In 1966 a band called The Monkees premiered on tv. It immediately propelled the members to instant stardom:
They were a clean cut bunch of basically non-musicians pretending to be rock stars. With the guaranteed publicity of a tv show, their first recording went #1.
At exactly the same time, another band wasn’t doing quite as well:
Davy Jones and the Lower Third recorded a few songs, they went nowhere, there was no tv. I am guessing at some point a disgruntled drunk teen girl whined during a show that they needed to play Last Train to Clarksville. Not to be confused with a super-hot group, the lesser known Davy Jones changed his name and his image:
He became David Bowie. The rest is pretty well documented here.
Davy Jones died today.
Whitney Houston died last week. It was way overblown. I’m guessing the Davy Jones tribute concert/funeral will be a little less hyped. But, if it did come about, it would be so cool.
First off, you’d have Bowie resurrect his 1966 look and front the Monkees for I’m a Believer:
They immediately, of course tear into Daydream Believer:
Which, of course, morphs into Bowie’s tribute to the “pink monkee bird”:
Then, what’s left of the Beatles will take the stage to perform their 1968 payback to the Monkees
Little known fact, the Monkees were based on the Beatles’ Hard Days Night. Davy Jones was Paul McCartney. Paul McCartney sang Everybody’s Got Something to Hide Except for Me and My Monkee. Coincidence? I think not.
Then of course, The Stones will take the stage for their acknowledgement of Monkee might in the late 60′s:
“I’m a Monkee man!”
I’m sure the Brady Bunch will re-unite for one magical night as well. But, the hilite for me would be one of my all time favorites. Fifteen years after the Monkees hit #1, Peter Gabriel hit the charts with his, now very prophetic:
Why don’t you shock the monkee?
Davy Jones died of a heart attack.
Weird?