Issue 54

Monkee Shines

1

The

Purple Flower

Gang

Issue 54

In this issue:

Peoria Peoria Peoria!

Pen Pals

Birthdays

The Theory of Evolution

Peter New

Davy News

Mike News

Micky News

I Like The

Monkees

(Creem Re-

print)

A Little Bit

Me, A Little

Bit You

Saved By

The Blues—

Review

And more...

Editor:

Cindy Bryant

David in Peoria

Photo by Bonnie Borgh

Monkeeing around since 1987!

January 2003

Monkee Shines

2

Monkee Shines is printed by

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Depot

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Money orders are preferred. Cash at own risk. Make all payments

payable to Cindy Bryant NOT the

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ine, Iowa 52761.

Thanks to all who made this issue

possible: Jan Chilton (for so many

things!), Julie Harris, Janet & Tom

Litterio, Paul McCartney and Ewan

McGregor (although they will never know! :-)), The PFG Road Crew

(Bonnie Borgh, Shane Worden,

Kimmi Janvrin ( How much fun

and friendship can a group of peo-

ple stand!?) Colleen Johnson and

Diane Klosak (there in spirit when

not in body!), and the Monkees and

their families who are the reason for

it all!

[email protected]

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only notice you will get.

Table of Contents

Letter From the Editor ...

........................................ 3

Birthdays ....................... 4

Pen Pals .......................... 6

Personals ........................ 7

Peter’s News .................. 8

Mike’s News ................... 9

Micky’s News ............... 10

David’s News ............... 11

I Like The Monkees (Creem

Article) ......................... 12

Theory OF Evolution... 22

A Little Bit You, A Little Bit

Me ................................ 23

He Said, She Said, Part IX, -

The Detour ................... 24

What A Night ............... 52

Fans On The Run ........ 58

Saved By The Blues, Guest

Review .......................... 59

Monkee Shines

3

Dear Gang,

Just after the last newslet-

ter was mailed I received word that

the National Association of Fan

Clubs had decided to close down for a number of reasons. As sad as I

am to see a number of the Mon-

kees’ clubs folding, I am even more

sad to see the NAFC close down.

Since 1977 the NAFC has proved to

be a valuable source of information

for fan clubs and also, maybe most

importantly, they kept all of us hon-

est. I want to express my sincere

thanks to them for their years of

service to fans everywhere. They

will be missed. I am going to try to get the

newsletter back on a schedule so

you will know when to expect it.

Those of you who know my work

schedule and that I am trying to get

in some college classes at night

know how hard it is to maintain a

set schedule but I am going to give

it a try. You can expect newsletters

to be mailed at the end of January,

April, July and October. If you have anything you wish to submit for

these newsletters I will need them

the month before at the latest. Hope

this will help everyone out. Please

send us your stories, photos and

ideas! We are always looking for

your participation so send us your

Theories of Evolution and Mon-

kees sightings!

The PFG sends our best wishes to Hazel Wilkinson who

retired this year! I know Morend

school will miss her but we know

how busy she will be keeping Ken

in line! Congratulations, Hazel!

We hope you enjoy your retire-

ment!

While the Monkees may

not be touring collectively there is

plenty of solo Monkee business a

foot and we hope lots of shows

come your way. Please let us know about your adventures. Have

a great 2003!

Cindy

Monkee Shines

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February 1 Don Everly

2 Graham Nash

4 Jonathan Nesmith

6 John London

Fabian Forte

9 Deborah Stidham

Carole King

Barry Mann

Jack Winter

10 Beryl Leigh

11 Gerry Goffin

13 PETER TORK 14 Rick Klein

16 Sonny Bono

Linda Jones

Ronda Russell

17 Gene Pitney

18 Bobby Hart

19 Lou Christie

20 Bob Rafelson

25 George Harrison

January

2 Bobbi Boyce

3 Stephen Stills

4 Michael Stipe

5 Henry Corden

7 Kenny Loggins

8 Ami Dolenz

David Bowie

9 Jerry Yester

Bill Cowsill

11 Pat Smith

13 Lester Sill

Rip Taylor 17 Robin Millan

19 Phil Everly

24 Neil Diamond

Lynda Moore

25 Hallie Torkelson

26 Vito Scotti

31 Christian Nesmith

Monkee Shines

5

26 Johnny Cash

Cyrus Faryar

March

1 Roger Daltry

2 John Cowsill

7 Donna Loren

8 MICKY DOLENZ

Ceil Cabot

9 Mark Lindsay

10 Dean Torrence

13 Neil Sedaka

Carolyn Travis 14 Arch Johnson

15 Mike Love

17 John Sebastian

23 Bruce Kessler

Shane Worden

24 Elton John

25 Diana Ross

30 Eric Clapton

Diane Scharp

April

3 Jan Berry

Jeff Barry

Jan Chilton

5 Coco Heinzelmann

6 Phil Leeds

Michelle Phillips 9 Carl Perkins

Julie Harris

12 David Cassidy

Tiny Tim

13 Diane (Hildebrand) Roland-

Skye

14 Shorty Rogers

17 Don Kirshner

18 Alex Singer

19 Mark Volman 20 Monte Landis

22 Jack Nicholson

Glen Campbell

23 Susan Andrano

26 Donna Lee Bacalla

28 Tommy James

30 Bobby Vee

Monkee Shines

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Diane Scharp

14850 Phelps Drive

Bridgeton, MO 53044 USA

Maria Tereza Pinho Gomes Da Sil-va

Rua Virginia Vidal No. 59

Tanque

Jacarepagua

Rio De Janeiro

RJ Cep. 22.735-080 Brazil

Celine Allan

9208 Angora Street

Dallas, TX 75218 USA

Susan Bragga 4222 West Robin Meadows lane

Eau Claire, WI 54701 USA

Kathy Brewer

1198 Turkey Blind Road

Crossville, TN 38572

Christina Gautreaux

1221 11th Street Lot 5

Dewitt, IA 52742 USA

Rachel Walker

1514 Sunnyhills Drive

Brandon, FL 33510 USA

Cindy Torres

3703 Country Club Drive #11

Long Beach, CA 90807 USA

Deborah Kolbaba PO Box 89

Holstein, IA 51025

Joyce Lopez

356 Superior

St. Paul, MN 55102 USA

E-pals:

Susan Andriano:

[email protected]

Maria Tereza Pinho Gomes Da Sil-

va:

[email protected]

Mark Elbert:

[email protected]

Janet Litterio:

[email protected]

Shane Worden:

[email protected]

Monkee Shines

7

Bonnie,

So, tell me….have the

invitations to the White House ar-

rived yet? Pennsylvania … Penn-

sylvania Avenue … potayto… potaahto.

Democratically speaking

Just Moi!

Axl,

Every rose has its thorn!

Hit & Run

Hey Hannah,

Don’t jump without me!

Love,

Your partner in crime

Hey BW,

The recent issue of PB

just hit the stand!

Signed -

Still Shaking Off The Wall

We're getting tired of

asking nicely, Colleen! :-)

(You know who, and you know

WHAT!)

Hannah,

Keep mommy in line and

keep watching for those detours!

Uncle Shanie

Happy New Year one

and all! Here's hoping '03 treats

us better than '02!

The Road Crew

Peoria Gang,

And what would we

have done if it was actually

HIM?!

Pippin,

I’m packed! When do

we leave? Bring the kilt!

Christian

Hazel,

Congratulations on your

retirement! Someone needs to

keep an eye on Ken!

Cindy & Bonnie

Kimmi,

We all have our little

obsessions...don’t we? :-D

SF

Mum– Goochy, goochy, ya, ya, ya!! Love ya!! The Chatter

Monkee Shines

8

Peter’s News

Peter's News

Peter's last performance in Anaheim, CA, on last years' Monkees

tour has finally made it's way onto DVD through King Biscuit. The disc is available in a wide variety of retail outlets, as well as online at

www.kingbiscuit.com.

There is a CD "companion" slated for release on January 28, which

is supposed to contain some extra songs that did not make it onto the

concert DVD.

Peter has been in the studio once again, as well, as a part of what is

becoming an annual Christmas album tradition at James Lee Stanley's

label, Beachwood Recordings. The album contains performances

from Peter, James and Pamala Stanley, and can be ordered for 15 dol-

lars from the tried and true Beachwood address or you can reach

James online at www.jamesleestanley.com.

Peter's band, Shoe Suede Blues, is planning a nation-wide tour in the

coming months, although nothing has been confirmed as of yet. Keep

checking www.shoesuedeblues.com for updates on the SSB schedule.

In the meantime, both SSB albums are still available and well worth a

listen if you haven't heard them!

And, as a side note, Rhino Records is planning a boxed set release of

the Monkees' first season on DVD in the early months of 2003. Ten-

tative price of the set as this time is reported to be about $80. No

word on any scheduled extra features or interviews, though both seem entirely likely.

www.petertork.com

Monkee Shines

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Mike’s News From the Video Ranch:

NEW MP3S:

MP3s being so popular these days we decided to make a few more avail-able at Videoranch. The Armadillo World Headquarters concert (1981) ranks high on Nez' list of favorite live shows with John Hobbs on piano, Joe Chemay on bass, Paul Leim on drums, and Billy Joe Walker Jr. and Jerry Swallow on guitar. We've added both the live version of 'Capsule' and the live version of 'Grand Ennui' from that show. If you have Live at the Palais on CD then you've already heard these great takes.

By now, you've heard all about the diptychs and triptychs Nez created for various albums. Rio / Casablanca Moonlight and You are my one / In the afternoon both diptychs that are currently available as MP3s. Well, we've just added a triptych from the First National Band Recordings! Calico Girl-friend / Nine Times Blue / Little Red Rider, all three songs, one after the other. These MP3s are only a couple of bucks each, a great way to sam-ple albums you don't yet have, and just plain cool to have downloaded onto your computer.

THE LONG SANDY HAIR OF NEFTOON ZAMORA:

"A mystical search through the southwest for beauty and truth, Michael Nesmith writes with a rhythm and color that is as enveloping as his ter-rain. This is a writer rich in humor, with a delightfully canny sense of the modern picturesque novel. It's a wonderful ride with Mr. Nesmith. " --Wendy Wasserstein, author and Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright of "The Heidi Cronicles" Unabridged 6 CD Set read by the author. Nez' reading of the story re-veals another level of humor and insight. There's a little bit of music and there are sound effects scattered throughout. Listen to it while you're in your car, stuck in traffic and it will magically transport you to the south-west.

Copies can be purchased through The Videoranch. (videoranch.com)

outbind://2-000000009ACBF41AECE30B4B9E3B34B496E1D88C84102300/www.videoranch.com

outbind://2-000000009ACBF41AECE30B4B9E3B34B496E1D88C84102300/www.videoranch.com/noflash/fracapsule.html

outbind://2-000000009ACBF41AECE30B4B9E3B34B496E1D88C84102300/www.videoranch.com/noflash/fragrandennui.html

outbind://2-000000009ACBF41AECE30B4B9E3B34B496E1D88C84102300/www.videoranch.com/noflash/frpalais.html

outbind://2-000000009ACBF41AECE30B4B9E3B34B496E1D88C84102300/www.videoranch.com/noflash/frpalais.html

outbind://2-000000009ACBF41AECE30B4B9E3B34B496E1D88C84102300/www.videoranch.com/noflash/frcalicotriptych.html

outbind://2-000000009ACBF41AECE30B4B9E3B34B496E1D88C84102300/www.videoranch.com/noflash/frcalicotriptych.html

Monkee Shines

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Micky’s News

Since the last newsletter, Micky has been seen gracing the afternoon soap opera pro-grams yet again. Earlier this year he played a vicar on "As The World Turns". In November, Dolenz appeared as an anger management group leader on Ami's old soap, "General Hospital"! Micky also appeared recently at the Beatlefest convention in

Pasadena, CA where he confirmed that he and David have no plans to work together this year. He has been starting to concentrate on his directorial work once again, while continuing to tour as a solo act. Micky also mentioned that he had recently been offered a role in the Tim Rice/Elton John musical, "Aida", as well, though he hadn't made any decisions about whether he would commit. In the meantime, look for Micky on the road here: Wed 01/22/03 through Wed 01/29/03 Miami, FL Enchantment Of The Seas (cruise

ship tour) Fri 02-07-03 Onamia, MN at the Grand Casino Mille Lacs Fri 09/12/03 Peachtree City, GA Frederick Brown Jr. Amph. Sat 09/13/03 Peachtree City, GA Frederick Brown Jr. Amph.

