The passing of a Monkee will never grab the headlines in quite the same way as the demise of a Beatle; John and George put world news on hold when they bowed out. Macca, when his time comes, will probably dominate every front page, TV station and website for days on end. But Davy Jones, whilst not quite an 'And finally', barely came above England's woeful display against Holland in the headline stakes.
And for all the 'Prefab 4' nonsense, his appearances on Coronation Street and starring in Oliver, nobody who said he'd caught The Last Train To Clarksville mentioned the fact that he once covered a Wreckless Eric song. And a bloody good one at that:
Another link to childhood gone, and for me a far bigger one that the Beatles, who didn't really impact at all ( and never have - it just won't happen now, will it!).
ReplyDeleteThe interview with Peter Tork on Radio 4's Last Word was interesting, I thought - respectful and fond, but with a definite subtext of 'Davy didn't really become a nice person until quite late in his life.' Though Peter Tork had his own well-documented problems of course.
A very good post John
ReplyDeleteI was very saddened to hear about his death...and a bit surprised the news hasn't received more air time. True, as you say, he wasn't as big as others from that era, but almost everyone knows the words to the Monkee songs
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