WEBVTT - From the Archives: Micky Dolenz 0:00:01.160 --> 0:00:08.039 You we come walk now, mystery yet funniest looks. 0:00:09.480 --> 0:00:10.920 Everyone weaving. 0:00:12.119 --> 0:00:15.000 Okay with the monkeys. 0:00:14.760 --> 0:00:18.959 Peep Hey, Hey, it's Alec Baldwin and you're listening to 0:00:19.040 --> 0:00:23.560 Here's the thing. This song shaped my childhood and that 0:00:23.720 --> 0:00:25.840 of millions of other Americans. 0:00:26.600 --> 0:00:27.760 You are glad to do. 0:00:29.120 --> 0:00:31.480 The voice is Mickey Dolan's. 0:00:32.560 --> 0:00:41.240 So something Ever the monkeys pep saving monkey ound where. 0:00:41.200 --> 0:00:42.599 Too busy saying. 0:00:44.000 --> 0:00:48.000 It's nineteen sixty six, the year Timothy Leary tells America 0:00:48.120 --> 0:00:52.360 to turn on tune in drop out TV executives know 0:00:52.479 --> 0:00:55.200 they need to make programming that reflects the times. 0:00:55.920 --> 0:00:59.520 Enter the monkeys. Hey that's a groovy button. What does 0:00:59.560 --> 0:00:59.880 it say? 0:01:00.080 --> 0:01:01.120 Love is the Ultimate trip? 0:01:01.240 --> 0:01:03.080 Oh that's a nice time. That's a groovy button. 0:01:03.080 --> 0:01:03.640 What does it say? 0:01:03.760 --> 0:01:05.199 Save the Texas Prairie Chicken? 0:01:05.840 --> 0:01:09.800 It was save the Chicken, not stop the War. NBC 0:01:10.040 --> 0:01:13.000 wasn't about to risk a boycott of Bonanza after all, 0:01:13.440 --> 0:01:18.080 but the misadventures of four shaggy musicians in Malibu managed 0:01:18.120 --> 0:01:21.760 to be subversive anyway. The grown ups were STIPs, the 0:01:21.840 --> 0:01:25.679 sets were psychedelic, and the long haired bandmates just wanted 0:01:25.720 --> 0:01:29.600 to be loved. Artistically, the show used new wave film 0:01:29.680 --> 0:01:32.920 techniques and brought the audience in on the jokes two 0:01:33.040 --> 0:01:36.520 years before laughing and Monty Python. 0:01:36.400 --> 0:01:38.240 Hey wait, wait, how do I get in if the 0:01:38.280 --> 0:01:38.800 door's locked? 0:01:39.360 --> 0:01:43.200 Peter, You can't expect the writers to know everything improvised. 0:01:42.959 --> 0:01:43.039 He. 0:01:45.640 --> 0:01:50.960 Besides, the music is undeniably great. Soon the fictional band 0:01:51.120 --> 0:01:54.200 morphed into a real band. They wrote their own songs 0:01:54.200 --> 0:01:56.840 and played their own instruments, and at the same time 0:01:56.920 --> 0:02:00.560 The Monkeys, the TV show topped the Nielsen rating, the 0:02:00.640 --> 0:02:05.920 band topped the Billboard charts. The Monkeys got the formula 0:02:06.280 --> 0:02:10.520 just right, but the concept wasn't unique. Throughout the sixties, 0:02:10.919 --> 0:02:15.080 movie and TV bosses were desperately trying to bottle Beatlemania. 0:02:15.919 --> 0:02:20.120 Mickey Dolans, with musical talent and floppy hair in abundance, 0:02:20.639 --> 0:02:24.079 was perhaps faded to end up in a band on TV. 0:02:25.400 --> 0:02:27.359 The question was only which one. 0:02:28.480 --> 0:02:31.639 There were at least three other shows that pilot season 0:02:31.680 --> 0:02:34.919 that I was up for as an actor singer similar 0:02:35.919 --> 0:02:38.240 well in the sense that they were about music and 0:02:38.280 --> 0:02:41.400 about the young generation. There was a lot going on 0:02:41.480 --> 0:02:43.440 at that time. It wasn't just the Beatles, it was 0:02:43.680 --> 0:02:49.320 folk music. It was all kinds of youth oriented music. 0:02:50.560 --> 0:02:53.240 One pilot was a Peter, Paul and Mary type of 0:02:53.280 --> 0:02:57.080 group called the Happeners. It did not sell. Another was 0:02:57.120 --> 0:03:01.040 this beach boy of surfer group, and another one was 0:03:01.080 --> 0:03:05.880 a big family mighty wind kind of hind those thirty 0:03:05.919 --> 0:03:10.720 people on stage singing I got a hammer, ye New Christimer. 