I recently heard of the passing of former Monkee Davy Jones last week.
He obviously had quite a full life during his 66-year-and-two-month mortal tenure---a popular and sucessful celebrity; a long and happy marriage as well as adult off-spring and a few grand-children to boot; and he was still performing up to the end...
...definitely no "Monkee-ing around" for him.
The stated cause-of-death was "a massive heart-attack".
...and least he went naturally.
But a natural death doesn't necessarily denote a peaceful one.
A heart-attack is quite a traumatic way to go, actually.
Remember that Blood Sweat & Tears song AND WHEN I DIE...
"...don't want to die uneasy---just let me go naturally..."
And Laura Nyro, the songwriter who penned that song, did just that...
...she passed away in 1997 from ovarian cancer...
...so she got half her wish anyway: she "went naturally"...however that wasn't exactly an "easy" way to go.
However, not to digress, let's review a few Monkees songs featuring the late Davy Jones on lead vocal:
I WANNA BE FREE
LOOK OUT HERE COMES TOMORROW
WHEN LOVE COMES KNOCKING AT YOUR DOOR
DAYDREAM BELIEVER
VALERIE
IT'S NICE TO BE WITH YOU
SOMEDAY MAN
...and, sharing lead vocals with Mickey Dolenz:
WORDS
GONNA BUY ME A DOG
One thing about the group---besides starting out as simply a fictitious one (of television characters) which later transformed into a legitimate entity as a result of the immense popularity of their "token singles":
They epitomized the concept of synergy:
Besides just having the benefits of a good backing by seasoned professional songwriters and record producers, they took advantage of the idiosyncratic aspects of the different nuances of each group-member's voice...
...that is, no one member overrode any of the others in terms of "leading" the group.
They'd "test" out each song, and whoever's voice best matched said song, that member would do the lead vocal on that particular number.
Even later in the group's career, after they "took charge of" some of the "artistic input" of their recordings (i.e.: writing some of their own material and laying down an instrumental track or two themselves) you had, for example, the song THE GIRL I KNEW SOMEWHERE was penned by Michael Nesmith---but features Mickey Dolentz on lead.
It was an understanding of the concepts of "push-and-pull" and "cause-and-effect".
He obviously had quite a full life during his 66-year-and-two-month mortal tenure---a popular and sucessful celebrity; a long and happy marriage as well as adult off-spring and a few grand-children to boot; and he was still performing up to the end...
...definitely no "Monkee-ing around" for him.
The stated cause-of-death was "a massive heart-attack".
...and least he went naturally.
But a natural death doesn't necessarily denote a peaceful one.
A heart-attack is quite a traumatic way to go, actually.
Remember that Blood Sweat & Tears song AND WHEN I DIE...
"...don't want to die uneasy---just let me go naturally..."
And Laura Nyro, the songwriter who penned that song, did just that...
...she passed away in 1997 from ovarian cancer...
...so she got half her wish anyway: she "went naturally"...however that wasn't exactly an "easy" way to go.
However, not to digress, let's review a few Monkees songs featuring the late Davy Jones on lead vocal:
I WANNA BE FREE
LOOK OUT HERE COMES TOMORROW
WHEN LOVE COMES KNOCKING AT YOUR DOOR
DAYDREAM BELIEVER
VALERIE
IT'S NICE TO BE WITH YOU
SOMEDAY MAN
...and, sharing lead vocals with Mickey Dolenz:
WORDS
GONNA BUY ME A DOG
One thing about the group---besides starting out as simply a fictitious one (of television characters) which later transformed into a legitimate entity as a result of the immense popularity of their "token singles":
They epitomized the concept of synergy:
Besides just having the benefits of a good backing by seasoned professional songwriters and record producers, they took advantage of the idiosyncratic aspects of the different nuances of each group-member's voice...
...that is, no one member overrode any of the others in terms of "leading" the group.
They'd "test" out each song, and whoever's voice best matched said song, that member would do the lead vocal on that particular number.
Even later in the group's career, after they "took charge of" some of the "artistic input" of their recordings (i.e.: writing some of their own material and laying down an instrumental track or two themselves) you had, for example, the song THE GIRL I KNEW SOMEWHERE was penned by Michael Nesmith---but features Mickey Dolentz on lead.
It was an understanding of the concepts of "push-and-pull" and "cause-and-effect".
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