The Monkees: Mike Nesmith Reveals the Slightly Weird but True Story of ‘Zilch’s’ Mr. Bob Dobalina

The Monkees Headquarters celebrated its 55th anniversary in May 2022, and it is considered one of the band’s best albums. It included a track beloved by fans named “Zilch,” a rhythmic, spoken-word ditty. In it, the group refers to a man named Mr. Bob Dobalina. Mike Nesmith revealed the slightly weird but true story of the man behind one of the strangest Monkees tunes ever.

With ‘Headquarters,’ The Monkees gained a creative freedom

The Monkees’ first two albums were Don Kirsher-led recordings. Kirshner was the creative director of The Monkees television show. The series’ producers hired him to provide hit-worthy songs to accompany the television program.

However, Nesmith, Davy Jones, Peter Tork, and Micky Dolenz wanted to show the world that they were indeed musicians and wrestled behind the scenes for creative control of their music. The result was Headquarters, a rock and roll record with touches of blues, folk rock, psychedelia, and country.

Nesmith played almost every note on the recording alongside Dolenz, Tork, and Jones. The exception was bass, played by Chip Douglas, who also produced the album. Nesmith, Dolenz, and Tork primarily wrote the songs. The band’s stable of writers wrote only three of the album’s 14 songs; two were contributed by Tommy Boyce and Bobby Hart, and one by Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil.

However, the band came up with the idea for “Zilch,” a one-minute track that was one of The Monkees’ most oddball compositions and honored one man, in particular, Mr. Bob Dobalina.

Who is Mr. Bob Dobalina?

In a 2017 Facebook post, Nesmith revealed the true story of the man whose name is featured heavily in the spoken word song. The Monkees Live Almanac shared a screenshot of the post on their Twitter.

Nesmith explained, “It was the name of a department store manager in San Antonio, Texas. My wife Phyllis and I were shopping when the page came over the speaker. I was immediately struck by the internal rhythm of the phrase. Since I only heard it and did not see it written, I never knew how to spell it.”

He continued, “Some years later, the department store manager at Frost Bros wrote and claimed his right to the name in the song. Whether it was really him or not, I’ll never know.”

“Phyllis and I danced around to the phrase for years until The Monkees session. There I introduced the idea of a phrase without melody but only the rhythm of the words. DMP (Davy, Micky, Peter) started riffing, each one contributing a phrase that had entered their life in some way the same way Dobalina entered mine,” Nesmith concluded.

Peter Tork elaborated on other iconic ‘Zilch’ phrases

In an interview with Mental Floss, Tork elaborated on other iconic phrases that became part of the fabric of “Zilch.”

“China Clipper Calling Alameda” is from a Humphrey Bogart movie,” Tork explained. “I don’t remember who came up with “Never mind the furthermore” (a line from the movie musical Oklahoma!). “It is of my opinion that the people are intending….” I’m not sure who came up with that one.

Tork continued, “We said, ‘we’re not just making a generic, well-crafted pop record. This is our album.’ There are places we ran off the rails when the tape was running.”