The Last Train to Clarksville . Most people do not know Clarksville was a processing station for the way to Vietnam . "and I don't know if I'm ever coming home " .
@@QuantumPyrite_88.9 No, it's not about Vietnam. The name was randomly chosen, according to Bobby Hart, who wrote the song. He also said that, at the time the song was written, he had no idea that there was a connection between Clarksville and Vietnam.
It is beyond silly to describe the Monkees' story as "tragic". They had their ups and downs, but they have a solid body of work and will be remembered for generations to come.
What was sad is what the media did to the Monkeys, most groups did not play their instruments on a record in the sixtys. Most every pop song back then played on the radio , a group called the wreaking crew played the instruments. They were all professional studio musicians.
This is not tragic; it's called life. Nearly everyone gets old, lose skill and health, etc. Love the Monkees... they were fun and talented. "Pleasant Valley Sunday" is perfect pop music, but we have to stop thinking of the natural processes of life - and the consequences of our actions - as tragic.
To give you an idea how small the industry was back then My girlfriend ( a huge Monkey fan ) at age 13 called the studio and was able to talk to the boys , they just answered the phone.
That sounds plausible, finding the number must have been a chalenge no? unless you could get through with the main number but then everybody and their little sister would be calling all the fuckin time
Each time he said Mike's last name wrong in this video it irked me more and more. After the third time he did it I started yelling the correct pronunciation at my screen. It's clear the guy who did the voice over for this video never saw a single episode of The Monkees tv show. I don't get why people make videos about things they have no personal fondness for; especially when they know the people who would be interested are fans of the subject and will be bothered by anything you might get wrong. That's what makes stuff like pronouncing a name wrong feel like such a big deal. You don't even care enough about any of it to make sure you've got everyone's name right, so why are you the one telling us fans about it?
The name mispronunciation didn't bother me as much as the fact that a video that claimed to be about the "tragic" times in the Monkees' existence didn't even mention the TV special, 33 1/3 Revolutions per Monkee. Did anyone NOT consider that show a tragedy???
Guess there was no fact checking here! Peter Tork was not fired from his teaching job. In fact, he received Teacher of the Year honors a few times. Also, it was a private school, and when the principal died, the school closed down. I read a comment by one of his former students who said he was a very competent teacher.
D S I'm really stunned anytime I tune in the oldies station, pop music in the 50s and 60s was just drenched and dripping with a rich vocal harmonies everybody had them all the groups even solo artist multitrack their own voices and when I hear these songs on a really good stereo sometimes, Maybe because we're so deprived of any background vocals now, I love the background vocals more than the lead vocal sometimes
I think it is just what we grow up listing to, I can remember listing to the new Woodstock album with headphones on and blasting the part were the guy was yelling GIVE ME AN - F-GIVE ME A -U -GIVE ME A -C- GIVE A -K- what’s that spell and all the people would repeat what he was saying, so I have on headphones on screaming out the same I’m 9 years old and my farther walks in pulls my headphones off and says what the hell are you listing too! And proceeded to destroy that album haha those were the days 1969
This video stinks ,he said it was Tragic Real Life Story of the Monkees .But never mention anything abut David Jones life after the Monkees.Only when he died.That piss me off ,David was just as much a Monkees as the others and had problems to.Your video was no TRUE
They are still my favorite band. They showed the critics up and became a legacy that will live on. God Bless Davy and Peter and they are performing in Heaven! Mike and Micky they are keeping on playing on and keeping there bandmate with them. Proud to be a Monkees fan!!!!
Davy Jones lived next door to my great grandad, they were the best of friends and he used to sign a lot of things for my dad, my grandad and Davy went to Disney land together and where the best of friends until my grandad passed, my dad always talks about what a nice man he was. I wish I could have met him
Holly Scattergood that’s so kool ! My Grandma knew Walt Disney.. she lived in Anaheim where Disneyland is. They both owned Motels and Apartments around there. Disney gave her shoeboxes full of ride tickets so we would go on rides over and over and not get off between lol it sure was fun back in the early 60s there..
