Sunday Morning Post (V.1; #5): Peter Tork
The Baby
Boomer Generation lost another celebrity from their youth this week with the
passing of Monkee Peter Tork. He was the
group member content to play the part of the “dumb” blond haired member of the
group. Little did any of us know the
truth about Peter.
He was only one
of two true musicians of the group, and he was the only of those two who
studied music. The other, Michael
Nesmith, was largely self-taught, judging from the comments in his memoir, Infinite
Tuesday. Their musicianship, including
song writing skills, took a back seat to the more established artists as Neil
Diamond, song writers Boyce and Hart, and producer Don Kirshner. The group itself was the out-front, prime
time faces of a Kirshner’s Top Forty hit-making machine. The group rebelled after two albums and were
finally able to gain more creative control of their artistry.
The subsequent releases may not have soared
to the number one spot on the Billboard Top 100 charts, but they were the more
authentic sound of the group put together for the television show.
In retrospect,
we their audience should have no complaints.
The one Peter
Tork performance which stood out to me was his vocal on “Shades of Grey”. I have already featured a video of that song,
but I still want to pay tribute with one song Tork co-wrote (For Pete’s Sake),
and one video which actually shows him performing (Randy Scouse Git).
Please enjoy
these selections.
(Thank you
for reading. Rest in Peace, Mr. Tork.)
posted by todd gunther | 10:38 AM
6 Comments:
The Monkees were so huge when I was a kid -- second only to the Beatles among little fangirls, LOL! I've seen quite a few Monkees clips over the past few days and it seems they did nothing in the TV series except run around, run, run, run, and sing. Always running!
I wasn't what you'd call a fan, but my sister? Oy. We were forced to watch and listen!
Still,Peter was cuter than Davey,
RIP
I too enjoyed Mr. Tork and his fellow Monkees.
I had a secret enjoyment of them, preferring them to more 'proper' bands.
This is the first time I've seen the group at any time performing 'Randy Scouse Git'. You may know that in this country it was called, enigmatically and for reasons of 'taste', 'Alternate Title' - and under that name reached #2 in our charts, June '67. Maybe it wasn't released at all in U.S.A.? - at least I can't find it in the Billboard charts.
The story is that Dolenz heard the phrase when watching in a London hotel one of our then most popular TV shows, 'Till Death Us Do Part' (which I, incidentally, detested with a passion!), and he liked the sound of it without knowing what it meant. Even today the word 'git' is used as a put-down epithet in the same way, with the same meaning, as calling someone a 'bastard'.
Peter was always my favorite, special because he wasn't trying to desperately be special.
Thank you Debra. My brother and I would watch the show every week. I've come to appreciate the music in the years since then.
Thank you, Bob. Sorry that you were forced in to seeing and hearing them.
Thank you, Spo. I think the Monkees happened just before I got interested in listening to the music on the radio.
Thank you, Raybeard. I learned a lot about the background of that song in the last few days. I will have to research if it was released here as a single. Till Death Do Us Part became the ground breaking All in The Family over here.
Thank you Dave R. At the time I liked Mickey the best. He seemed so nutty.
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