0:03:11.200 --> 0:03:13.800 So it was in the air. It was in the 0:03:13.840 --> 0:03:19.440 air to try to capture this youth movement and obviously 0:03:19.480 --> 0:03:20.239 exploit it. 0:03:20.160 --> 0:03:21.440 For this medium of TV. 0:03:21.560 --> 0:03:23.959 That's important for people to remember, well, in our case, 0:03:24.440 --> 0:03:28.639 for the first time to really combine the power of television, 0:03:29.200 --> 0:03:31.560 radio and record companies. 0:03:32.080 --> 0:03:35.080 Now, it had been done before to some degree with 0:03:35.160 --> 0:03:38.240 Ricky Nelson. Once in a while some TV act would 0:03:38.280 --> 0:03:41.160 come out with a little single, but this was the 0:03:41.200 --> 0:03:44.160 first time that it was a concerted assault. 0:03:44.120 --> 0:03:47.680 On the American consumer. 0:03:48.280 --> 0:03:51.720 The Monkeys was not The Beatles or an attempt to 0:03:51.840 --> 0:03:55.960 be the American Beatles. The Monkeys was a television show 0:03:56.720 --> 0:04:01.240 about an imaginary group that wanted to be the Beatles. 0:04:02.040 --> 0:04:04.960 That's what it was about. It was the struggle for success, 0:04:05.840 --> 0:04:08.720 and that's I think one of the reasons it resonated 0:04:08.760 --> 0:04:13.120 with with so many kids of our generation. If you're hungry, yes, 0:04:13.440 --> 0:04:15.960 so many shows since you know you see him. They 0:04:15.960 --> 0:04:18.159 come on the other they're all beautiful, cute and lovely, 0:04:18.200 --> 0:04:21.599 and they're successful already. You know. The closest thing I've 0:04:21.600 --> 0:04:26.080 seen come around over the decades is Glee, which was 0:04:26.120 --> 0:04:31.480 a TV show about an imaginary glee club. But I 0:04:31.839 --> 0:04:35.840 gather they go and perform because they could, so rather 0:04:35.920 --> 0:04:40.200 than the old school Hollywood trick having somebody else sing 0:04:40.360 --> 0:04:44.400 your vocals in West Side Story or Sweet and Low 0:04:44.440 --> 0:04:46.960 Down Sean Penn, I mean, it was a beautiful movie, 0:04:46.960 --> 0:04:49.520 but of course he didn't play any of that. They 0:04:49.800 --> 0:04:54.920 had in mind that we were going to eventually go 0:04:55.000 --> 0:04:59.160 out on the road and perform, because the audition process 0:04:59.320 --> 0:05:02.839 was nothing like I'd ever been through before. You had 0:05:02.880 --> 0:05:05.080 to be able to sing, you had to be able 0:05:05.120 --> 0:05:08.920 to play an instrument, you had to improvise, you had 0:05:08.920 --> 0:05:13.080 to do comedy scene work on the screen tests. So 0:05:13.120 --> 0:05:15.920 they must have had in mind, you know that this 0:05:16.040 --> 0:05:18.800 thing sells, then one day these guys are going to 0:05:19.360 --> 0:05:23.320 go out on the road and perform. So after we 0:05:23.360 --> 0:05:27.320 got cast and started filming early days, early early days, 0:05:27.320 --> 0:05:31.360 I think maybe before I'd recorded anything, and they brought 0:05:31.440 --> 0:05:33.560 me to this apartment building and said we want you 0:05:33.640 --> 0:05:36.120 to meet the writers who will be writing for you. 0:05:36.960 --> 0:05:39.200 And I go in and this little cubby holes like 0:05:39.440 --> 0:05:42.600 it reminds me of like a medical building where it's 0:05:42.839 --> 0:05:49.720 dentist here in a chiropractice, and it's like, hello, Carol, Oh, hi, Mickey, 0:05:49.720 --> 0:05:52.360 this is Carol King. She'll be writing songs for you. 0:05:52.800 --> 0:05:55.080 Oh my god, oh hi. And she's sitting at an 0:05:55.160 --> 0:05:58.880 upright piano in a little cubby hole like the size 0:05:58.880 --> 0:06:01.320 of this little less less than the size of this 0:06:01.360 --> 0:06:05.080 little studio. And she has a woolen sack reel to 0:06:05.200 --> 0:06:07.839 reel tape recorder. And I remember that because I had 0:06:07.880 --> 0:06:15.480 the Zach same Yes, Carol, this, Mickey and Mickey this Carol. Hi, 0:06:15.520 --> 0:06:18.040 how are you doing. Nice to meet you. Hello, Hi, 0:06:18.160 --> 0:06:21.159 Oh David David Gates. This is Mickey Dolans. He's gonna 0:06:21.520 --> 0:06:23.680 be singing and you're going to be writing for him. 0:06:23.760 --> 0:06:25.440 David Gates from Brady Gates. 