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The Monkees' Peter Tork Passes Away
A second member of the Monkees is gone. Peter Tork passed away from a rare cancer of the salivary glands on Thursday. He was 77.
It was Stephen Stills, whose bad teeth led him to be disqualified from being a member of the Pre-Fab Four, that suggested Tork for the role. He went from rags to riches and then back to rags post-show, never quite achieving the same fame again. But, after Michael Nesmith, he was the only other real professional musician in the group and the first to leave after the program went off the air. .
Peter Tork, beloved and offbeat member of the Monkees, dies at 77
- Fitz
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Re: The Monkees' Peter Tork Passes Away
The Monkees needlessly got slagged as bubblegum and I have to admit that I joined the hipper than thou crowd for a while but by the 1980's I realized that they put out some fantastic music.
Here's s a rarity Peter as co lead singer on a Monkees hit ( yes it was a b side that charted)
and of course there was for Pete's Sake on which he was not the lead singer:
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- Glen Warren
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Re: The Monkees' Peter Tork Passes Away
Carol Kaye was the prominent studio musician/bassist and a member of the "Wrecking Crew".
In the "Wrecking Crew" documentary shown on PBS about five years ago, Kaye tells the story of The Monkees showing up at a studio to record music tracks for the show and subsequent albums. Peter Tork brings his electric bass with him, and a producer tells him that he won't need it... Tork says that he needs it as he is the bass player. The producer then tells Tork that all of the instrument tracks have been laid down, and that the group will only have to sign to the tracks. According to Kaye, Tork was kind of taken a back by the process.
Last edited by Glen Warren (February 22, 2019 10:41 pm)
- the original hank
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Re: The Monkees' Peter Tork Passes Away
re: "for pete's sake". peter didn't sing lead... but he did co-write the song.
- Kilgore
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Re: The Monkees' Peter Tork Passes Away
A similar situation decades earlier when the Picks provided background vocals on recordings attributed to Buddy Holly and the Crickets
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Re: The Monkees' Peter Tork Passes Away
My favourite Monkees story hasn't got anything to do with Tork. When they were first starting the TV show, the group would film all day and then head to the recording studio at night. Micky Dolenz recalls the evening he came in to sing "Last Train To Clarksville," their first hit single.
Lyricist Bobby Hart had actually written words to the middle of the song, but there were a lot of them, they were relatively complicated, and Dolenz was there after midnight trying to lay down the vocals. He complained that he was exhausted and didn't have time to learn all the lyrics, so he just sang the "do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do" part instead - and that's the version that was released.
I have been trying to find out what those missing words were for years, but apparently it's been lost to history.
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Thread Starter- unclefester
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Re: The Monkees' Peter Tork Passes Away
If memory serves-- weren't John Sebastian & the Lovin Spoonful strongly considered for the tv show?
- Fitz
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Re: The Monkees' Peter Tork Passes Away
unclefester wrote:
If memory serves-- weren't John Sebastian & the Lovin Spoonful strongly considered for the tv show?
I have read that and it's apparently true:
Urban Legend ?
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