The Monkees In Concert. Yes,Those Monkees

I’ve just returned from seeing The  Monkees in concert at the Count Basie Theater in Red Bank, N.J. You may remember them from such classic songs as “Last Train to Clarksville,” “ I’m a Believer,” “Pleasant Valley Sunday” and many more. The Monkees consisted of Mike Nesmith who always wore a knit cap, Mickey Dolenz, Peter Tork and Englishman Davy Jones. Jones recently passed away from a heart attackat age 66 in 2012.

For those of you too young to remember them, The Monkees were a  group of four musicians brought together by a TV studio in the 60′s to do a half hour weekly TV musical comedy series based on a rock group like the Beatles at the time. It became a huge success and lasted several seasons. They can be seen on cable occasionally and DVD’s are available..

Each of the members split up and went their separate ways for many years. Mike Nesmith was the most successful on his own with several albums and videos that became very popular. Davy Jones appeared in several situation comedies on TV and Mickey and Peter went into solo gigs. They recently re-united in 2012 after Davy’s death.

At Wednesday night’s concert the audience was electrified and very receptive to them. The guys are all in their late 60’s and early 70’s now, but still in great shape. They started out with “Last Train to Clarksville”  showing  a video of a train from  one of their TV shows. The entire concert showed clips from their show as a back drop to their songs.

They had a seven piece band to back them up although each was very professional   in his own right. Mickey Dolenz alternated between singing lead vocals and some solo songs and playing the drums which he did really well. Peter Tork alternated between banjo and electric guitar and sang a few solo numbers. I had never heard Peter sing before and he had a great voice. I have heard that he used to have his own folk like show he used to tour with several years ago. Mike Nesmith had his lead guitar and did several solo numbers as well.

I was not familiar with a lot of their songs as they were taken from albums besides their hit songs and I wished they did more of their more familiar songs, but all were fantastic. Mickey did a great version of “I’m a Believer” saying it was written by Neil Diamond and said he sang it before Schrek did referring to the Disney character.

At one point Mickey picked a woman from the audience to lead the audience in song to “Daydream Believer” which was a high point of the concert as the whole audience sang several choruses to the popular song.

The whole concert lasted a solid two hours non-stop and was thoroughly enjoyable. I’m sure Davy Jones is looking down at them saying,””Great  show guys.”

Below  I’m including a few linlks to their performances.The first two are from their tour last year and the last one is from their TV show in their hayday. Enjoy.

I‘m A Believer / I’m Not Your Steppin’ Stone Live by the Monkees 2012 – YouTube

Last Train To Clarksville Live by the Monkees 2012 – YouTube

The Monkees – What Am I Doing Hangin’ ‘Round? – YouTube