"Some little jerk in the FBI, keeping papers on me, 6 feet high..." (LOL!)

[www.wfla.com]

[www.cbsnews.com]

I don't know why, but it seems funny to me, the Monkee suing the FBI. I know it's not but I don't really take the Monkees seriously, even though I liked some of the music those studio musicians made for them.

Today the conservatives hate the FBI , in the 1950s-1980s it was the liberals

I'm glad he's doing it. Freedom of Information Act should have granted him the access. People can laugh and not take it seriously because it was a sitcom, but the fact remains the US government was bothered by their anti-Vietnam stance (mainly in a film few people saw) and only a few minutes of celluloid. The FBI persecuted Lennon, the Stones, and yes, The Monkees and who knows how many more. All paid for with tax dollars.

Picking on them for using The Wrecking Crew is like picking on PET SOUNDS. Have a listen to Neil Young, Ry Cooder, and Danny Kortchmar playing on "As We Go Along" and you'll hear some of it wasn't just pop music for the bubblegum set. Nesmith's "Mary, Mary" was good enough for Paul Butterfield to cover and his songs on their albums grew more complex and rewarding enough for him to launch his own country-rock career and earn a well-deserved cult following as a pioneer in the field.

And as for the generational difference, being against the last US President and his abuses doesn't make the FBI free from accountability themselves. It's a bit like the way banning books and films went from being condemned (deservedly) to being political correctness now. However, I'm on thin ice for the same reason so I'll walk before Bjornulf makes me run.

Did the FBI take away his banana ?

Quote
24FPS
I don't know why, but it seems funny to me, the Monkee suing the FBI. I know it's not but I don't really take the Monkees seriously, even though I liked some of the music those studio musicians made for them.

Your sentiments are pretty much the way I felt and that is why I posted it. It had more to do with having a nice chuckle!

The article says subliminal messages were played at their concerts.

If they were subliminal he wouldn't know. Sounds like the FBI agent just hated rock and roll.

At Monkee concerts in 1966 and 1967, they had a huge screen positioned behind the band where they showed slides, film clips, etc. Sometimes they would show clips of civil rights marches during I Wanna Be Free and other stuff (including the Stones). Looks like an agent took his daughter to show and tried to connect the dots. Hey, if RFK told them to spy on MLK, then even the Monkees are fair game. However, the Monkees were one of the first to have a screen behind the band to show clips and such and not just psychedelic swirling on the wall.
More to the Monkees than meets the eyes and ears.

well this thread dosen't look like it's gonna last



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2022-09-01 02:02 by ProfessorWolf.

Actually it wouldn’t surprise me. Didn’t the FBI have files on John Lennon also?

I wonder why Dolenz would bring this up now? And this is 1967 the majority of their fans were pre teens. Why would you talk about Vietnam to a audience of 13 year old girls and boys? The whole thing doesn’t make sense

Quote
More Hot Rocks
Actually it wouldn’t surprise me. Didn’t the FBI have files on John Lennon also?

I wonder why Dolenz would bring this up now? And this is 1967 the majority of their fans were pre teens. Why would you talk about Vietnam to a audience of 13 year old girls and boys? The whole thing doesn’t make sense

Maybe he is doing it on principal or maybe he is trying to get more principal

Quote
More Hot Rocks
Actually it wouldn’t surprise me. Didn’t the FBI have files on John Lennon also?

I wonder why Dolenz would bring this up now? And this is 1967 the majority of their fans were pre teens. Why would you talk about Vietnam to a audience of 13 year old girls and boys? The whole thing doesn’t make sense

He applied to see his FBI File under the Freedom of Information Act that Obama put through. He received a redacted file and asked for full disclosure. The FBI denied the request so he sued. These things literally take years. It's not just an email and a response from your friendly intelligence agency.

The FBI File considered "Last Train to Clarksville" to be anti-War and therefore anti-patriotic. Soldier getting ready to ship out telling his girlfriend "I don't know if I'm ever coming home." Most kids never would have made the connection. Hardly a protest song, but it was 1966 and Hoover's Witch Hunts were hardly ancient history.

The Vietnam footage is in the movie they made after the show ended. HEAD is Bob Rafelson's first film. He produced and directed the TV series and then wrote The Monkees movie with Jack Nicholson. It's an artsy surreal like a number of films from the era, but it uses some graphic Vietnam footage similar to what Hal Ashby incorporated in "Time is On My Side" and some of the comedy sketches mock war. Again, nothing outrageous but if your audience is impressionable kids and you're suggesting the government is wrong, the government is going to get you.

Dolenz also wrote a song on one of their later sixties albums telling kids to ask their parents about drugs and Native Americans and war, but expect them not to give answers. The FBI noted the song as another example of them being anti-American. Incidentally, the last episode of their TV show is a sci-fi spoof about a sentient marijuana plant from outer space that turns teenagers into zombies by sending hypnotic signals from their TV sets. The episode was written and directed by Dolenz. They weren't exactly rebels, but they were still living in the sixties and the establishment was terrified of kids that wouldn't listen.

Nothing changes except now they've convinced the nation they're divided in ideological halves and neither is bright enough to realize they have a common enemy and it isn't one another.

Quote
Rocky Dijon

Quote
More Hot Rocks
Actually it wouldn’t surprise me. Didn’t the FBI have files on John Lennon also?

I wonder why Dolenz would bring this up now? And this is 1967 the majority of their fans were pre teens. Why would you talk about Vietnam to a audience of 13 year old girls and boys? The whole thing doesn’t make sense

He applied to see his FBI File under the Freedom of Information Act that Obama put through. He received a redacted file and asked for full disclosure. The FBI denied the request so he sued. These things literally take years. It's not just an email and a response from your friendly intelligence agency.