0:06:25.520 --> 0:06:28.880 Yes, my god, yeah, oh my god. Oh. He wrote 0:06:29.320 --> 0:06:31.080 a big hit for us. And I don't know if 0:06:31.120 --> 0:06:34.960 you saw beautiful, but Carol King at one point says, 0:06:34.960 --> 0:06:37.159 we got to write some songs for this TV show 0:06:37.640 --> 0:06:42.760 in Hollywood, and Jerry Goffin goes, oh fuck, oh, sorry. 0:06:42.480 --> 0:06:45.640 It's okay. So it's David Gates. 0:06:45.920 --> 0:06:48.479 And then I heard about all these writers. But you know, 0:06:48.560 --> 0:06:53.480 even in that day, the writers were not acknowledged like 0:06:53.520 --> 0:06:57.599 they are now. Whenever I do a show, I immediately 0:06:57.839 --> 0:07:01.240 acknowledge the writers that wrote this stuff, because without them, 0:07:01.400 --> 0:07:06.360 I'd be going, Yeah. 0:07:05.880 --> 0:07:07.520 When did Boys and hert come into the picture? 0:07:07.760 --> 0:07:10.560 Very early, so Boyce and Heart were trying out to 0:07:10.600 --> 0:07:13.560 be a cast as a couple of the monkeys. I 0:07:13.680 --> 0:07:17.840 have no idea why, Bob Rafelson, Bert Schneider, but you 0:07:17.920 --> 0:07:20.680 know how it goes. I mean, you got development from 0:07:21.320 --> 0:07:25.520 NBC or wherever. I'm sure they were all watching the 0:07:25.520 --> 0:07:29.720 screen tests and making those choices. And I have no 0:07:29.840 --> 0:07:33.760 idea why they chose any of us, including me, but 0:07:33.880 --> 0:07:35.520 thank god I did. 0:07:36.480 --> 0:07:39.680 But what was your musical DNA? I mean, I know 0:07:39.720 --> 0:07:42.480 you performed since you were a child, correct, Yeah, and 0:07:42.560 --> 0:07:45.240 so what was your music, DNA? Great question when you 0:07:45.240 --> 0:07:46.680 went rolling into that scenario. 0:07:46.920 --> 0:07:51.200 Thank you, because it is important to me. I started 0:07:51.240 --> 0:07:55.680 out playing classical guitar Segovia kind of stuff as a 0:07:55.720 --> 0:07:59.040 ten year old or something like that. My dad got 0:07:59.080 --> 0:08:01.560 me into it and played me a Segovia record, and 0:08:01.600 --> 0:08:06.120 I was like, there's no way one person is doing alright. 0:08:07.000 --> 0:08:09.880 He said yes, and I got into it. I got 0:08:09.920 --> 0:08:14.440 really hooked. I got really passionate. My dad was a actor, 0:08:14.840 --> 0:08:18.720 a schwash buckling kind of Errol Flynn character in the 0:08:18.760 --> 0:08:22.760 forties and fifties from Middle Lisa Old School. And he 0:08:22.840 --> 0:08:26.760 got me into playing a classical guitar. And I took 0:08:26.880 --> 0:08:31.160 lessons and studied and try, but yeah, I'm ten years old. 0:08:31.480 --> 0:08:33.840 Then I went to high school and I started going 0:08:33.880 --> 0:08:36.640 to parties and they would invite me to parties. I 0:08:36.760 --> 0:08:40.320 was this little geeky mascot, you know. But the girls 0:08:40.360 --> 0:08:42.840 would invite me to parties because I could play something 0:08:42.880 --> 0:08:45.120 on the guitar. Then they would say, do you know 0:08:45.240 --> 0:08:50.679 any Kingston triol. I'll be right back, hang down new 0:08:50.760 --> 0:08:57.559 hit do? So I got okay at folk music Peter Palm, 0:08:57.679 --> 0:09:01.679 Mary my sister, and I would say at parties and stuff. 