monkeesfan1967 wrote:
The Monkees were definitely a real band, even though their beginnings wouldn't make it evident. Peter had played on songs like "Sweet Young Thing", "I Won't Be the Same Without Her", and "Papa Gene's Blues" which were all during the pre-Headquarters, or even during the pre-first album sessions. Michael pushed and pushed hard for all of the members to be able to play and produce their own sessions, but Don Kirshner had other plans, deciding the songs would be better if studio musicians would be used. Tork, Dolenz, and Nesmith all had had musicial careers with bands and could play instruments and things like that, but Jones had been in Broadway doing musicals. If you closely look at what The Monkees have done for music in general, they've actually done quite a bit. They were the first band to use the Moog synthesizer in a top 10 charting album (which was a vital instrument in the making of psychedellic rock, also used by The Doors, etc.), influenced the starting of country rock, and unfortunately, became the first manufactured band of all time. "(I'm Not Your) Steppin' Stone" has to be one of those important songs that influenced punk rock as well, considering it was covered by the Sex Pistols and other groups of that nature. And to be fair and honest, most of the bands at that time used session musicians quite frequently (The Byrds, The Association, and The Beach Boys to name a few), so just because The Monkees were manufactured and thought to not play their own instruments, does not make them a "fake" band.
The Byrds also made use of the Moog Synthesizer for the songs they were producing for their up comming album at that time which was the Notorious Byrd Brothers (which came out January 3rd, 1968). The album itself didn't really have any big hit singles from it, though the album seems to be highly well regarded. And yes the Byrds did have some Session musicians - Clarance White is just one example before he became a permanent member for the 1969 album - "Dr. Byrds & Mr. Hyde".