The FBI File considered "Last Train to Clarksville" to be anti-War and therefore anti-patriotic. Soldier getting ready to ship out telling his girlfriend "I don't know if I'm ever coming home." Most kids never would have made the connection. Hardly a protest song, but it was 1966 and Hoover's Witch Hunts were hardly ancient history.

The Vietnam footage is in the movie they made after the show ended. HEAD is Bob Rafelson's first film. He produced and directed the TV series and then wrote The Monkees movie with Jack Nicholson. It's an artsy surreal like a number of films from the era, but it uses some graphic Vietnam footage similar to what Hal Ashby incorporated in "Time is On My Side" and some of the comedy sketches mock war. Again, nothing outrageous but if your audience is impressionable kids and you're suggesting the government is wrong, the government is going to get you.

Dolenz also wrote a song on one of their later sixties albums telling kids to ask their parents about drugs and Native Americans and war, but expect them not to give answers. The FBI noted the song as another example of them being anti-American. Incidentally, the last episode of their TV show is a sci-fi spoof about a sentient marijuana plant from outer space that turns teenagers into zombies by sending hypnotic signals from their TV sets. The episode was written and directed by Dolenz. They weren't exactly rebels, but they were still living in the sixties and the establishment was terrified of kids that wouldn't listen.

Nothing changes except now they've convinced the nation they're divided in ideological halves and neither is bright enough to realize they have a common enemy and it isn't one another.

Excellent analysis and observations Rocky!

They seem to be working for my side of things now which is the last thing we need.
These are bad bad people.

Quote
More Hot Rocks


I wonder why Dolenz would bring this up now?

Maybe because he's got a new album?

[www.ccmusic.com]

Quote
Rocky Dijon

Quote
More Hot Rocks
Actually it wouldn’t surprise me. Didn’t the FBI have files on John Lennon also?

I wonder why Dolenz would bring this up now? And this is 1967 the majority of their fans were pre teens. Why would you talk about Vietnam to a audience of 13 year old girls and boys? The whole thing doesn’t make sense

He applied to see his FBI File under the Freedom of Information Act that Obama put through. He received a redacted file and asked for full disclosure. The FBI denied the request so he sued. These things literally take years. It's not just an email and a response from your friendly intelligence agency.

The FBI File considered "Last Train to Clarksville" to be anti-War and therefore anti-patriotic. Soldier getting ready to ship out telling his girlfriend "I don't know if I'm ever coming home." Most kids never would have made the connection. Hardly a protest song, but it was 1966 and Hoover's Witch Hunts were hardly ancient history.

The Vietnam footage is in the movie they made after the show ended. HEAD is Bob Rafelson's first film. He produced and directed the TV series and then wrote The Monkees movie with Jack Nicholson. It's an artsy surreal like a number of films from the era, but it uses some graphic Vietnam footage similar to what Hal Ashby incorporated in "Time is On My Side" and some of the comedy sketches mock war. Again, nothing outrageous but if your audience is impressionable kids and you're suggesting the government is wrong, the government is going to get you.

Dolenz also wrote a song on one of their later sixties albums telling kids to ask their parents about drugs and Native Americans and war, but expect them not to give answers. The FBI noted the song as another example of them being anti-American. Incidentally, the last episode of their TV show is a sci-fi spoof about a sentient marijuana plant from outer space that turns teenagers into zombies by sending hypnotic signals from their TV sets. The episode was written and directed by Dolenz. They weren't exactly rebels, but they were still living in the sixties and the establishment was terrified of kids that wouldn't listen.

Nothing changes except now they've convinced the nation they're divided in ideological halves and neither is bright enough to realize they have a common enemy and it isn't one another.

Thank you! That explains a lot

Not a new album. It's his solo demos from the Monkees 30th anniversary album JUSTUS. An album they wrote, produced, and played themselves with no session players, outside producers or songwriters. It's garage band stuff. He released the demos under this title before. Most of the songs are about his second marriage breaking up, hence Demos and Mademoiselle. This is an expanded reissue from a Monkee-specialty reissue label. Basically a fan club thing. Hardly motivation for him to promote by suing the FBI. The weird thing is, if this was Mick or Keith suing the FBI, the reaction would be different. Sometimes intelligence agencies do the right thing, going after threats to national security...and sometimes they abuse their authority, like wasting millions in tax dollars investigating a pop band that grew out of a sitcom.

"Hey Hey were the monkees" (and we outsold the Stones in 1967 LOL)

Sure, they outsold lots of bands in 1967. They were also the #4 concert draw in the States in 1986. All it means is well-crafted pop songs are popular. The Partridge Family also sold records so did The Archies.

Quote
Rocky Dijon
Sure, they outsold lots of bands in 1967. They were also the #4 concert draw in the States in 1986. All it means is well-crafted pop songs are popular. The Partridge Family also sold records so did The Archies.

I think everybody should watch The Wrecking Crew. Maybe then people would understand a little bit about the music industry.

Fingerprint file....got me down.

"He applied to see his FBI File under the Freedom of Information Act that Obama put through."

Unless I missed something the Freedom of Information Act became active in 1967. A friend and I tried to obtain our files but were unsuccessful.

~"Love is Strong"~

Angee, there was a lot of material that was unavailable until x number of years had passed. It started with the release of Kennedy files, then Lennon and Dylan files were public. All of them in the recent past. I'm sure there's a sizable Jagger & Richards file. I doubt they care.

And yes, The Wrecking Crew documentary is terrific.

Oh, okay, I see, thanks, Rocky Dijon. I didn't realize some files of musicians only became available recently.
You said during Obama's Presidency?

Can you point me to a history on this, in a url or two, if you have them?
.

~"Love is Strong"~

Absolutely.

What a load of shit.

Micky Dolenz is calling them out.