0:09:01.800 --> 0:09:02.800 And you knew you could sing? 0:09:03.600 --> 0:09:06.160 Yeah, my mom, because my mom was a singer and 0:09:06.760 --> 0:09:09.560 great singer, and my dad was a great singer. But 0:09:09.640 --> 0:09:11.880 he was like a you know, operatic. He would do 0:09:11.920 --> 0:09:22.520 strangers in the you make see a strange, but he 0:09:22.559 --> 0:09:26.400 would sing it walking through the living room in his underwear. 0:09:26.800 --> 0:09:30.040 So it's like, oh, Dad, that is so cross with 0:09:30.120 --> 0:09:31.080 the glass of red wining? 0:09:31.160 --> 0:09:37.200 Is that anyway? So I'm brought up singing, acting, the 0:09:37.200 --> 0:09:39.960 whole thing. But I think nature also has something to 0:09:39.960 --> 0:09:42.760 do with it. You know, there's the physicality of it. 0:09:42.800 --> 0:09:46.280 You're born with the physique to be a tennis player 0:09:46.440 --> 0:09:50.720 or golfer, and well that's it's a muscle and so 0:09:51.240 --> 0:09:54.800 I think I was born with the muscles to do that. 0:09:55.240 --> 0:10:00.360 So yeah, I could sing my After the folk music era, 0:10:01.160 --> 0:10:03.600 I started rock and roll, and I you know, started 0:10:03.600 --> 0:10:07.920 playing guitar and rock guitar and started going out with like, 0:10:08.040 --> 0:10:11.920 you know, cover bands Mickey and the One Nighters, you know, 0:10:12.200 --> 0:10:15.640 just doing you know, walking the Dog and money and 0:10:15.640 --> 0:10:20.200 and house like everything like the Beatles Stones. I talked 0:10:20.240 --> 0:10:22.280 to Ring about it when I interviewed him one day. 0:10:22.360 --> 0:10:26.040 He said, well, we've all cover bends, and it's true. 0:10:26.400 --> 0:10:28.960 I used to do a tune in my band called 0:10:29.040 --> 0:10:31.400 Johnny Be Good because I was a huge Chuck Berry fan. 0:10:31.840 --> 0:10:34.800 That was my audition piece for the Monkeys. 0:10:36.080 --> 0:10:38.000 How did they find you? 0:10:38.040 --> 0:10:41.560 Oh, since I had already had a television show as 0:10:41.600 --> 0:10:42.720 a child. 0:10:44.000 --> 0:10:45.640 NBC, you were circus. 0:10:45.679 --> 0:10:49.480 I was, yes, one does not go to the cattle hall. 0:10:50.600 --> 0:10:52.800 NBC knew you and the. 0:10:52.760 --> 0:10:54.960 Producers and Bob and Bird and my agent. I had 0:10:54.960 --> 0:10:57.960 an agent, you know. I was doing guest shots on 0:10:58.080 --> 0:11:02.760 mister Novak Peyton Place, usually playing the bad guy, the 0:11:02.920 --> 0:11:05.840 little thug, the kind of you know, creepy kid. Yeah, 0:11:05.840 --> 0:11:07.760 the creepy kid. Well you could tell it was like 0:11:07.800 --> 0:11:11.320 the creepy kid thing. There's a little anarchy underneath everything 0:11:11.360 --> 0:11:14.079 you're doing. There's a little there's a little madness underneath 0:11:14.120 --> 0:11:18.080 everything you're doing. The under the whole monkey thing was 0:11:18.160 --> 0:11:21.160 a little bit of anarchy. Bob and Burt weren't much older, 0:11:21.200 --> 0:11:24.319 the creators, producers, they were not much older than we were. 0:11:24.360 --> 0:11:27.600 When I went to my first audition down on Gower 0:11:27.640 --> 0:11:32.880 there at the Scringems, I walked in and there were 0:11:32.920 --> 0:11:35.200 these two guys sitting there in jeans and T shirts. 0:11:35.320 --> 0:11:38.000 I thought they were there for the audition, and that 0:11:38.120 --> 0:11:40.000 was Bob and Burt. I mean, they were part of 0:11:40.040 --> 0:11:44.640 that young buck new wave generation which created the Hollywood 0:11:44.640 --> 0:11:49.199 independent film industry with Easy Rider. So Bob and Bert 0:11:49.320 --> 0:11:52.320 were not much older than I was. And there's a 0:11:52.360 --> 0:11:57.560 wonderful chapter in Timothy Leary's book Politics of Ecstasy. Don't 0:11:57.559 --> 0:11:59.600 know what you think about Timothy Leary, but he has 0:11:59.679 --> 0:12:03.640 like a a chapter on the Monkeys describing how essentially 0:12:04.440 --> 0:12:07.920 we brought long hair into the living room and made 0:12:07.920 --> 0:12:11.439 it okay to wear bell bottoms and have long hair 0:12:12.280 --> 0:12:14.920 because the only time you saw long haired kids in 0:12:15.000 --> 0:12:19.080 sixty six or seven on television they were getting arrested. 