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Davy Jones, the singer for the Monkees perhaps best known for his vocals on “Daydream Believer,” died on Wednesday at his home in Indiantown, Fla. He was 66.
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The cause was a heart attack, according to the medical examiner’s officer there and a spokeswoman for the singer.
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Mr. Jones, a former jockey and stage actor, was an important member of the first and arguably the best of the pop groups created for television to capitalize on the success of the Beatles. Though they were not taken seriously at first, the Monkees made some exceptionally good pop records, thanks in large part to the songwriting of professional songwriters like Neil Diamond and Tommy Boyce.
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Mr. Jones was born on Dec. 30, 1945, in Manchester, England, the son of a railway fitter and a homemaker. He dropped out of school after his mother’s death from emphysema in 1960 and began a career as a jockey, but later quit to pursue acting, appearing in television shows like “Coronation Street” and “June Evening.” He landed a contract with Colpix Records after he appeared in the musical “Oliver!” and performed on “The Ed Sullivan Show.”…
When I was in the third grade in 1966, my classmates were convinced that the Monkees were “our” band — as opposed to the Beatles, strictly the property of our older sisters in the high school next door. One of the local news stations said that Jones’ appearance on the Ed Sullivan show coincided with that of the Beatles, and that’s where he first got the idea of switching from musical theatre to pop music. Another commentary credited the Monkees for introducing the concept of the “music video” to television. I can’t speak to the accuracy of either statement, but as the lead singer, Jones and the other Monkees made a lot of little girls (and later grownups) happy while providing a source of income for quite a few ‘serious’ songwriters. There are much worse ways to be remembered.
satby
66 is so young these days too. RIP Davy, you made many of us very happy as tweens and teens.
Chuck Derperton
I don’t give a damn how corny the show was. The monkeemobile is still as cool as the shoe phone if not cooler.
DougJarvus Green-Ellis
I resized the video to 420 width. Anything over 480 fucks the lay-out.
Mnemosyne
I was pretty sure none of the guys would get around to putting up a thread. I used to watch “The Monkees” in after school reruns. I can’t remember any of the show’s plots (such as they were) but everyone still recognizes the songs.
The ultimate collision of TV rerun worlds: Davy Jones on “The Brady Bunch”
Raven
I wouldn’t say anything bad about them but I was 17 in 66 and they were just, well, silly. My bride is your age and she’s bummed heavily.
dr. bloor
My older sister had Monkees pix from Tiger Beat and every other teen rag back then plastered over two walls of her bedroom. She met them once after a concert–in 68, I think–and spent the next several days talking about how she wanted to marry Davy one day.
To me, the amazing thing is how well so many numbers from a pre-fab band have withstood the test of time–I still listen to them. I guess with Boyce and Hart, Diamond, and others doing a good chunk of your writing it shouldn’t be that surprising, but they actually did some very good stuff, near-exemplars of the era. “The Door into Summer” is a personal favorite.
sb
I vividly remember watching the Monkees and like Mnemosyne, I wouldn’t be able to remember the plots to save my life.
They made some great songs. RIP, Davy.
brettvk
IIRC — I think it was a Rolling Stone article decades ago — the producers put the group together as a visual, and the boys had to fight hard to be allowed into the recording studio to do their own music.
Ah, yes:
wac
My favorite Davy number of all time http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ornP4eeCyBI from one of my favorite movies – Head.
The Frank Zappa scene at the end always gets me.
Raven
@dr. bloor: I like Cassandra Wilson’s Last Train to Clarksville. Proly the Monkees song I remember the most because we took the train from the induction station in Chicago to Clarksville, Tn to go to Ft Campbell for boot camp.
Rawk Chawk
I LOVED DAVEY JONES!
Laugh, sing, dance, and play forever, Davey!
And thanks for all the fun and joy you gave me and all my grade school peeps.
brettvk
I was just a little older than the show’s demographic, but damn if I don’t know all the words to the songs. Of course, I had my first transistor radio and carried it everywhere. 1960s-70s Top 40 occupies an amazing amount of my neural capacity.
Egg Berry
Someone mentioned earlier today somewhere (possibly facebook?) that Jones wasn’t really the lead singer, that Dolenz sang more lead.
