Yesterday, we played voyeur to Rupert Holmes and his relationship problems. One too many men, and a problem with "Him". Today, we find the late '60s supergroup The Monkees having similar pronoun trouble, but this time it's with an evil woman who treats Micky Dolenz (the lead singer on this track) badly. More on that in a second.
Some denigrate The Monkees--calling them the "Prefab Four" and throwing shade at their lack of songwriting skills at the beginning of their existence. But the 4 members of the band had skills, and those became more apparent as their career unspooled.
The TV show was cast before The Monkees existed, with an ad in Variety asking for Wild Boys 18-21 years old. Mike Nesmith was the only one who actually saw the ad. Micky was skeptical, since he was a veteran of showbiz, being the title character in the TV series Circus Boy. Davy Jones was a stage performer, and was nominated for a Tony Award playing the Artful Dodger in a Broadway production of Oliver!.
Peter learned of the auditions from a friend of his who played the coffee shops in Greenwich Village. The pal didn't make the cut, but shed no tears for him--it was Stephen Stills. Mike didn't need the money--his grandmother invented Liquid Paper. Micky was the son of a character actor (George Dolenz). Davy was actually in England when the auditions were announced--he flew over and was cast on the spot. There's a great YouTube video of their screen tests. For the curious, it's at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=63nhSFFFfJ4&t=43s
Back to today's Time Machine entry. Another pronoun. A feminine one. Micky sings his heart out missing his girl who treats him terribly. Or, put another way, "She" treated him terribly.
For those of you who want to watch Bugs eviscerate poor Daffy for almost 5 minutes, including the aforementioned Pronoun Trouble, this clip is your huckleberry...
See you tomorrow...
Pete
No comments:
Post a Comment