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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsMonkees Singer Davy Jones Dead at 66 From Heart Attack
9:55 AM PST -- A rep for Davy tells TMZ the singer died from a heart attack this morning.
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Davy Jones -- lead singer of The Monkees -- has died ... TMZ has learned.
An official from the medical examiner's office for Martin County, Florida confirmed with TMZ they received a call from Martin Memorial Hospital informing them that Jones had passed away.
Jones is survived by his wife Jessica and 4 daughters from previous marriages. He was 66-years-old.
Jones joined The Monkees in 1965 ... along with Micky Dolenz, Michael Nesmith and Peter Tork ... and together they churned out a bunch of hits including, "Daydream Believer," "Last Train to Clarksville" and "I'm a Believer."
http://www.tmz.com/2012/02/29/davy-jones-dead-monkees/
trumad
(41,692 posts)RIP Davy
warrior1
(12,325 posts)RIP Davy.
hifiguy
(33,688 posts)Loved the Monkees show when I was a kid.
deutsey
(20,166 posts)RIP, Davy.
I actually met him once briefly. Got his autograph. "The Monkees" was my favorite show when I was a kid.
Thanks, Davy, for bringing so much music and laughter to my childhood.
Hissyspit
(45,788 posts)and I could have met him, but could go at last minute.
flamingdem
(39,313 posts)not Davy. That's sad, he died young. Long live the Monkees.
RockaFowler
(7,429 posts)He lives around here. We've done interviews with him and he's just as lovely in person. I'm so sad
Ready4Change
(6,736 posts)Just a few months ago I renewed my appreciation of many of 'The Monkeys' songs. For a long time my opinion of them was tainted by thoughts that they were Beatles copy-cats. Then I listened and realized that I really liked a whole lot of their songs.
Yet another example of how you need to appreciate what you've got while you've got it. Rest in peace, Davy.
zipplewrath
(16,646 posts)For those who don't know who we're talking about:
Probably the first "boy band" ever created.
southernyankeebelle
(11,304 posts)zipplewrath
(16,646 posts)The Monkeys were truly a "created" band. Some of their early work didn't even feature their own playing. They were a "made for TV" band that broke out into an actual, recording, original music, band. But starting out, they were as real as "The Partridge Family", and I think Cassidy already had a music career then. God knows Shirley Jones did.
calimary
(81,220 posts)Davy Jones actually had musical theater experience. Michael Nesmith was a musician in his own right and later became the father of the music video - he produced the first one ever. Peter Tork was a folkie, friend of Steven Stills, who'd actually auditioned for the job and was told he was too old - so he recommended his friend. Mickey Dolenz had been a child actor.
I remember when I first heard "Last Train to Clarksville" the summer before "The Monkees" hit the airrwaves. We'd all read about the upcoming TV show, and we all knew this was a TV show about fictional rockers who really weren't musicians. I remember marveling that they'd all learned to play so quickly to have a hit on Top-40 radio so soon! "Whaaa? By 'The Monkees'? Gee, I thought they didn't know how to play..." I think it was Tommy Boyce and Bobby Hart and friends who were actually on the record.
They did soon become a band because they had to be able to tour and play live. So they learned. "The Monkees" TV show paved the way for a lot that MTV later did. It was a riff on "A Hard Days Night" and "Help," taking the same kinds of wild, fun, madcap romps set to music that those films did, and put them on the small screen. Silly little bit of cultural fluff that actually turned out to be something of a pioneering effort for rock on video.
zipplewrath
(16,646 posts)Sounds like you might like the book "Dangerously Funny" about the Smothers Brothers. Interesting to see the arguments they were having, considering where TV went. The brothers were "ahead of their time" in many ways. They were the precusor in some ways to Laugh-In. It's hard to understand just how "cutting edge" they were looking back now.
calimary
(81,220 posts)Loved the Smothers Brothers - in whatever form they presented. Tommy Smothers once did a riff on the rarest fur in the world - bumblebee fur. And that made me laugh for the next three days!
spanone
(135,827 posts)that played the instruments on the records...
great documentary......
http://wreckingcrew.tv/
southernyankeebelle
(11,304 posts)southernyankeebelle
(11,304 posts)eShirl
(18,490 posts)napkinz
(17,199 posts)He compared them to the Marx Brothers.
MADem
(135,425 posts)stated age.
Shows to go that we never know how long we'll last. Take every day for the gift it is...
xchrom
(108,903 posts)joeybee12
(56,177 posts)God, that's sad...way too young.
Kahuna
(27,311 posts)Davy and the boys every weekend on THIS TV. I LOL!
Lint Head
(15,064 posts)Trivia. Jimi Hendrix was the warm up act for The Monkees when they played Charlotte N.C. the first time.
Oliver Twist
11 Bravo
(23,926 posts)(I think it was '67.)
Blue_In_AK
(46,436 posts)I guess every musician or group has to warm up for someone before they make it big. I saw an unknown Led Zeppelin in 1968 as the warm-up band for Spirit and Vanilla Fudge. Who??
cbdo2007
(9,213 posts)Bad year for music!
catbyte
(34,374 posts)Although I had a crush on Peter.