I’m not stating that’s true, just throwing it out there for discussion.
RIP
Capri
When I was in fourth grade, most of our serious recess discussions centered which Monkee was the best. Davey Jones was the cutest, but there was something about Peter Tork.
Petorado
True story: it took me a while to figure out that pirates were not, in fact, being sent to the locker belonging to the lead singer of the Monkees. So embarassing.
Jones always seemed like a happy guy who lived a happy life. I hope that was true. What I saw of him as a kid always brought a smile. Good on ya mate!
Joey Giraud
I like the way Michael Nesmith is looking off the other way as if to say “I’m not really with these guys. I’m a *real* musician.”
cthulhu
There will always be haters of the Monkees but I ain’t one of them…
elftx
I actually got to see them at the Chgo.Stadium, was the ONLY concert my mother would let me attend..Beatles! NO WAY lol.
They were not my favorite band, liked the DC5 better but getting to go to a concert was a big deal so I went and had fun.
And believe it or not, James Brown opened for them.
Comrade Mary
@Egg Berry: I don’t think anyone has called Davy the lead singer, and I think Mickey did sing lead a lot, but Davy did sing lead more than, say, George or Ringo ever did.
Davy’s accent really stands out in songs like Valleri.
Joshua Norton
They weren’t supposed to be a “real” band, but every now and then when I hear Sleepy Jean on an oldies station, it still makes me smile.
Mnemosyne
@brettvk:
NPR did an interview with Peter Tork and he said he was always very impressed with Jones’ musical ability — they could show him the chording for a song in the afternoon and he could go out and play it in front of 18,000 screaming teenagers that night.
YellowJournalism
Was sad to hear this. I, too, got my first introduction to him via Ms. Marcia Brady, but it lead me to watching Saturday morning reruns religiously one year. And even though I probably saw many episodes more than once, I am also one of those who can’t remember the plot of a single one. I do remember the songs, the Monkeymobile, and the stitching on the “Money is the root of all evil” sampler hanging in their home.
I was also of the generation that saw the “return” of the Monkees in the 80’s. My older cousins had grown up with the show, so they all went buck wild with Monkee mania at the time. I remember they did a music video that featured them with their families. Thinking about that really makes my heart go out to his loved-ones.
geg6
I lurved me some Davy Jones. I was a little girl during the first run of “The Monkees” when tge show was on during prime time. Probably the perfect age, around 8 to 10. I got a little teary eyed when I heard the news today.
The Monkees did some great pop songs. And there were two real musicians in the band right from the start, regardless of how telegenic the band was and how cynical the impetus behind the whole thing. Peter Tork and Mike Nesmith had real musical and, in the case of Nesmith especially, creative chops, too.
Nicole
I discovered the Monkees when MTV ran a marathon of all the episodes of the show one (Pleasant Valley) Sunday in 1986.
Fortunately for Jones, Dolenz and Tork, they had already signed on for a summer tour before MTV started Monkeemania 2.0. Unfortunately for Herman’s Hermits, Gary Puckett & the Union Gap and the Grass Roots, the resurgence of the Monkees’ meant the other bands went from sharing equal billing to being opening acts. Herman’s Hermits quit the tour early. I saw the show before they left, and I confess, went out and bought their Greatest Hits the next day. I still like them. And the Grass Roots.
Gary Puckett, however, seemed to have ten different versions of the same song. Something about Young Girl You’ll Be a Woman Soon.
“Early Morning Blues and Grays'” which I think is by Carole King, is still one of my favorites of the Monkees not-singles. Davy sang lead on that.
(And yeah, Mickey Dolenz was lead on most of their singles, though Jones got “Daydream Believer” and “Valleri.”)
dr. bloor
@Nicole:
That wasn’t hers, although she did write “Pleasant Valley Sunday” for them. She and Gerry Goffin still might have been working out of the Brill Building at the time.
Egg Berry
@Comrade Mary: do a google for “lead singer of the Monkees.” it’s in the headlines or leads of all the major news obits.
kimp
I remember being a big fan of Bobby Sherman, because my older sister was an Osmond fan, and my neighbor friend loved David Cassidy.
