What Mike Nesmith Said When He Revealed The Monkees Were ‘Synthetic’
The Monkees‘ Mike Nesmith gave an interview during the 1960s wherein he called his band “synthetic.” One of the Prefab Four’s songwriters said the interview was part of Nesmith’s grand plan. The plan led to the end of the relationship between The Monkees and their music supervisor.
The Monkees’ Mike Nemsith revealed to the world the band didn’t play on their own records
Tommy Boyce and Bobby Hart co-wrote many Prefab Four tracks under the name Boyce & Hart. Some of their songs include “I Wanna Be Free” and “(I’m Not Your) Steppin’ Stone.”
In his 2015 book Psychedelic Bubble Gum: Boyce & Hart, The Monkees, and Turning Mayhem Into Miracles, Hart discussed the group’s growth. “For the rest of the show The Monkees would play their own instruments, a counter move to the growing hullabaloo in the press where the ‘Prefab Four’ were beginning to be accused of being actors who were just posing as musicians,” Hart wrote. “I could only marvel at the irony!”
Hart recalled Nesmith’s criticizing the band in the press. “During that first Monkees’ tour, an increasingly confrontational Michael Nesmith stoked the media fire in a Saturday Evening Post interview: ‘Tell the world we’re synthetic because, damn it, we are,'” he remembered. “‘Tell them The Monkees are wholly man-made overnight, and that millions of dollars have been poured into this thing. Tell the world we don’t record our own music.'”
How Mike Nesmith’s plan changed the Prefab Four’s career forever
Hart revealed what Nesmith was trying to do with his comments. “It was the opening salvo in a well-planned battle to wrestle control away from [music supervisor] Don Kirshner and be able to write and produce future Monkee records themselves,” he wrote.
Hart remembered what happened after the band recorded “Valleri.” “Then, of course, the bomb dropped,” he said. “Kirshner was out, and the new edict stated that in the future, ‘Only self-produced records by The Monkees would be released.'” The group did not live up to that edict.
How The Monkees’ songs performed on the pop charts in the United States and the United Kingdom
Three of the group’s singles reached the top of the Billboard Hot 100: “Last Train to Clarksville,” “I’m a Believer, and “Daydream Believer.” Another three singles reached to top 10: “Valleri,” “Pleasant Valley Sunday,” and “A Little Bit Me, A Little Bit You.”
The Official Charts Company reports the band only had one No. 1 single there: “I’m a Believer.” Three of their other tunes — “A Little Bit Me, A Little Bit You,” “Daydream Believer,” and “Randy Scouse Git” (released under the name “Alternate Title”) — were top 10 hits there as well.
Manufactured or not, The Monkees were a resounding commercial success.
