Micky Dolenz didn’t care about having no control over The Monkees’ first two albums.
Micky Dolenz never wanted creative control
The 78-year-old singer was cast in the band alongside Michael Nesmith, Peter Tork and Davy Jones for a TV sitcom, also called ‘The Monkees’, and while he admitted some of his bandmates were frustrated over the lack of input they were allowed into their careers, he was happy to just do what was asked of him.
Micky – the sole surviving member of the band - told Record Collector magazine: “They put everything together. I don’t remember having any control, nor do I remember wanting much.
“I mean, that was the big bugbear especially for Nesmith.
“I can only speak for myself. I was cast into this as a singer, a guitar player – they made me the drummer.
“We had no control over the song selection, the musicians, who was going to sing what.
“Who knows why they made the choices they did? We had very little, if any control over the first two albums.
“Nez managed to write and play on a couple of things.
“Sometimes after 12 hours of filming, I would do a couple of lead vocals at night.
“I don’t remember having any control over the artwork, the liner notes, the sequencing, the song selection, nothing.
“Having said that, I’m very, very proud of those first two albums.
“I put an enormous amount of that material in my shows because they were the big hits.”
Despite their frustrations, the group loved to play live.
Micky said: “Nez used to say, when we hit the stage live playing this music, that it was like Pinocchio becoming a real little boy and it was.
“There’s a wonderful CD out, ‘Monkees Live in 67’ that was not recorded to be an album.
“Somebody found the tape and it’s really raw. We were a garage band.
“But funnily enough, that’s what ‘The Monkees’ was about – the TV show was about a garage band, before the term even existed.”