BIRMINGHAM RECORD COLLECTORS
DEDICATED TO THE COLLECTING OF MUSIC, ITS PRESERVATION AND LASTING FRIENDSHIP
THIS MONTH’S MEETING
MEETING THIS SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 13TH 2:00 PM
NEXT MEETING, MARCH 13TH 2:00 PM
THIS MONTH’S MEETING
We are back at the Homewood library this month. Meeting will start at 2:00. Thanks to John McGuirk for setting it up with Fultondale First Baptist Church to use a room there during the time the library was shut down to meetings. I understand the parking lot refurbishing is complete and everything is back to normal at the library.
A big thanks to Bryant Saxon for his presentation at last month’s meeting and congratulations to he and his wife for the work they are doing preserving music, especially some unreleased music he has come across from the Birmingham area. Check out his releases at earthlibraries.com or search youtube for earth libraries.
This month we go back to our roots, playing music. We will have 2-3 club members playing songs that “everyone needs to hear”. Songs of interest to them for some reason or another but not necessarily their favorite songs. All music must have been released on a 45 or a 78 but no LP cuts. No Top 40 songs either. Come and check out some sounds you probably have never heard, and sometimes those are the best.
LAST MAN STANDING
I enjoy watching classic movies on Turner Classic Movies (TCM). Every year during the last week of December they do a segment simply called ‘Remembering’ where they show who we lost from the movie world during the past year. So when it began running as I was watching I watched to see who I ‘remembered’. Suddenly they showed Michael Nesmith saying he had died December 10. I am sure you remember him as a member of The Monkees but he also was involved in later years as a producer in show business.
I knew that another member of The Monkees, Davy Jones had died years before so I thought I would check on the other two guys in the band, Peter Tork and Mickey Dolenz. Turns out that Peter Tork had died as well leaving Mickey Dolenz as the last of the group.
I was not an avid watcher of the Monkees TV program but would check it out at times. I enjoyed the music that was released as by The Monkees with my favorite song by them being the flip side of ‘Daydream Believer’, entitled ‘Goin’ Down’. The song bubbled under the Top 100 at #104 but in Australia and Canada it made the Top 40. It was very different from the pop/teener songs we were accustomed to being released by the group. This had a jazzy sound and a song that the members of the group put together rather than a song written by people such as Boyce & Hart or Neil Diamond for commercial sales only.
With that said there was much published about the musicians who actually played on the hit recordings. Most of the hits had members from the Wrecking Crew and the Candy Store Prophets playing all the instruments with Dolenz or Jones doing the vocals. It wasn’t until the Monkees 3rd LP that the guys were allowed to play on the group’s recordings. All were good musicians and Dolenz and Jones could handle the vocals very well. But the producers and higher-ups thought the recordings would have a better sound with top-notch musicians playing for the recordings.
Davy Jones started out acting with a role as the Artful Dodger in a production of Oliver in London and then later on Broadway. It was while performing his role on the Ed Sullivan Show on February 9, 1964 that the Beatles were making their first appearance on the show as well. Jones watched from the side of the stage and when he saw the girls reaction, he decided he wanted to get part of that action. This would lead to a contract with Columbia and he would do some acting and then singing. A single would be released and and he would later go to Colpix, a label owned by Columbia. The Monkees role would be next. Although Davy would be seen on the TV show playing the tambourine and maracas he could also play bass and drums. Peter Tork said that if playing was based on abilities it would have been Jones on the drums with Dolenz as the front man. Pretty good for a guy who was working as a jockey in England. Later in life he would race again as a jockey and own horses. One day while riding he suffered a heart attack. Davy Jones 12/30/1945 – 2/29/2012.
Peter Tork played both bass and keyboards and started out playing folk music in Greenwich Village where he befriended Stephen Stills. He started studying piano at age 9 and could also play banjo, and guitar. He moved on to Los Angeles to continue his music career and after Stills was turned down by the producers of the Monkees TV show he was asked if he knew anyone who may fit. He recommended Tork. The ‘lovable dummy’ role he was given in the show was developed while playing in Greenwich Village. After the producers began letting the guys do some of the musical parts it would be Tork playing the piano intro on ‘Daydream Believer’ and banjo on ‘You Told Me’. After leaving the Monkees he stayed true with his desire to play music. While in London in 1967 he played banjo on George Harrison’s soundtrack to the movie Wonderwall. He would bounce around in bands, doing production work, teaching music and even coaching baseball at several schools. Tork was probably the most talented musician of the group. In 2009 he was diagnosed with a rare form of cancer which mainly is in the salivary glands. After surgeries and radiation he would be cancer free but the cancer returned in 2018 and he would die in 2019. Peter Tork 2/13/1942 – 2/21/2019.
Nesmith was basically a self-taught guitarist who played folk music in the beginning. He was a singer/songwriter who even had some recordings released pre-Monkees on the Colpix label. He would go on the write a song that gave Linda Ronstadt her first charted song, ‘Different Drum’. Nesmith recorded his own version of the song post-Monkees and put it on his 1972 LP, ‘And The Hits Just Keep On Coming’. He also wrote ‘Mary, Mary’, a song recorded by the Monkees but was first recorded by the Paul Butterfield Blues Band. He later formed his own group, The First National Band and had the hit, ‘Joanne’. Michael Nesmith 12/30/1942 – 12/10/2021
So that leaves Mickey Dolenz as the last man standing. Dolenz’s parents were actors and so it was inevitable he would be also. He started out as Mickey Braddock on a weekly TV series called Circus Boy. Dolenz was not a drummer at the time of being hired for the show and had to mime the playing but took lessons and could play properly. He got the role basically because of his voice style. Michael Nesmith said Dolenz’s voice gave the group a distinctive style. It was Dolenz that was lead singer on most of the group’s hits including ‘Last Train To Clarksville’, ‘Pleasant Valley Sunday’ and “I’m A Believer’.
So after hearing of Nesmith’s death and learning that there is just one of the guys still with us, I thought the guys should get credit for their musical abilities and style and not be thought of as some guys who didn’t know anything about music as some people have led us to believe. And please notice that when I listed the guy’s birth date and then their date of passing there is a ‘-‘ between the two dates. That ‘-‘ is what that person did between the two dates listed. Sometimes we forget about that. These guys gave us some good times watching TV and listening to music.
Going’ Down
The Monkees 1967 # 104
Different Drum
Written by and sung by Michael Nesmith
‘And The Hits Just Keep On Coming’ 1972 LP
BRC RADIO
Check out our latest shows at birminghamrecord.com. Click on ‘RADIO’ and listen to some long-lost music and even some new sounds. There is a wide variety of music now that we have 3 hosts doing shows. Check out all our shows:
Tom’s latest show – http://www.birminghamrecord.com/brc/brc-radio-2-6-22/
Joe’s latest show – http://www.birminghamrecord.com/brc/brc-radio-1-16-22/
Charlie’s latest show – http://www.birminghamrecord.com/brc/brc-radio-1-30-22/
See Ya,
Charlie