Micky Dolenz has just announced his very exciting plans for 2003. He says, "I

have been offered and have accepted a wonderful role in the Elton John & Tim

Rice musical 'AIDA'. The character is 'Zoser' and it is an incredible part---I

sing two of the best songs in the show and I am the 'bad guy'. I will be on tour

with the National Company for six months, starting in Fort Myers, Florida, on

February 25th, and then they have guaranteed me the role on Broadway start-

ing in January of 2004 Further information on dates and tickets can be found at

http://disney.go.com/disneytheatrical/tour/index.html.

February 25 - March 2, 2003, Barbara B. Mann Performing Arts Hall, Fort Myers, FL

March 4 - 15, 2003, Tampa Bay Performing Arts Center, Tampa, FL March 18 - 23, 2003, Birmingham-Jefferson Memorial Hall, Birmingham, AL

March 26 - April 6, 2003, Performing Arts Center, Louisville, KY April 8 - 13, 2003, Murat Center, Indianapolis, IN April 15 - 20, 2003, E.J. Thomas Hall, Akron, OH April 22 - May 4, 2003, Ohio Center, Columbus, OH May 7 - 11, 2003, Weidner Center, Green Bay, WI May 14 - 18, 2003, Leid Center, Lincoln, NE May 21 - June 1, 2003, Uihlein Hall, Milwaukee, WI

Monkee Shines

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Micky’s News Continued:

June 17 - 29, 2003, Majestic Theater, San Antonio, TX July 2 - 13, 2003, Orange County Performing Arts Center, Costa Mesa, CA July 15 - 20, 2003, Civic Theater, San Diego, CA July 23 - August 10, 2003, San Jose Performing Arts Center, San Jose, CA August 13 - 17, 2003, Buell Theatre, Denver, CO

www.mickydolenz.com

Davy Jones in Concert February 7, 2003 - Mohegan Sun Casino Uncasville, CT 888-226-7711

April 19, 2003 - Belterra Resort & Casino Florence, Indiana 812/427-7777 (NOTE: Please DO NOT phone the casino as their schedule just includes concerts through February, and this date is NOT on the Casino's listing yet. If you are interested in attending, please try phoning the Casino some-time AFTER Feb. 2003.) April 25-28, 2003 - Epcot International Flower & Garden Fest American Gar-dens Theatre Disney World Lake Buena Vista, FL 407/934-7639

July 3, 2003 - Pine Hill Lakes Park Mason, OH July 10, 2003—N. Wisconsin State Fair Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin David has added a show on 10-04-03 in Tulsa, Ok at the Tulsa State Fair.

www.davyjones.net

David’s News

Monkee Shines

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One of the worst aspects of rock 'n'

roll is that it's often centered on this

debate as to whether something is

"cool" or not. Taste, like beauty, is

always in the eye of the beholder--but it sure makes for humorous ob-

servations today when someone

uses musical phlegm like Depeche

Mode as a "cool' status symbol.

Besides, if rock 'n' roll really is

(was?) the populist artform and

anyone can do it, then "cool," like

pretentiousness, shouldn't even en-

ter the picture. anyway, when I was

10 years old, the Monkees were

"cool" to all my friends. When

you're 10, what's cool is pretty

much based on what moves you (or

at least what you're conditioned to

be moved by)...

Of course, I wish I'd seen the Beat-les, and I probably would have if I

By Bill Holdsluip

Reprinted from a Creem article

Transcribed by Jan Chilton

Monkee Shines

13

hadn't seen the Monkees. But my

mom took me and my six-year-old

brother to see them in Detroit,

which was over two hours away

from where we lived and the only place you could see rock concerts

back then. Anyway, the Monkees

were really, really neat. Jimi Hen-

drix definitely didn't open for them,

but they rocked. (they played their

own instruments, there was no

"hidden" band behind them), even if

you couldn't hear most of it (I dis-

tinctly do remember "I'm A Believ-

er", though) with 25,000 teenagers

screaming non-stop for an hour.

The teenage girl next to me cried--real tears and everything--

throughout the show. My brother, a

hyperactive kid to begin with,

thought it was great 'cause he actu-

ally got away with jumping and

screaming in public. My mother

bitched all the way home, calling it

"insanity' and "mass hysteria". Like

I said, it was really, really neat.

Mike wore his wool hat onstage,

and Micky imitated James Brown. Even though a white kid from a

small rural town didn't know much

about James Brown in 1966, I

would always remember that...

In 1973, I met Micky Dolenz out-

side the stage door of an Alice

Cooper show. He was in town to

emcee a rock festival, and he per-

formed "The Monkees Theme" with

the original Cooper band that night

following their 'School's Out" en-

core. It was really, really neat.

"Wasn't that the fucking greatest

show you've ever seen?" asked Micky, but he didn't seem real eager

to talk about the Monkees at that

point in his life. Still, he was more

than courteous when I told him how

much I'd once enjoyed the "band"...

So the Monkees were

"manufactured". They were

"commercialized". They were

"show biz." They weren't real. So

what?? The same claim could be

made about Alice Cooper, and it's funny how his influence (be it good

or bad, and it's been both) has

turned out to be more pervasive

than that of, say, the ultra cool All-

man Brothers. Besides, I've read

about the "Psychedelic Love Burg-

ers" that got sold in Haight-

Ashbury, and I've seen psychedelic

pillowcases. It could be argued that

the whole '60's trip, "cool" or

"uncool", was "commercialized". I mean, we used to watch the Vi-

etnam war, people getting shot and

stuff, alongside deodorant ads on

TV in the 60's. Like Noel Redding

recently wrote of the Jimi Hendrix

Experience, (who got their U.S.

break opening for the "imitation"

Fab Four): "Funny that groups like

the Experience, who were symbols

of the movement, were in reality

Monkee Shines

14

just fronts for large corporations

and small people who were using us

and the audience in the madness of

generating profits." How "cool".

Plus, none of these arguments stand

up much in the '80s when the Mon-

kees look pure in contrast to what's

accepted as "normal" today. I'd ar-

gue that Madonna, in her own way,

is as least as "manufactured" as the

Monkees were. The Bangles just

had two big hits with (gasp!) songs

they didn't write themselves!

(Funny how some of the current

critics who consider the Monkees a

"joke"--many of whom must've been all of two years old in 1966--

haven't included, say the great Dar-

lene Love, of Phil Spector fame,

who shared some composers with

the Monkees, as part of their

"joke".) And don't even mention

Duran Duran, Sigue Sigue Sputnik

or most of today's heavy metal acts.

Considering that the Monkees rec-

orded in a (at the most) four-track

studio as opposed to today's 24-track studio where all kinds of

things can be "punched in", you'd

better believe that a lot of current

top bands don't play their own in-

struments on records.

Of course the Monkees did end up

playing on a lot of their own record-

ings by the time of Headquarters

(and even if they didn’t, does it

really matter?) I’d argue that the

Monkees produced much better

music than all the current acts men-

tioned above, and that many of the

Monkees’ best songs rate with any pop/rock music that came out of the

‘60s. And the music is what it all

boils down to in the end. Lots of the

Monkees’ music still stands up to-

day. Lots of it was great…

If the Monkees were a manufac-

tured teenybop / ”bubblegum”

band, then they were easily the

greatest –and most ambitious—

manufactured/

teenybop/”bubblegum” band of all time. There’s no comparison be-

tween the Monkees and the Archies

or the Bay City Rollers. Or Wham!

Besides, if they were solely

“bubblegum” (and they weren’t), is

it really that derogatory to be

“bubblegum”? The Replacements,

for one, would tell you that is is-

n’t—and I know that I still turn up

my radio every time I hear songs

like “Tracy”, “My Baby Loves Lovin’,” “Indian Lake”, or “Love

Grows Where My Rosemary Goes”.

Ok, the Monkees were put together

as part of a commercial TV show.

But, for once, the people who put

the thing together really lucked out.

The Monkees proved to have genu-

ine talent. Let’s not forget that the

Monkees weren’t striving to be like

Monkee Shines

15

vy Jones were very charming enter-

tainers. Every Monday night, they

brought an element of ‘60s pop

Culture into mid-American living

rooms. In that sense, they were lat-ter-day Ricky Nelsons. Let’s not

forget that things like long hair

were still sort of taboo for mid-

America in 1966, and the Monkees

didn’t look that far removed from

those kids rioting on college cam-

puses. “It’s those bastards who

ruined this country” in relation to

the Beatles is a comment I heard

more than once during the 60’s. If

nothing else, the show’s existence

was more than justified by its Yard-ley commercials which brought

Twiggy-like models, Donovan sing-

ing “Wear Your Love Like Heav-

en” and images of swinging London

into 10 million living rooms every

week. The show was hip and inno-

vative for its time, paving the way

for Laugh-In, which in turn paved

the way for Saturday Night Live.

Plus, things did seem better in the

‘60s. For the most part, people seemed more hopeful, if not happi-

er.

“I’ve never considered it a

vice, you know, nostalgia and

playing what people want to

hear.” –Micky Dolenz

To be honest, I don’t think The

Monkees series is really that terrific

Duran Duran. The Monkees want-

ed to be like the Beatles—and you

can’t do any better than that. As a

result, things as diverse as Hank

Williams and Little Richard were part of their musical make-up. The

Monkees strived to fit in the giant

panorama that was ‘60s rock ‘n roll.

In other words, there weren’t the

factions and divisions that exist

today. Pop was rock, rock was pop,

and from Lesley Gore to Jim Morri-

son to Max Frost & The Troopers,

it was all rock ‘n roll. And be it

bubblegum, pop, garage rock or

psychedelia, the Monkees incorpo-

rated it all into their repertoire. More importantly, Micky Dolenz,

Mike Nesmith, Peter Tork and Da-

Monkee Shines

16

in retrospect, but I feel the same

way about Elvis movies, and those

were some of the best when I was a

little kid. If The Monkees’ new

MTV popularity seems a little weird, it might have something to

do with ‘60s pop images looking

even more attractive at a time when

the Reagan Administration is trying

to deny—in every way, shape and

form—that the decade even existed.

As far as the “cool” issue is con-

cerned, can we possibly deem he

Monkees “cool” by association? A

lot of “cool” (read: talented) people

were involved with The Monkees, ranging from the guys who pro-

duced Easy Rider to director Paul

Mazursky to Jack Nicholson, a

Monkees’ friend who wrote the

screenplay for Head, their only mo-

tion picture. Both John Lennon and

Timothy Leary defended the group

at the time. The Monkees actually

rebelled against “uncool” corporate

boss Don Kirshner; his next “band”

was the Archies, cartoon figures with no mind of their own. They

hung out with people ranging from

the Buffalo Springfield to Tim

Buckley to Frank Zappa, the latter

who not only appeared in Head but

on the TV show as well (and we’re

not talking “Yellow Snow” here,

but Freak Out! and We’re Only In It

For the Money). Come to think of

it, if you listen to the Monkees’

Head LP today, it sounds a lot like

a Zappa/Mothers LP from that

era—and it remains an outstanding

psychedelic artifact. (And if you

wanna read all kinds of “cool” sto-ries about the Monkees, ranging

from the Hendrix, Stills and Dolenz

“jam session” to the first use of a

synthesizer on a rock LP, you

should read The Monkees Tale by

Eric Lefcowitz, which was pub-

lished last year by Berkeley, Cali-

fornia’s Last Gasp press.)

As for the music, the Monkees

Monkee Shines

17

Time” (recorded over three years

before Fogerty released “Travelin’

Band”) to the beautiful, moving,

magnificent, splendid, wonderful

“Shades of Gray”, which rates as one of the ‘60’s best composi-

tions—and sounds as beautiful, etc.,

today as it did then.

