In March of 1967, I was in the 7th grade. I had a friend named Virginia. If I called her on a Monday evening after dinner, she wouldn't talk to me. "I'll see you in school tomorrow", she'd say. After a couple times of that, I asked her what was happening that she didn't want to talk. She told me she was watching a tv show called The Monkees. So I tuned in.
Virginia, myself, another girl named Holly, and another named Janice, brought fan magazines to school, to look through during our lunch hour. We'd pour over all the info and pics of the Monkees in Tiger Beat, 16, Flip, and Fave.
Virginia and Holly were able to go to a Monkees concert in the summer, at the Chicago Stadium on July 30th. I pleaded with my Dad to let me go with them. They wanted me to, but he just refused. Holly's father was even going along, but Dad said no. I remember asking Virginia about the concert in the days afterwards. But she could barely speak about it, completely awestruck. She said her ears were ringing from all the screaming and noise, and that's about all I could get out of her. She said when Davy sang I Wanna Be Free, the crowd went wild. (Davy was her favorite one.) And she said that Peter was awesome on the banjo.
By the time their 2nd season began, my favorite Monkee had changed. It was now Micky. I thought he was soooo hot looking, and all over the place on the screen. I was completely under his spell.
After I began buying their records, I even found myself singing along to them in whatever part HE was singing, be it lead or harmony.
I wrote to his fan club, headed by his grandmother, a couple of times when I was 13. One day I finally got a reply - a handwritten envelop and a handwritten 'Dear ---'....the content said he was recording a lot and about to go to the desert to film a movie called Head. I'm not sure in hindsight if he actually wrote the content of the letter. I thought he did at the time. It WAS his handwriting.....But it could have just been the standard thing sent. But back then I was thrilled to receive a reply! Alas, this little gem has been long gone to the four winds by now.
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So here comes 1969. We fans know that the show was off the air in primetime, and Peter had left the group at the end of Dec '68. By then I was a freshman in h.s., and met new friends who were Monkee fans. (My other friends were moving away.) One day in March on the radio, I heard the Monkees were coming to Chicago on April the 26th. 'Oh my gosh I've got to go!', I thought. 'I probably will never get another chance!' Begging Dad as the date got closer became an everyday thing for me. And when their special 33 1/3 Revolutions Per Monkee aired only 2 wks before the date, I really went to town with that. FINALLY, Dad came home with 2 tickets for my sister Marie and I, and one for him. My 2 new friends already had their tickets. Lucky them, they were a whole lot closer to the stage on the main floor than I was. My tickets were for seats right in the first row of the center balcony. No real matter though - I was GOING and that's all that counted!
Upon arriving at a South Shore station, we took a train into the city. I could hear other girls at the opposite end of the car we were in, talking about the Monkees. They were going to the concert too. After debarking the train, it was a short walk to the Auditorium Theater. I couldn't believe this day had come! Sam and the Goodtimers were their back-up band. And then....THERE THEY WERE! Micky, Mike, and Davy, omg! I was absolutely caught up in the moment, screaming and shouting their names with everyone else around me. My Dad put cotton in his ears. The place was at capacity. The whole experience is a blur of exitement to me today, but I still carry flashes of memory of them on the stage. Each one sang separately, and also together. There was a big movie screen behind and above them, showing them in the show and other places. All three of them wore black suits with white ruffly shirts. I remember they sang Tapioca Tundra, because that was my latest favorite song of theirs. And when Davy sang For Once In My Life, (a recent Stevie Wonder song), it was pandemonium. When Mike sang by himself, he told everyone to quiet down so they could hear him sing. Everyone DID. When Micky sang Goin' Down, I thought I was gonna pass out for a minute. I couldn't believe he was right there, singing it IN PERSON!
And then it was over! OVER!
In school the following Monday, my 2 friends and I compared our experiences, because of being in 2 different places in the A.T. For that matter, most of that week we had free time together, the topic usually turned to the concert. It took another few days after that for this little 14-yr-old to come back to earth and get on with end-of-the-school-year things.
By the time I finished my next (sophomore) year, however, that was about it. No more Monkees in the magazines much, and no more music...in fact, in my jr year I happened to see an album called Changes in the store. Apparently, Micky and Davy were the only ones on this, their last album. I hadn't even known it was out there. But you know, that's life, isn't it? Many yrs later I finally saw Head, their movie, on cable tv. I completely understood it, right off the bat.
Little did I know that 30 yrs later, in 1999 and for at least the next 10 yrs or so, I'd revisit my Monkee fandom, after reading a copy of Micky's autobiography that I happened across in a library....and that I'd be meeting up with other fans as well as the Monkees themselves!
(to be continued.....)
