching on subjects like the hippie and flower child movement through the use of slang and jokes, the clothes they very deliberately wore but most of all: their long hair. According to Micky, ‘if you had long hair and bell-bottoms, the only time you were on television back then, was when you were being arrested.’ So the show made it okay for the masses of youth to dress and present this way without a negative connotation to it. 

In the age of rock and roll, psychedelia and The Beatles, The Monkees didn’t want to feed the capitalistic beast that they were forced to appease by Kirshner. Even though a lot of the music was written by tremendously skilled pop music writers, there was a force of reckoning in the way these songs got carefully curated by the four members themselves. Nesmith especially wanted the feel of The Monkees’ music to have a more spiritual connotation. He initially tried to put it into the show, which we see towards the end of the second season: we get to see their characters evolve and blur the lines between who the ‘Monkee-me’ and the ‘real-me’ is. Audiences got to know the people run amok on their television screens. The fourth wall breakage of The Monkees wasn’t solely a comedic device, but a way for them to connect with their audience.

One of the reasons behind The Monkees harnessing such a cult following is because of the authenticity running through both the show and the music. It’s very prevalent in the film Head, which was a way for The Monkees to break free from their fabricated image, to break out from the walls of the box they got so carefully put into.

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Even though these four zany boys were cast as entertainers to portray the characters of an out of work rock band, the television created its own reality - forcing them to turn into a real band who actually did perform those 200 concerts all by themselves. According to Jones, they started out as two singers and two actors but ended up as four actors and four musicians respectively. The Monkees willingness to break free of their image and formula is what makes their musical journey all the more compelling.

The first five Monkees albums: Self-titled, More of The Monkees, Headquarters, Pisces, Aquarius, Capricorn & Jones Ltd. and The Birds, the Bees & the Monkees.

This musical journey starts out with The Monkees’ third album: Headquarters. Released in May 1967 and produced by The Turtles’ bassist Chip Douglas, this album would go down in Monkees history as the result of their fight for creative autonomy. At the record's inception, the Kirshner conflict wasn’t resolved yet, however, as he began supervising recording sessions with studio musicians together with Davy Jones while the group took it upon themselves to record two songs independently. While an agreement was made with Kirshner regarding the singles for the album, Kirshner didn’t hold up his end of the bargain, resulting in him being let go of the project, which led to the group finally having the creative control they craved. 

Free from restrictions, Headquarters shows what could be the humble beginnings of a garage band, with the group at the helm of the songwriting and instrumental contributions. It provided a basis for the Monkees music, each of the members brought their own musical concoctions to the table: from Manchester to Texas, the East coast to the West, it provided a more earthy sound to the Monkee name.

All they wanted to achieve with this record was acceptance. After being crucified for being a pre-fabricated band, they were now in the same position as they were on screen: a working band. Falling in line as said band was not an easy task, but the end product shows the Monkees’ most confident group performance.

With tracks like Randy Scouse Git and You Just May Be The One, the record showed what the band could deliver when allowed to take up the reins. The album’s opener You Told Me deliberately resembles The Beatles’ song Taxman, showing how while they were constantly compared to their counterparts - they never took themselves too seriously.

John Lennon even pointed out how The Monkees were nothing like The Beatles, “they’re more like the Marx brothers in any sense.” He would remark. Although a collaboration never occurred, the musicians were all friendly with each other. Nesmith and his wife even stayed with Lennon and his spouse for a week during the recording of A Day In The Life.

Headquarters still gets regarded as their best album, in the sense that it was 100% The Monkees. According to Micky it was ‘honest, it was pure, and we had a great time.’ It provided a basis for their music which only went up from there - maybe not in sales but sure in other aspects. What a lot of people tend to forget as they get lost in comparing The Monkees to their peers is that Headquarters was the second best-selling album next to Sgt. Pepper’s during the legendary “Summer of Love” period.