0:12:20.000 --> 0:12:22.400 So the monkeys came along and said, which is what 0:12:22.640 --> 0:12:25.120 if you have had a lone to have our fun. 0:12:25.200 --> 0:12:28.080 We're just trying to be friendly. Yeah, And it was 0:12:28.120 --> 0:12:31.280 a tough sell. Bob and Bert, I understand, had a 0:12:31.320 --> 0:12:35.920 real tough cell at the New York The Upfront upfronts YEP, 0:12:36.600 --> 0:12:43.080 NBC was nervous, but it represented all the kids out 0:12:43.080 --> 0:12:47.760 there that were of the same mind. The majority didn't 0:12:47.800 --> 0:12:51.280 want to throw bombs at people or you know, to then. 0:12:51.760 --> 0:12:54.679 It was just we wanted to just have fun and 0:12:54.760 --> 0:12:55.880 we loved the look. 0:12:56.679 --> 0:12:56.880 You know. 0:12:56.920 --> 0:13:00.560 The very similar thing happened with Harry Winkler in Heavy Days. 0:13:01.080 --> 0:13:04.520 He made it okay to wear a leather jacket finally 0:13:04.640 --> 0:13:07.720 and ride a motorcycle. And he wasn't Marlon brand I'm 0:13:07.720 --> 0:13:11.080 a kiss of danger. The Kiss of Danger. Will Smith 0:13:11.160 --> 0:13:14.240 did a similar thing with Fresh Prince. He said it's 0:13:14.280 --> 0:13:17.679 okay to be a young black guy and sing rap music. Well, 0:13:17.720 --> 0:13:19.000 the Monkeys did the same thing. 0:13:19.080 --> 0:13:21.040 So and then did you mentioned Easy Writer? You know, 0:13:21.080 --> 0:13:23.440 we had Russ Tamblin in here to record a show 0:13:23.480 --> 0:13:25.200 with us. And what's interesting is I asked him how 0:13:25.559 --> 0:13:28.520 his career rolls after he does a West Side Story 0:13:28.840 --> 0:13:30.680 and then within a matter of a few years, a 0:13:30.720 --> 0:13:34.160 handful of years, all that's crumbling. As you said, everything 0:13:34.200 --> 0:13:37.880 starts to change, Easy Writer, the anti heroic period of filmmaking. 0:13:37.960 --> 0:13:39.120 Nicholson's career is born. 0:13:39.160 --> 0:13:41.679 Well, Nicholson had his first I don't know, I don't 0:13:41.679 --> 0:13:44.040 want to say break. He was a B movie actor 0:13:45.040 --> 0:13:48.199 and Gorman guy Corman and I don't know if you 0:13:48.280 --> 0:13:50.640 heard of the monkey movie called Head, Yes, of course, 0:13:51.040 --> 0:13:54.640 written by Nicholson and us. We did get credit eventually 0:13:55.240 --> 0:13:59.319 after the Monkey's showing off the air. Bob introduced this 0:13:59.440 --> 0:14:02.400 to this guy I called Jack Jack Nicholson, who was 0:14:02.440 --> 0:14:05.960 doing B movie but wanted to write. And we just 0:14:06.000 --> 0:14:08.360 fell in love with him, I did. I can't speak 0:14:08.360 --> 0:14:14.880 for everybody else, but he was and is most wonderful charismatic, funny, 0:14:15.080 --> 0:14:19.680 intelligent guy that I'd ever met, and we welcomed him 0:14:19.680 --> 0:14:22.120 with open arms, and he hung out with us for 0:14:22.240 --> 0:14:24.840 like god months, it seems like. And then we all 0:14:24.880 --> 0:14:28.000 got together up in Ohai at the Inn and Spot, 0:14:28.280 --> 0:14:30.800 and I got film with this. I got actual film 0:14:30.840 --> 0:14:35.080 of us sitting around and choreographing what this movie was 0:14:35.120 --> 0:14:39.160 going to be about, because obviously as a movie, we 0:14:39.200 --> 0:14:43.960 didn't have