<\/p>\n
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0The name \u2018Micky Braddock\u2019 not ringing any bells?\u00a0 His father was a film star probably most widely known for his portrayal of <\/span>The Count of Monte Cristo<\/span><\/i>.\u00a0 His mother was also \u2018in the business\u2019 but stepped back from her career to raise Micky and his three younger sisters.\u00a0 It was her Irish background that provided the name \u2018Braddock\u2019.\u00a0 They unearthed it for Micky\u2019s stage name and he later noted, \u201cGeneral Braddock was known for losing a famous battle somewhere.\u201d\u00a0 Would it help if I mentioned that Micky Braddock\u2019s first starring role was a three year run as \u2018Corky\u2019 in the NBC show <\/span>Circus Boy?\u00a0 <\/span><\/i>The producers of <\/span>Circus Boy<\/span><\/i> had his brown locks dyed blond and picked out Micky\u2019s \u2018Braddock\u2019 handle so viewers would not confuse him with his actor father<\/span>.\u00a0 <\/span><\/i>You are probably more familiar with the name he used during his second go around in show business: Micky Dolenz.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0In the late summer of 2022, several news outlets reported the last surviving member of The Monkees, Micky Dolenz, was suing the FBI.\u00a0 He was seeking the release of secret dossiers the FBI had amassed about the fictional band created for the TV show of the same name.\u00a0 Racking up four No. 1 albums in 1967, the foursome included Peter Tork, Mike Nesmith, and Davy Jones.\u00a0 Surely the Feds were aware it was a comedy populated by four actors who were not exactly espousing radical ideas like overthrowing the government.\u00a0 Though some dubbed them \u2018the Pre-Fab Four\u2019 (as in \u2018Prefabricated\u2019), The Monkees did move beyond their made up for TV band status to become a real high grossing musical act.\u00a0 For some reason, FBI director J. Edgar Hoover kept files on entertainment stars and public figures (like Elvis and John Lennon).\u00a0 The Monkees somehow found themselves in J. Edgar\u2019s crosshairs and ended up on his list.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Dolenz\u2019s attorney jokingly suggested it might be fun to see if the band had a file before they even knew one existed.\u00a0 A highly redacted file on The Monkees was released in 2011 indicating they were being watched. The reason?\u00a0 The \u201canti-US messages on the war in Vietnam\u201d they may have been spreading during their 1967 concert tour.\u00a0 A freedom of information act (FOIA) request was registered because Dolenz thought it might be fun to see what the Feds had on the group.\u00a0 When the request was not honored within the normal 20 working day window, Micky\u2019s lawyer filed the suit for them to see the whole file.\u00a0 One of the news clips about the lawsuit mentioned Dolenz penning a book (<\/span>I\u2019m A Believer – My Life of Monkees, Music, and Madness<\/span><\/i> – Micky Dolenz and Mark Bego – 1993 – Hyperion Books).\u00a0 While my search for the book via the interlibrary loan system came up empty, my wife found a copy which arrived in time for my birthday.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0My knowledge of Micky Dolenz and The Monkees was pretty well limited to what I saw when their show debuted on September 12, 1966 and to what I heard on their records.\u00a0 I was in eighth grade at the time and six months into learning to play a drum set.\u00a0 The first album I bought to play along with was <\/span>The Monkees<\/span><\/i> which had been shrewdly released a few weeks ahead of their TV show.\u00a0 For the record, the second album I bought was <\/span>The Doors<\/span><\/i> so my early musical tastes varied wildly.\u00a0 I often wondered why Micky played such a weird looking drum kit on the show, but we will get to that later.\u00a0 I assumed the drummer on the album was Micky himself, but it turns out most of their earliest recorded output was done by session musicians.\u00a0 Micky and the boys added their vocals to the already finished tracks, but the fact I was learning to play the drums as recorded by the legendary Hal Blaine didn\u2019t hurt my learning curve.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Micky Dolenz entered big time show business at age ten when he auditioned for the part of Corky in <\/span>Circus Boy.<\/span><\/i>\u00a0 The success of the show led NBC to send him out on promotional tours where he would perform a few songs and show off his co-star, Bimbo the elephant.