The Monkees, "Daddy's Song"

It probably says something about the temperament of this blog that I didn't do anything to mark the passing on Whitney Houston (whose talent was obvious) but that I really feel I have something to say about Davy Jones, who died today. The Monkees are one of those bands from the far-flung past that you don't really have to love, but whose fans are pretty enthusiastic. Just the other day they came up in conversation with a customer about great oldies. I wasn't even the one who mentioned them first.

Davy was great for the Monkees not only because of his poster-ready image, but because, like all four of the bandmembers, he brought a particular angle. Mike Nesmith was the country boy, Peter Tork was the zonked-out folkie, Dolenz was the garage rocker, and Jones had his Broadway background, as well as the weepy ballads. The combination of these four (or five) ingredients on the Monkees albums made them, if not consistent listening experiences, remarkably interesting collections.

This clip, taken from their notorious film project Head, pretty well distills my feeling about the complicated relationship between art and commerce inherent in the Monkees enterprise. Here we have Davy performing a really impressive, Fred Astaire type routine (made psychedelic by Bob Rafelson's editing) while singing a brassy old-school jingle about a father and son. It seems both sincere and satirical, as the lyrics are a fair bit tragic, but delivered in an over-the-top sunshiney matter to rival the throwbacks Paul McCartney was writing at the time.

I don't know if this has any basis in reality, but there's a scene in the Monkees biopic, (Daydream Believers,) where Davy returns home and seeks advice from his father, it's weirdly sweet. And this song was written by Harry Nilsson, underlining the fact, as I've already stated, that regardless of whether the Monkees count as "real," the people responsible for making the music was indisputably top-notch.

Oh, yeah, and that's Frank Zappa at the end there.

For an even better write-up of Davy Jones' place in the Monkees (and highlights from his career,) check out Rob Sheffield's article in Rolling Stone.