to stick to the NBC standards and practices thing, 0:14:44.160 --> 0:14:47.880 which was pretty brutal. But The Monkeys wasn't about that anyway, 0:14:47.920 --> 0:14:51.080 it was not our place to do that. At the time. 0:14:51.760 --> 0:14:56.200 We left that to laugh in into other shows. I 0:14:56.240 --> 0:15:00.400 had no objections to that. It was wide demographic, young 0:15:00.480 --> 0:15:04.160 kids thirteen years old. So we went up and wrote 0:15:04.200 --> 0:15:11.480 this wacky script and they took that created this movie Head, 0:15:11.520 --> 0:15:13.880 which I love. I mean, I don't get it still, 0:15:14.760 --> 0:15:17.520 and I wrote part of it, and I wrote parties 0:15:17.560 --> 0:15:20.560 Beyond You, but it's Quintin told me it's like his 0:15:20.680 --> 0:15:25.160 top five. So that was our little kind of breakout, 0:15:25.360 --> 0:15:28.600 you know, and fans hated it. But now now it's 0:15:28.640 --> 0:15:31.440 become this little cult thing because at the time, you know, 0:15:31.480 --> 0:15:35.920 they would not let us even touch upon anything political, 0:15:36.120 --> 0:15:40.920 social it NBC, you know, standards and practices. I'm not 0:15:40.960 --> 0:15:44.240 sure it was only just after they let Ozzy and 0:15:44.280 --> 0:15:46.560 Harriet sleep in the same bed or something like that. 0:15:47.320 --> 0:15:49.320 But I've been described for people to hear it from 0:15:49.320 --> 0:15:53.800 your own mouth, this journey everyone's impression. Who knows about 0:15:53.840 --> 0:15:56.680 that period of you know, your careers in television, that 0:15:56.760 --> 0:16:00.720 your lip syncing another band was playing and you were simulating. 0:16:01.000 --> 0:16:06.560 Correct. No, well it's not accurate. First of all, its accurate. 0:16:06.600 --> 0:16:10.880 We sang all of it, every note. We didn't live sync. No, 0:16:11.360 --> 0:16:13.560 you only live sync when you're doing a music video. 0:16:14.760 --> 0:16:14.960 No. 0:16:15.080 --> 0:16:20.600 But the recording process was different, and I know that Peter, 0:16:20.720 --> 0:16:24.560 for instance, wanted to go in and play. Mike wanted to. 0:16:24.720 --> 0:16:29.280 But when we first were cast, they had already recorded 0:16:29.640 --> 0:16:34.200 a lot of tracks. They hired the Wrecking Crew, which 0:16:34.200 --> 0:16:34.880 I'm sure you've. 0:16:36.360 --> 0:16:37.240 A studio band. 0:16:37.400 --> 0:16:41.200 They were the studio Cats played all the tracks for 0:16:41.600 --> 0:16:47.880 the Beach Boys, for Association for the Birds. I frankly 0:16:47.920 --> 0:16:50.280 didn't care. I mean, I approached it like I was 0:16:50.360 --> 0:16:54.600 doing a musical. I was an entertainer, singer, actor. The 0:16:54.720 --> 0:16:58.000 Monkeys was like a Marx Brothers musical, and it was 0:16:58.080 --> 0:17:01.880 John Lennon that first made that. Compare the Monkeys was 0:17:01.920 --> 0:17:04.120 a little half hour Marks Brothers musical. 0:17:04.200 --> 0:17:07.879 But what I'm looking for is eventually, oh yeah, you 0:17:07.960 --> 0:17:11.480 do play. Yeah, what's around the time when you're sitting 0:17:11.520 --> 0:17:13.960 there and you guys are playing and you say, he said, wow, 0:17:14.280 --> 0:17:15.000 yeah we're there. 0:17:15.119 --> 0:17:16.280 Oh yeah, when does that happen? 