The "music coordinator" the narrator was speaking of, I believe, was Don Kirschner, who wanted the Monkees to have absolutely No creative control whatsoever, but wanted to package them as if they were playing their own instruments. Naturally, the members chafed at this, especially Nesmith, and it came to a direct confrontation. The producers wound up siding with the actors and fired Kirschner, who took it in stride and went to to make a career out of pre-packaged music, the kind of music that the Monkees hated. Here's the kicker: The Monkees were actually based on the Beatles film "A Hard Day's Night", and the Beatles themselves actually loved the Monkees! John Lennon said he "got them", and compared them to the Marx Brothers. The group was genuinely funny in their comedy. The tragedy is that we didn't get to hear more albums from them. If they had found the right music producer they trusted (and would cooperate with), they might have produced a couple more great albums. Whatever their origin was, they had a unique sound that I enjoyed. "Here we come...... Walkin' down the street....."
The tragedy was that they never got along. In Jones' autobiography, he talks about how there were constant fistfights between them on set. They weren't musically compatible. They weren't friends. Just talented guys that Fate threw together with other talented visionaries to make some amazing albums and episodes. What we loved in the Monkees was entirely a mirage, like most of showbiz.
Do not grieve. They were great, they lived the life, they made mistakes. I think each Monkee was married 3 times except Peter, who married 4 times. They had the world by the tail and I still enjoy them.
Their music, however or whoever created, is an undisputed major ingredient of the 1960s soundtrack to all our lives. Loved the album 'Headquarters' - the quintessential 'garage band' benchmark.
the big problem with RU-vid is videos like this. Misinformation, not to mention mispronounced names. I could, in fact, do better. I also don't see the story of the Monkees as tragic. Far more triumphant.
George, as a Hindu, has been reincarnated. John is worrying about being dead. ("When I'm alive, I'll worry about being alive...when I'm dead, I'll worry about being dead."
I remember watching the monkees when i spent time a lot of time in hospital with asthma i was about 5 years old im 57 now. It was a comfort to see them we all sat around the tv in the hospital ward. Favourite record . Sleepy jean.
I saw The Monkees in Portland, Maine in 2001. I became a "Monkee Junkee" at the age of 8yrs when my father introduced them to me through the re-runs and an 8-track of their greatest hits. I'm now 42yrs old and even after 34 years, I'm just as big of a fan as ever. I really enjoyed this video and I thank you for it! 😁😁
I agree. I've lived in Maine my entire life and no matter what happens I could never picture myself out of the state. I never thought I'd ever bump into someone I know in a RU-vid comment but it's pretty GROOVY that it was in a Monkee kind of way. Ya got good taste 👍👍
I'm 41 and went through a similar scenario. The Beatles cartoons were being re-aired around the same time ('85?) And my dad gave me one of his Beatles albums. Opened a whole new world for me.
This video is quite poor. As someone else has pointed out, consistently mispronouncing the name of one of the Monkees is not a good place to start. There are many better tellings of this story to be found.
Good point. During that time in my life I was not into cheesy shows but I had to watch The Monkeys. I am mostly over that now. I still have somewhat of a hard time with most sitcom comedies. My wife loved Big Bang Theory, so I watched with her, not a bad show. Maybe it's because I am somewhat of a nerd myself. My favorite show right now is Bull. However, it is starting to get a little old.
@@chrissimon8368 Yeah, most sitcoms no matter what their set up are pretty formulaic. We can also say that about most popular action/spy movies and romcoms! The older we get, the harder it is to find something with an original approach. But we keep trying eh?
@@littlewoodimp I just watched Spike Lee's BlackkKlansman, I was surprised how good it was, I am from the Midwest, and white. Best show I've seen in many years. Maybe there is hope.
I love the songs "Listen to the band" and "Sometime in the morning" "Circle Sky" "Look out hear comes tomorrow". Actually I like Mike's songs the best.
