We're the Young Generation

Category:  News/Obituary


Musically speaking, there was nothing quite like the 60s.  Sure, there were the Beatles and the Beach Boys and the Rolling Stones, but there was also Aretha Franklin having a #1 hit not too long after Frank Sinatra hit the top spot.  The quiet folk of Simon and Garfunkel shared the airwaves with the more rock-dominated brand of folk music the Byrds provided.  Amid all of that magical mix came a made-for-TV band, the Monkees.


Monkees front man Davy Jones died today (2/29) of a heart attack.


Born in Manchester, England in 1945, Jones began his professional career as an actor, appearing in the legendary British soap opera Coronation Street in 1961.  He starred in a British production of Oliver!, which took him to New York to repeat the role at the ripe old age of sixteen.  His performance on Broadway earned him a Tony nomination.


Jones' manager Davy a contract with Screen Gems and a role on a new TV series.  That show was The Monkees.  Jones was paired with Mickey Dolenz, Peter Tork, and Mike Nesmith for the show that, to this day, defies description:  part sit-com, part SNL-like skit show, and heavily musical.  In the mid-80s MTV aired every episode of the series, crediting the show with starting the "video" era.


"The pre-fab four" (a take-off of the Beatles' nickname given the fact that the Monkees were basically put together for the show instead of the traditional means of band formation) may not have been solely responsible for starting the video era (one also has to consider 70s shows such as Don Kirshner's Rock Concert and Midnight Special as being part of the video revolution) but there is no question that show planted the seed.  The show was a hit and propelled the Monkees to superstardom.  By the end of 1966 the Monkees had scored two #1 songs -- "Last Train to Clarksville" and "I'm a Believer" -- and posed a serious threat to the Beatles' reign on the charts.


As with so many other "overnight sensation" fads the series was over three years later, but not before netting two Emmy awards (the first music-based television series to ever win an Emmy) and six top ten hits.  The Monkees also made a movie, the cult favorite Head (which features a cameo by Frank Zappa, the first speaking role for Teri Garr and a script credit to Jack Nicholson).  By the early 70s the Monkees were no more, as first Peter Tork then Mike Nesmith left.


Jones and Dolenz teamed up with the Monkees' principal songwriting duo of Tommy Boyce and Bobby Hart (who had scored their own hit in the 60s with "I Wonder What She's Doing Tonight") to form Dolenz, Jones, Boyce & Hart.  They toured together in the 70s.


After the revival brought new interest in the Monkees and a new generation of fans Dolenz, Jones and Tork toured frequently.  Nesmith only rarely appeared with the other three Monkees after the film, most recently at the early stages of a 1997 British tour.


Jones was an avid horseman.  He owned horses that ran at racetracks throughout Florida and held an amateur steeplechase jockey license in England.  In 1994 Jones, who in his youth had dreams of being a jockey, took a horse for part of its morning workout at Churchill Downs.  He told a reporter he would rather be a horse trainer than a singer.


The Monkees' theme song proclaimed, "We're the young generation and we've got something to say."  Jones' death is a reminder, as a friend on Facebook said, "we're not the 'young generation' anymore and haven't been for years."


Davy Jones was 66.