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OT: RIP Peter Tork




My best friend and leader of our musical group (God Only Knows) took a trip to NYC in 1964 from the Valley to Brooklyn. He stayed in the village and crashed with a friend... visitors included John Sebastian and folk singer Peter Tork.

My friend, Boogie Bruce Englehart passed away in 2012 and I was asked by the ride along (Barry Melton) known as the Fish, from Country Joe and the FISH) if I would be playing (it was a musicians send off.

I wasn't there in '64 but I can see it very visually...complete with little red 2 seater sports car and cruising Route 66.

RIP Peter!

MO
 
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Peter Tork was the one true musician of the group when they started, although Mike Nesmith certainly was a very creative guy in his own right. That show won a couple of Emmys, which, while noteworthy, also tells you something about TV comedy in the age before CBS dropped the rural-themed sitcoms.

RIP, Sir.
 
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Rock critics hated them but manufactured music that truly worked. Just look at the song writers. Really deserve a ton of credit and way ahead of their times. Beat MTV by 15 years. RIP
 
"The Monkees were a major influence on the Beatles" - Lloyd Christmas

Rest in Peace. Must have seen every rerun of the show at least 5x as a kid.
 
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Trivia: Stephen Stills is the reason Peter Tork became a Monkee.

Tork grew up in Connecticut and was a part of the early Sixties Greenwich Village folk scene, where he befriended a pre-fame Stephen Stills. Once they both moved to Los Angeles, Stills told Tork about a TV show looking to cast a Beatles-like band. “I remember Stephen saying to me, ‘They like me but they think my hair and teeth won’t work for television,'” Tork told Rolling Stone in 2011. “I said, ‘Yeah, yeah, thanks Stephen’ and hung up without any intention of going to the audition. He called me again and said, ‘No, no, you really have to do this.’ I never would have gone had it not been for Stephen.”

R.I.P. Peter
 
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Peter Thorkelson When they released the movie Head their teeny bopper fans couldn't handle it. I loved it..
 
Rock critics hated them but manufactured music that truly worked. Just look at the song writers. Really deserve a ton of credit and way ahead of their times. Beat MTV by 15 years. RIP

I believe these British guys had the drop on them several years earlier:

 
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RIP Peter. They had lots of great songs in my opinion. They did somewhat use studio musicians but many groups did (e.g., Glen Campbell played the famous riffs on The Beach Boys “Help Me Rhonda.”) What’s crazy is that some people complained about the Monkees music being manufactured but look where we are today: vocal and pitch corrections, synthesized instruments, very little truly live performances, etc.
 
Big part of my childhood, requested their albums for Christmas and I still have them!


I still remember the nuns criticizing us girls that they weren’t the right kind of people to listen to!

Making me feel old..
 
RIP Peter. They had lots of great songs in my opinion. They did somewhat use studio musicians but many groups did (e.g., Glen Campbell played the famous riffs on The Beach Boys “Help Me Rhonda.”) What’s crazy is that some people complained about the Monkees music being manufactured but look where we are today: vocal and pitch corrections, synthesized instruments, very little truly live performances, etc.
That's where they were ahead of their time, but it should be pointed out that the emergence of self contained bands that wrote their own songs and played their own instruments during that era highlighted the manufactured nature of the Monkees music, and was the impetus for a lot of the criticism of the band. The integrity and quality of live performance really stopped being important when MTV got popular.
 
For those of us starting out teen years in the mid 70s on many cases The MONKEES were arguably more popular than the Beatles because of the Saturday show. As my name is also Peter I used to get so excited when I saw Peters name.
 
The Monkees were the subject of the best cereal box giveways ever. Does anyone remember those 2-4 Monkees cutout 33rpm ( for you youngsters there used to be 3 speeds of vinyl records based on size of the record- 33 1/3 45 and 78) records on the back of the Kellogg's or Post Cereal boxes. Each record had 2-3 songs. Frpm my warped memory i was happy to get the one with "Last Train to Clarksville".
 
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NBC-TV executives wanted a Monkees look-a-like character added to the original Star Trek cast. And that's how you wound up with the navigator Mr. Chekov.

Because of the popularity of Davy Jones and the Monkees, musician David Jones changed his stage name to David Bowie.
 
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They were fun. Tork was a trainee classical guitarist.

I think mike Nesmith inherited the White Out product company, so was not as present in the late 80’s resurgence and tours.
Also, pretty sure Mickey Dolenz has a hot looking daughter
 
They were fun. Tork was a trainee classical guitarist.

I think mike Nesmith inherited the White Out product company, so was not as present in the late 80’s resurgence and tours.
Also, pretty sure Mickey Dolenz has a hot looking daughter

Friend of my sister's lives up near Storrs, CT -- had jammed with Peter Tork a few times. Was told he was a tremendously nice guy. Another piece of our youth . . .

Not a song he's featured on, and not to hijack the thread, but here is definitely one of the hippest songs ever created and performed.

 
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Was thinking about him today - remembered when he would play in New Brunswick with his own band - never did get to see him then. Was hoping he might come around again with his band - then found this out tonight- weird and surreal. Saw him at the Arts Center in the mid-80’s (no Mike), and again a few years ago at the State for my girlfriend’s birthday (Mike actually showed but no Davy, already deceased). Peter has been sick for awhile- he almost died years ago. A really good, down to earth guy by all accounts.

I loved the Monkees - big fan - this probably puts an end future tours unless one of the remaining 2 puts a band together and calls them the Monkees. Won’t be the same.

Bummed to hear this - Rest In Peace Peter!
 
Saw the Monkees Reunion Tour at the Arts Center with the ex (huge fan) years ago. No Michael Nesbitt but a decent show
One of my earlier memories in life was being brought to see them at the Arts Center on this reunion tour...probably 84-85ish. I still call that my first ever concert.
 
RIP. Grew up watching reruns of the Monkees on tv in the '70's. My favorite Monkees song was always Tapioca Tundra

 
RIP. Grew up watching reruns of the Monkees on tv in the '70's. My favorite Monkees song was always Tapioca Tundra

Neil Diamond wrote I'm a Believer and Carole King co-wrote Another Pleasant Valley Sunday. Supposedly King lived near Pleasant Valley Way in West Orange, NJ and this provided some inspiration for the song. Saw Davy Jones at Walt Disney World in the 1990's.
 
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T


Me too. Growing up Westchester watched their show on WPIX I believe.
WPIX- home of the Yankees and The Scooter (and Bill White). Was there anyone with better stories or shoutouts than Rizzuto? Cue "here come the Yankees!"

.
 
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