I liked The Monkees. Randy Scouse Git is a great song. I once saw Micky Dolenz in Cambridge City library, England, about 23 years ago. He didn't say anything though, it was a library.
I don't really know very much about the Monkees, I just stumbled on this video by accident. I had no idea they did a song called "Randy Scouse Git". Was it a diss song about John Lennon?
@@kate_cooper inspired by Tony Booth's character in Til Death Us Do Part apparently. For years was only available in Britain under the name Alternate Title because it was viewed as too rude & and somebody said it needed an alternate title to be released in Britain.
@@sdgakatbk Don't forget Neil Diamond. I wonder if Carole King did any? She wrote for everybody until Tapestry came out, of which was a huge selling hit. Almost, if not all songs on that album got airtime.
@@chrissimon8368 Yeah, this is true. I see Neil Diamond wrote I'm a Believer and A Little Bit Me, a Little Bit You which were both hits for the Monkees. Monkees hits that Tommy Boyce and Bobby Hart wrote include Last Train to Clarksville, Valleri, and The Monkees Theme. Neil also wrote Look Out Here Comes Tomorrow and Love to Love which the Monkees covered. Boyce and Hart wrote a number of other Monkees songs. Btw, Carole King co-wrote my favorite Monkees song with Gerry Goffin, Pleasant Valley Sunday, (he wrote the lyrics). And yes, Tapestry was an amazing album!
All I had to do was read the comments (after hearing the guy mis-pronounce Nesmith?! Dude? Seriously?) to know I didn't want to give this channel the benefit of watching the full video. If you're a true Monkees fan, this is not worth your time!
@@bonniemoerdyk9809 It was like fever pitch crazy in love! yeah, I think my sister (twin) preferred Mike... my other sister preferred Peter, but of course Davy was real cute lookin' and the only British one so we were happy that the UK had a connection with them. (Sigh!) Happier and somehow sunnier Days 💛💙💚💜
This doesn't sound so much tragic to me as it does "life-y": a rollercoaster series of unpredictable successes and failures strung together, as experienced by those men whose paths would remain loosely intertwined because they were, at one time, chosen to embody The Monkees.
Agreed.. no one's life is perfect by any means. I've known people that have had financial wealth, but terrible luck with health or vice versa.. life has so many variables and paths, there's no telling what will happen any given time or day. Here's to hoping you well and happy, and there's some scientific breakthrough with Corona Virus. Stay well, where ever you are. 💓
@@ytgadfly It's not his fault that he's narrating something he is not familiar with. He is not the one who writes and comes up with the topics. If he pronounces a name incorrectly, someone who mixed the sound should have caught it. Don't get upset with the wrong person
I think the first thing a documentarian should research on a subject is the pronunciation of the subject's names. It's Michael Nesmith...with the "s" in his last name sounding like a "z," not "Naysmith." Not a big deal, but after hearing it mispronounced 20 times in this piece, it started to get irritating.
Right down every problem you've encountered during your life. This is all the downs in 6 minutes. I'll never know what it's like to make people happy they way they did. I'll never go to a party among people I admire and have everyone smile at me. I'll never be able to afford a Hollywood home or go buy the really cool car and pay cash. Everyone's life is tragic. We will all suffer from health, financial or social issues in our lives. The tragic side is everyone's life. Just imagine the really great high you get from going to an audition and being one of the 4 among hundreds. Imagine having s song that you sung on--a cheep promotional sit com that isn't guaranteed to do anything--and having that song hit before your show ever hit the airwaves. Imagine taking a stand on the hit song for your next album and saying it will never be a hit--Sugar Sugar was never released by the Monkeys. It became #1 and stayed there for 4 weeks. Michael Nesmith had to have that one rubbed in his nose. I respect Michael Nesmith. I really do. He was smarter than the bubblegum that made him famous, but he couldn't separate the entertainment from who he was. I absolutely love how these guys made a really miserable childhood a little better. I was so young back then that I actually believed the Monkeys were bigger than the Beatles--they were bigger to me at the time. For me, the Beatles was the album Help in our record collection. That album sat beside Steppenwolf, Grand Funk Railroad and Bloodrock. Someone who hears the Monkees music might only hear pop, but I hear a simple complexity that made me fall in love with music. I spent so many nights in my bedroom and listening to the radio that I felt like I had friends. The tragic life of the Monkees? I couldn't imagine having 1% of their good fortune and not believing that my life was blessed.
