By Scott A. Grant
mail@floridanewsline.com
Seeking to cash in on the Rock & Roll boom of the 1960s, a pair of TV producers decided to create a TV show based on the escapades of a fictional band called “The Monkees.” Some say that the idea sprang forth on the night of Feb. 9, 1964, the day the Beatles first appeared on the Ed Sullivan Show. There were other acts that night including a young Broadway singer named Davy Jones who had just finished a commanding performance as the Artful Dodger in the Broadway hit “Oliver Twist.” The same night that the American heartland was introduced to the Beatles, they were also introduced to Davy Jones.
Jones was signed as a Monkee in 1965 followed by Michael Nesmith. Nesmith had written and recorded a song called “Different Drum.” That song was not a hit for Nesmith, but it was a big hit for the Stone Poneys, fronted by a young Linda Ronstadt. At the time, Nesmith’s mother was struggling to meet demand for her growing business, the Liquid Paper Company. Bette Nesmith invented “White-Out” while working as a secretary for a bank in Dallas. Eventually, she would sell the company to Gillette for $47.5 million two weeks before her death in 1979. Mickey Dolenz was a former child actor and son of TV character actor George Dolenz. Peter Tork, the last to join the band, was a folk singer who hoped to one day be president.
The show was a surprise hit, but even more surprisingly, the manufactured music was an even bigger hit. In 1967, the Monkees went on tour. Halfway through, Nesmith and Dolenz wanted a new opening act. The pair had gone to Greenwich Village to see an African American who purportedly played his guitar with his teeth. When they saw him again at the Monterey Pop Festival in June of ’67, they were sold.
And so, on July 8, 1967, Jimi Hendrix joined The Monkees on stage for the first time at the Jacksonville Memorial Coliseum. The combination was ill-fated from the start. No one who wanted to see The Monkees wanted to see Jimi Hendrix and vice versa. Hendrix had once called the Monkees’ music “dishwater.” The teen and pre-teen girls who flocked to see the Monkees had even less enthusiasm for Jimi, and they made it clear, nearly booing Hendrix from the stage, shouting things like “We want The Monkees” and “We want Daavvy!” When Hendrix tried to get them to sing along to his song “Foxy Lady,” the crowd just shouted back “Foxy Davy!”
The day before the concert, the “Jacksonville Journal” ran a short press release about the Monkees in their weekend supplement, “Action.” In a twist that can only be described as “so Jacksonville,” the supplement ran a long cover story on a local band, “The Daybreakers.” The band was fronted by 16-year-old Wanda Roberson, the “little girl with a mighty big sound,” who was about to cut two records fresh off big performances at the Jacksonville Beach Auditorium and the Orange Park High School Gymnasium.
“The Jimi Hendrix Experience” was not mentioned. Hendrix was greeted the same way at each subsequent tour stop. It was frustrating. After nine days, he quit the tour. But he did get a small amount of revenge for his humiliating Jacksonville debut. Sixteen months later, he returned in his own right and sold-out the Jacksonville Coliseum.’
Scott A. Grant is a local pop historian. By day, he is CEO of Standfast Asset Management. He welcomes your comments at scottg@standfastic.com.
