Peter Tork
1942-2019
Peter Tork, bass guitarist, and one of two true musicians of the 1960's band The Monkees, died earlier this week at the age of 77.
The story of The Monkees is well known. In an effort to cash in on Beatlemania, NBC put together a sitcom in 1966 about a fictional band, The Monkees. The show was done in the style of Richard Lester's Beatles movies, A Hard Days Night and Help!. It became a hit, won an Emmy for Best comedy Series, ran for three seasons, and, surprisingly, The Monkees themselves became real honest to God rock and roll stars.
The Monkees
Peter Tork, Mike Nesmith, Davy Jones, Mickey Dolenz
When casting the show, the producers wanted actors and not necessarily singers and musicians. Davy Jones, who became the teen heart throb lead singer and Mickey Dolenz were actors. Michael Nesmith and Tork were real musicians. Somehow, the group jelled and they became a big hit. Inevitably, the group had the inevitable ego battles and split up. Each went their separate ways, but over the years, they reunited for various reunion tours and concerts. Jones passed away several years ago. Nesmith, like Tork, has had his own musical career, writing, producing and performing. Dolenz, among other things, serves as a front man on something called the "Happy Together Cruise" wherein a bunch of singers and bands from the '60s and '70s era perform on cruise ships. I know a guy who has been on several of these cruises, and he says they're great, and that Dolenz himself is a pretty nice guy!
Anyway, one of the most interesting things that I read about Peter Tork in the obits was that among other things he did in his post-Monkees career was spend a year and a half as a high school teacher in Santa Monica. How cool would that have been to have a Monkee as your high school teacher?
RIP Peter Tork.
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