And the Monkees did write some of

their own songs. Peter’s hippieish

“For Pete’s Sake” wasn’t bad at all,

and will always be ingrained in the

minds of everyone who grew up

with the show. Micky’s “Randy

Scouse Git” is a really, really neat

song (and a hit in England), and Micky continued writing some nice

songs (as well as some clinkers) as

late as the group’s final two LPs as

a trio. (Although in fairness, it

should be noted that Instant Replay

includes two of the worst Goffin-

King songs in history and isn’t a

very good album).

Then there was Mike Nesmith. If

Nesmith had done nothing other than write “Different Drum” (Linda

Ronstadt’s greatest moment, one of

the ‘60s most perfect pop tunes)

and the haunting “Joanne” (yes!

yes! yes!), his place in pop history

would be secure. But Nesmith had

great songs as early as “Papa

Gene’s Blues” and “Sweet Young

Thing” on their first LP, and as late

as “Good Clean Fun” and “Never

weren’t always on target. The first

LP sounds relatively weak, though

it had several fine moments—while

“Valerie” and “Daydream Believer”

were two of the only good things on The Birds, The Bees, & The Mon-

kees. But what great “good things”

they were; someone like the

Thompson Twins would kill to have

anything as good on one of their

albums. In between those LPs are

three records that I’ve owned since

the day they were released and will

probably own until the day I die

(and you can, too, now that Rhino

Records has re-released the entire

Monkees catalog). More of The Monkees is a pop lover’s dream

feast, ranging from the inspired

Boyce & Hart classics to Neil Seda-

ka’s Buddy Holly-ish “When Love

Comes Knockin’,” one of the hap-

piest love songs ever recorded.

“Steppin’ Stone” is one of the few

songs the Sex Pistols ever covered,

and I’ve seen college kids go crazy

for the last six years every time the

band I’m involved with covers something like “She”. Picses,

Aquarius, Capricorn & Jones Ltd.,

the fourth LP, is the famous synthe-

sizer-debut record and the begin-

ning of psychedelic leanings—plus

man, many fine pop songs. But my

all-time fave is probably Headquar-

ters, a hodge-podge of styles, rang-

ing from the exciting Little Richard/

Chuck Berry-influenced “No

Monkee Shines

18

Tell A Woman Yes” on their final

The Monkees Present (a pretty good

record). Mike Nesmith was a mag-

nificent songwriter. Just listen to

“The Kind Of Girl I Could Love”. It’s a shame he never got his just

due because he was a Monkee.

I’ve always said if the original

Monkees reunited for a tour, it

could be one of the finest reunions

in pop/rock history…

. . .

So I was skeptical and cynical when

they reunited without Nesmith.

They’ll do the obvious hits, proba-bly not as good, I thought, and cash

in on the MTV-inspired nostalgia. I

was even skeptical when I read that

Nesmith had raved about the reun-

ion show after seeing it in Texas,

saying that he almost wished he

was onstage with them. After all,

hadn’t he also said that he didn’t

join in because it “would be like

Reagan making another movie”?

Well, if you skipped the Monkees’

reunion show because you thought

it was a cynical cash-in, then you

missed an excellent, entertaining,

fun, funny, really neat rock show.

They were as charming as ever.

They sound as good vocally as they

did then, and they’ve aged more

gracefully than, say, Crosby, Stills

& Nash. Excepting “Words”, they

did all the obvious hits—but they

did non-obvious stuff, too, like “No

Time”, “Auntie Grizelda”, the great

“Goin’ Down” and (sigh!) “Shades

of Gray”. I actually got goose-bumps! The band behind them was

terrific—so much so that the songs

sounded better (and more rock ‘n’

roll-like) than they did in the ‘60s.

Only once—during Davy’s solo

segment—did the show even ap-

proach Las Vegas mentality. They

played Mike’s “Listen To The

Band”, a nice gesture. They

showed that “That Was Then, This

Is Now” is a fine summer pop song.

They were better than the last two times I saw the Stones and the last

five times I saw the Kinks. They

were great. If Nesmith had been

there, it could’ve been one of the

most entertaining shows I’ve ever

seen. As it was, along with Lou

Reed’s, it was the best rock show I

saw this summer.

.

. .

The day after the show was my

birthday. I got to interview Micky

Dolenz. He still has the same chip-

munk voice. He’s also one of the

most gracious people I’ve ever in-

terviewed. It was really, really,

neat…

ON PUTTING THE CONCERT

Monkee Shines

19

there—some work, some haven’t.

Some we like, some we don’t. But

we had to do a few. We had to do

an hour, and we wanted to do all the

songs full-length. We didn’t want to do any medleys because that would

be a mistake. We could’ve got a lot

more in, of course, but we felt that

medleys would be a bit of a cheat.”

ON THEIR NEW PHENOMENAL

SUCCESS: “I’m a film director in

England now, and when I agreed to

do this last summer, I had no idea it

was going to be this big. Our fans

have always been enthusiastic, but I

think the MTV run of the show really put it over the top and

brought in a lot of new fans. Then

again, there’s an awful lot of our

original fans out there coming back

for nostalgic reasons.”

ON ACCUSATIONS OF NOS-

TALGIA PEDDLING: “Well, I

don’t think that you could accuse

anyone of doing that. I’ve never

considered it to be a ‘vice’, you know, nostalgia and playing what

people want to hear. I’ve never

really cared what the media said.

We’ve been very fortunate in that

the press have had very little nega-

tive effect on our success, back in

the ‘60s, and they don’t today, real-

ly. You say we’ve taken a lot of

shit, but, quite honestly, we never

noticed. Because, first of all, we

TOGETHER: “The three of us did

it as a unit. (Promoter) David Fishof

put together the band and the tour,

but we chose the songs. The songs

kinda chose themselves. There were at least eight or 10 that we had

to do, the obvious ones. The diffi-

culty came in choosing the second

eight or 10 because we had so many

secondary kind of hits. We’ve tried

a couple different tunes here and

Monkee Shines

20

never had the time to read much of

our own press. And, of course, the

thing was so successful that if we

did read any bad press, all we did

was laugh, go out and play to a sold-out house, and count our money.

We’ve had some bad press this time

around, and it still makes no differ-

ence. I don’t know why. That’s

just the way it is, and there you go.”

ON THE BASIS OF THE MON-

KEES’ SUCCESS: “A lot of it has

to do with the fact that the songs are

just fundamentally good songs. To

be honest, I think that anyone—

well, not anyone, but any major act could record these songs and have

major hits. Carole King didn’t write

sh…uh, duff fung, you know. That

gives us such a strong, heavy foun-

dation that it’s very difficult to

screw it up.”

ON THE MONKEES’ PLACE IN

ROCK HISTORY: “I don’t think

it’s so much rock ‘n’ roll history as

it is entertainment history. The Monkees were not, by any stretch

of the imagination, a full-blown

rock ‘n’ roll group. We never pre-

tended to be, and never said we

were. It was only the press and

magazines like Rolling Stone that

perceived it that way. We were a

TV show about a group, and doing

music videos and that’s where it

was at. They wanted to relate every-

thing, of course, to being as pure

as driven snow, to use a pun, in

rock ‘n’ roll back then. And the

Monkees were much closer to the

Marx Brothers than a rock ‘n’ roll band, actually. And it was John

Lennon who originally made that

comparison. That’s much closer to

the truth. So no, it doesn’t bother

me when the Monkees aren’t in-

cluded in the greatest rock ‘n’ roll

bands of all times, because that’s

not what it was.”

ME: Well, I think some of your

songs rate right up there.

“Well, thank you. I appreciate

that. I mean, I think it’s true that

for all practical purposes, we sure

became a rock ‘n’ roll band.”

ON FUTURE MONKEE PLANS:

“There’s a lot of things in the air.

There’s a TV special, there’s a

movie. There are a number of

things that we’re talking about.

It’s been kind of tricky because we’ve been on the road and every-

thing’s taken us a bit by surprise.

I really can’t give you any more

information than that, honestly,

but we’ll continue as long as it

remains genuinely successful. It

really hasn’t been over-promoted

or over-hyped, and that’s what’s

been so exciting about it.”

Monkee Shines

21

ON THE STUPID CONCEPT OF

A “NEW MONKEES” TV

SHOW: “Well, I have to be care-

ful what I say. I said a couple of

things, and they got mad at me. But, quite simply, I agree with

you. That’s my professional opin-

ion. I thought the new Odd Couple

was stupid. I think the new Star

Trek idea is stupid. It’s just lame.

It’s anticlimactic and unnecessary.

I have a feeling it’s just business

executive type of people who per-

ceive it as something they can

make money on. I don’t think it’s

necessary. On the other hand, I

have to wish all the kids who are going out for it good luck and eve-

rything like that.”

ON WHETHER HE’S RECENT-

LY TALKED TO MIKE

NESMITH: “Oh, of course. Eve-

rybody’s trying to make some-

thing out of that, and believe me,

there’s nothing there. I think he

kind of misses it. On the other

hand, he’s just not into it. He doesn’t do this anymore. He

doesn’t tour. He doesn’t record.

He doesn’t sing. It’s as simple as

that. And he’s also very busy do-

ing what he does—executive mov-

ie producer—which I know be-

cause I’ve been in the same posi-

tion. It’s very time-consuming. If

this tour had happened a couple of

months earlier, I couldn’t have

done it. I had to cancel a series

that I was supposed to produce

and direct to do this. And I had my

doubts. I was torn about it. It took

me a long time to make up my mind. Because, again, we had no

idea that it was going to explode

into this kind of thing.”

ON A POSSIBLE “SURPRISE”

NESMITH APPEARANCE: “I

kinda doubt it. I can’t imagine

how that would work. I just don’t

know. I can’t imagine how he’d

feel very comfortable coming out

and just…what would he do? Just

stand there and sing a tune? I’d much rather see him do a film with

us, do a movie.”

ON WHETHER HE CONTIN-

UED PLAYING DRUMS AFTER

THE MONKEES ENDED: “No,

no. It’s a difficult instrument to

take to parties with you.”

. . .

I hope the Monkees continue for a

long time. I hope they record

more songs as fine as “That Was

Then, This Is Now”. I hope my

kids like them as much as I did.

And I hope Mike Nesmith rejoins

them in some capacity. The Mon-

kees make people happy. Ain’t

nothing wrong with that.

Monkee Shines

22

. . .

(Editor’s note: Of course, Nesmith

did join the three other Monkees

onstage at Los Angeles’s Greek Theatre in late August ’86 for two

songs, “Listen To The Band” and

“Pleasant Valley Sunday”. Asked

if he’d rejoin the band, Nesmith

replied: “It’s always a possibility,

if we can synch our schedules. I

love these guys.”)

The End

♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦

The Theory of Evolution

One quick theory this time. Some of

you know (and you know who you

are) that I have fallen head of heels

for the movie Moulin Rouge. Total-

ly by accident I have found that Moulin Rouge is Monkees related!

Too cool! But then isn’t every-

thing! That is the whole premise of

this column.

Moulin Rouge stars Ewan McGreg-

or as Christian, the penniless poet.

Ewan has starred in a number of

Japanese commercials which can be

seen online at:

http://www.japander.com/japander/index.htm

Two of these commercials for

Roots coffee feature the song I’m A

Believer in the background

(although not sung by The Mon-

kees).

Therefore, very simply, Ewan

McGregor and Moulin Rouge are Monkees related!

Ewan McGregor in Moulin Rouge

Monkee Shines

23

Heard on NBC:

To advertise the NBC Fall

Lineup, NBC is using the song, Let

Me Entertain You, which David has

used in his solo act.

♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫

Heard on Conan O’Brien:

Rita Wilson recalled grow-

ing up in Micky Dolenz’ neighbor-

hood ...”you remember Micky

Dolenz? He was one of the Mon-

kees.” It was at the height of Mon-

keemania. One of the boys she ran

around with told her he knew

Micky and they could go over to his house any time. She should have

been suspicious when they had to

go through a window to get into the

house. They were standing in his

living room listening to Last Train

To Clarksville on his stereo when

Micky and his blonde girlfriend

(Samantha?) walked into the house.

Years later Rita saw Micky in the

grocery store and apologized pro-

fusely. She said he was very cool about the whole thing.

♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫

Seen on Hollywood Squares:

A photo of Micky. David,

and Mike was shown (the one

where they are looking through a

picture frame—from the series).

The question was, “Which one of

the Monkees is missing?” Both the celebrity and the contestant knew it

was Peter.

♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫

Seen on the USA Network:

An ad for TV’s Favorite

Theme Songs CD features The

Monkees’ Theme.

♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫

Seen on C-Span:

A story about 14 year old

Basie Gitlin of N. Branford,

Connecticutt. Basie collects

children’s books and has a

collection of over 2500 books. He

began collecting at age 9 with a

book about one of his favorite

groupps. The book was The

Monkees in Who’s Got The Button?

♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫

Seen on A & E Biography:

The Biography of David

Bowie features a brief mention that

David Bowie, who’s real name is

Monkee Shines

24

Davy Jones, was forced to change

his name so that he would not be

confused with the “other” Davy

Jones. They showed David’s

preMonkees album cover. I should mention here that the man who re-

searched this Biography first con-

tacted our own Jan Chilton and

through her our own Bonnie Borgh

for information on this album.

♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫

Seen on General Hospital:

Micky had a small part on

the daytime soap General Hospital

in November.

♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫

Seen on Crossing Over with John

Edwards:

Micky again showed up on

daytime TV for a “Super”natural

experience. If anyone has this on

tape I am dying to see it. I forgot to

set the VCR!

♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫

Read in Desperation by Stephen

King

King, who is a rock and

roll fan, often refers to rock and roll

hits in his books. This time it was

Last Train To Clarksville. I

reported this when the book

originall came out but in rereading

it Shane Worden noted that a few

pages away from the Monkees

reference there is a mention of the

Felix Caveliere fan club which

Shane thought interesting since we had just seen Felix with David.in

Peoria.

♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫

On VH-1:

Thanksgiving week VH-1

presented Daydream Believers: The

Monkees’ Story three different

times in their pop up video format.

♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫

Heard on the Simpson:

I’m A Believer playing as

the backdrop for Moe’s romance.

♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫

On our local oldies station, KUUL:

Sound bites from The

Monkees appearance on the Raiders TV show from the 60s are heard in

a montage of sound bites to adver-

tise one of the DJs shows.

♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫

The Brady Bunch movie sequel

aired on USA again.

♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫

Monkee Shines

25

Bonnie: Believe

it or not, it's been

a while since I

participated in a

"He Said/She Said" documen-

tary. In fact, I

arbitrarily select-

ed a vintage Pur-

ple Flower Gang

(PFG) newsletter,

(Issue #45, He

Said/She Said--

The Next Genera-

tion) to familiar-

ize myself with

the format. Of course, I had to re

-read bits and piec-

es of the article. It brought back

such wonderful memories of Da-

vid's appearances at "The Lady

Luck", (now

"Isle Of Ca-

pri"), in Betten-

dorf, Iowa on

September 24-25, 1999. That

was then, this is

now.

Shane: I

couldn't agree

more. It has

been way too

long since

we've had a

chance to share

one of our ad-ventures with

our reading

public, but here we are...in full

force...and ready to go. I hope all

of you enjoy reading these stories

He Said/She Said, Part IX

"Will The Real All-Star Band Please Stand Up"?

a.k.a. "The Detour Tour"

By Bonnie Borgh (with a little help from her friends):

Cindy Bryant, Kimmi Janvrin and Shane WordenHe Said/She Said, Part

IX "Will The Real All-Star Band Please Stand Up"?

a.k.a. "The Detour Tour"

By Bonnie Borgh (with a little help from her friends):

Photo by Tom Litterio

Monkee Shines

26

Cindy: What’s that in the bread?

It’s gone to your head…

Bonnie: Or was that John, Paul,

George and Ringo? Imagine that! Wrong group. Shane was sched-

uled to arrive in the Quad Cities late

on Thursday, October 31. (I'm sor-

ry you had to miss the Halloween

parade and "trick or treats".) Cindy

and Kimmi planned to arrive in the

Quad Cities sometime Friday after-

noon.

Cindy: Yeah…planned…

Shane: I planned on coming down to the Quad Cities early for two

basic reasons. As those of you who

have read these stories before al-

ready know, I depend on that dar-

ling of public mass transit, the

Greyhound bus system, to get me to

the QC just about every time we do

a show. The major downside to

that is that I am unable to get into

town on the route that I have to take

until very late in the evening, and most times the bus is running be-

hind schedule on top of that. So, I

decided to come in the evening be-

fore everybody else did so that I

was already IN town when the rest

of the Gang came in; that way, we

would be able to spend a nice even-

ing together in it's entirety without

anybody having to worry about

picking me up at the bus station or

as much as we enjoy writing them.

Always keep in mind that the old

saying about the journey being the

reward absolutely applies here.

Now more than ever!

Cindy: It was great to have Bonnie

on the road with us once again! If

only Colleen had come along for

the ride …but she had other obliga-

tions. I hope you all enjoy reading

these as much as we do writing

them. We have found this is a great

way to preserve our memories, not

just of the shows but of the crazi-

ness that ensues when we are all

together. You’re right, Shane! It is not the destination but the journey

that matters.

Bonnie: Being the initial contribu-

tor documenting this adventure, I

am afforded the opportunity to re-

enact the events whilst my fellow

travel companions, (Cindy, Kimmi

and Shane), offer their two cents.

Perhaps as much fun as the actual

close encounter is the "before and after". For all impractical purposes,

the following accounts are recorded

as gospel according to Cindy, Kim-

mi, Shane and I (very sort of like

Matthew, Mark, Luke and John).

Shane: Always hoped that I'd be

an apostle; knew that I would make

it if I tried....

Monkee Shines

27

wondering how far behind my

schedule was keeping me this time.

Moreover, had I come down the

next evening, I would have only

really been able to spend little more than 24 hours with everyone before

we all went our separate ways again

on Sunday. I would have spent

more time on the road than I would

have spent actually hangin' out...at

least this way I felt like I was get-

ting more advantage of my time off.

By the way, it never bothered me a

bit to be traveling on Halloween.

The year before turned out to be a

total "trick-or-treat" bust at my

house, (I wonder if the fact that I live almost next-door to a funeral

home has anything to do with that),

Bonnie: Hannah is so intuitive,

Shane. You and Cindy have another

thing in common. She lives across

the street from a cemetery. You

both like quiet neighborhoods.

Shane: so I was happy to be doing

something that seemed more pro-ductive to me with the day. I got to

my hotel room at about 10 P.M. that

evening, quickly gave Cindy a call

and jotted down Bonnie's phone

number for in the morning, and

finding that the hotel restaurant had

already closed for the night, re-

signed myself to downing some

chips from the vending machine

and calling it a day.

Bonnie: Shane called me about

9:30 A.M. on Friday. My husband,

Craig, had to work, (poor guy), so just Hannah and I went to the

Radisson Hotel in Davenport to

pick him up. Being from Betten-

dorf, I am not accustomed to the

parking meters and garages, which

are commonplace in downtown

Davenport. Since half of the streets

in the downtown area were under

construction, finding an available

route to the Radisson was a bit frus-

trating.

Shane: Road rage is a PFG family

trait, ya know. Just ask Colleen!

(Missed ya this time, my darling!

Get a damn computer!) :-)

Cindy: Don’t go there, Shane!

Bonnie: I was overjoyed to find a

parking place so close to the hotel.

I specifically remember putting 40

cents in the meter before Hannah and I entered the hotel. Shane was

waiting for us, (bright eyed and

bushy tailed), in the lobby.

Shane: Suddenly, I feel the com-

pulsion to store away some acorns

or something....

Cindy: The nuts were gathering

Monkee Shines

28

fine (in) print. I looked up at the

police officer that had just placed it

there. She said, "I'm sorry, but

you're parked the wrong way on a

one way." I was dumfounded. (I know there's a comment coming

here.)

Shane: [looks around] Huh, wha?

You lookin' at me?

Bonnie: I said, "I had no idea! I

put money in the meter and every-

thing." She replied, "I know you

did. I checked that. Otherwise, I

would have to had given you a tick-

et for that, too." (Thank you for being so conscientious.) I apolo-

gized for my mistake and explained

that with all the streets under repair,

I was so happy to find a parking

place that I did not realize it was a

one-way street on which I had made

the illegal right-hand turn.

Shane: Hoo boy, you'd fit right in

with some Greyhound drivers I've

had.

Kimmi: Funny...I just got my very

first ticket that week as well! Well,

parking ticket that is.

Bonnie: (I honestly did not even

know then what street it was.) I

added that I had only parked there

for ten minutes while I went inside

the Radisson to pick up a friend.

themselves.

Bonnie: It had been the first week-

end in March (2002), (that's another

story!), since we had last seen him, (and Kimmi as well). After greet-

ings and salutations, (plus a quick

trip up and down the glass eleva-

tor)...

Shane: Well...children are so easi-

ly amused. Hannah enjoyed it, too.

Bonnie: ...the three of us returned

to my car to get Hannah's gloves.

We planned to walk to an undis-

closed destination, (Christmas is coming!), when I noticed something

unusual stuck behind the wind-

shield wipers on my car. It looked

like a ticket.

Shane: It sure did, didn't it?

Bonnie: I grabbed it off the wind-

shield and said to myself, "What

the..."

Shane: "razza, frazzin' bleepity

#@*$ing bleep is this?!" Made

Ozzy Osbourne look like an ama-

teur, did Bonnie.

Cindy: I, for one, am shocked!

Bonnie: Excuse me, Shane. I might

have thought that but I did not say

it. Little tots hear lots. As I read the

Monkee Shines

29

Shane: Sure! Go ahead and blame

it on me!

Kimmi: That's a given!!

Cindy: My thoughts exactly!

Bonnie: The officer was very un-

derstanding. However, she said

once the ticket is torn from the

book, it's too late. (Hey, how about

a little Scotch tape? Would you try

Elmer's glue? Duct tape?) She was

kind enough to write down her boss'

name and phone number for me to

call on Monday-Monday. I asked, "How much is this ticket?"

Shane: "How much ya got, sweet-

ie?"

Bonnie: She replied, "7A!" (I

mean seven dollars.) It was a crys-

tal clear, crisp fall morning, and I

had the distinct feeling that David

Jones was within a two-hour radius.

Call me a daydream believer. Ra-ther than walk to our next stop, I

decided that I had better relocate

my car to another parking place.

We found another parking space

close to the establishment. This

time, I paid particular attention to

park legally, and Shane fed the me-

ter. We found some deals in this

little out of the way place that no-

body goes.

Shane: I thank you, and my winter

reading list thanks you....

Bonnie: Then we were headed off to our next destination. Hannah

really wanted to go to "Rocket

Playground". Shane said it was

okay with him to stop for a while.

Its too bad Kimmi was not able to

join us. Her name was written all

over the playground equipment.

Kimmi: In red spray paint: KIM-

MAH!!

Cindy: The eternal child.

Shane: Yes it was! Apparently I

need to call her if I ever happen to

be looking for a "good time".

Kimmi: Dial 281-7668. Hey, ba-

by, I can't wait!!

Bonnie: Hannah enjoyed showing

"Uncle" Shane all of her play-

ground skills including the big slide and the roller slide. It was ap-

proaching the noon hour so we re-

assembled into the car. On the way

home, Hannah was on a "detour"

recording. Apparently she saw a

"Detour" sign and continued to

comment about "Detour" signs. A

few moments later, she said, "Mom,

what's a detour?" Earlier, Shane

had told me he was surprised to find

Monkee Shines

30

she was afraid to drive a long dis-

tance without first having it re-

paired. I offered to pick her up.

Another phone call later, she

agreed. Shane, Hannah and I ate grilled cheese sandwiches for lunch.

Shane said that he was "saving him-

self"...

Shane: ...and seriously, how many

times are you apt to hear a male say

that?!

Kimmi: I've yet to hear it!!

Cindy: Shane, there are only 4

words a male needs in his vocabu-lary….”Yes, dear!” and “I’m sor-

ry!”…”Saving myself” would have

to be explained and then they

wouldn’t get it…even David and

Davy ALWAYS gets it!."

