Discover Top Posts Tagged with #headquarters radio

Photo by Matthew Asner:

“First day of school in 9th grade. I am nervous as hell because it is my first day of high school and it’s all new. I walk into my Social Studies Class and am greeted by the teacher who just happens to be Peter Tork of The Monkees. A guy I watched goofing around on TV religiously as a child was teaching me about the world. He was a tough teacher. We had a thing in his class where he would always think that I wasn’t paying attention. He would always make a point of stopping what he was teaching and say to me, ‘What did I just say`’ I would always answer him correctly and it always seemed to frustrate him. He was very smart and loved to read from Mao’s Little Red Book. I was truly happy for him when The Monkees started touring and he found success again. I took this picture in our schoolyard at New Dimensions High School.” - Matthew Asner (Ed Asner’s son), Facebook, July 1, 2023

“Since September he has been teaching English, math, drama, Eastern philosophy and ‘Rock Band Class’ at Pacific Hills, a private secondary school in Santa Monica, Calif. A college dropout, Peter got the job on the strength of his interview with Dr. Penrod Moss, the school’s director. ‘I like to hire people who are independent and creative,’ Moss said. ‘I was impressed by his personality and his ability to speak.’ […] While Tork the musician still has dreams of one day returning to the rock circuit, Thorkelson the teacher is happily planning his next course, ‘Mao, Marx and Mama.’ ‘I’m doing something important,’ he says. ‘I never do anything less than important.’” - People magazine, April 5, 1976

“For some time, [Tork] said, the students in his high school classes had trouble forgetting their teacher was once a teen idol. ‘Until I gave out a few F’s,’ he added, grinning.” - The Clarion Ledger, November 1, 1979 (x)

“I was a schoolteacher in Southern California, and I taught music as well as academics, and I really very much love to teach, and, and I think that if circumstances show me that I am not to entertain anymore or my entertaining career per se winds down, I would very, very much love to coach young entertainers.” - Peter Tork, Headquarters radio, September 1989

“[A]s a teacher, I realized that in order to teach something well you need to understand what your student is going through as they try to learn.” - Peter Tork, The Journal Times Online, August 12, 2005

On a 2018 blog post at the Monkees Live Almanac, one former student, Mark, commented: “Best high school teacher I ever had […]. Tremendous empathy.” (x)

“I taught English and social studies. And sure, the kids probably saw me as a Monkee, but they got over that in a hurry. Once I lost my temper at the kids, they’d see I was just like all the others — and I probably lost my temper too many times, since I was in an angry state back then. I have a life now, that’s the difference. I have a spiritual core. I’m not Shirley MacLaine but I believe in greater or lesser worlds and consciousness. Most people think of themselves as cut off from each other; others know there’s a connectedness that can be tapped into.” - Peter Tork, The Boston Globe, August 10, 1989

“In the mid-’70s, Tork got jobs teaching English, social studies and music at two private schools in the Los Angeles area. The first job, which he enjoyed, was at ‘a radical progressive school in Santa Monica.’ The second was at a school he describes as ‘a holding tank for budding fascists. I couldn’t hack it. I found more integrity in being a singing waiter’ — his next job.” - Los Angeles Times, October 20, 1992 (x)

More about that next job here.

#Peter Tork #Tork quotes #Tork teaching #70s Tork #<3 #long read #Matthew Asner #1975 #1976 #1977 #1978 #1979 #also always so much respect for Peter's unflinching honesty in interviews #this photo... thank you Matthew Asner thank you #The Clarion Ledger #Los Angeles Times #the boston globe #Headquarters Radio #can you queue it

Photo 4 by Henry Diltz.

A look at some specific books mentioned by Peter over the years...

- How To Play the Five-String Banjo: "Pete Seeger’s book was very, very good. He’s a lively writer as well as a very good musician, a good teacher, good, very enthusiastic kind of all around person. So it was very good to learn from his book. And I recommend the book highly if anybody ever wanted to learn how to play folk-style five-string banjo, his is the book to learn from.” - Peter, Headquarters radio, 1989 (x)

- Naked Lunch: “In Melbourne last night Peter Tork said that Sydney airport Customs officers had seized from his bag the banned book ‘The Naked Lunch,’ by William Burroughs. A Customs officer had taken one look at the book and said, ‘I’ll have that. It’s banned here.’ […] ‘It is a good book,’ Tork said. 'I was just getting interested it. It’s sold out everywhere back home. I didn’t know it was banned here.’” - The Sydney Morning Herald, September 17, 1968 (x)

- Letters to a Young Poet: One question posed to Peter for the Ask Peter Tork column in 2008 was, “Do you think [becoming a writer is] worth a try, or do you suggest I 'keep my day job'?” From Peter's reply: “What writers I know of say is, if you want to be a writer, you’re probably not going to do very well. If you must write, then write! Do you see the difference? Rainer Marie Rilke wrote 'Letters to a Young Poet,' which I recommend on this point. (It’s a small book, and cheap at the bookstore, and free at your library.)”

