Fred Velez - A Little Bit Me, a Little Bit You

A Little Bit Me, A LittleBit You

The Monkees From A Fans Perspective

By Fred Velez

A Little Bit Me, A Little Bit You

TheMonkees From A Fans Perspective

Smashwords Edition 2014 Fred Velez. Allrights reserved.

eBook ISBN 978-1-3115-5357-7

All rights reserved. No Part of this book maybe reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means,electronic or mechanical, including photocopying or an informationstorage and retrieval system, without permission in writing fromthe publisher. Thank you for respecting the hard work of theauthor.

Cover design by Fred Velez and LindaWalsh

Cover Photo Credits:

Top Photos: George Messina

Center Photo: Michael G. Bush

Bottom Photos: Fred Velez

THE MONKEES is the federally registeredtrademark of Rhino Entertainment Company. There is no affiliation,endorsement or connection between Rhino Entertainment Company andthis book or its author.

Dedications

For my father George,

My sister Nancy,

Lindas mother Jane,

And to David Thomas Jones

Ill Love You All Forever

Acknowledgments andThanks

First and foremost many thanks to the LordGod for all His grace, love and blessings.

To my lovely Linda Walsh who was with meevery step of the way supporting me with her love andencouragement. This book would not have gotten done without Linda.Sweetheart, thank you for holding my hand. Special thanks also toLindas father Bob Brouillard for the loan of your back porch forme to pace back and forth on while I wracked my brain writing thisdarn thing. Hope I didnt wear too big a groove into the porch!

To my mother Pilar for all her love. To mybrothers Charlie and George and my sister, Cookie, and theirfamilies. You guys were a part of the story too and I love you all.To all my nephews and nieces and my entire family, my love isalways with you.

To Maggie McManus, Jerry Beck, Ed Reilly,Helen Pantuso, Joanne Caravello, Charles Rosenay, Bill Chadwick,Michael G. Bush, Phyllis Friedman Paganucci, Jodi Blau Ritzen, Johnand Andrea Sheridan, Annette Lynne Schwartz-LaDue, Alan Green,Danny Solazzi and The Characters, Gary Owen and Scott Ringle andThe Blue Meanies, Bill Last, Derek Tague, Gary Strobl, DuaneDimock, George Massina, Mitch Axelrod, Tony Traguardo, Rob Leonard,JoAnn Kassoff, Ken Michaels, Marc Zakarin, Nancy Benecki, Amy P.Bell, Jennifer McLeod, Paris Stachtiaris, Gene OBrien, MollyRubin, Dave Rubin, Cindy Bryant, Lois Gibson, Jaya Sharma, DavidLevin, Carl Lembo, Jennifer Distel, Lois Brouillard Knaster andAndy Knaster, Jennifer Winkle, Mary McCarthy, Darlene Darwin, FredFeldt, Ellen Mandel, Joseph Giannini, Flo Newrock and so many moretoo numerous for me to remember. Thank you all for your friendshipwhich is very dear to me and for being a part of this incrediblejourney.

To Andrew Sandoval, Eric Lefcowitz, BradWaddell of The Monkees Home Page, Steve Marinucci, Floyd Vivino,Henry Diltz, Dave and Jennifer Alexander, Mark Thompson of TheMonkees Live Almanac, David Burd and Melanie Mitchell. Thank youfor your invaluable advice, support and encouragement.

To the Dolenz, Nesmith and Tork families,much love and Gods blessings to you all.

To Talia, Sarah, Jessica, Annabel, Anita andthe entire Jones family. Davys spirit lives in you all and hislove will continue to live on through you. Many blessings toyou.

And to Peter Tork, Micky Dolenz, MichaelNesmith and Davy Jones. Many thanks for allowing me to tag along onyour journey.

INTRODUCTION

By Jerry Beck (writer, animation producer and author of over 15books on animation history)

Its hard to believe today how totallyun-cool it was to be a Monkees fan in the mid-1970s.

Heck it was even embarrassing to admit youstill read comics books or watched animated cartoons back then,especially if you were over 12. But I knew in my soul that thesestaples of pop culture were great art and entertainment, and thatthey werent as disposable as my parents and the general public seemed to think they were.

So when I met a kindred soul named Fred Velezoutside the Elgin Cinema in Chelsea back in 1975 another grown-uphuman being who got it that The Monkees werent just an old TVshow or a passing fad I was grateful to be able to speak tosomeone who understood. The Monkees were indeed great. Their musicis still great and the TV Show and Movie were historicgame-changers. Thats what Fred and I thought 40 years ago and westill know it so today.

But Im getting ahead of myself.

I first saw the Monkees as a Jack Daviscartoon in TV Guide. Davis (Mad Magazine, Its A Mad Mad Mad MadWorld) was hired by NBC in 1966 to draw caricatures of all theirprime time TV stars and his art was used in advertising. Howperfect an artist to promote this particular madcap series. Butstill, I thought The Monkees was something only my tween sisterswould watch and I was right, they were hooked on it from thefirst episode. I, on the other hand, missed the first few weeks,foolishly thinking it was simply a girls show.

For a couple of weeks I was still loyal toGilligans Island on CBS. But one particular Monday night, myparents granted my sisters the right to control the big TV in theliving room. I begrudgingly hung around to sample what they choseit was The Monkees, of course. And I recall it being the DavysGrandfather episode.

I soon became hooked on this show. To my11-year old mind, there was nothing on TV like it and therewasnt. It was different and it changed the face of the standard TVsitcom at the time. It contained four long haired guys using theirreal names, who played rock music, delivering one-liners in a fastpaced half hour that frequently broke the fourth wall and talkeddirectly to the audience.

My mind was blown when Micky walked off theset in episode 14 (Dance Monkees Dance) to confer with thewriters a conference room full of ancient china men withtypewriters. They turned into super-heroic Monkee Men, donneddisguises to foil crooks, and fell in love with Julie Newmar, amongmany other things I only wished I could do. Who couldnt love thiscraziness?

And soon we bought the albums and discoveredthe songs were great, second only to The Beatles in my estimation.For me, though, it was the TV show I especially loved. Thecharacters, the premise, the actors. I believed that these guyswere real, and I somewhat identified with them. I believed thatthey represented the future. Maybe my future.

The Monkees public popularity waned a bit inlate 1967, especially after the whole they dont play their owninstruments controversy arose. By late 68, the psychedelicsixties was in full swing, and the Monkees phenomenon was dyingdown. No matter, they were still putting out great record albums each one better than the one before.

As the sixties wore on, I got into all thepop alternatives like R. Crumbs comics which appearing inunderground newspapers like The East Village Other and one day Inoticed an advertisement for a film that was completely unique andintriguing , It was called Head.

I literally had no idea what this film was.But the ads were so cryptic, so subversive and so of the time, Iwanted to see what a movie advertised like this could be about. Itopened in two theatres in Manhattan one in the Village, the otheruptown near Lincoln Center. I thought it would be safer to go tothe uptown theatre (the now defunct Cinema Studio on 66thstreet).

I still recall when I got to the theatre,they had these psychedelic metallic posters for Head in thelobby. Those still havent shown up on eBay. The marquee outsidesaid The Monkees in HEAD. Wait? The Monkees were in thismovie??

Back in those days, it was common to ignorethe movie starting times and just come into the film in-progress.When I walked in on Head it was the cheerleading for War scene.I quickly sat down and tried to figure out the plot. It was theMonkees all right, in a movie that did for movies what their zanyseries did for television. It was completely different fromanything Id ever seen before.