Bonnie: ...for Lunardi's, (official

Italian restaurant of the PFG). Our

lunch discussion focused on Han-

nah informing Shane that he should

get married. When Shane asked Hannah whom he should marry,

Hannah replied, "Cindy!"

Shane: Well, it certainly would

take our, um, "relationship" to the

next level! I mean, I'm already the

official zombie, (special thanks to a

special group of fans out there--and

you KNOW who YOU are); just as

long as we stick to tradition and the

Cindy at home when he called her.

Poor dear had an acute case of

Jones' Fever.

Shane: I was surprised because when I had called Cindy the night

before, after I had gotten in at the

hotel, she had told me that she still

had planned to go in to work the

next morning. After I called Bon-

nie that morning, I figured that I

would call Cindy and leave a quick

message on her machine, just to be

goofy, (it comes naturally), and to

say that I was looking forward to

seeing her later that day. When

Cindy herself answered I thought that I must have called her on her

cell without knowing it and that I

had interrupted her at work. That

turned out not to be the case...we all

must take a sick day every now and

again!

Cindy: No fever. I had planned on

having some work done to my car

in the morning while I was at work.

It has had a gassy smell to it. My mechanic called me at the last mi-

nute that he couldn’t do it so I took

the day off to try to get it fixed by

someone else.

Bonnie: I thought I would call her

when we got home to see how she

was feeling. When I called, Cindy

said she was fine but her car was

not. Due to a fuel injection leak,

Monkee Shines

31

father of the bride foots the bill!

Bonnie: Do you think David would

sing at your wedding?

Shane: But talk about inbreed-

ing....Kimmi is already my "sister".

Would she have to call me "daddy"

then?

Cindy: You are already my son! I

think that would only be legal in

some southern states!

Kimmi: Great!! Where's my al-

lowance?!?! Fork it over, daddy!!

Bonnie: Shane was a good sport

about playing with Hannah while I

was making sandwiches and prepar-

ing to depart for Muscatine. (He

might want to tell about the

"Detour" game.)

Shane: Hannah was having a good

time showing me all of her toys and

books, but soon show and tell was

over and it was time for recess. We played a curious little game of "tag"

that consisted of Hannah chasing

me around in circles through the

downstairs of Bonnie's house. Af-

ter a few minutes of that, she

stopped me and said, "Now, let's

take the detour!” and preceded to

start running in the exact opposite

direction. Nothing gets past that

one!

Bonnie: At 1:30 P.M., (just as

"Passions" started), Shane, Hannah

and I headed for Muscatine to pick

up Cindy. Hannah took her after-noon nap in the car. It's too bad

that she's too little for Monkee busi-

ness. She is such a good traveler.

By 2:30 P.M., Cindy joined the

Gang, and we were on the road

again. Hannah remained a-snooze.

We had been waiting for this occa-

sion to get together for months. On

our return trip to the Quad Cities,

we collaborated our thoughts and

feelings. It had been a while since

we had seen each other and a lot had happened.

Shane: Something in your eyes

that just won't let me forget you,

something in your face that keeps

me hanging around you. Some-

thing got a hold on me the day that I

met you... Something's wrong with

me...

Bonnie: Who writes this stuff? Is anybody reading this?

Cindy: Correction….”with us!!!!”

Bonnie: As we approached the

Radisson, my curiosity mounted.

What exactly was the street I ille-

gally parked on? I gave Cindy a

synopsis of the sordid details and

said, "I parked right there." It was

Monkee Shines

32

been in the Midwest, I would have

remembered. However, there was

no sign of an automobile on the

street when I parked there.

Shane: excuses, excuses.

Bonnie: Fortunately, Shane had

the insight to ask Cindy (prior to

our arrival in Muscatine) to call the

Radisson to let Kimmi know why

nobody was hangin' round. Kimmi,

(Cindy's daughter according to the

Radisson), had just checked in.

Shane: not just according to the

Radisson!

Cindy: No, Kimmi has been my

daughter since day one! I always

picked up strays as a child and it

just carried over to Shane and Kim-

mi!

Kimmi: I

get my

dark hair

and beauti-ful smile

from her!!

Seriously,

no one

ever ques-

tions it.

Cindy: Funny I

get my

Brady Street. Brady Street!

Shane: And not even a Marsha,

Marsha, Marsha in sight!

Bonnie: Believe it or not, Shane, I

didn’t get this one! Marsha—as in

Marsha Brady! Cindy had to decode

for me!

Cindy: Now I am amazed!

BRADY STREET! It’s a main ar-

tery through Davenport and clearly

marked!!!! Everyone knows Brady

Street is a one way!!!! 4 lanes!

Bonnie: There was even a nice little one-way arrow pointing north.

(I went south.) North-South-East-

West! Everybody in the Quad Cit-

ies knows Brady Street, (i.e. BIX 7

road race), goes north up Brady

Street hill. I could hardly wait to

tell Craig

what I had

done. Had

there not

been road construc-

tion block-

ing 2/3 of

the street

or had cars

been com-

ing up the

hill or had

David

Jones not Kimmi & Shane

Photo by Cindy Bryant

Monkee Shines

33

dark hair from L’Oreal!

Bonnie: By 3:35 P.M., we were

enjoying the comforts of home in

Kimmi and Cindy's room. Hannah

remembered Kimmi. They jumped on the beds together in March of

2002. Of course, more goods from

the hoods were exchanged. We

decided to eat dinner at Lunardi's.

Craig met us at the room by 5:00

P.M. to join us. Cindy and Craig

had already vowed not to discuss

politics, and I was surprised our

yard signs remained in tact the

course of the weekend.

Cindy: I left my magic markers at home.

Bonnie: Lunardi's had wonderful

Italian cuisine as usual. After-

wards, Cindy, Kimmi and Shane

came to the house of Borgh to

watch Monkee video clips and eat

pumpkin ice cream.

Shane: It wasn't Whitey's ice

cream, but I suppose it was okay.

Bonnie: It was Edy’s Grand Pump-

kin ice cream. Two 1.75 quarts for

$5.00. It was a great bargain.

Kimmi: Yeah, it was all right. But

it was no Davy Jones!! Or some-

thing like that.

Cindy: Hey ice cream is ice cream

and so what if we aren’t worthy of

the best…. (Sniff)

Bonnie: These are a few of my

favorite things! It was great to see the clips when David guest starred

on Love American Style (1971-

1973) as well as David, Micky, and

Peter on the Sally Jessy Raphael

show in 1987.

Kimmi: Oh, wow! Love Ameri-

can Style was great! Davy is so

dreamy in those shows. *sigh*

Shane, Cindy, & Kimmi


Monkee Shines

34

Welk!

Bonnie: The Gang departed shortly

after 10:00 P.M. Tomorrow was

gonna be another day!

Shane: Departed, yes, but not quite

down and out for the day. We

stopped by the old "Lady Luck", the

"scene of the crime" of so many of

our past adventures, to help subsi-

dize the Iowa economy for a short

while. This time it was Kimmi who

came out ahead. I was just thankful

that I was able to walk away only

having lost 25 bucks; due in no

small part to a nickel machine I had found that kept me playing on just

10 dollars for a very long while.

Then it was back to the hotel for the

night, where Cindy and Kimmi

stayed up half the night talking and

decided it would be "fun" to call me

up in my room and scare the bejee-

zus out of me. Thankfully, I hadn't

gone to sleep just yet--I was up

reading for a little while. On long

bus trips, a book is something that you definitely don't want to leave

home without.

Kimmi: And after I had offered to

come "visit" him, he hung up on

me!! So I had to go to bed alone. I

said bed, not sleep! I hadn't talked

to my Mumsy in quite a while, so

talk I did!! Our tummies ached

from laughing so much. It took me

Shane: But for some reason known

only to Bonnie, we had to fast for-

ward through an old tape filled with

an old Lawrence Welk Christmas

special in order to find some of this

stuff. But that's great; I wanted to

be able to tell my friends back

home that I spent my vacation in

Iowa watching Lawrence Welk.

Bonnie: Okay, the secret is out. I like Sven Helstrom and the Swedish

Rhythm Kings, too.

Kimmi: Hee, hee. Lawrence

Welk.

Cindy: It was just part of the ambi-

ence of the evening…to put you in

the mood. No self respecting Iowa

family in the 60s missed Lawrence


Monkee Shines

35

forever to get her to shut up!

Cindy: Bonnie, next time you take

Kimmi and I will take Hannah.

Hannah can’t be any harder to put to bed. No caffeine after noon for

you next time, Kimmi! She was

bouncing off the walls. However, it

was entertaining…each story ended

with “I have more thing to say...” I

laughed till I cried and my sides

ached. When you only see each

other 3-4 times a year you have to

get a lot of catching up into a very

short period of time.

Bonnie: It was a typical Saturday morning. By 6:30 A.M. I was do-

ing my "Pool It" routine. (Some

people drink coffee in the morning.

I drink chlorine.) After swimming

my usual 45 minutes, 3/4 mile, or

54 laps (whichever comes first), I

returned home where Craig and

Hannah had prepared blueberry

pancakes with whipped cream for

breakfast. We followed the usual

Saturday morning schedule. By 10:30 A.M., I received a call from

Cindy. Kimmi was in pursuit of a

specific beauty product. After find-

ing it, Cindy said they would be

over to our house to pick me up.

Shane: I will never understand

this. I can pack for a weekend trip

in one large duffle bag. The rest

take suitcases and bags and U-Haul

trucks.

Bonnie: Girl Scout motto: Always Be Prepared!

Shane: And then they take every-

thing BUT the things they really

need. [Sigh] After a leisurely

breakfast, some being a bit more

"leisurely" than others [looking

casually in Kimmi's direction], we

went out to get Kimmi's damn make

up. But that's great; I wanted to be

able to tell my friends back home that I spent my vacation in Iowa

watching Lawrence Welk and look-

ing for make up.

Cindy: Shanie, if you are going to

hang with the girls you are going to

have to learn to shop! I notice that

Kevin and Craig don’t complain.

They know it won’t o any good and

they will pay later if they do!


Monkee Shines

36

Bonnie: We listened to a variety of Monkees/David Jones' CDs on our

trip to Peoria. We had the privilege

of riding in Kimmi's brand new car.

It has a great sound system, which

is certainly a pre-requisite in the

purchase of a new car. (I'd check

on that CD player though, Kimmi,

to find out why "Every Step Of The

Way" kept skipping and repeating.)

Shane: Here's a hint: it's the same reason why "When Love Comes

Knockin' At Your Door" does the

same thing. Over and over and

over and over and over...

Bonnie: Shane obviously hasn’t

heard David’s “David Jones” 1965

Colpix album in it’s entirety. Has

he Cindy?

Kimmi: I made it on time. I'm the

youngest. I'm entitled to slack off!

And, by the way, we did not find

my make up. I had to go without. Thank goodness I have Mumsy's

natural beauty!

Cindy: Especially when you keep

Mumsy up until 3AM! But it is true

“natural beauty” runs in the family!

HA!

Bonnie: Craig was going to enter-

tain Hannah for the day. The ticket

to the show was my birthday pre-

sent. Shortly after 12:00 P.M., the Gang arrived. Within a half hour

we were on the route to Peoria.via a

brief stop at K'Nees Florists,

(official florist of the PFG), to pick

up a dozen red roses. (Do you

know how hard it is to find purple

flowers?) Kimmi refueled at a local

Bettendorf gas station. Thanks

again for the water, Shane. It was

much appreciated later.

Shane: Why, certainly. If it were

only that easy to please people half

the time, I'd take stock in the Aqua

Fina Corporation!

Kimmi: Yeah. Thanks, Shanie!!

Cindy: That’s why we let you hang

with us, son!


Monkee Shines

37

Cindy: No, but I have...over and

over and over…. It could have been

worse…it could have been “Put Me

Amongst The Girls!” Obviously

Kimmi’s car has a very high tech CD player with extremely good

taste.

Kimmi: Why, whatever do you

mean, Shanie?! I think that it just

needed to be broken in a bit. Next

time, we'll bring "More Of The

Monkees" and see if it still does it. :

-D

Bonnie: By 2:30 P.M., we had

arrived in Peoria. We had no diffi-culty in finding the Peoria Civic

Center. Craig and I had actually

been there for a success seminar in

the spring of 1999, and Kimmi had

been there recently for another con-

cert. (We won't mention names!)

