Ah man, I feel terrible. One of The Monkees has died.
In the great scheme of things, I realise that this isn’t the biggest tragedy that could occur, but I am devastated. Absolutely gutted. I love The Monkees and always have done. They were my specialist subject on Mastermind. I grew up watching them and have been obsessed with them since I was a kid. I own everything they put out, most of the stuff they didn’t put out and everything in between.
I found out as I was putting my little boy to bed. As always, to try and get him to sleep, I was singing one of his favourite songs, Daydream Believer. I got a text and did a sneaky daddy look at my phone, while pretending my full attention was on the singing (the boy was half asleep, he didn’t notice).
‘Sad news about Davy Jones’
Oh shit. That generally only means one thing, but it came from so out of the blue that maybe it meant something else.
Another text.
‘Really sorry to hear about Davy Jones. How are you feeling?’
Shit. This couldn’t be what I thought?
Twitter confirmed the news. Davy Jones from The Monkees had died of a heart attack. The first Monkee to pass. I’m there, in my boys bedroom, trying to stifle my tears and sing him to sleep.
I’m not going to go into great detail about his life. You can read that elsewhere. Suffice to say he was a jockey, he popped up in Coronation Street, went to Broadway and became a Monkee. By the way Monkee haters, in 1967 they sold twice as many records as The Beatles and The Rolling Stones PUT TOGETHER? Now how’s about them apples?
I saw the Monkees live 4 times. The last time was the 45th anniversary concert last year. I turned to my wife half way through and said ‘this is the BEST concert I have ever been to’. And it was. They were all pushing 70, but had more energy and enthusiasm than I had seem in any rock concert before. This was proper showbiz.
I don’t know what else to say so here are some clips from Davy’s career.
[youtubegallery]
Davy on the same Ed Sullivan show as The Beatles 1964|http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P-fLLuQgIss
On The Brady Bunch singing Girl|http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F7TxTU_LYp0&feature=related
Daydream Believer|http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nU615FaODCg
Singing Daddy’s Song from the film Head. Possibly my favoruite Davy clip|http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QDi7MAbDyr0&feature=fvwrel
Valleri. This was the song that made me buy my first Monkees record. Look at Mike struggling to mime the solo|http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QWTa9CE51sA
Macca sings The Monkees|http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ycnykifslc
[/youtubegallery]
Also, here is a Spotify playlist of the 10 Essential Davy Jones Songs. Its a nice mix of the obvious and the not so famous. I hoe you enjoy. You can listen to it here. (I’m having trouble uploading this for some reason. I shall keep persevering.)
Aw R.I.P. xx
Iain, that was truly moving. I feel for you. So many great memories and in this day and age of cr#p, true stars ! By all accounts a real gent and certainly a legend. Watching them back now, there’s nothing like them. When Vic and Bob did that I’m a believer with the Wonderstuff , a lot of people only know that version. RIP Davy much love and thoughts to his family, friends and fans, and of course you xxx
Very well written piece Iain, the monkees were far to underated by most people in my eyes, chin up mate,
Hi Iain,
I was so sorry to hear the news too and thought of you immediately. I have really fond memories of the monkees from my childhood. My brother and I used to snuggle up to watch it on the telly, we thought it was hilarious and we used to see how many of us could do the monkees walk in the playground at school. Davy jones was my first schoolgirl crush, probably because he was so boy like, and remained so.
It’s funny you should say you were singing day dream believer to A when you heard the news, I spent an hour today translating that song into Latin (badly) to send as an audioboo. Spooky….
Sending you consoling hugs
Lindy x
Thanks man that was great to read, and such bloody horrible news.
As a 37-year-old adult man with a family to support and roughly fifty thousand bills, I should perhaps feel some sort of guilt/ridiculousness at the fact that I wagged today off work just to watch as many episodes of series 2 back-to-back as I could, but I don’t. And then, about ten minutes into The Card Carrying Red Shoes, this happens. I’m still not sure I can believe that one of The Monkees is dead. It’s a bit fucking weird, isn’t it. Bloody hell. Davy Jones is dead.
I know there’s plenty enough people who really aren’t too bothered, and that’s fair enough of course. But for loads of us, its the death of a man whose records, gigs and tv show have been with us, as obsessively as The Beatles or Stones have, since childhood.
Thanks very much for writing the tribute Iain, and thanks for the Spotify list. I’m off to play Headquarters.
Shit news. Just bloody really shit news.
RIP Davy.
Very very sad news.Im a huge fan aswell but not like you.Im gutted for you.I have heard you talking on your show about them and how much you love them,i have heard your phone calls and interviews.i remember how excited you were to be going to see them at the royal albert hall.They are sll legends but davy….well,Davy was davy.he was funny,outspoken and the women loved him.He was a family man too.so so sad.im rambling so i will stop now,this piece you wrote was very touching.RIP davy
What lovely words,I remember watching the re runs on a Saturday as a kid,wanted To go to gig last year but was away.Hope some channel re runs the show again
Take care
Sharon x
All true Iain. What a lovely thing to do for Davy. Thank you. Lyn x
“Years have passed and so have I” HOw sad.
Hi Iain. From your many radio broadcasts, it was obvious that you were one of his greatest fans. I am sorry for the loss to Davy’s family, but I also thought of you when I heard the news.
With sympathy
Jeremy
Such a thoughtful and heartfelt article. Thanks for writing it. So many people call the Monkees a boyband, but they were way much more than that and above that too. For one thing, they had bucketloads of charm. Davy Jones will be missed. 🙂
25th March 1989 – The Royal Albert Hall. That’s where they really hit home for me. What a fantastic gig. We went home and bought tickets for the Odeon gig as soon as we could.
Davy was an amazing singer and will leave a small, but everso large hole in the musical landscape.
Will the real Davy Jones please stand up?
M
Thanks for this. I am also devastated. I feel like I took him for granted for the past 25 years. I wrote him a fan letter when I was 8. I wish I’d written another one as an adult.
Great Tribute. I know how much this means to you – congrats on a great piece
you’ve said it all. What a lovely blog.