From start to finish, the record retains the magic of The Monkees that was present from the first two albums created for the TV show and that would continue to be present in their three subsequent releases: Pisces, Aquarius, Capricorn & Jones Ltd., The Birds, the Bees & the Monkees and the soundtrack album for Head.

The Monkees with Chip Douglas during the recording of Headquarters.

The Pisces album is probably my favourite of the entire Monkees discography, with gems such as Love is Only Sleeping (my favourite Mike vocal), The Door Into Summer (a harmonious anti-war song) and Pleasant Valley Sunday (one of The Monkees’ many hits which lyrically happens to rip apart the middle class, the same class who watched their TV show and bought their albums), it’s no wonder it was the band’s fourth consecutive album to reach the number one spot in the U.S. Billboard 200. The album’s title stems from each band member’s respective astrological sign and the album art created by Bernard Yeszin, provides a great visual representation of the flower child movement that was popular at the time.

Another stand-out about the Pisces album is that the track Daily Nightly utilised a Moog synth, making it one of the first commercial recordings to utilise the instrument. Dolenz bought the third Moog ever sold after being approached on set by a person trying to sell them, after hearing that it could ‘make any sound in the universe’ he decided he had to become the owner of one. The synth blends wonderfully with Dolenz’s unique voice and Nesmith’s poetic lyrics, touching on the Sunset Strip riots of 66. What came forth from the Monkees earning their freedom are some of their finest musical moments, accompanied by touches of psychedelia, making the record sound trippy and vibrant.

Micky playing his Moog synth during the performance of Daily Nightly.

The last Monkees album I want to discuss is the first album released after the cancellation of their TV show: The Birds, the Bees & the Monkees. Surprisingly, this was the first of their albums not to reach that number one spot in the Billboard 200, although it provides a home to the wonderful Daydream Believer. This spot might have to do with the production between the members being less collaborative - instead they opted for going their own ways and producing three tracks each in their own sessions. Davy Jones' Broadway rock, Michael Nesmith's country and western leanings and psychedelic experiments, and the rock and soul of Micky Dolenz made for a diverse album. Several of Peter Tork's compositions were considered for release on Birds; however, they were all rejected (for reasons unknown, #JusticeForPeter).

Daydream Believer was the band’s second biggest seller and is still regarded as one of their best - unlike I’m a Believer, this one brought a more emotional level to a Monkees-hit through its piano part, harmonies and lyrics. Although Jones’ sappy ballads on this album aren’t my cup of tea, his voice fits perfectly with the track and the man does play a mean bit of tambourine!

My favourite off of the album is Tapioca Tundra, a slight nod to Daily Nightly with its usage of experimental poetry as lyrics, written and put to music by Nesmith. Although it’s not his most impressive feat on this album, as the track Writing Wrongs shows some of Nesmith’s most progressive direction and surprising vocal abilities. But a fan favourite of the tracks Nesmith put down is definitely Magnolia Simms, deliberately made in mono and having a low-fi production by adding surface noise and skipping effects to more realistically capture ‘the sound of the 1920–32 yippies’. And for people who want to slip into an even deeper layer of The Monkees iceberg - be sure to listen to Nesmith’s second solo single Joanne.

Yet, one of the most impressive and underrated material the Monkees put down on this album is P.O. Box 9847. Sung by Dolenz and written by frequent collaborators Boyce & Hart, the song came into fruition after Bob Rafelson had the idea to do a song about a classified ad. What makes this track so special is the way Dolenz uses his unique voice and yet again makes use of his Moog by incorporating a wild synthesiser part into the song.

The Monkees during the performance of Daydream Believer.

Although the curious case of this famous foursome remains unclosed, as someone who thinks they’ve earned a symbolic PhD in Monkees lore, I hope to have piqued your interest at least a little bit. To bid you a proper farewel, I leave you, dear reader, with a playlist of essential tracks and some personal favourites curated by myself and my friend Lovisa - who I want to dedicate this newsletter to. Along with Mike, Micky, Peter and Davy, you have been a source of love and laughter. In the wise words of our boys: ‘we were born to love one another, this is something we all need.’