0:17:16.400 --> 0:17:20.760 That happened in Honolulu in nineteen sixty seven. But the 0:17:20.920 --> 0:17:24.840 prelude to that is that we start rehearsing because they 0:17:24.880 --> 0:17:26.320 say we want to go on the road, want to 0:17:26.359 --> 0:17:28.680 take the sack on the road, and that is why 0:17:28.720 --> 0:17:33.720 they hired actor musicians. Mike plays incredible twelve string. Peter 0:17:33.840 --> 0:17:37.159 plays seven instruments. God rest his soul. I mean he 0:17:37.200 --> 0:17:40.000 went to the Conservatory of Music, and like in New York, 0:17:40.600 --> 0:17:44.080 David didn't play an instrument as such. We could sing 0:17:44.119 --> 0:17:47.840 obviously and played percussion. I was a guitar player, and 0:17:47.880 --> 0:17:51.480 when they said you're going to be the drummer, I said, cool, 0:17:51.640 --> 0:17:54.760 where do I start? Like I said in Circus Boy, 0:17:54.800 --> 0:17:58.520 when they said so you're going to ride in an elephant, Okay, 0:17:58.520 --> 0:18:01.720 where do I start? Us have said to Lloyd Bridges. 0:18:01.400 --> 0:18:04.639 When you started, you're gonna be. 0:18:06.119 --> 0:18:06.320 Right. 0:18:06.440 --> 0:18:09.080 Where do I start one? 0:18:09.440 --> 0:18:11.160 You never take a bandage. 0:18:11.960 --> 0:18:14.040 All below riot as the fun. 0:18:17.440 --> 0:18:22.439 Someone don't understand them and you just may be the one, 0:18:25.680 --> 0:18:28.000 Oh Membus. 0:18:29.200 --> 0:18:34.480 Some One actor and musician Mickey Dolans. This album marks 0:18:34.520 --> 0:18:39.480 the beginning of the band's self sufficiency. You're listening to 0:18:39.680 --> 0:18:43.879 Michael Nessmith in nineteen sixty seven singing his own composition 0:18:44.040 --> 0:18:47.879 you just May be the One. All the instruments are 0:18:47.920 --> 0:18:51.320 the monkeys themselves too. At the same time as the 0:18:51.400 --> 0:18:55.760 Monkeys were softening the edges of the counterculture, Andy Warhol 0:18:55.920 --> 0:19:00.879 was doing the opposite. He made Four Stars, a plotless, unedited, 0:19:01.359 --> 0:19:04.680 twenty five hour portrait of his friends and collaborators doing 0:19:04.760 --> 0:19:09.960 drugs and having sex. That movie was also the debut 0:19:10.520 --> 0:19:15.920 of Warhol's favorite beefcake star Joe Delassandro. But when the 0:19:16.000 --> 0:19:19.040 juvenile delinquent turned pin up model showed up at the 0:19:19.080 --> 0:19:23.360 factory in nineteen sixty seven, he had no idea who 0:19:23.400 --> 0:19:24.439 his host was. 0:19:25.160 --> 0:19:28.000 I had a couple of friends in New York that 0:19:28.160 --> 0:19:31.480 introduced me to other people, and then one day one 0:19:31.520 --> 0:19:36.560 of these friends said, Hey, I know this person that's 0:19:37.520 --> 0:19:40.560 making these Campbell suit ca you know, makes the Cambell suit, 0:19:40.880 --> 0:19:42.880 and I was thinking we were go in to eat 0:19:42.960 --> 0:19:44.760 some soup, which I. 0:19:44.880 --> 0:19:48.399 Was all for, and you just made me the one. 0:19:50.160 --> 0:19:53.879 For a link to my interview with Joe Delassandro, text Joe, 0:19:54.240 --> 0:20:12.960 that's Joe to seven zero one zero one. I'm Alec 0:20:13.000 --> 0:20:16.439 Baldwin and this is here's the thing. My guest is 0:20:16.520 --> 0:20:19.480 Mickey Dolan's drummer and vocalist for The Monkeys. 0:20:19.880 --> 0:20:24.320 Walk still, don't you walk out? We've got things to say. 0:20:25.840 --> 0:20:30.359 Chop out, let's set up the talkdout. Things would be okay. 0:20:31.400 --> 0:20:34.199 Shut down. 0:20:36.560 --> 0:20:39.919 The pandemic has meant no twenty twenty tour, but you 0:20:39.960 --> 0:20:43.479 can still hear his and Michael Nessmith's latest from the 0:20:43.520 --> 0:20:47.560 comfort of your own confinement. Their album, called The Monkeys 0:20:47.680 --> 0:20:50.840 Live The mic and Mickey Show, was taped last year 0:20:51.119 --> 0:20:56.800 and is available on iTunes and Spotify. Their sound and 0:20:56.960 --> 0:20:59.680 the love from the audience is as strong as ever. 0:21:00.160 --> 0:21:03.800 Starting from just playing a band member on TV, it 0:21:03.840 --> 0:21:07.800 took Dolan's time and hard work to build up his skills. 