Were The Monkees really a band?

[jimmyn321]

I say they were but some say they were just a publicity stunt but tell me what do you think?

 

[pooldude]

While the Monkees insisted on playing on later albums (which didn't really sell)...all the original hit songs were written by professional songwriters & just about all the instrumental tracks were recorded by hot-shot studio players.

http://www.classicbands.com/monkees.html

The Monkees were a TV PR stunt sold to younger kids who missed out on the Beatles, & were pretty much picked up by teeny-boppers in the U.S. who outgrew Herman's Hermits.

Tork & Nesmith really could play, & Jones & Dolenz had OK voices...but they were never a live band that played gigs prior to all their songs being written for them, & their appearing on TV, in what was essentially an American rip-off of the Beatles movie "Hard Days Night" which came out several years earlier.

 

[Zombeels]

They didn't start out as a real band but by the time Headquarters was being recorded they became a real band.

 

[Music Wench]

Yea, what Zombeels said.

 

[Midnight Rider]

Wasn't Tommy Boyce and Bobby Heart really the main artists behind the early Monkees? I know they were involved.

 

[Reverend Rock]

Boyce and Hart produced a lot of their early recordings.

As for the question...the Monkees can be called a band at least on the Headquarters album (and the 1990s sequal, Justus, which ain't bad at all), but I prefer to call the Monkees a "body of work", a collection of recordings that somehow, without really trying, ended up being important and influential.

 

[Wolf]

I read on I think a Monkees website that Dolenz got good enough on drums that Frank Zappa asked him to play in his band which he had to refuse because of prior commitments. Saw the boys play a couple years ago and Mickey looked pretty damn good to me banging away.

 

[Reverend Rock]

Mickey has done some good drumming on the records. His work on Justus is quite impressive, really. In general, I would say that for a bunch of guys who were hired to imitate an rock band in a TV show, they've done alright.

 

[magnoliasteve]

People forget that the very early Beatles were not exactly master musicians, either. I saw the Monkees in the 80's sans Nesmith and Dolenz was a competent drummer. BUt everyone here was right. The Monkees was the brainchild of a TV producer and the band a product of the show. Still, it was a hit making machine for a while.

 

[magnoliasteve]

Ok, Monkees trivia time.

Over 400 applicants tried out for the roles of the Monkees off of a Variety ad, including two pretty well known performers. Had those two been picked the band may have been uglier but way more technically competent. One of them was a treetop flyer and the other had a penchant for coconuts. Who were they?