\u00a0 He rode miles and miles aboard Bimbo in everything from local Fourth of July parades to the biggies like the Macy\u2019s Thanksgiving Parade in New York City.\u00a0 Life was good until NBC canceled the show.\u00a0 Though he was offered a similar part in <\/span>Cabin Boy <\/span><\/i>(a shipboard adventure series), his parents decided to get him out of show business entirely to avoid the pitfalls that so many ECAs (Ex-Child Actors) encountered when they grew older and less cute.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Micky enjoyed returning to a \u2018real\u2019 school and being back on a more normal schedule.\u00a0 Three years of around the clock work included three hours of tutoring per day (a mandatory thing for child actors which he did enjoy) and the constant promotional work.\u00a0 Dolenz was happy to get back to being a kid.\u00a0 Working on a series, he was surrounded by adults and his one regret was losing touch with his sisters.\u00a0 With his long days working on the series, he never seemed to be at home.\u00a0 In the decade after he got out of the biz, he discovered a love for music which eventually landed him in a touring group called the Missing Links (later known as \u2018Micky and the One-nighters\u2019).\u00a0 It was great fun and after being given the royal treatment on his <\/span>Circus Boy<\/span><\/i> tours (keys to the city, staying in swanky hotels), Micky enjoyed the lower rent life style being in a gigging band.\u00a0 It was great fun, at least until they fired him.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Micky says the conversation went kind of like this – Band: \u201cWell, we figure that since you\u2019re just singing, and we all sing, well, we thought we could make more money by cutting the group down in size.\u201d\u00a0 Though he was still studying architecture, being let go was still a big shock.\u00a0 Mickey:\u00a0 \u201cI\u2018d been fired!\u00a0 Canned.\u00a0 Axed.\u00a0 Dismissed.\u00a0 Terminated.\u00a0 I drove back down the smoggy freeway in a daze.\u00a0 I\u2019d never been fired from any job before in my life.\u00a0 I\u2019d never felt that feeling of helpless humility before.\u00a0 And I didn\u2019t like it.\u00a0 For one of the first times in my life I was at a loss.\u201d\u00a0 When one of his ex-bandmates stopped by to check up on him a couple of days later, he asked Dolenz, \u201cWhat\u2019s happening?\u00a0 You have anything coming up?\u201d\u00a0 Micky replied, \u201cNot a lot . . . Well, actually I did go for an interview yesterday.\u00a0 It was for a TV show called <\/span>The Monkees.\u201d <\/span><\/i>Could he feel the wheels of fate turning?<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Ten years after his last working TV gig, Dolenz found the whole atmosphere for this new TV show different than he remembered.\u00a0 There was no cigar chomping executive in a gray suit this time (no doubt were a couple in the background setting the wheels in motion).\u00a0 The 1964-65 period set the stage for a different type of show on the tube:\u00a0 \u201cLet\u2019s do a show the kids will like!\u201d (or something to that effect).\u00a0 There were shows pitched using popular groups like Peter, Paul, and Mary, The Beach Boys, and even the New Christy Minstrels as the focal point, but none of these got off the runway.\u00a0 Dolenz calls most of these attempts at producing a youth oriented show \u2018grim\u2019.\u00a0 The guys behind The Monkees, Bob Rafelson and Bert Schneider, were anything like the \u2018suits\u2019 Micky expected to meet when he answered the casting call.\u00a0 Rafelson had previously created the folk music show <\/span>Hootenanny<\/span><\/i> and directed the TV series <\/span>The Greatest Show on Earth.\u00a0 <\/span><\/i>Bert was the son of Abe Schneider, the president of Columbia Pictures.\u00a0 <\/span>The Monkees<\/span><\/i> were produced by Screen Gems who just happened to be owned by Columbia Pictures, hence, the label The Monkees music was marketed under, ColGems.\u00a0 As Micky describes the relationship in his book, \u201cWhat a coinkeydink!\u201d (yes, it took me a minute to figure out this was \u2018Micky speak\u2019 for \u2018coincidence\u2019).<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0As revolutionary as the concept seemed, it was pretty much a typical sitcom but it was kind of a mash-up of The Beatles and Micky and the One-Nighters.\u00a0 When John Lennon was asked about the Monkees\/Beatles comparisons, he showed that he got it when he said, \u201cI like the Monkees.\u00a0 They\u2019re like the Marx Brothers.