MONKEE: PETER TORK DIED TODAY

YAHOO NEWS Peter Tork, the endearingly goofy musician and actor who came to fame in the 1960s as a member of the Zeitgeist-capturing television rock band the Monkees, has passed away at age 77. While no cause of death has yet been confirmed, Tork was diagnosed with a rare form of tongue cancer, adenoid cystic carcinoma, in 2009.

The Monkees were often unfairly dismissed as a “Prefab Four” TV creation or boy band, and the creators of The Monkees series did not allow the group to play to play on their first two albums. But Tork, who often played the dopey buffoon on the show, actually came to The Monkees with a serious musical background.

Born Peter Halsten Thorkelson in Washington, D.C., on Feb. 13, 1942, he started studying piano at age 9, eventually learning to play the guitar, bass and banjo, and he studied French horn at Carleton College in Minnesota before moving to New York City.

There, he fell in with the bustling Greenwich Village folk music scene, hanging and playing with other rising musicians, like Stephen Stills. It was Stills, who had unsuccessfully auditioned for a new musical sitcom called The Monkees, who recommended Tork to the show’s producers in 1965. The rest is Monkee history. Our thoughts are with his family, friends, and fans around the world.

THE MONKEES!

The Monkees was a pop-rock quartet created in Los Angeles in 1965 for the American television series The Monkees, which aired from 1965 to 1968. The primary members were Micky Dolenz, Davy Jones, Michael Nesmith, and Peter Tork, who were the public face of a music production system under the supervision of Don Kirshner.

Had a request from my pal Dave Huff to do a bit on one of his favorites! Davy Jones and the Monkees. I liked the Monkees and loved their silly tv show. Here is the cover of the first album I bought and I think it's their best picture ever (above). 

Monkees Homepage

Wiki the Monkees

At the start, the band members provided vocals, and were given some performing and production opportunities, but they eventually fought for and earned the right to collectively supervise all musical output under the band's name. The group undertook several concert tours, allowing an opportunity to perform as a live band as well as on the TV series.

When the show was cancelled in 1968, the band continued releasing records until 1971. In the 1980s, the television show and music experienced a revival, which led to a series of reunion tours, and new records featuring various incarnations of the band's lineup.