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Free Micky Dolenz show in Florida this Sunday

October 18, 2012 by  
Filed under monkees alert

A Monkee’s musical memories

Micky Dolenz’s new album a true sentimental journey

Micky Dolenz photo
Micky Dolenz, who has a new album out, performs Sunday at the Meyer Amphitheatre in downtown West Palm Beach.

By Jan Tuckwood

Palm Beach Post Staff Writer

Add one more item to the list of things that get better with age: Micky Dolenz’s voice.

The Monkees singer sounds even better at age 67 than he did in 1967 — the year The Monkees sold more records than The Beatles.

The proof: His new album, “Remember,” a collection of 12 songs that so influenced Dolenz they became an “audio scrapbook” of his life.

He’ll perform at least two tracks from the album — “Randy Scouse Git” and “Sugar, Sugar” — at a free concert Sunday at Meyer Amphitheater in West Palm Beach.

So, why this musical trip down memory lane?

Dolenz happens to have taken great care of his voice and expanded his vocal skill over the years with Broadway performances.

“I can control my voice a lot more than I could,” he says. “And I didn’t ruin it singing in smoke-filled clubs.”

And Dolenz had a stalker of sorts — music producer David Harris, who happens to be a big Monkees fan. Harris kept hounding Dolenz to record a new album, but the singer balked.

“Finally, David came over to my house, and we sat in my living room, and I picked up a guitar and started noodling,” Dolenz says. “Then I started telling him the stories of the songs I had in mind, and the stories became almost as important as the songs — they were the glue tying all the memories together.”

There’s the story behind “Randy Scouse Git” — a song Dolenz wrote in a bleary-eyed haze during a life-changing trip he and Mike Nesmith made to Great Britain in 1967. They met The Beatles and Dolenz also met the woman who would become his first wife, Samantha.

And there’s the story behind “Sugar, Sugar.” Producer Don Kirshner wanted The Monkees to perform it — but when Nesmith vehemently rejected that idea and staged a palace revolt, Kirshner ended up getting fired. He handed the song over to a group that wouldn’t talk back, the animated band The Archies, and it became a No. 1 hit.

Harris came up with a new arrangement for “Sugar, Sugar,” and the song is now one of Dolenz’s favorite tracks on the album. As he writes in the liner notes: “It is a simply astonishing re-envisioning of a song originally sung by a cartoon.”

Also on the album is a beautiful rendition of “Sometime in the Morning,” a country-flavored remix of The Monkees’ biggest hit, “I’m a Believer,” and a fresh version of the song Dolenz performed for his Monkees audition, “Johnny B. Goode.”

But the most poignant tune is the title song, “Remember,” a Harry Nilsson song that was recorded long before Dolenz’s bandmate Davy Jones died in Indiantown in February.

With its sweet lyrics — “remember, life is just a memory…” — the song feels prescient, “weird and ironic,” Dolenz said.

Especially because the memory of Jones is ever-present these days, as he and surviving Monkees Mike Nesmith and Peter Tork prepare to head out on a 12-city tour that will feature an homage to Jones.

The idea for the tour percolated when the band members reunited at a memorial for Jones shortly after his death. They wanted to pay tribute to the man and to their music.

For so long, rock critics snubbed The Monkees for being a “manufactured TV band” — but even “Rolling Stone” magazine lauded their enduring star power during the 45th anniversary tour of Jones, Dolenz and Tork in 2011.

“Over the years, it’s kind of been justified and respected by enough people where I can look back and go, ‘it wasn’t that bad’,” Dolenz says.

The new tour, which launches in November, sold out quickly in most cities — partly because Nesmith has rarely toured with The Monkees and partly because Jones’ death at 66 has shaken up fans, who are old enough by now to feel their own mortality.

On his Facebook page, Nesmith floated the idea of Jimmy Fallon singing Jones’ big hit “Daydream Believer” at one tour stop — and fans responded emotionally on both sides.

Will Fallon show up? Dolenz says “I have no idea, to be honest” — but guest artists may be called on stage to do a song or two.

One thing’s for sure: Fans will see a video montage of Jones, including footage from 2011’s tour, that will pack an emotional punch.

“I suspect it will make fans cry,” Dolenz says. “Just the fact that we’re there, that we will have the footage and the homage to David.

“Thinking about it, it makes me cry.”

Free Micky Dolenz show in Florida this Sunday

Add one more item to the list of things that get better with age:
Micky Dolenz’s voice.

The Monkees singer sounds even better at age 67 than he did in 1967 —
the year The Monkees sold more records than The Beatles.

The proof: His new album, “Remember,” a collection of 12 songs that so
influenced Dolenz they became an “audio scrapbook” of his life.

http://www.pbpulse.com/news/entertainment/a-monkeesmusicalmemoriesmicky-dolenzs-new-albuma-t/nSd6f/

thanks to michael nason

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