Tag Archives: monkees

There’s a moment on Pour a Little Sugar on It: The Chewy Chewy Sounds of American Bubblegum 1966-1971, a new box set, that pretty much captures everything wonderfully inane about one of pop’s most derided genres. Start with the beyond-silly name of the band, the Kasenetz-Katz Singing Orchestral Circus, which …

Rolling Stone interview series Unknown Legends features long-form conversations between senior writer Andy Greene and veteran musicians who have toured and recorded alongside icons for years, if not decades. All are renowned in the business, but some are less well known to the general public. Here, these artists tell their …

When the cover of Micky Dolenz Sings R.E.M. began circulating online earlier this month, many people presumed it was some sort of Photoshop prank. Dolenz did record a tribute album to Carole King in 2010, and he followed it up in 2021 with a collection of Michael Nesmith songs, but …

The musical career of the Monkees can be neatly divided into two distinct periods: before Headquarters and after Headquarters. Prior to the June 1967 LP, the band’s songs were selected by outside producers and largely played by studio pros, leaving the four members of the actual group little to do …

The Monkees reached their creative zenith in 1967 on their third LP Headquarters, which marked the first time the made-for-TV band was given complete control of a project, and Micky Dolenz is celebrating the achievement next year with a special tour where he’ll play the album straight through. The band …

When the Monkees launched their inaugural tour in 1967, they played to throngs of screaming teenagers – and at least one FBI informant. “During the concert, subliminal messages were depicted on the screen which, in the opinion of [informant’s name redacted], constituted ‘left wing intervention of a political nature,’” reads …

W hen I stepped onto Michael Nesmith‘s tour bus in Huntington, New York, on Oct. 28, the first thing he did was offer me some weed. I politely declined, as I did every time we sat down together, and asked about his health. The subject had been on my mind …