Mike Nesmith Believed The Monkees Were Always a ‘Three Piece Band’ With Davy Jones as Their ‘Frontman’
Mike Nesmith always believed that, left to their own devices, The Monkees would have evolved into a music group akin to a great garage band. He always knew the group was tight musically due to hours of rehearsals before filming their NBC series. However, he never considered them a quartet. Mike believed The Monkees were always just a ‘three-piece band’ with Davy Jones as their “frontman.”
Mike Nesmith said the band recorded ‘hundreds’ of tracks even before beginning to film ‘The Monkees’
In 1978, Mike sat down with Blitz Magazine for an interview, reprinted by The Monkees Live Almanac. He discussed a myriad of topics, including his work as a solo artist and his then-burgeoning career as a pioneer of the music video format.
However, he still spoke fondly of The Monkees, which wrapped less than 10 years prior. Nesmith revealed that before setting foot on the series soundstage, he, Davy Jones, Micky Dolenz, and Peter Tork spent countless hours recording “hundreds” of tracks.
“When we first found out we were going to be The Monkees, we discussed our musical interests for a while,” Nesmith said. “We piled up in a truck, drove to a music store, and bought about $5000 worth of new equipment. Then, we went into a studio and cut some rehearsal tracks.”
“I can’t give you a specific number of tracks laid down, but 100 seems like a pretty accurate estimate,” he continued. “We were really as much of a garage band as you could hope for.”
Mike Nesmith believed The Monkees were always a ‘three-piece band’ with Davy Jones as ‘frontman’
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The Monkees were considered a quartet. Mike played guitar. Peter, keyboards, guitar, and banjo. Micky drummed, and Davy handled percussion instruments such as drums, guitar, bass, and tambourine. However, Mike didn’t consider The Monkees to be anything other than a trio with a very charismatic leader.
He told Blitz Magazine, “The way I have always looked at The Monkees was a three-piece band with David as the frontman. It’s hard for me to picture it in any other context.”
Mike added that, after wrangling creative control of their music in 1967, the band placed one of the tracks from those early recording sessions on one of The Monkees’ albums. “The Girl I Knew Somewhere” from Headquarters was a tune from that period.
Mike explained that he played guitar, Peter was on bass and “overdubbed keyboards,” and Micky on drums. Mike admitted of the tune, “This was the sound I wanted The Monkees to pursue at the time.”
Don Kirshner directed The Monkees’ music for their TV series and veered opposite of the group’s original gritty sound
Mike said that upon recording those 100 or so tracks, the band presented them to Don Kirshner, who was chosen to head the Colgems record label. Kirshner liked what he heard from all the tracks.
Subsequently, Kirshner told the group their style of music was not “at all” the “musical direction he had in mind for The Monkees,” per Nesmith. “You know the rest of the story,” the songwriter explained. He continued, “It soon became apparent to me that I would not be satisfied playing in that context for very long.”
