If someone would have told me this would be the first Monkee to go, I would have never believed them. Not that I was making bets on how they would keel off, but I could have sworn Mickey Dolenz would be the lead-off man. That's why this one was definitely shocking.
Monkees lead singer Davy Jones passed away last Wednesday after suffering an apparent heart attack. He was only 66-years-old.
My first exposure to Davy Jones was watching "The Brady Bunch" in syndication. It was the renown episode where Marsha was set on getting him to perform at her prom and he was the guest star. I had no clue who he was at that time. Little did I know that he had already made a huge splash with The Monkees and was actually embarking on a solo career by the time that episode rolled around. But thanks to MTV I would be schooled on that later on.
That was the one good thing about MTV going with non-music video programming in those early days. They exposed my generation to the greatness that was The Monkees while we were still in our impressionable high school years. I don't know anyone from my circle of friends that were big on the Beatles at all. However, give us a knockoff group that was created for the sole purpose of trying to be a comedic alternative to that group and we were all in.
The most ironic thing about the news of his passing was I had just recently discovered that this local cable station here called Inspiration runs "The Brady Bunch" episodes in the late afternoon. Of course I started watching them. For some odd reason, I had been thinking about that Davy Jones episode wondering when they would get to that one. Then this news came. Definitely not the way I wanted to have that episode resurface. Although it was nice that they decided to run it back to back in memory of him.
I've long been clowned for having some corny music among my favorites. It's the curse of having a diverse musical palate. I will have no problem making a mix cd that will include Kanye's "Blame Game" and The Monkees' "Daydream Believer" on the same list of tracks. And I still rock Monkees' tunes to this day due in large part to Davy's vocals. At least we will aways continue to have those even though he is no longer with us.
Rest in peace, Davy.