\u201d\u00a0 Dolenz does not specifically remember when he first met his future co-stars during the various screen tests as he was paired with dozens of other hopefuls during the process.\u00a0 When it had been whittled down to eight \u2018contestants\u2019 as he calls them, he does remember being paired with Davy Jones for many sessions. After the casting was complete, the next task was to film a pilot episode with the final four.\u00a0 This would then be shopped to the networks to see if they would get it on the air.\u00a0 The Monkees first formal introduction to each other came at a wardrobe fitting before filming began.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Dolenz would get to know his compatriarchs better over time, but he says his first impressions really did not change much over the years:\u00a0 \u201cMike Nesmith – Dry, witty sense of humor, intelligent, cool, generous, somewhat insecure, and definitely a control freak.\u00a0 One of the funniest men I have ever known.\u00a0 Peter Tork – Bohemian, heart of gold, tortured, compassionate, sometimes annoying, intellectual, altruistic, and one of the kindest men I have ever known.\u00a0 Davy Jones – Stylish, very talented, very short, puckish, unselfish, somewhat vain, congenital, streetwise, and one of the nicest men I have ever known.\u201d\u00a0 The only real surprise came when Bob and Bert informed him that Mike and Peter both played guitar, Davy was supposed to be the \u2018cute lead singer\u2019, leaving Micky to be the group\u2019s drummer.\u00a0 \u201cWell,\u201d Dolenz reasoned, \u201cI had to learn to ride an elephant for one series, why not learn to play the drums for another?\u00a0 Anyway, I told them I couldn\u2019t play keyboards because they made my butt hurt.\u201d\u00a0 Micky may have had to walk that one back when he found out playing the drums was also done from a seated position.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0With a lot of time to kill between filming, the boys convened to an adjoining soundstage where instruments were kept set up so they could learn to play together.\u00a0 There was some initial friction when it became obvious both Mike and Peter were told they could mold the band toward their particular musical tastes.\u00a0 This left the band without a singular musical vision which would, over time, \u201cBe the seed that would eventually grow into the weed that ultimately would strangle the group,\u201d according to Micky.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Dolenz worked hard at learning his new part, but readily admits some of the first jams must have been spectacularly bad.\u00a0 They would learn to be a real band over time but for the pilot, The Monkees had to be content to have the stylized visual look of a band, a natural comedic timing that allowed them to work off script, and a genuine love of music.\u00a0 With the pilot in the can, all they had to do was wait to see which network jumped to sign them.\u00a0 One small problem arose, however, when nobody bit.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Rafelson and Schneider went back to the drawing board and made what Micky describes as \u2018a couple of brave decisions\u2019 about the show.\u00a0 First off, the band had a manager who was supposed to be the adult in the room – the manager was cut from the pilot.\u00a0 The Monkees would be left on their own, the good guys battling the bad guys, solving problems, and always rallying together to make things right by the end of each episode.\u00a0 Would the networks go for a show with no adult authority figure in control?\u00a0 NBC did, ordering twenty-six episodes.\u00a0 They were on the air and Dolenz began practicing the drums with a vengeance.\u00a0 I can relate to this feeling because I was doing exactly the same thing but I still could not wrap my head around Micky\u2019s strange looking drum set up.\u00a0 He later said when they did their first live show, \u201cI didn\u2019t even know how to set up the drums.\u201d\u00a0 In other words, some stage hand probably set them up – eventually Dolenz would be seen seated behind a more conventional looking kit because the way they looked in the earliest episodes, they must have been impossible to play.\u00a0 With a shared showbiz background, Micky and Davy were able to shine in the filming area whereas Peter and Mike\u2019s shared musical background would allow them to step up during the recording and live performances.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Mike Nesmith chaffed the most being handed material written by a who\u2019s who of famous songwriters.