The Monkees Keep the Magic Alive with Help from the Big Screen

Here they came, walking on stage at the Mann Music Center, they got the funniest looks from everyone who showed up. Hey Hey, they’re the Monkees and they’re much older now, but they seemed so much younger because they only put up images of their sixties show on the Jumbotrons. It was that television show that made the Monkees and it was the same show that they used as the frontman.

Mickey Dolenz 68, Michael Nesmith 71, and Peter Tork 71 are mostly missing their trademark long hair and exchanged some vocals, for instance it was Peter who sang the famous “In This Generation” which was the closing theme from the TV show from the second season as well as “The Girl that I Knew Somewhere” instead of Mickey who did the originals. The boys as they appear now, were basically kept off the screens so when you watched the show, you got the feeling that they were so much younger.

It was a technique that I had never seen before. It did keep Davy Jones, who died of a massive heart attack, alive throughout the show. An emotional moment came when Peter started playing the intro of Davy’s classic “Daydream Believer” and they pulled someone out of the audience, a man and his young son, to sing it while Davy on the big screen sang as well.  Davy walking away with his back to you at the end seemed to take on more of a meaning.

I get the feeling that this is not the end of The Monkees but a new beginning, with Mike back in the band and using the old video as the front man, they could go on indefinitely, so you better get ready, they may still be coming to your town.