Wag
I was in first grade so I barely remember this, but when the Monkees played Denver in ’68, the opening act was some unknown out of Seattle named Jimi Hendrix.
piratedan
well those guys stuck together and wrested control away from Rafelson and Kirshner and made some pretty decent music on their own. Always was fond of Nesmith’s stuff, but those guys really were a musical collective and crafted a couple of pretty good albums on their own (Headquarters and P, C, A & J, Ltd.) with some memorable songs and vocals. I’ll miss Davy as he seemed to give the group a certain charisma that everyone understood and accepted and took advantage of. They weren’t afraid to be silly and serious (check out Love is only Sleeping and Mr. Webster as well as PVS) and for them to take on a studio and record producer to seize control of their own was unheard of at the time.
Davy seemed to accept his idol status with good grace and was a professional when it came to dealing with the public from most pieces that I can find. He enjoyed being a performer and a Monkee, and I’ll miss him because their music was the first musical purchase I ever made at the age of 11.
Nicole
@dr. bloor: You’re right; I just googled and it was by Diane Hildebrand. And it’s Greens, not Greys. Sigh. Well, the title is never said in the lyrics, so I feel slightly less stupid than I might otherwise.
I love “Pleasant Valley Sunday.”. Great pop song.
namekarB
I am 66. Big Brother and the Holding Company with Janice, Jimi Hendrix, The Beatles, Stones, I went to San Francisco that year (Fillmore, Cow Palace, North Beach etc).. Sorry some old guy died, but we all do. How about some news?
Tom Q
I actually saw Jones play The Artful Dodger in Oliver! A girl who lived in my building had somehow finagled her way into hanging out backstage at the show, and had a mad crush on him. All of which is to say, I knew who the guy was even before The Monkees came on.
The group was initially viewed as a pre-fab joke, but the fact that Nesmith in particular, and Jones to a degree, had real musical chops, caused some serious music critics to come around to them — especially when they, like so many in the late 60s, went through their acid phase, with Head.
It’s hard to defend their stuff as anything but borderline bubblegum, but I sure do know all the tunes by heart. Ah, for the days when you knew every song on the radio, for good or ill.
Tehanu
My hippest professor in college turned me on to the Monkees in about 1968. Up to that point I only liked the Doors and I was stunned when he said that “Daydream Believer” and “Last Train to Clarksville” were going to last at least as long as “Light My Fire.” Then I started listening without prejudice and decided he was right. Goodbye, Davy, you and your band gave me a lot of pleasure.
MikeJ
@namekarB:
Why don’t you show us how its done?
hamletta
I was about 4 or 5 when the Monkees were on TV, and the minute I saw Mike Nesmith, I kicked Jack “Love Boat” Jones to the curb.
Sure they were bubblegum, but very well crafted bubblegum.
66 is too damn young. RIP, Davy.
Linnaeus
Nothing wrong with bubblegum – sometimes fun music is what you need.
kindness
Yea. I remember watching the TV show. My brother, sister and I had a couple of their albums. The Beatles cartoon show and the Monkees was rock & roll TV outside Ed Sullivan.
Steeplejack
@Raven:
Tangentially, my mother is from (just outside) Clarksville, and I was born at Fort Campbell.
Irony Abounds
I was never a huge Monkees fan, although I enjoyed several of their songs and never bought into the intellectual musical snobbery of the time that they were just actors. I know they rebelled against Kirschner, but it is hard to argue with the quality of most of the songwriters he used to provide songs for the first two albums. Neil Diamond never had much success writing songs for others, but he gave the Monkees four great songs – I’m a Believer, Little Bit Me, Little Bit You, Look Out, Here Comes Tomorrow and Love to Love.
YellowJournalism
Davy Jones had his fan club. Where do we start one for MikeJ for his last comment?
cthulhu
I went to that tour too, in San Jose. Was working college summers at a paint store and one of our avoiding work activities was trying to win tickets from the AM station that went over the PA in the store. As they were playing at Great America the tix also meant free admission to the theme park. Bonus!
