This week's thrustee was one-hundred-percent the doing of my real-life chaptermate and Twitter pal
@Lori_Ella, who was tweeting on the topic of The Monkees yesterday. After Olivia Newton John, The Monkees were my absolute favorite musical act when I was a kid in the eighties. I wore that tape into the ground! (Twenty-five-plus years later, I have the same album on my iPod, and still listen often.) It was an age when I had no concept of what reruns were, so I thought
The Monkees, which I watched on old-skool Nickelodeon, was a current show. And a real band. And hence, I sent them fan mail. Not knowing where the stamps were kept, to transport this fan mail I Scotch taped (and once clothes-pinned) quarters to the corners of the envelopes, because I knew that was how much it cost. And I addressed them things like,
The Monkees, Care of Nickelodeon. All those TV mail-order ads had "care of" in them in the eighties, so this seemed logical enough to me. Needless to say, my fan mail did not make it to its intended recipients…though one letter to Davy Jones did make it as far as the neighbors', whose last name was Jones. Thanks a ton, mail carrier.
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| Suck on that, Bieber! |
Anyhow, yesterday Lori was tweeting Monkees' lyrics, and I professed my preference for Micky Dolenz. Oft overshadowed by Davy Jones' sheer adorableness (so adorable in fact, the part of Chekov in the original
Star Trek was supposedly fashioned on Jones, to boost female viewership) I've always thought Micky was actually the stand-out member of the band. He's a great singer and funny and charismatic and handsome in a scampish, Irish-looking way (though I don't know that he's got much Irish in him, actually). He also wrote my favorite Monkees' song,
Randy Scouse Git. So Lori very kindly sourced a rather foxy old picture of Dolenz (above right) with some
rowwwr-sixties-scruff, just for me, reminding me what a babe Dolenz was. And you know what, he's
aged rather gracefully as well. Oh and before you go, don't miss Dolenz with a kitteh.
Awwwws.
And of course I'd be a tease to not include a video:
Randy Scouse Git? You're making that up.
ReplyDeleteBut Micky -- yeah. He always did it for me, too. He has the kind of smile that crinkles everything up, so he's just crinkles, teeth, and giant Bob Dylan hair. How can one not be smitten?
Randy Scouse Git is a real song! Though it doesn't have much to do with any actual, randy Scouse gits, as far as I can tell.
ReplyDeleteOkay, so I'm clearly much older than you, because I actually remember watching the Monkees on reruns before Nickolodeon was invented. Umm...before CABLE was invented. But it was still re-runs, okay?
ReplyDeleteANYWAY, my baby-love was totally Davey Jones, but my Cougar love is Mickey. Maybe with a side-order of Bad Boy Peter Tork.
So glad to be able to contribute to a Thrusty Thursday!
ReplyDeleteI think he does scruff rather well. Off to go listen to more Monkees!
Actually, all of the Monkees have their own distinct appeal. Davy is the dreamboat, Micky is the scamp, Peter is the understated straight man, and Mike was sort of indie-rock cool before there was indie rock.
ReplyDeleteI had a soft spot for Micky too! He was the Funny One, cementing me being a sucker for a man who can make me laugh.
ReplyDeleteI liked Mickey best when I watched them on Nickelodeon in the 80s too, but looking back now I prefer old pictures of Mike Nesmith.
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