\u00a0 Micky describes being taken down a hall not unlike one would find in a doctor\u2019s office and behind every door were the likes of David Gates (later of Bread), Carol King, and Carol Bayer Sager.\u00a0 In addition to these staff writers, songs were also being submitted by Neil Diamond, Paul Williams, John Stewart, Leiber and Stoller, Michael Murphey, and Harry Nilsson.\u00a0 Dolenz does mention that Tommy Boyce and Bobby Hart wrote the music for the pilot and were responsible for much of The Monkees\u2019 sound.\u00a0 Micky also says when they went out on their first tour, it was just the four of them performing as they became more of a real band and not just a pretend TV show band.\u00a0 In his own biography, Bobby Hart paints a little different picture.\u00a0 Hart put together a band called The Candy Store Prophets and they were responsible for laying down the music tracks that The Monkees added their vocals to.\u00a0 When they went out on their earliest live performances, The Candy Store Prophets were the opening act.\u00a0 The Monkees did play during their live shows, but when each musician took their solo spot, the CSPs backed them up.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0As for the musicians who played on the tracks that would grace their albums, it was another who\u2019s who list:\u00a0 Glen Campbell, Earl Palmer, Hal Blain, Buddy Miles, Billy Preston, Larry Knechtel (who would join David Gates in Bread), Harry Nilsson, Carole King, Neil Young, Stephen Stills, Hugh McCracken, and Boyce and Hart.\u00a0 It may have been a mistake to not list this musician on the albums (the songwriter\u2019s got their credit line).\u00a0 Dolenz says this little error of omission lead some to think The Monkees were trying to take credit themselves or that the group had existed before the TV show.\u00a0 Neither of these allegations were true, but it caused an unnecessary amount of blow back from certain quarters.\u00a0 Micky rightly states, \u201cI doubt if it would have made one bit of difference to our loyal fans who loved the Monkees for the freedom that we represented, for the feeling that we engendered, for the spirit that we conveyed.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Once the series was canceled, Mike Nesmith was all too happy to gain his freedom and promptly started his First National Band.\u00a0 The others would keep themselves busy but a reunion never happened until MTV decided to run a marathon of <\/span>The Monkees<\/span><\/i> TV show.\u00a0 This reintroduction of the band to a new generation led to an album of new music by Micky and Peter called <\/span>That Was Then, This is Now<\/span><\/i>.\u00a0 When Davy joined them at the MTV music awards on September 5, 1986, he was furious when he heard Arista Records planned to release a second single from the surprise hit album.\u00a0 Why the release of <\/span>Anytime, Anyplace, Anywhere<\/span><\/i> as a single riled Davy up is a mystery because he had chosen to not take part in the album.\u00a0 True showmen that they were, the back stage screaming fit set off by Davy\u2019s hissy-fit was set aside when they stepped on stage to present an award.\u00a0 That they did not talk to each other for a month after the award show was par for the course, but it didn\u2019t mean they wouldn\u2019t play music together again.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Future reunions would include different pairings of all four musicians and at one point, even Boyce and Hart joined the fun.\u00a0 Even Mike Nesmith would show up for a couple of songs and just prior to his death, he and Dolenz were still touring The Monkees\u2019 catalog.\u00a0 It is now left up to Dolenz as the last man standing to carry on the legacy.\u00a0 Not long after Nesmith\u2019s passing, Micky announced he would take their crack touring band out again to celebrate his now departed brothers.\u00a0 One wonders how this would have all ended had he not been fired from Micky and the One Nighters.<\/span><\/p>\n Top Piece Video:\u00a0 And then there were two – the last two Monkees still performing . . . and then there was one!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0The name \u2018Micky Braddock\u2019 not ringing any bells?\u00a0 His father was a film star probably most widely known for his portrayal of The Count of Monte Cristo.\u00a0 His mother was also \u2018in the business\u2019 but stepped back from her career to raise Micky and his three younger sisters.\u00a0 It was her Irish background that 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