Godspeed Peter Tork.


Greg.

Bass player for a fake band. Sounds like the least of the least. My opinion, for what it's worth. (Getting ready to duck. )

Not the time for a nasty comment.

Tom

Going through tech school in the service we had a small rec room with TV and a pool table for each floor. I think their show came on about 7PM and it was packed. Their was also a show somewhat like Laugh-In at that time that had music and a lot of pretty girls. Packed that night also. Pretty girls and music and we were watching. To each his own, but I liked their songs.

Freeman

Peter Tork? I didn't know he had died...RIP

Greg, I have to ask, what is the reference of this song to the Monkees?
That was a Manfred Mann tune, iirc.

The Monkees - Opening Theme
https://youtube.com/watch?v=96A0uyFWQHs


Are you thinking of... https://google.com/search?q=There+she+w ... 8&oe=utf-8


Greg.

Sorry to hear he passed.


Manford Mann was “ there she goes just a-walking down the street” from Do Wah Diddy Diddy. The op’s title is referencing The Monkee’s Theme song, which starts, “Here we come..walking down the street...we get the funniest looks from, everyone we meet”

More info on the late Peter Tork here Monkees

Stephen Stills' roommate and (IMO) the least affected of the PreFab Four.

Can't fault the guys. Doing what they were cast and paid to do. The ones who couldn't play, learned to. FWIW, they saw the gig for what it was: Kirshner's runup to Sugar Sugar. Hey hey, it was a fun time anyhow. 'Sugar' wasn't a bad word, that's something right there.

From Wikipedia:

"Tork was a proficient musician, and though the group was not allowed to play their own instruments on their first two albums, he was an exception, playing what he described as "third chair guitar" on Mike Nesmith's song, "Papa Gene's Blues," from their first album. He subsequently played keyboards, bass guitar, banjo, harpsichord, and other instruments on their recordings. He also co-wrote, along with Joey Richards, the closing theme song of the second season of The Monkees, "For Pete's Sake". On the television show, he was relegated to playing the "lovable dummy," a persona Tork had developed as a folk singer in New York's Greenwich Village."

Thanks for posting that. I didn't know he had folk roots.

Well, okay. I suppose the same description would apply to Harry Schearer; bass player in a fake band (Spinal Tap).

RIP Peter.

I grew up listening o the Monkeys (and Beatles, Carpenters, Arlo Guthry,
Neil Diamond, Gordon Lightfoot, etc) and still enjoy it all immensly.
My jukes are full of these records and have been playing Monkeys
tunes the past two days. My fave; Last Train to Clarksville.

Yeah, they were a fake band of sorts but were a nice break from
the Beatles, who dominated everything for a time and were entertaining.
Steve

I classed the Monkees with bubble gummers compared to The Animals or Paul Revere and the Raiders.
But they had some catchy tunes and improved as they went, under scrutiny of the media and every teeny bopper in the US and abroad, a pretty good gig, IMO.

I liked the Monkey-mobile, George Barris I think?, cut the roof off of a GTO and added a bench seat in the trunk, cool.

Edit: George Barris did NOT build the MonkeeMobile, it was Dean Jeffries. Thanks oldradioFox!!

And yet the musicians who played on the early Monkees records are the same bunch that played on Paul Revere and the Raiders records. This group of studio musicians were known as "The Wrecking Crew".

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SX5BCgmr7tg

Wow, who knew? I was aware of the Wrecking Crew, but didn't know that, thanks. I thought the Raiders had a raunchier sound, liked them better.

A good session musician can sound as pop or as raunchy as the gig requires. There was a book about the Wrecking Crew published a few years ago. I think that explains why many bands never sounded as good live-in-concert as they did in their studio recordings (unless they were just lip syncing in their supposed live concerts). But I really would be disappointed if a "real" band such as The Jimi Hendrix Experience or Cream had used the Wrecking Crew on their recordings.

Well Ken burst my bubble a bit there because I've always thought the Raiders were a tight band,
and they were, in the studio, just not the same guys that we saw on TV when they did the Ed Sullivan show.

Anyway, Peter Tork, RIP, hats off to you and your musical and whimsical legacy.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Wrecking_Crew_(music)

I just checked the list of Wrecking Crew top 40 tunes and see only one Paul Revere and TRs and that was "Him or Me" don't know it, and then 2 tunes with Mark Lindsay after he went solo.

George Barris did not build the MonkeeMobile, it was Dean Jeffries. Thanks oldradioFox!!

There is no difinitive list of all the songs played by the Wrecking Crew and they didn't always replace an entire band for a recording session, but looking at the song "Kicks" as an example,

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kicks_(song)#Personnel

I see that Wrecking Crew members Hal Blane played drums, and Jerry Cole played guitar.

The only Raiders member on "Indian Reservation" is Mark Lindsay on vocals.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indian_Re ... ion_Indian)#Personnel