@@jamesanthony8438 Someone told me they heard how it was discovered or made for the first time,when a lady had constant need for her corrections on paper,she decided she make something by adding flour to alcohol,churning it into a liquid paste and put it in a bottle. Makes sense because the alcohol evaporates leaving the flour dried on the paper over the mistake. Inventing the simplest of things can make a person a millionaire. cheers
So sad. I knew Mike, and had great respect for all the guys. Still, I have all their albums and admire that time where peace, love and happiness were a real thing.
Peace, love and happiness was a great thought and made a nice slogan but, in reality, it really wasn't widespread. Many of us wanted to believe in those words but many, many more were closeminded to the idea.
I always liked their music cause I love variety, people thought I was crazy cause I liked both the beatles and the monkees cause I like music that sounds good to meand I have mom to thank for that she exposed me to so much awesome music when I was little from Sinatra and Xavier cugat to queen and boston im 76er and so happy to listen to so much beautiful music this world has to offer
Daily Nightly, Sometime in the Morning, Love Is Only Sleeping, Midnight (from the album Pool It), Shades of Grey, Take a Giant Step, The Porpoise Song, and the acapella Christmas song they sang at the end of the 2nd Christmas show.
@@raymondfrye5017 The story is that when he was opening for them, the fans kept screaming for Davy so he got so pissed off he flipped them off and quit the tour....
"Tragic" real-life story ? Okay..they had some problems. They made some mistakes. Loved ones died. Tragic ? That's what practically everyone on earth is destined to experience, if they live long enough. As if celebrities aren't considered human beings ? Goofy. Sounds like a 22 year old journalism major produced this. Or someone with very little life experience. Way to play up the drama, Grunge. You need to be more intelligent, if you expect to gain a more mature, intelligent audience. But maybe that's not your goal ?
I’m beginning to suspect Grunge of intentionally mispronouncing people’s name in order to provoke responses, such as this: it’s Nesmith. Pronounced phonetically , NEH SMITH. Not Naysmith. Thanks.
The birds the bees and the monkees is an amazing album. the monkees' story is anything but tragic. They are freaking A genius. It doesn't matter how they got there. America, the world, demanded that they become a band. Just like Spinal Tap. This vid is dramatic and ignoring the fact that they are legends.
You know what's tragic? The way you keep mispronouncing Mike's NAME!!! NEZmith! It's pronounced NEZ-MyTH! Good grief! And Peter did not give up music, I was personally at a concert with him and James Lee Stanley and got his autograph, and a picture. It was a dream come true. He was always my favorite, but I loved them all. You also left out one of the most interesting tidbits, the Beatles' reaction to the Monkees. When the Pre-Fab Four met the Fab Four while they were in England on a tour, "Mike Nesmith was even in attendance for some of the ‘Day In The Life’ sessions where he asked Lennon: “Do you think we’re a cheap imitation of the Beatles, your movies and your records?” Lennon’s reply? “I think you’re the greatest comic talents since the Marx Brothers. I’ve never missed one of your programs.” Meanwhile George Harrison said of their self-produced songs: “It’s obvious what’s happening, there’s talent there… when they get it all sorted out, they might turn out to be the best.”" The Beatles also threw a party for the Monkees. Which inspired Mickey to write the song "Randy Scouse Git" which contained the lyrics "The four Kings of EMI are sitting stately on the floor" and Mickey met his soon-to-be wife there. (Oh, EMI is Electric and Musical Industries, whom the Beatles were with.) I was really lucky to see Mickey, Davy and Peter at the Chumash Casino. in one of Davy's concerts. And also, Mike, Peter and Mickey on their remembrance tour and it was beautiful and heartbreaking....especially the "Daydream Believer" part. Losing them wasn't a "tragedy," they weren't killed or murdered, dying of natural causes isn't tragic. But losing them was sad, and hard, and I still cry when I think about them. They seriously kept me sane at a rough time in my life, between Junior and High School. I was head over heels for them.
