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Friday, March 2, 2012

Why the World Needed Davy Jones

Why We Needed Davy Jones

MAR 1 2012, 2:20 PM ET 10
The Monkees' singer reminded us of the artifice of pop—and its power.
monkees 1966 group shot apimages.jpg
The Monkees in 1966. Clockwise from top right: Mickey Dolenz, Mike Nesmith. Davy Jones, and Peter Tork. (AP Images)
"You don't create me, I am me," Johnny Rotten said in The Great Rock 'n' Roll Swindle, but it might be even more true of Monkees singer and chief tambourinist, Davy Jones, who died on Wednesday at 66. If Bob Rafelson, Bert Schneider, and Don Kirshner hadn't invented Jones, he would have had to invent himself. Like Rotten, he remains a singular archetype in rock history, part of a band that would have been first-ballot shoo-ins in any Rock and Roll Hall of Fame devoted to the real history of the genre. The Monkees weren't the first packaged rock band, but they might have been the best, and no Monkee seemed more comfortable with this legacy than Davy Jones.

Jones was the purest Monkee, the one least likely suspected of authenticity.
As soon as the notion of authenticity became introduced into rock, the fully manufactured rock group became not only inevitable but utterly necessary. But such was the Monkees' achievement that they continue to serve a far richer role in history. As the first massively successful manufactured act, they also hold the distinction of providing a doorway to deeper truths to generations of young rock listeners: the knowledge that there are such things as session musicians, professional songwriters, script supervisors, and stunt vocalists. The reason for the Monkees' success was precisely because of the aforementioned assemblage, but an invented band requires public faces, and Jones—5'3", Mancunian—was perfectly cast. In early episodes of the Monkees' TV series, a recurring special effect was to make cartoon stars sparkle out of his eyes. They were hardly needed.
The least conflicted member of the group, Jones was probably the purest as well, the Monkee least likely suspected of authenticity. The bulk of his most famous songs were unapologetic pop—rock music in vague presentation only. In that way, Jones was never pretending at all. Famously appearing in the cast of Oliver!on the same Ed Sullivan episode where the Beatles debuted, Jones's career path was to be an entertainer, at which he was effortlessly real. It would be a stretch to call him an underrated songwriter, given his propensity for total schlock, but—deep in the Monkees' catalogue—he's just as likely to surprise the listener as a lost countrypolitan nugget by Mike Nesmith or a minor fuzz-pop masterpiece by the songwriting team of Tommy Boyce and Bobby Hart. Witness, mainly, the wistful Jones-penned "You and I," from the post-Peter Tork album Instant Replay, featuring a burning and instantly identifiable guitar part by Neil Young.

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