Diane
Anishinaabe in MI & mom to Leo, Sophie, Taz & Nigel, members of Dogs Against Romney, Cat Division
"We ride inside--HISS!
demtenjeep
(31,997 posts)But Davey was sweet
LibertyLover
(4,788 posts)I loved the Monkees as a young teen. Micky was my favorite, but I liked them all. The show was a hoot and not your normal sit-com by any stretch of the imagination. Their music was good to. Like another poster up-thread I recently started listening again to my old albums and realized that they weren't bad musicians or songs at all. I actually went to two Monkees concerts, one in 1967 or so in New York City out at a tennis club of all places, and more recently in 1988 at the Meadowlands. I have to say that I always thought Peter would be the first to go, between the, uh, hard living in the 60s and 70s and more recently, cancer. Oh well, Davy, you're with your mom now. RIP.
Blue_In_AK
(46,436 posts)Only a year older than me. RIP, Davy.
uppityperson
(115,677 posts)Swede
(33,234 posts)RIP Mr. Jones.
sellitman
(11,606 posts)Rest In Peace Sir.
11 Bravo
(23,926 posts)who believe it or not, opened for them; but I wound up actually enjoying the Monkees as well. They didn't seem to take themselves too seriously and they looked like they were having fun.
on edit: RIP Davy
NNN0LHI
(67,190 posts)Must be getting old.
Don
NoGOPZone
(2,971 posts)He had stage and screen credits even before the Monkees and may have become a star even if it wasn't for the show. Thanks for the memories, Davy.
PCIntern
(25,539 posts)He was just a kid all those years ago...
KaryninMiami
(3,073 posts)Had every album- still probably can remember the words to most of their songs. Very sad indeed.
calimary
(81,220 posts)Michael Nesmith
All the lovely people. Where do they all come from? So many lovely and heartfelt messages of condolence and sympathy, I dont know what to say, except my sincere thank you to all. I share and appreciate your feelings. But lets not get ahead of ourselves here. While it is jarring, and sometimes seems unjust, or strange, this transition we call dying and death is a constant in the mortal experience that we know almost nothing about. I am of the mind that it is a transition and I carry with me a certainty of the continuity of existence. While I dont exactly know what happens in these times, there is an ongoing sense of life that reaches in my mind out far beyond the near horizons of mortality and into the reaches of infinity. That David has stepped beyond my view causes me the sadness that it does many of you. I will miss him, but I wont abandon him to mortality. I will think of him as existing within the animating life that insures existence. I will think of him and his family with that gentle regard in spite of all the contrary appearances on the mortal plane. Davids spirit and soul live well in my heart, among all the lovely people, who remember with me the good times, and the healing times, that were created for so many, including us. I have fond memories. I wish him safe travels.
ProfessionalLeftist
(4,982 posts)Watched them on TV as a kid. Mortality sucks.
Canuckistanian
(42,290 posts)He was far too young. I watched every episode when I was a kid and had every album.
RIP, Mr. Jones.
felix_numinous
(5,198 posts)Yesterday Daydream Believer came on the radio and I was singing along with it and remembering first grade---I hadn't heard this song in years....now today I hear this. So sad.
TBF
(32,050 posts)he was only 66.
lumberjack_jeff
(33,224 posts)shcrane71
(1,721 posts)Poor guy.
FredStembottom
(2,928 posts)I was already all music, all the time by age 7 when the Monkees debuted. I remember all the older kids scorning them (before the show's 1st episode) as Beatles rip-offs - which they were. But the show was just too different and funny from anything else on TV - especially kids TV.
Everyone just went nuts for that show.
Remember Monkees trading cards? If you collected them all you could put a puzzle picture of their (still) incredibly cool car together using the back sides.
I'm a little shocked by this..........................
Sparkly
(24,149 posts)and remember the Monkees as something of a safer, comfortable alternative to the Beatles, who were just starting to seem scary to pre-teens (drugs, Yoko Ono, the Maharishi, whatever). And of course, Tiger Beat and TV were all about the Monkees -- they were the new thing.
We all claimed a "favorite Monkee" just like we'd done with the Beatles.
A year or two later we were all back to the Beatles, anyway.
FredStembottom
(2,928 posts)How scary I thought the Beatles had become when their "performance" on Ed Sullivan became a film. Strawberry Fields. They had beards! And peasant clothes! And did weird things to that old piano.
I just wasn't ready.
Sparkly
(24,149 posts)I don't remember that performance, but I remember the gasping about how they were going "bad" and getting into drugs... All seems so innocent now.
(P.S. - My sisters and I wrote on the attic walls in chalk, when we were kids. To this day, the old house shows "I Love the Beatles" with Beatles X'd out, and "The Monkees" written in...!!)
flexnor
(392 posts)it's ALWAYS about Marsha!
MorningGlow
(15,758 posts)I haaated Marsha because she got to kiss Davy on the cheek!
flexnor
(392 posts)because all guys did
MorningGlow
(15,758 posts)flexnor
(392 posts)even a football in the face couldnt hide her beauty
MorningGlow
(15,758 posts)hifiguy
(33,688 posts)aquart
(69,014 posts)You brought great delight and I hope it earned you a happy life and an easy death.