Wow, you could not have gotten Head more incorrect. It is in the Criterion collection. It may have 'failed' at the time but it is brilliant post-modern commentary of the zeitgeist of the times. If you can't get the names correctly pronounced, you shouldn't be trusted on anything else in this lame video. By the way, Jack Nicholson had already written and directed The Trip, starring Peter Fonda and Dennis Hopper in 1967, prior to Head.
I loved the Monkeys, I was from the first round of reruns on tv! I still love 💕 Here we come! And the other top songs! I thought was a doll and Mickey had character and the other two was one for everyday and one for Sunday! I just couldn’t believe Davy Jones had died so suddenly. Who’s married or not and who has children/grandchildren or not! If anyone or everyone knows please fill me in and Thank You 😊
I remember watching that very first show when it aired. It was definitely new and different. Where I lived the Monkeys were always on the radio. And it's still great stuff.
Mike NESMITH (NËZ-mith) is NOT* related to basketball “creator” James NAISMITH (NĀZE-mith), and the names are not pronounced the same. Please re-do this video,
Nesmith wrote Linda Ronstadt's first hit (The Stone Pony's "Different Drum") and invented country-rock before Gram Parsons. Dolenz was the first person to use a Moog in pop music ("Daily Nightly") and his handful of original songs ("Randy Scouse Git," "Mommy and Daddy") were brilliant. Song-by-song instrumental credits reveal that Tork has amazing chops on bass, keyboards, etc. -- I like to play his "Long Title" (with Steven Stills, who had auditioned and failed, guesting on guitar) for folks, ask them to guess the artist, and watch their jaws drop when I tell them. There are more original tracks per year on their box set than on the Byrds'. I reviewed it for Boston Rock magazine (full page, blurb on the cover), and called them the second-greatest American pop group of all time.
At the this isn’t a robo voice, but the continuous mispronunciations of Nesmiths name is very distracting and takes away from the bands accomplishments and the fact they were crazy popular.
I lived that show. I spent hours on Nick at Nite watching it and other oldies in the 80’s when I should’ve been studying for Grad School. It took me longer time to finish but I enjoyed these old shows, especially saying, “Nezmith”and, “ I am standing up”. I sure miss those days!
The Beatles were faker than that. Listen to them before their handlers gave them their professional makeover. They sounded horrible. Even up to the end, John Lennon played that white Steinway like a clumsy kid trying to learn piano. Billy was good, though. He was the one playing the instruments on the records, even when Paul was still, ahem, there.
"Head" is a better film than is described here. Yes, it was ahead of its time. But it's an intelligent and fun critique on modern (circa 1968) society and media. And besides featuring some of the Monkees' best songs, in the film the Monkees achieved something that even the Beatles were never able to do: they were able to laugh at themselves, thus illustrating that the Monkees never took their success too seriously. As much as I love the Beatles, "Magical Mystery Tour" is a clusterf*ck of self-indulgence. Compared to that, "Head" is a satirical masterpiece.
@Elaine Markowicz No offense, Elaine, but the actual line is: "I'd like a glass of cold gravy with a hair in it." It's taken from the film, from the scene in which the Monkees are in the film studio's cafeteria, ordering lunch. Sorry but your dad freaked out for no reason.
I like both the Monkees and the Beatles, but I have to disagree with you re: the Beatles being unable to laugh at themselves: HELP was complete satire.
When Davy Jones died, I was ticked off to find out that he had a home in Pennsylvania that I never knew about. He lived only a twenty minute drive from us and I read that he was known to be very friendly and would spend a lot of time with fans that had just dropped by to visit, showing them the farm, his horses and his Hollywood stuff. I wish I would've met him in person.