0:21:08.080 --> 0:21:11.440 I had about a year and I studied very very hard, 0:21:11.520 --> 0:21:14.440 and I practiced very very hard. It was rock and 0:21:14.600 --> 0:21:17.480 roll just four four time. For the most part. We 0:21:17.520 --> 0:21:22.440 rehearsed diligently. David Winters, speaking of a West Side story, 0:21:23.040 --> 0:21:26.360 was the director of our first stage show, and all 0:21:26.400 --> 0:21:29.480 of a sudden one day they said, your first gig 0:21:30.000 --> 0:21:33.680 is Hawaii. I think they did that because if it bombed, 0:21:34.080 --> 0:21:34.919 no one would know. 0:21:35.920 --> 0:21:39.000 Off the coast of the United States, no Internet. 0:21:39.119 --> 0:21:40.920 They could bury it like nuclear waste. 0:21:41.200 --> 0:21:45.080 Yes, that was us Nucleois. Good name for a group. 0:21:45.560 --> 0:21:48.440 It turns out we did pretty good. There's a live 0:21:48.640 --> 0:21:52.919 in sixty seven CD which was not recorded to be 0:21:53.040 --> 0:21:55.520 a record. It was some I think the sound guy 0:21:55.680 --> 0:21:57.760 was just like holding a microphone up in the air 0:21:57.840 --> 0:22:00.560 to capture it. But it's not bad. Only three of 0:22:00.640 --> 0:22:03.760 us playing, you know. It is Mike, Peter and I 0:22:03.880 --> 0:22:07.000 Davy just doing percussion and of course the vocals. But 0:22:07.119 --> 0:22:09.119 it was a trio. It was a power trio. And 0:22:09.160 --> 0:22:13.360 Peter would play the right hand he would play keyboard melody, 0:22:13.880 --> 0:22:17.640 and on the left hand he played keyboard bass. Mike 0:22:17.760 --> 0:22:21.440 Nesmuth always put it like when we went on the road, 0:22:21.640 --> 0:22:25.359 it was like Pinocchio became a real little boy, And 0:22:25.400 --> 0:22:26.760 there's a lot of truth in that. 0:22:27.560 --> 0:22:29.520 And how'd you feel back then? Were you happy? 0:22:30.119 --> 0:22:34.280 How did they feel? Were they happy the band or 0:22:34.280 --> 0:22:37.719 the monkeys couldn't tell. I don't want to speak for them. 0:22:38.160 --> 0:22:41.960 Mike nsamuth I know, and it's well recorded. He wanted 0:22:42.000 --> 0:22:44.880 to play and sing a lot more. He'd been brought into. 0:22:44.720 --> 0:22:49.320 The situation, had no idea what a series was all about. 0:22:49.600 --> 0:22:51.840 They said. He said, I want to sing him play 0:22:52.440 --> 0:22:55.760 in rotten my songs, and he did not have a 0:22:55.840 --> 0:22:59.240 chance to do that initially. Eventually he did, and that's 0:22:59.280 --> 0:23:02.280 when we had the palace coup prompted by him. 0:23:02.320 --> 0:23:03.280 What year did that happen. 0:23:03.920 --> 0:23:06.200 I was sixty seven, I want to say. 0:23:06.040 --> 0:23:08.000 Right around the time of the live show in Hawaii. 0:23:07.920 --> 0:23:11.680 Just after we had a palace coup, mainly because Mike said, 0:23:11.720 --> 0:23:15.280 we can do this, Pinocchio can become a little boy. 0:23:16.000 --> 0:23:18.040 He was frustrated, and I don't blame him. 0:23:18.359 --> 0:23:19.080 How'd you feel? 0:23:19.400 --> 0:23:21.439 I didn't care one way or the other. I was 0:23:21.440 --> 0:23:24.800 having a great time and I loved singing. It ended 0:23:24.880 --> 0:23:27.680 up that I was. I think I ended up doing 0:23:27.720 --> 0:23:31.199 the most of the lead vocals. Kind of by the fault. 0:23:32.600 --> 0:23:35.840 Mike had avery and does still has a very wonderful 0:23:35.880 --> 0:23:37.320 country western kind. 0:23:37.160 --> 0:23:42.440 Of Oh man, it must have someone. 0:23:42.800 --> 0:23:44.280 Have some. 0:23:46.640 --> 0:23:47.359 I love that song. 0:23:47.440 --> 0:23:50.800 Yeah, beautiful, we do that in our show. He and 0:23:50.840 --> 0:23:53.960 I know Peter, like I say, could play like you know, 0:23:54.280 --> 0:23:59.399 seven instruments, David great singer, but definitely the Krooner Broadway 0:24:00.200 --> 0:24:01.639