-Why Do I Say Yes When I Need To Say No?: Escaping The Trap Of Temptation by Michelle McKinney Hammond: “Some years ago there was a movement afoot to separate assertiveness from aggressiveness, which I heartily endorse to this day. 'Why Do I Say Yes When I Mean No,' is, I believe the name of one book that tackles this subject.” - Peter, Ask Peter Tork, 2008

- Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind: “I recommend sitting in Zen meditation. The best book I know for that is Zen Mind, Beginner’s Mind, by Shunryu Suzuki. It’s all about watching your own mind rather than obeying it as tho’ it were the infallible voice of the truth.” - Peter, Ask Peter Tork, 2008

- The Sayings of Buddha: “The Sayings of Buddha (a small, inexpensive book you can find in almost any book store) always rests on the night-table beside my bed. I find that ancient wisdom, meditation and contemplation puts my mind in order and brings me great serenity. These things also broaden my scope of understanding.” - Peter, 16, September 1968

- Stranger in a Strange Land: “One of my favorite books now is Stranger in a Strange Land by Robert Heinlein. It’s about the orphan child of the first Martian explorers. He grows to twenty-one years of age before he’s discovered by the second expedition to Mars which rescues him. He comes back to Earth, having been raised by the Martians — really fascinating!" - Peter, Fave, March 1968

- More Than Human: “Another writer I dig is Theodore Sturgeon, one of the greatest science fiction writers alive today. He visited our set one day and we were all very thrilled. He’s a visionary and a mystic, really one of the giant talents of the day. I hope everybody reads him. He wrote a book called More Than Human and a lot of other novels and short stories.” - Peter, Fave, March 1968

Q: "You read a book a day. Of all the books you have read, which three are your favorites and why?" A: "No, I don’t read a book a day. I sometimes spend weeks on a book. Of all the books I’ve read, my favorites are 'The Book Of [Tao],' 'Stranger In A Strange Land' and oh, I don’t know, a whole mess of other books, because they turn me on—they get to me." - Monkee Spectacular, January 1968

- The Book of Tao: “Peter also reads The Book of the Tao… all about an ancient Chinese nature philosophy with some simple, beautiful and meaningful messages in it. He studies all kinds of different religions, too. Peter has now figured out his own religion, what seems closest to Truth for him. It’s the result of much studying, thinking and sorting out. Peter was also influenced by the Oriental philosophies Zen. ‘Zen Buddhism believes in the theory of sudden enlightenment or sudden awakening. This idea is Japanese. I believe that Truth can just come to you in a sudden flash and you’ll know where it’s all at, if you prepare yourself to receive it. ‘Zen also teaches that you should just go along and live your life as best you can from minute to minute, always living in the present. You’re already there and there’s nothing else. If you can make the most of each day, accomplish and learn all you can now, you’ll get so much more done in your lifetime than if you sit around waiting for tomorrow to come. Because when tomorrow gets here it’s just another today. You end up just waiting and putting things off and nothing ever gets done. So, try to make each minute count!’” - Fave, March 1968

- Upanishads: "[Peter] starts clowning around [on set], but after a bit he settles down and starts reading a book. He sees you looking and explains, ‘This is a book of some of the excerpts of the Upanishads. Actually, these are excerpts from ancient Hindu writings. I guess you could say that in a sense they are like the Bible, only they were written many centuries before the old testament.’ Peter stops speaking for a moment. ‘Am I boring you?’ he asks gently. After you assure him that he is not boring anyone, he continues, ‘Well, the Upanishads are simply but beautifully written. I mean, they are quite easy to understand. You can buy the Mentor pocket edition for about 50 cents —′ Just about that time, Peter becomes aware of 16’s camera focusing on him. He promptly becomes a clown again, laughing and joking and holding his book myopically up to his eyes. You realize that you have just had a glimpse of the real Peter Tork — the sensitive, sincere young man who hides behind the veneer of a silly-funny Monkee. And it makes you feel very warm that for a brief moment you have glimpsed Peter Tork’s secret self." - 16, February 1968

- Autobiography of a Yogi: As Henry Diltz recalled (in Laurel Canyon: A Place In Time), “I remember giving one to Peter on The Monkees set. I did a group shot of them sitting on a couch and he was reading the Yogananda book. I always felt so good about that.”