Shane: Hey Kimmi, I won't men-

tion your other musical interest, you

won't mention mine. Deal?

Kimmi: Deal!! Shanie, been to

Chicago lately? Oh, I saw a cool

saxophone at Reiman Music the

other day.

Cindy: Oh Kimmi! That was

“Poison”ous!

Bonnie: In an effort not to bother

David, we volunteered Kimmi to

deliver the bouquet of flowers dur-

ing the afternoon. Kimmi had made

an alliance with one of the employ-

ees during the summer concert. It

was good fortune/coincidence that their paths crossed again in that he

aided us in the delivery of the flow-

ers. He told her to return at 3:30

P.M. with the flowers to a specific

location in the building. No prob-

lem.

Shane: Kimmi was the exact right

person to choose for this job, and

not just because of her "contact".


Monkee Shines

38

(Shane, you shouldn't have been

turning around in your seat!), Kim-

mi once again attempted to deliver

the flowers. This time, the mission

was accomplished. You go girl!

Shane: Hey, it wasn't me that you

should have worried about, it's all

those other creepos hanging around

on the city streets.

I was just trying

to be protective!

(Besides, the per-

vert you know is

better than the

pervert you

don't.)

Cindy: You were

the creepo clos-

est! But you are

right; I will take

the known perv

any day.

Kimmi: First

brother, then dad-

dy. Talk about incest!! I guess if

I have to have a

pervert, I'm glad

that it's you, Sha-

nie! :-)

Cindy: ….not going there!

Bonnie: By 4:00 P.M., we con-

curred that it was time to eat, drink

Cindy and I have seen her work

miracles with our backstage deliv-

eries before. I can recall her deter-

mination with our gifts for David

back on our trip to the Murphy The-ater in Wilmington, Ohio so clearly.

There's just something about the

way she heads into that theater,

flowers in hand, a no B.S. look in

her eyes that says

she means busi-

ness. It would be

endearing if it

weren't so darn

scary!

Kimmi: Awe, shucks. Thanks.

Now don't piss

me off!!

Cindy: That’s

my girl!

Bonnie: We then

embarked to a

local store to

purchase some last-minute items.

It had been so

long since our

last Monkee out-

ing that I had totally forgotten to

bring Altoids, (official breath mint

of the PFG). Thanks, Cindy! I like

the cinnamon flavor. We returned

to the Civic Center, and after Kim-

mi's quick outdoor costume change,


Monkee Shines

39

and be merry. We found a Texas

Roadhouse restaurant to dine at. It

was a nice place, but you had to be

careful for the peanut shells on the

floor.

Shane: It's ambiance my dear, am-

biance! Kimmi, I still can't believe

that you had never tried a margarita,

(or should I

say marna-

grita), be-

fore! What

planet have

you been

living on?

Wait. Don't answer that.

Kimmi:

The planet

Head!

Guess

what?! I had

my first shot

of tequila

last weekend.

YUMMY!!

Bonnie: (It should be noted that as

I was writing this story, Craig was

flipping television channels and

happened upon David's Time Life

infomercial.) We wondered if we

could bring in some of David Jones'

CDs to replace the continual coun-

try music.

Shane: Everybody sing

along...You...Don't...Have to be a

country boy to sing a country song,

you don't need a rhinestone cowboy

outfit to feel like you belong....

Bonnie: You don’t have to look

like Elvis or wear a cowboy

hat….♫ Exactly!

Kimmi:

Eh?

Cindy: Poor Kim-

mi! A day

late and a dollar short!

Shane:

She's still

got a lot to

learn yet,

doesn't she

Cindy?

Bonnie:

The food was very good, and Cindy found a

waiter of particular interest. I

thought that he was a cross between

a younger version of Peter Tork and

a current version of Luke Perry. I

saw those dimples on his face and

the subsequent stars in Cindy's

eyes. (Speaking of Luke Perry, I

myself am deeply jealous, Kimmi.)

Photo by Shane Worden

Monkee Shines

40

of the restaurant, Shane?

Cindy: Are you whining again!

Oh, I would like to add that while

we were there I was able to find a

sports fan who informed us that Iowa had beaten Wisconsin that

afternoon (since I wasn’t allowed to

listen to the game in the car!) and

Shane is a cheesehead! Ha ha!

Bonnie: After dinner and a private

costume change in the ladies' room,

we were ready for the long antici-

pated show. Hurry Up Slow Down.

We were comin' to see you for

some time. We had a little time for

sightseeing in downtown Peoria prior to the concert. Kimmi thought

that a trip across the lighted bridge

would be nice. Not uncommon to

most Monkee-related adventures,

we found ourselves in places we

had no business being in,

(sidewalks included). If you ever

need to know where the limousine

service is located in Peoria, ask us.

Cindy: Better yet…don’t ask!

Shane: Or the local church, or the

neighborhood Hooters, or how to

get to the neighborhood Hooters

from the local church. It was just a

little detour.

Kimmi: I'm carrying on the family

business: Bryant Budget Tours.

Cindy: Anyone for dessert?

Kimmi: I just got those pictures

back! Mmmmmmm!! It's always

important to have jealous friends.

Right, Mumsy? And shut up, Sha-

nie!!

Shane: ZZZZzzzzzzz. [snore]

Oh, huh?! Somebody talking to me? But this was great. Really. I

wanted to be able to tell my friends

back home that I spent my vacation

in Iowa watching Lawrence Welk,

looking for make up, and watching

my cohorts oogle waiters. And not

even OUR waiter.

Bonnie: Don’t you know the grass

is always greener on the other side


Monkee Shines

41

Cindy: What’s a road trip without

a few tours of parking lots …

intentional or otherwise. On the

Deluxe tours there is even a swim-

ming pool or two!

Bonnie: We gathered up all of our

paraphernalia, (cameras, memora-

bilia...

Shane: ...parking tickets....

Kimmi: ...make up...

Cindy: …roses…

Bonnie: ...whatever), and repeated-ly asked Shane if he had the tickets

as we entered the Civic Center.

Shane: Tickets? We don't need no

steeeenking tickets! I did think

about leaving one or two of them

behind, but since everybody

(finally) paid the piper, ahem, I

decided to be nice and bring them.

This time.

Bonnie: I paid ASAP. My check

was in the mail.

Cindy: Next time in pennies!

Kimmi: I paid right away this

time!! WHEE!!!!

Bonnie: By 7:00 P.M. we were

allowed into the theater area. We

found a round table (for discus-

sion). We perused the merchandise

table, which was a great place for

gift shopping. Our adrenaline grew

as the bewitching hour approached.

We secured our seats at stage left,

row two. Thank you again, Shane,

for going online to purchase the

tickets. They were absolutely per-

fect seats.

Shane: Don't mention it.

Well...okay, okay...you can mention

it.

Kimmi: Thanks.

Cindy: Not bad but there was one

row ahead of us…so there is room

for improvement!


Monkee Shines

42

I have seen Governor/President

Elect/President Bush more in the

last two years than I have seen Da-

vid Jones. What is wrong with that

picture?)

Shane: Do you really want an an-

swer to that question?

Cindy: Don’t ask if you don’t want

to know….

Bonnie: My dear political and

Monkees' friend, Diane Klosak, and

I had second-row vantage points to

Bonnie: Before the show, I had an

opportunity to meet Janet Litterio,

(one of the Forgotten Fifty). It was

nice to meet someone I had heard

so much about.

Shane: We also had the opportuni-

ty to meet Jan Beaudrie, who flew

in all the way from the East coast to

be at the show, for the first time as

well. "Jan B" was also a member of

last winter's "forgotten fifty". Be-

sides contributing stories and pic-

tures for the newsletter, Jan has

been a great online friend, and Cin-

dy and I particularly have enjoyed

chatting with her and taking part in those goofy email marathon ses-

sions that we tend to get into online

every now and again. It was great

to meet you in person, Jan! We

also spotted the great ladies of Her-

cules Promotions selling merchan-

dise, as well as Mike Bush, photog-

rapher extraordinaire. All of them

are always a pleasure to talk to.

Cindy: It was great to connect with a lot of friends, old and new, this

time.

Bonnie: I was anxious to use my

newly repaired camera. Believe it

or not, I had taken my Minolta with

me on September 16th to photo-

graph President Bush when he was

in the Quad Cities. (It should also

be noted that for anyone who cares,


Monkee Shines

43

the podium to see the President.

Unfortunately, my camera died on

the spot. At first I thought that it

was a case of dead batteries. A

couple weeks later, I realized it was

more serious than that. I took my camera in to the Camera Corner on

October 2nd. By October 29th, it

had been returned to the camera

store from the company, (wherever

that was), with a $128 repaired

shutter magnet. Understandably, all

those years of Monkee photography

wore out the mechanisms. To make

a long story short...

Shane: too late

Cindy: Way too late….

Kimmi: [LOL]

Bonnie: ...I was prepared with 800

speed film, batteries, and the Minol-

ta camera to capture the moments

that pass too quickly. According to

tradition, at 8:00 P.M. on Saturday,

November 2nd, the "Big Oldies

93.3 All-Star Band" assembled and

performed the National Anthem

with the audience. It was very pat-

riotic, but I could not help from

thinking, "Let's play ball!" The "All-Star Band" performed several

songs including "Mr. Tambourine

Man". Again, my thoughts wan-

dered. "Hey, Mr. Tambourine Man,

play a song for me." Where was

our favorite tambourine player of

all time?

Shane: I won't delve too far into

the other acts, (as this IS a Monkees

fan club after all), but the other per-formers are at least worth a note.

The "all-stars" were basically a

bunch of on-air personalities of, or

people who work for, the radio sta-

tion that sponsored that night's con-

cert. For who they were and what

they were, the band wasn't all that

bad. A good opener for the

evening's proceedings.


Monkee Shines

44

Bonnie: To further escalate our

antici...

Shane: Say it!

Cindy: Too nice a job to rush!

Bonnie: ...pation of the real "All-

Star Band", Felix Cavaliere's Ras-

cals took command of the stage

beginning at 8:25 P.M.

Shane: Felix, Felix, Felix.... what

happened to you? He looks like my

dentist!

Bonnie: Well he did have nice teeth.

Cindy: But were they his?

Shane: Don't get me wrong, his

vocals were great, his organ playing

absolutely killer, (and I do love that

Hammond organ in rock and roll

music...almost as much as I like a

killer horn section), but the years

have just not been kind to him. He spent a good amount of time hiding

behind his B-3 too,

Bonnie: B-52? Isn’t that another

group?

Shane: Which was probably just as

well. In some respects, he's almost

the exact opposite of David when it

comes to his stage show. Felix

stood in one spot almost the whole

time, didn't talk with the audience a

great deal, and consequently really

didn't establish much of a bond with

the crowd. David, on the other hand...well, read on. It is some-

where in between these two individ-

uals where the line of "musician" is

crossed and the status of

"entertainer" is attained.

Bonnie: They performed "I've

Been Lonely Too Long", "Wait 'Til

The Midnight Hour", "A Beautiful

Morning", "Groovin'", "Just My

Imagination", "People Got To Be

Free", "Good Lovin'", "La Bamba", "Hey Bo Diddley" and "Purple

Haze". Cindy corrected me.

Shane: She's pretty good at that.

Cindy: Thank you very much!

Bonnie: She said it was "Foxy

Lady". In any event, during the

Jimi Hendrix interpretation, Kimmi

and Cindy started to chant, "We want Davy! We want Davy!" It

was very funny amongst the four of

us but perhaps not graciously un-

derstood or received by any of the

Felix cats. It's too bad that David

wasn't hangin' 'round. He would

have got it; Davy always gets it.

Shane: Well, if I recall correctly, I

believe the whole Jimi Hendrix bit

Monkee Shines

45

was a part of an entire medley that

Felix used to close his part of the

show with, culminating in a final

verse of "Good Lovin'". "Purple

Haze" was definitely a part of that medley. The opening riff to that

song is unmistakable. So much so

that when it started, Cindy, Kimmi

and I used that opportunity to pull

the old "We Want Davy" gag that

Micky uses in his concerts when he

talks about Hendrix opening for the

Monkees on the 1967 tour and

launches into the first verse of the

song. That's what that whole little

episode stemmed from, Bonnie.