Amerigo Vespucci
(30,885 posts)There goes another piece of my youth. RIP, Mr. Jones, and thanks for the memories.
MorningGlow
(15,758 posts)I was supposed to marry him. I've known it since I was 6.
The first time I went to England, in '86, my friends and I went out of our way to see a production of Godspell at this ratty old theater because Davy was playing Jesus. This was before the Monkees reunion tours/revival, and yet the balconies were filled with screaming women clutching bouquets to toss to him at the curtain call. Even when the Monkees were "out", they were never really "out."
Oh--and he was fantastic as Jesus. Of course.
flexnor
(392 posts)they were actually a great group, but had trouble gaining acceptance because they were 'corporate manufactured' by ABC television vs being spontanious talent like the beatles. but it didnt make the music any less pleasant, people just thought it was less 'genuine' ie 'fake', and people werent completely ready for this in 1966
ABC put together the best talent money could buy, and actually did a great job, they put the band together in components, with the best writers, musicians with a TV presntation layer
it was like answring the 'fab four' with a 'prefab 4'
napkinz
(17,199 posts)speaking of which, did you see their movie HEAD?
I think so many are overlooking that film they did in 1968.
flexnor
(392 posts)along with being sad about the loss of a close friend, he gave some insight about the orgins of the show
he made no bones about it being 'a TV show about a garrage band trying to make it big, but never quite making it'
(the rest is my interpretation) that's what it was - no more, no less. in that context, they were no more fake than batman, the flying nun, or 'That Girl' (none of them were really the role they played, either. For that matter, Adam West isnt really the mayor of quohog). but in the creation of such a show by very shrewd TV execs, they put together the best resources of writing, musicians and stage presence, that they created something that went at the top of the charts in real life - and still holds up today. they really nailed the carefree mood of 1966 in the music
and that's where the controversy about the 'fake' or 'pre-fab 4' comes from, it had never knowingly been done in the 'rock-n-roll' era.
but it had been done in genras past, big bands and singers like sinatra and peggy lee had a front line singer, singing songs written by someone else, and played by lessor known professional musicians all the time, and people thought nothing of it (ok, well they didnt have anyone pretending to play)
quite simply, execs trying to emulate the succes of the beatles 1964 'Help' adapted for TV and get it on the air before the style passed (correctly) felt they could create what they were looking for, faster than they could find and aquire it
the fact that it was going head to head on the charts is what dredged up it's unconventional orgins, ironically, being a corporate creation made them the most unconverntional of all
most stuff on the air was put there by corporations anyway - the only differnece with the monkees was, they were created, not found
FredStembottom
(2,928 posts)n/t
flexnor
(392 posts)after exec Don Kirshner had a falling out with the Monkees, they parted ways, The Monkees pretty much flopped, and Kirshner blew star power into a cartoon made from a 1940s comic book, (giveing the characters a garage band) and topped the chart with 'Sugar Sugar' by 'The Archies' in 1969, while the Monkees had exited the charts. Let face it - anyone who could make a hit (even a 1 hit) band, 'performed' by animated cartoon characters out of a comic book has talent
The Monkees were just kids, you cant blame them for lacking the sophisication to fully understand what they were and what they werent, nor can you blame a talented professional like Kirshner for running out of patience if he felt he wasnt being treated with respect
But music was undergoing a style change that might have been difficult for a band with that image and structure to navigate, so it may have been for the best
LadyHawkAZ
(6,199 posts)When I was 5, I was gonna marry him...
Lone_Star_Dem
(28,158 posts)He was only a year older than my mom. Damn.
AtomicKitten
(46,585 posts)Irishonly
(3,344 posts)sinkingfeeling
(51,446 posts)AnneD
(15,774 posts)but he was my fav. I loved the Monkees. Yes they were hobbled togather, but they were good and talented in their own right. I loved the Beatles too, but in their own right.
I knew where I was every Thursday at 6:30 when I could. The Monkees, The Brady Bunch, and Star Trek, and Night Gallery. Strange combinaton, but then I cut my TV teeth on Twilight Zone, Outer Limits, Hitchcock Presents, and Perry Mason.
Sad to hear the passing but glad it was peaceful.
Ship of Fools
(1,453 posts)napkinz
(17,199 posts)LiberalAndProud
(12,799 posts)(ref to previous response)
http://www.democraticunderground.com/1002364865#post5
Honeycombe8
(37,648 posts)How sad.
Raine
(30,540 posts)R-I-P Davy
undeterred
(34,658 posts)Or pretending he was singing. Whatever, he was cute.
sarcasmo
(23,968 posts)BootinUp
(47,141 posts)liked Davey. RIP man.
Catherina
(35,568 posts)Thank you Davey. You were my first love. Thanks for making my childhood brighter. Faretheewell.
napkinz
(17,199 posts)nt
MrMickeysMom
(20,453 posts)And, always hear your voice singing "Daydream Believer"... RIP.