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Q: “Combining a slow and fast tempo, Jo Mapes’s ‘Come on In’ is a gentle Monkees tune that remained under lock and key until 1990’s Missing Links, Volume Two. It contains one of your best vocals.” Peter Tork: “Aha… I used to sing it in Greenwich Village back in my folkie days. Actually, I first heard a lady named Alix Dobkin performing the song while I was living there. It just sounded so much like the kinds of things that I wanted to sing about, so I had to eventually record it in 1968. I have no idea why it wasn’t originally released. I just made these things and put them out there. Other people made the decisions, and I didn’t think much to fight for things. It’s a shortcoming of mine, and I have to work on that. I’m still working on that.” - Medium, interview conducted in 2011

“There’s one song that Peter Tork sings on that Missing Links album where he sounds absolutely super. He sounds great; he’s right on the button. Sings it good and he wasn’t supposed to be a singer. The other guys were always pushing him out and Mike Nesmith was always sort of like threatening him, putting his fist through the wall doing all this kind of shit. I’m sure Peter could kick his ass if he wanted to, but he never did. Unbelievable.” - Davy Jones, The Monkees Day By Day

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Screenshot from the “This Song” music video.

“Dark Horse will be run pretty tightly. I don’t want to be a Kinney or an RCA or anything like that — I won’t have thousands of artists. In one way it’s similar to the idea behind Apple, in that most artists we’ve got at the moment have come into my life without me looking for them. That’s the funny thing. The friendship thing comes into it quite strongly for me — and it works both ways round. For instance, Jim Keltner didn’t want to tell me about his band because he didn’t like the idea of using his friendship to get his band a gig, so I got to sign Keltner’s band from meeting the piano player, which is slightly crazy when you consider the friendship between Keltner and me and the fact that all those albums ago I was putting ‘Jim Keltner fan club‘ on my album sleeves. And he’s hesitant about coming to see me for a gig!” - George Harrison, Melody Maker, September 6, 1975

“He loved to make you happy, to see your expression when he showed you stuff that meant something to him, like walking in the garden and showing you a plant of which he knew the Latin name. Even in the garden, he was such an artist. It was so pretty, and he liked to share these things. He was so easy to be around, and he had this mischievous glint in his eye yet never harmful. Such a sense of humor. Once when Ringo, George and I were sitting in his garden, George said, ‘Let’s all grow old together and live in a great big house.’ I felt that’s what would happen. To wake up at Friar Park to a cup of tea and a slice of lemon cake, to play with George, was magic.” - Jim Keltner, Mojo, November 2014

“It [the Concert for George] was a very powerful experience for all of us who were involved, because we all loved George so much. George was the best kind of friend you could have in this world. He was a guy who loved being with his friends, and he loved turning his friends on to different things. I learned so much from George, he was like the big brother who’s successful and goes into the world first, then takes his family under his wing and shows them all the things he’s seen. He taught me so many things, he was a wonderful teacher, and one of the most beautiful human beings. He just had the softest, gentlest ways about him. He could be angry, and talk about something in anger, and still seem to be so amazingly calm about it. There was a great calmness about him. George spoke low and slow, never loud and abusive, which from everything I’ve read is the best way to communicate. And that’s the way George was, he was the epitome of that. And he was one of the most loyal people I’ve ever met. That’s what was so heartbreaking that he had to get out of here so soon, because I really looked forward to growing old with George. But that’s not the way the world works.” - Jim Keltner, The Dawn of Indian Music in the West (2006) (x)

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Some of “Cruisin’” (at the Universal Amphitheater in 1989).

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Peter Tork at Monterey Pop Festival, June 1967.

“I don’t know that [David] Crosby was talking about drugs when he was talking about my innocence. I am absolutely of the optimistic believer in the better angels of our nature type of guy, and I absolutely was then. Being that way, you tend to overlook the harder realities. The British have this expression, gobsmacked, which is a great expression — it’s like being hit with a big wet fish. As reality hit me, I was gobsmacked at every turn, and years and years later, now, as we’re talking, I think I’ve had my education and I’m not stupid about the way things are, but I still believe in the sunnier angels of our nature. I’ve just become less sanguine about how we were going to fix the world by tomorrow. That’s clearly not going to happen, because too many people have too much of a stake in what’s wrong with the world, as far as I’m concerned, and I believe it’s all fear. I don’t believe anybody, given the full choice — except for sociopaths — would prefer to be operating on a basis of greed and acquisition, because everybody knows that the actual possession of things themselves does not generate any longterm satisfaction. Everybody knows this, and yet people keep chasing the carrot, even though they sort of know that it’s tied to their own heads and they’ll never get it, they still keep chasing it because they don’t know how to.” - Peter Tork, 2007 interview, published by Rolling Stone in 2019

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Happy Spring!