#Peter Tork #Tork quotes #long read #1967 #1968 #2008 #The Monkees #Monkees #bookworm Peter :)#if anyone's looking for additions to a reading list...#love his mind #more for the solid Tork advice files #Headquarters Radio #16 Magazine #Fave Magazine #Monkee Spectacular #Ask Peter Tork #The Sydney Morning Herald #can you queue it

Via Historic Films, Peter Tork performing “Seeger’s Theme” at the Speakeasy in Greenwich Village, early 1980s (dated 1982 on the Historic Films website).

“I wanted to record the cut [’Seeger’s Theme‘] because I always thought that the piece had a lot of rhythm, and I hoped to display it. I keep trying.” - Peter Tork, The Birds, The Bees & The Monkees box set

“[When I was about 14] I asked for a banjo, and they went out, my folks went out and bought me a little tiny, dinky five-string banjo. And Pete Seeger’s book, How To Play the Five-String Banjo, I think I bought that myself, and learned how to play from that. Nobody said, ‘Here, take a banjo,’ or, ‘Gee, you’d be good at it,’ or anything like that. I just wanted to play it.” - Peter Tork, Headquarters radio, 1989

“I’m a great admirer of Pete Seeger." - Peter Tork, Disc and Music Echo, January 13, 1968

“‘When I was a kid, before the Monkees, I was not primarily a rock and roller,’ said Tork during a 1998 interview. ‘I was primarily an acoustic folkie. For us, as acoustic folkies, the politics were very clear. We were strongly liberal, in the Pete Seeger mold. We certainly had a strong sense of right and wrong, and we certainly believed a lot that was wrong with society was the fault of the moneyed class. I think all of us to some extent believed ourselves to be socialists.’" - We all want to change the world: Rock and politics from Elvis to Eminem (2003) (x)

#Peter Tork #1980s #80s Tork #Tork videos #<3 #Tork quotes #Pete Seeger #Seeger's Theme #The Monkees #Monkees #60s Tork #00s Tork #<333 #Tork banjo #Headquarters Radio #Disc and Music Echo #We All Want To Change The World: Rock and Politics from Elvis to Eminem #can you queue it

Janis Joplin and Peter Tork in the audience at Monterey Pop Festival, June 1967. Photos by Jim Marshall (?).

“On my birthday we were in L.A. playing a club & everyone was so nice! The owners of the club sent me 3 dozen red roses — all over the stage when I came in, the band gave me 2 doz. […] Peter Tork sent me 1 doz. red roses. And after the show we had lots of champagne & a birthday cake. Really nice.” - From a 1968 letter sent by Janis Joplin to her family, via Genesis Publications

“‘My favorite guest star [on The Monkees TV show] was the one that was never on the show,’ Tork said. ‘I always wanted Janis Joplin,’ [Tork] said.” - The Defender, February 21, 1996 (x)

“At a gig in Los Angeles Janis picked up a busboy, a young Peter Tork, at the Golden Bear club, and it took a bit of convincing, but Tork, who later became one of the Monkees, told me about their off-and-on relationship. ‘Janis made no particular point of displaying her intelligence,’ he said, ‘but this came up and she couldn’t help setting me straight. She had her bottle of Southern Comfort right there, and I told her she would get “sclerosis” of the liver. She corrected me on my usage of the word, “No, it’s cirrhosis of the liver.”’ Peter laughed. ‘In those days acts were booked for a week, and there we were! For a while every time I saw Janis, she was happy to see me, hugged me, gave me that great big old laugh, and the next thing I knew we were rolling in the hay together. Then one day I caught up with her at a Who concert and she wasn’t friendly to me at all, and I said, “Okay, I get it, she’s after one of these other guys!” That was that.’” - Rock Bottom: Dark Moments in Music Babylon by Pamela Des Barres (1996)

“She was wonderful to know and to hang out with, and of course it was wonderful to enjoy her fabulous talent.” - Peter Tork, askpetertork dot com, July 2010

“Janis should have been knocking ‘em down into her sixties.” - Peter Tork, Headquarters radio, September 1989

