Davy Jones, lead singer of the Monkees, died of a heart attack this morning at the age of 66. He was one of those pop artists one never really thinks about, like being a part of some nostalgic background noise only appearing once conjured. Yet, it’s still a shock to hear that someone who seemed perpetually locked at age 21 has died in his mid-sixties.
The Monkees were formed merely to fill a 1960s-NBC harmless fun niche, mixing music and “TV safe” hijinks to meet a post-British invasion demand for such things. I used to watch Monkees reruns when I was a kid and enjoyed their manufactured uber-pop sound (that was before I discovered Ozzy).
Outside of pop culture references and background tunes on TV, I haven’t heard Monkees songs for years. Here’s a classic featuring Davy.