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Peter Tork, Coco Dolenz, and Micky Dolenz onstage at the Troubadour in September 1970.

“Coco’s a wonderful singer. I’m just so impressed with her at all times.” - Peter Tork, Zilch podcast, no. 67 (2016) “My heart is full with memories of my beloved Peter. ‘We were born to love one another, this is something we all need’ . Fly free my friend. May we meet again.” “In honor of my beloved ‘brother’ Peter, I’m listening to Blues today. Not just because I’m sad, but because it reminds me of him and his love for the genre. On tour, we always played ‘a little blues for Pete’ during sound checks and VIP Meet and Greets. He could play anything, from Rock and Roll to Classical. I miss you, Pete.” - Coco Dolenz, Facebook (February 2019)

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Photo from the 1965 filming of The Monkees' pilot episode.

From the 1970s transcripts of the unpublished, shelved Peter Tork autobiography (auctioned off on eBay years ago): Peter Tork: "[At Michael's home, in 1965] you had to climb about 120 steps. I remember when I walked in after the pilot I arrived separately, arrived back home, as it was, Phyllis walked in from the shower, stark naked, scared the shit out of both of us." Q: "Out of her, too?" PT: "Well, we were both quite startled." Q: "Oh, it was just you and her." PT: "Mike hadn’t come in yet. I hope it’s not too embarrassing to her to say that. Maybe I should ask her, I think I can reach her."

“The first time I met Peter was at the Troubadour where he performed, long before the auditions. I’ve always liked his warmth and honesty. And he’s always been very kind to me. Both Davy and Peter have lived with us and Peter was always very considerate, helping with the dishes and all. One night Mike just brought Davy home to dinner and that was how I met him. It was at a very early period, right after the guys had been chosen. Davy was so charming and nice. He would walk the dog, play with Christian and compliment my cooking — really nice to have around. Christian liked all of them right from the first. He’s always so happy when any of the Monkees drop over. When Davy and Peter lived with us it was kind of a family atmosphere. They just all kind of pitched in — and even babysat for us!” - Phyllis Nesmith, Fave (January 1968) [x]

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The Monkees during the promotion of their movie Head, 1968.

“Someone asked Mike about his philosophy of life. Another asked Davy if he liked Schwinns or English racers better. Meanwhile a WAMU reporter with a tape recorder cornered Peter. ‘Peter, would you said Whenever I’m in Washington, I listen to WAMU radio.’ ‘But I don’t,’ Peter answered. ‘That doesn’t matter, just say it.’ Then they started asking him about the movie, ‘Head.’ ‘It could really be a smash or it could really go bad-phoooo-blup!’ he explained. Then he talked about one of the Monkees records. ‘Well we have two versions of that song. One is four minutes long and the other is about one and a half or two minutes. The shorter one is supposed to be a lot better.’ Then about college. ‘I’m trying to unlearn everything I know. Knowledge clutters up the mind and makes it unfit for meditation.’ Then Peter asked the ‘Head Girls’ why they dressed up so prissy rather than hip. They explained that Randy Swartz told them to. He asked who Randy was and everybody pointed to him. ‘Oh, well, no wonder,’ Peter said. […] Meanwhile, Randy was cornering each of the Miss Heads individually and was saying, very discreetly, something like this: ‘Say, honey, we’re having a screening and a cocktail party afterwards with the boys. Sounds pretty good, huh, would you like to go? The boys would really appreciate it.’ Then Randy came over to Peter and said ‘We’re gonna wrap it up in 15 minutes.’ ‘We are, huh,’ Peter said. Randy smiled weakly again. Just before the Hatchet contingent left, Peter, seeming to speak for all but Miss Head from Maryland, said, ‘This is the most insane thing I’ve ever been to. It’s hideous and worse.’” - article (about an event promoting the movie Head) by Brian Cabell, The Hatchet (November 18, 1968)