Kirshner was definitely pushed out but the Monkees, Rafelson, and Jack Nicholson worked together to destroy the Monkees bubblegum image via the movie Head. I personally like the movie a lot but I’m sure, at the time, it largely confused and annoyed their TV fan base.
moderateindy
The Monkees produced some truly awesome music. Much of it was written by others, but Nesmith, in particular, was an outstanding songwriter, who had a song hit the charts before he was with the Monkees under the name Micheal Blessing. Peter Tork was a working musician in Greenwich Village during the folk days. Stephen Stills was the guy that told Tork about the auditions for the TV show.
The Monkees movie “Head” was co-written and produced by Jack Nicholson, and I read somewhere that the cash he made from that helped finance Easy Rider.
Nesmith also was one of the progenitors of the modern day music video, who developed the groundbreaking program Elephant parts.
Here’s a great clip of a Nesmith song “Listen to the Band”, from 33 1/3 Revolutions Per Monkee a TV special from the 60’s. It doesn’t do the song justice, but is hilarious because it is a perfect example of a totally dis-jointed full on hippie/psychedelic freak-out jam. 9 + minutes of horribly self-indulgent improvisational acid induced ridiculousness that I can’t believe was actually broadcast on network television.
http://youtu.be/5gzmxI6oisg
Charlie
Mike Nesmith was probably a part of the creative video imagery used during the musical parts of the shows. He carried that over to MTV and was in on the early days there. He produced lots of good music post Monkee’s as well.
Davy will be missed.
Sloegin
The original corporate boy-band, and yet they didn’t suck. Great music. Still wouldn’t recommend renting “Head” however. It’s unwatchable stoned or sober.
Mnemosyne
Okay, I finally had to break down and listen to “Daydream Believer” all the way through before it turned into an indelible earworm.
piratedan
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QWTa9CE51sA&feature=related
that Jones was just sooooo good looking you could understand as a guy why all the ladies lusted after him….
Kevin
Old person weird trivia…David Bowie’s real name was David Jones; he changed his last name to Bowie to avoid confusion with the Monkee’s Jones.
Pete
Doesn’t anyone find it odd that in a post noting the passing of Davy Jones, the video is of a song that Mickey Dolenz sings lead on? Couldn’t get the rights to “Daydream Believer” or “Valleri”?
Elizabelle
The Guardian has a roundup of Jones’ video clips, even pre-Monkees days.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/tvandradioblog/2012/feb/29/davy-jones-monkee-life-in-clips
For Pete: they’ve got “Daydream Believer”.
And Rolling Stone publisher Jann Wenner has banned the Monkees from ever being inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
That’s kind of funny.
Kamuflirt
R.I.P.
stratplayer
@geg6:
I’m glad you gave Peter Tork the musical credit he deserves. A lot of commenters seem to think Mike Nesmith was the only actual musician in the band. In fact, Peter was by far the most skilled and accomplished instrumentalist of the four. He was proficient on piano, guitar, bass, banjo and even French horn. His talent on piano is plainly evident in their recording of Pleasant Valley Sunday. That really is him on the keyboard, not a studio ringer.
Karmakin
They really did put a lot of effort and hard work over the years, and there was a lot of really good music as a result. My wife picked up a two CD anthology of their work over the decades, and there’s a lot of really good pop rock songs on it.
kd bart
Nesmith wrote “Different Drum” made famous by Linda Ronstadt when she was with The Stone Poneys. Nesmith once performed a quick version of the song in an episode of The Monkees.
Quiddity
Cuddly Toy
"Fair and Balanced" Dave
Another song with Davy singing lead vocals.
You and I was written by Neil Young and features Neil on lead guitar.
Cermet
I believe you have the wrong guy in the picture …you have a picture of Micky Dolenz … he’d be surprised to discover he had died. Yes, its a video and starts with Micky’s picture and Davy’s shows up later but for us just looking, it seems strange. Shouldn’t Davy’s picture lead?
Paul in KY
Always enjoyed the show back when I was a kid in the 60s. Wished I would have a car like the Monkeemobile. Davy just exuded warmth & humour. Music was pretty good too. RIP, rock star.
moderateindy
@Quiddity: do you know that Cuddly Toy was about a gangbang?