Cindy: Well they started with

“Purple Haze” but finished with

“Foxy Lady” but it really doesn’t

matter because it had the same ef-

fect!

Bonnie: At approximately 9:35

P.M., the real "All-Star Band" was

individually introduced and as-

sumed their stage positions. It real-

ly spotlighted each band member and further mounted the anticipa-

tion of whom the majority of us

came to see. Although, I learned on

this "detour" that Shane has a real

appreciation for Aviva Maloney

and Kimmi has a fond attraction to

Dave Robicheau.

Kimmi: (I'm blushing!) I really

hope that none of them read this!

Robey, it's just a crush! Davy, you

still da man!!

Shane: Hey, if you girls can drool

over David, I can have somebody to drool over, too.

Bonnie: Drooling is a science we

are perfecting for our twilight years.

Shane: And I can still recall that

episode on the Ohio trip where

Kimmi hit that invisible brick wall

as she was running down the street

toward the theater and spotted Rob-

ey.

Kimmi: It's not my fault that those

damn things just pop up out of no-

where!

Cindy: So we saw!

Shane: The band introductions at

the beginning of the show were

something new that I had not seen

before. Dave Alexander came out

first, introduced himself, and started playing a little up-tempo jive on his

keyboards, and then the rest of the

members came out one by one,

(which, by the way, this time in-

cluded the infamous "brass dancers"

from the Monkee reunion tours of

the past few years), introduced

themselves, and joined in the tune

until everyone was out. I particu-

larly liked Aviva's introduction; she

Monkee Shines

46

said something to the effect of, "Hi,

how are y'all doing out there? I'm

Aviva Maloney, and I play a little

bit of everything.

GRRRrrrrrrrrrr......

Bonnie: I know that Cindy missed

the banjo player in the group, but I

was there to see David! (I know

that I'll pay for those comments

later.)

Shane: and this time, seven dollars

won't cover it!

Cindy: But a banjo adds so much to

a pop concert don’cha think? Not to mention the player.

Bonnie: Following the introduc-

tion of introductions, an incredible

smile graced David's face as he

appeared on stage carrying our red

roses. Collectively, we were

pleased David had received our

expression of thoughts and humbled

he had chose to bring them on stage

with him. David wore a navy (I thought that it was gray until I saw

my pictures) pinstriped "wedding"

suit with a yellow shirt and (I be-

lieve race horse patterned) necktie.

It seems that David meant business,

baby. David began his show with

"A Little Bit Me, A Little Bit You",

"She Hangs Out", and "Look Out

(Here Comes Tomorrow)". Then,

unique to his performance routine,

David pulled up a speaker and sat

down. Cindy and I had not seen

David since June 17th, 2001. Inter-

estingly, David began, "It's been a

while since I've seen some of you and a lot has happened". He talked

about delivering his new grandson.

He also spoke about his career in

"show biz" and reiterated, "Show

biz is my life". I think that I have

heard those words before in a Betty

Davis movie. He continued with an

"Oliver!" medley including "I'd Do

Anything For You", then he sang "I

Wanna Be Free" and "I'll Love You

Forever". He talked about his

horse, T Jones, with great pride and indicated that the horse would be

competing at Churchill Downs on

November 10th. Dave Alexander

was then invited to do his Meatloaf

impression, and Dave and Sandy

Genarro did their "All In The Fami-

ly"/Edith and Archie Bunker imper-

sonations. They are very talented

with their act. David continued

with a sing-along of the "Brady

Bunch" theme, "Girl", "Is You Is Or Is You Ain't My Baby?", "(I'm Not

Your) Steppin' Stone", "Daydream

Believer", "Listen To The Band",

and finally "I'm A Believer".

Shane: I don't think that I am tell-

ing tales out of school when I say

that one can really tell when David

is into his performance; when he is

having a good time, and when he is

Monkee Shines

47

not. A good indicator of that is how

much he talks to the audience dur-

ing the show. David is a great story

teller--he loves to talk about his

career in show biz, his family, his horses, and everything in between;

when you get him going on a good

night he's apt not to stop. This was

one of those fortunate nights. He

even told a lot of new jokes during

the show that I had not heard before

in his routine.

Bonnie: Pardon me, Shane. The

adjective “new” is subbjective.

Cindy: Kind of like “radius.”

Bonnie: But David’s jokes are still

infectiously funny.

Shane: Usually, while David is

talking or singing, he is all over the

stage, and it's hard to keep him in

focus on a camera for more than

three seconds at a time. This night

however, David did something a

little different in that, as Bonnie mentioned, he sat down on a moni-

tor at the edge of the stage a couple

different times and just talked with

the audience. It really gave his

show an intimate feel that I really

enjoyed. Over the years, I have

heard and read so much about these

"Learning Annex" seminars that

David has given from time to time.

I kind of imagined that this was a

little bit of what those "lectures"

were like this evening. Unfortu-

nately, however, there's always one

in every crowd that tries to spoil the

time for everyone else. Some lady in the audience yelled out and inter-

rupted David's story about finding

some old records of his mother's

that he typically uses to introduce

"Is You Is Or Is You Ain't My Ba-

by". David just took it in stride,

and in fact, did a little tap-dance

routine while setting up the first

verse of the song just to "tempt"

this little honey's patience a bit fur-

ther. It was a great show, and as

always the time just passed way too quickly.

Cindy: I was certainly surprised

when he pulled up the monitor. This

is more what the “Intimate” shows

are like but I have never seen him

do this at any show but those. It was

very nice and had it not been for the

rude woman in the audience I think

he would have gone on for some

time. I remember the first Lady Luck Show where he got off on a

tangent and talked for some time.

He didn’t sit down but rather paced

rapidly while he talked. Even the

band seemed a bit surprised by it

and Wayne trying to be funny final-

ly went and got a stool to sit on, as

he was tired of standing. This

cracked the audience up and got

David back on track that time.

Monkee Shines

48

took a few extra minutes. Humor-

ously, David kidded to the line of

fans, "Go ahead and talk amongst

yourselves", and indicated that it

would just be a few more minutes. A few moments later, another wom-

an had left her purse in front of him.

Akin to an airport security man,

David carefully picked up the purse

and moved it along. He's a fun one

to watch on and off the stage. Kim-

mi and Shane made up the caboose

of the line. They had items they

wanted David to autograph. They

spoke briefly with him.

Cindy: I have always enjoyed just sitting and watching David interact

with the people in line. Even then

he was on and definitely putting on

a show.

Shane: I had been saving a little

something special for the next op-

portunity that I had to get David to

autograph something. A few

months ago, I happened to score a

radio station airplay copy of the "Rock And Roll At The Movies"

radio program that David hosted a

few years ago on Ebay. It didn't

cost me that much either, probably

no more than 25 dollars. But it's

this kind of stuff that I enjoy col-

lecting the most--not necessarily

because of it's collector's value or

high price tag, but because it's a

little unique, and probably some-

Kimmi: Davy rocked!! I think that

covers it for me. Oh, and Robey is

still hot. Oh, yeah. And Loafy is

still the coolest guy ever. Hmmmm...I think that covers it.

Bonnie: After the show, David

greeted each and every individual

and signed autographs, posed for

pictures, etc. Always the entertain-

er, David accommodated requests

and at the same time performed for

those who had waited in line. One

man had tried to take a picture of a

woman with David. Unfortunately,

the camera did not cooperate. It


Monkee Shines

49

thing that I figured David had not

seen too many times in an auto-

graph line before then. And I was

right, too...we had a pleasant dis-

cussion about that show, and the fact that David had just gotten a

phone call from the show's produc-

er. David wondered aloud what he

might have been calling about.

Perhaps they want him to host an-

other show??? It was a pleasure to

be able to speak with Mr. Jones, as

usual. He was very talkative and

receptive to everybody in line, and

nobody went away disappointed.

Bonnie: I thought that a picture of them with David might be a nice

"souvenir". Shane said, "Bonnie

wants a picture". Kimmi and Shane

quickly posed with David. (See

photo.) David is amazingly kind to

pose for pictures over and over and

over again. (His eyes are probably

blind by the millions of flashes

thanks to all of us.) I mouthed a

"thank you" and that was that. I

retired my camera after a long day. We finally found Kimmi's car after

being disoriented as to our wherea-

bouts in relationship to the car.

Actually, we just wanted a last-

minute "detour" of the Civic Center.

By 12:30 A.M., we were in the car

and headed back to the Quad Cities.

We stopped at a rest area before we

arrived back home about 2:15 A.M.

This time, most of the lights were

turned off and all was quiet in the

Borgh house. I found Hannah

asleep on the sofa. (The family

room light was on, but the T.V. was off.) I picked up Hannah and said,

"It's time for bed, honey." She

wrapped her arms around my neck

and said, "Mama!" I carried her

upstairs and put her to bed in her

room. After such a wonderful day,

it was "pillow time" again.

Shane: There is precious little left

in this tale to tell. After dropping

Phone by Shane Worden

Monkee Shines

50

Bonnie back off at her house in

Bettendorf, the remaining three of

us retired back at the hotel after

what had been an exciting and ful-

filling day. Sunday morning found Cindy and myself up and at 'em

relatively early, as I needed to catch

the first available bus back to Chi-

cago in order to hopefully make a

rather "iffy" connection to the only

bus going back here to Oshkosh in

time. Cindy and I had a little quick

breakfast in the hotel restaurant,

rousted Kimmi, got the car packed,

and then the two of them dropped

me off at the bus terminal so that

Cindy and Kimmi could head back

to their respective homes. My trip

home couldn't have gone better if I

had written it myself; the bus I needed showed up right on time, I

made my connection going home,

and what's even better, I didn't for-

get and leave my dirty laundry be-

hind at the hotel this time,

Bonnie: Cindy and I had a little

dirty laundry, too, but “It’s Not Too

Late” for it all to come out in the

wash.

Shane: (as I had when the Gang got together back in March on what

would have been the "Intimate

Evening" concert weekend). As

Cindy said when I called her on my

cell phone in between busses in

Chicago, this weekend was just

meant to be. Everything went well,

we saw a great show, spent some

time with great friends--who could

ask for more? Here's typically

where I run the closing credits, but have heart, I'll be brief. Many

thanks go out to all the people, new

and old acquaintances and friends

alike, that we met in Peoria--Jan B,

Janet Litterio, the Hercules gals,

Mike Bush; to my dear friends Cin-

dy, Bonnie, Kimmi, Hannah, (and

Craig, too), and the erstwhile Col-

leen, (who was with us in spirit),

who make these get togethers so


Monkee Shines

51

much fun, and of course to David

and his band of "mixed nuts" who

provide the soundtrack and the rea-

son for it all. Peace and love to you

all, and I hope it's not long before our next adventure!

Kimmi: Ditto!! Oh, and Davy

rocked!! Hold on. I feel like I

haven't said much. Hmmm....this

trip seemed to be better than any of

the others. As we go along, each

road trip has been fun for it's own

special reasons, but this one was

different. Aunt Bonnie finally got

to go with us for once. And it's

always wonderful to spend time as a "family" with Mumsy, Shanie,

Aunt Bonnie and Hannah. Sharing

a room with Mumsy and having

someone to torture, (don't you miss

me?!), beating up Shanie and break-

ing the rules with Hannah! And

shopping with Aunt Bonnie. When

I'm an old lady, sitting on the porch

in my rocking chair, missing the

"good old days", you guys will be

my happy thoughts! I love you guys! Okay, that's enough. Oh,

and Davy rocks!

Cindy: Another night in the hotel

with Kimmi! I seriously considered

binding and gagging her and around

3 AM feigned sleep so that she

would shut up! How much fun can

one group take in one short week-

end? It really is true that it is the

journey, not the destination, that

matters in life and I am blessed that

these friends have chosen to take

their journey with me. There are no

people I would rather travel through

life with. I love you all! So another journey comes to an end and we

anticipate the next time we will all

be together again!

Bonnie: Just for the record, I man-

aged (by the grace of God) to talk

myself out of the $7.00 parking

ticket. I can just see Ken Wil-

kinson’s face.

Cindy: It goes without saying that

we say thanks to everyone we met or reunited with during this trip. But

we thank David especially. He is

the glue that holds us all together.

He is the destination that takes us

on this journey together. He has

given us so many opportunities to

make magic memories…. just you

and I.

Until next time…

The End ????????

Cindy: One last note. As we were

putting this together it was an-

nounced in the paper that The Law-rence Welk Show was coming to

the QC on Shane’s birthday! Too

funny!

Monkee Shines

52

Back in June, even before going to

The Monkee’s concert in Aurora,

IL, I saw a show listed that would

put stars in the eyes of David’s fans

everywhere…a David solo in Peo-ria, IL on Nov. 2. I don’t mean to

take anything away from the Mon-

kee concerts, those shows are awe-

some and then some, but a ‘Davy’

solo is just what we had all been

waiting for. This show was going

to be special for my friends, hubby

Tom, and I—not only would it be a

Davy solo, but it would be our first

‘road trip.’ We made the plans,

ordered the tickets, and finally it

was time to hit the road!

Various groups of friends have

joined Tom and I the last year

and a half at Monkee concerts in the Chicagoland area. Luck has

been with us this year in that

each concert we attended, through mere coincidence, or

possibly a bit of that ‘Monkee

Magic’ we were able to cross

paths and chat with David. When you read the articles that

are written about celebrities, you

always wonder if they are truly anything like the adjectives that

are used to describe them. From

my experience, David Jones is truly the kind and warm-hearted

man I’ve heard him to be. I’m a

first-generation Monkees fan—

since I was 10 in 1966. I think it’s pretty obvious who my fa-

vorite member of “The Mon-

kees” always was and will con-tinue to be.

Ok, back to Peoria. We all

What A Night! By Janet Litterio


Monkee Shines

53

hoped our good luck and timing would follow us ‘downstate.’ I

should have known, as we em-

barked on our road trip, the first

song I hear on the car radio was ‘Daydream Believer.’ We

hoped we would end up in the

same hotel as David. Checking in, I asked very meekly and qui-

etly if Mr. Jones was staying

here. In order to provide privacy to the entertainers, this was all I

was told—yes. Walking to the

elevator with Tom and my

friend, a man taps me on the shoulder, points to the album

cover I was carrying—one of

David’s early albums- and tells me a number. At first, I didn’t

know what he was talking about,

but when he pointed to David’s picture on the album, then it

clicked. I had absolutely no

intention of invading David’s

privacy. However, I was astounded this angel of a man

decided to share that information

with me—no idea why he decid-ed to share—I wasn’t question-

ing a gift horse. By the way,

this man had no connection with

the hotel—I still have no idea who he is.

I brought a ‘care package’ for David that contained candy and

tea intending to give it to him at

the show. When we found out

we were all under the same roof, we thought he may enjoy a little

‘pre-show energy’ and left it for

him. Other friends arrived, we made dinner plans, and before

long, it was showtime!! Oh yes,

due to a mix up in room reserva-tions, upon changing rooms, I

saw my ‘care package’ outside a

door that was a few doors down

from ours. Could we really be THAT lucky?

Waiting for the theater doors to open, I finally got the opportuni-

ty to meet not only Cindy and

Bonnie, but also Kimmi and Shane. It was great to meet peo-

ple whose pictures I had seen. I

had spoken with Cindy on the

phone earlier in the year, and of course, exchange emails with

her, it seemed for a while that

our paths would never cross, but given time, all good things do

eventually happen. Of course, I

bought some of David’s mer-

chandise, and was glad to see Susan and meet Sherill. Debbie,

I’m still in hopes our paths will

Monkee Shines

54

eventually cross.

Finally, it’s the moment we’ve

all been waiting for. The band

members are introduced individ-ually and David takes the stage

last, but certainly not least. I

don’t know what struck me more, him coming out in suit

carrying the beautiful bouquet of

red roses, or his million-dollar smile. I think it was the ‘whole

package.’ As the show pro-

gressed, I think it was truly a

toss up of who was being enter-tained by whom. David seemed

to be as entertained by it all as

much as he was entertaining us. His talent and energy on stage is

beyond amazing. His ability to

entertain is truly a gift that he has been given, and I for one am

thankful that he continues to

share his gifts and talents with

all of us. Sitting on the speakers and talking with the audience

made each fan feel as though he

was talking to us as friends. And the passion in which he sings ‘I

Wanna be Free’ and ‘I’ll Love

You Forever’ certainly brought a

tear or two to many eyes. There is no doubt in my mind that eve-

ryone--from David right on

down to the last fan in the ven-

ue—were thoroughly entertained that evening. It was an event,

rather than simply a concert.

There are not adequate adjec-

tives in the English language to accurately describe David’s

show. You must see it for your-

self!

Then there was the autograph

session. The support the fans

showed David must have put

him on cloud 9. As thrilled as each fan was talking with him,

that’s as happy he seemed to be

talking with everyone. He graciously signed a few pic-

tures for me, as well as the al-

bum cover. I had to ask him, he did get my ‘care package’ and

even told me he had a cup of the

tea right away. I was thrilled to

have yet another ‘photo op.’ It was fun for me to see my

friends talk with him. My

friends stayed and we chatted for quite a while. I don’t think

anyone wanted to see the even-

ing end. Some of the band

members came over and talked with us. They

seemed to enjoy chatting with

fans. Everything just seemed so

Monkee Shines

55

relaxed, much different than the

Monkee shows. As all good things must come to an end, this

evening did too. We headed

back to the hotel.

We waited for friends to join us

in our room; we did see and

speak briefly to David in the hallway. We kept in very brief;

as I did not want him to think we

were being intrusive. My

friends, Tom, and I decided to take a stroll outside—we were-

n’t out very long as it was cold.

Walking back inside, I noticed

my friends and Tom started act-ing a bit strange-they were all

talking to each other, but in very

low tones. I’m much shorter

than they are, they were all talk-ing ‘above’ me, so I had no idea

what was going on. We walked

past a small group of people, sat down, and got settled. As we

were sitting there, I noticed a

few familiar faces across from where were sitting. Several

minutes later, I heard a voice

from that group and instantly I

knew who else was sitting there. Sure enough, looking closer,

David was sitting amidst the

group. This was the reason for the ‘low talking’ a bit earlier

between my friends and Tom—

they saw David - I didn’t. As hard as it was not to go over and

say something to him, I felt that

respecting his privacy was more

important. We all relaxed a bit and called it a night, and Oh

What A Night!

The next morning at breakfast, I

was certain the ‘magic’ of Satur-

day would be long gone, but

never forgotten. Walking into the hotel coffee shop, we passed

a small group of men-familiar

faces we saw the evening before.


Monkee Shines

56

breakfast and are seated close to us. Several minutes pass, and

out of the corner of my eye, I

see someone walk into the cof-

fee shop. THIS time, I see it’s David. He joins his band mates-

he just happened to sit facing out

table. Still feeling respecting his privacy was the right thing to

do, as much as I wanted to go

over and say something to him or perhaps invite him to join us,

I settled for smiling and ac-

knowledging him when he

glanced our way. It was kind of nice to see that he was able to

have a peaceful cup of tea with

his friends, and not be hounded by fans.

We all were kind of sad to see him get up and leave, but we

carry great memories of our first

‘road trip.’ It truly was more of

an event than just a simple con-cert. Not that there’s anything

simple about David’s concerts—

quite the opposite is true! And, given the fact that our paths

crossed –rather coincidentally-

as much as they did, was rather

exciting, perhaps we again expe-rienced a bit of that ‘Monkee

Magic.’ We probably were

much more subdued when our

Greetings were exchanged be-tween us and each member of

the group-or so I thought. They

were standing near the entrance

to the coffee shop. Waiting to be seated, I hear a recognizable

voice coming from that small

group. I thought I must be mis-taken, but upon glancing over,

only then did I see David stand-

ing amongst them. For someone like me who has been such a fan

of his for such a long time, how

could this happen to me twice

now—being right there, but not seeing him? Believe me, I have

every intention of scheduling an

eye exam before the next con-cert-- there won’t be a third

time. Aside from the fact that

David is who he is, I felt just terrible that words were ex-

changed between everyone else

but him and myself. Especially

since HE was the reason we were there. Not wanting to look

more foolish, carrying on nor-

mally seemed the prudent thing to do—hard as that decision

was.

We get seated, and I’m still feel-ing like the rudest person on the

face of the earth. A couple of the

band members come in for

Monkee Shines

57

paths did cross than a lot of fans would have been, but that didn’t

at all mean we didn’t want to

have the chance to talk with Da-

vid. Rather, we wanted to be fans that didn’t want to be in his

face every time he or we turned

the corner—we truly wanted to respect the privacy of a man that

happens to be a very talented

entertainer, our favorite enter-

tainer. David, there’s no doubt in my mind that should you de-

cide to do more of your solo

shows, your fans would love and

support you wherever your per-form….but hopefully, you’ll

choose to come back to the Mid-

west SOON!!!!!

Janet Litterio with David in Peoria photo by Tom Litterio

Monkee Shines

58

(Sung to the tune of “Band On The Run” Looking for adventure

Found it on a detour Hoped to see a Monkee—once again Like you, David You, Micky, You (Peter), you (Michael) If that limo is ever caught We just wanna see who’s inside

All for the thrill of the hunt Oh what a spontaneous ride If we ever catch up to them If we ever catch up to them. Well our driver swerved across the sidewalk curb The chase is just begun

And the first one said to the four of us there I hope you’re having fun Fans on the run, fans on the run. And the Robie fan And Aviva man

We’re driving here and there Crazy fans on the run, fans for the run Fans on the run, fans on the run. Well our patience now was at it’s height

We had to stop for a red light And the limo headed way down the street Almost out of our sight Fans on the run, fans on the run Oh the British fan And Peter Pan Were driving everywhere

We’re fans on the run, fans on the run Yeah fans on the run, fans on the run. Fans on the run Well the show was nearing And the search had led us far All over Peoria, past a church

Straight to a Hooter’s bar Fans on the run, fans on the run And now David knows We’re fans like those Who’ll search forever more ‘Cause we’re fans on the run, fans on the run, fans on the run, fans on the run.

♫ Fans On

The Run ♫

(Who wrotes this stuff?)

Some of you will recall the lyrics to the hit song “Band On The Run” by Paul McCartney. (Imagine that, wrong group!) With absolutely no offense or disre-spect to Paul McCartney and Wings, we’ve plagerized (In the nicest possible way and in the PFG sense of humor) to reflect:

Monkee Shines

59

“Saved By The Blues” By

Shoe Suede Blues is a masterpiece

of blues perfection.

The song “Saved By The

Blues” is what you could consider a combination of gospel revival song

and ballad. Peter does excellent

vocals with excited enthusiasm.

“Cab Driver” is a typical

blues song done to perfection.

“Help me” sung by Peter is

a great story blues song where Peter

begs for some female help.

“Hound Dog” - this is Elv-

is hep and sassy blues styled.

“Route 66” is a hep ver-

sion of the TV show theme and done so well.

“Kiss and Tell” is a slow

sultry pleading song with excellent

whiney guitar.

“Dress Sexy For Me” - no

doubts how Peter wants his woman

to be here.

“Treat Her Right” - that

oldie but goodie done blues style

the way Peter does best.

“Big Boss Man” - that 70s

song done blues style with harmon-

ic perfection.

“Slender Tender and Tall”

- that hep 40s song with a touch of

blues beat and Peter “Monkees” around doing Louis Armstrong.

“Wine - Texas BBQ” -

very hep dance song “Spoatie Oat-

ie.” “Come On In My Kitchen” -

slow sultry blues in bar type harmo-

ny.

Thanks Julie! Would you like to

review something any of the guys

have done? We’d love to hear your

opinions! Send us your review and

you could be our next guest review-er!

Review:

Saved By The

Blues By Julie Harris

Monkee Shines

60

A Blast From The Past

Burlington Steamboat Days 1986

Issue 54

Documents

Transcript of Issue 54