Peter Tork: “Actually, Janis and I knew each other before we both broke, before either of us broke. I was a bar — I was a busboy and a beer jerk at a pub called the Golden Bear in Huntington Beach, California. I had just gone to California. And Janis was in Big Brother and the Holding Company, and they were a pretty well-known San Francisco band, but Janis hadn’t broken as big as she became later. And they came through, and Janis and I just fell to talking. We had a lot in common, I mean, there was something in common, I — spoke to her about her drinking, I said, ‘You might get sclerosis,’ she said, ‘Cirrhocis!’ I got corrected. I didn’t mind being corrected. and, you know... And, and we just became —” Q: “You bonded. You had a connection there.” PT: “Pretty close. [...] We lost contact. Then, a couple of years later, The Monkees were already rolling, I’m watching 2001: Space Odyssey [released on April 2, 1968]. And Janis is in the audience, too, and she, ‘Hey! How ya doing?’ She’s so raucous, you know, ‘Hey, how ya doing, honey?’ She was fabulous. And so we hung — ”

Peter Tork teaching; photo 1 published in People magazine, April 5, 1976, photographed by Anthony K. Roberts.

Peter Tork: “[W]hen you ask me if I’m doing anything important between then and now, I hear you asking me: have I done anything that has been noticed particularly by any large body of people? The answer is no, I haven’t had a large influence, I haven’t made a loud noise, and I haven’t done anything that has reached a lot of people in a lot of ways. I taught school for three years, and to me, that was pretty important because I was dealing, you know, at the closest level possible on one-to-one. But that’s not going to get me my fame and fortune. It’s important, but it’s not loud.” Q: “I really didn’t mean to ask you, have you done anything to make yourself famous.” PT: “Well, what did you mean by important then? (jokingly) You didn’t know.” Q: “(laughs) It is a vague word. Sort of meant memorable. But again, it’s a vague word.” PT: “Memorable? Yes, but memorable by whom? I think some of my former students are gonna remember that I was their teacher for a while. That was all right. The fact that… you know, and also, you have to remember that, in this society, teaching is not regarded as a very important pastime by those people in charge of setting budgets and national priorities and that kind of thing. Because if it were, they’d be paid a vastly greater amount of money than they are. Not, you know, double doesn’t begin to get it. Triple, quadruple, that kind of thing maybe. And the fact that teachers are paid as poorly as they are indicates what the priorities are. Nurses make what garbage men make, that kind of thing. It’s not a, you know, it speaks... well... ill, it speaks very poorly and very loudly about our priorities. That’s not my business in the large sense, all I can do is play the games as they are laid out before me. And having some modest influence in the style with which I play them. That seems to be about it.” - KTRU, August 28, 1983

“In the 15 years since the Monkees broke up, Tork estimates he has worked in a dozen rock bands, including a 35-voice ‘Aquarian age gospel music’ choir. Tork also worked as a teacher for three years in southern California, teaching English, math, drama, ‘even typing — I do a mean 50 words per minute,’ he laughs.” - Washington Post, July 27, 1983

“[After Marin County] I went to Southern California and sort of assembled a family. My daughter from my previous marriage came to live with me and my woman, who I then married and had a son with. Then I taught school. There I was, a married father of two, and a nice square career teaching school.” Q: “I guess you intended to give up the music business.” PT: “Well, it was the best offer I had. (Spoken in hippie drawl) Hey, man, I just go where the four winds blow, man. I taught for a year and a half, then the organization collapsed. It was called Pacific Hills School in Santa Monica and it was gorgeous. I was teaching English, social studies, tutoring a little bit of math, science, phys. ed. and music. I had a rock band class — there was one guy whose fingers just flew. I had one woman who played flute in the rock band and with her on cello and me on guitar we did a Bach piece together; it was splendid.” - Goldmine, 1982

"I was a schoolteacher in Southern California, and I taught music as well as academics, and I really very much love to teach, and, and I think that if circumstances show me that I am not to entertain anymore or my entertaining career per se winds down, I would very, very much love to coach young entertainers." - Peter Tork, Headquarters radio, September 1989

On a 2018 blog post at the Monkees Live Almanac, one former student, Mark, commented: "Best high school teacher I ever had [...]. Tremendous empathy."

(You can read more about, and see more photos from, Peter's time teaching in an older post.)

Peter, as photographed by Lauren Ellis in 1990; and (fan) photos of the Dashboard Saints in Japan, 1990 (photos 3 & 4 via Twitter).

Photo 1: “Still my favorite picture of Peter. We were heading to the airport to tour Japan.” - Lauren Ellis, Facebook, 2019

“Dashboard Saints (special members for Japan tour) at Flower Expo '90 Osaka, Japan Peter Tork (guitar), Jerry Renino (bass), Lauren Ellis (guitar), David Rosen (keyboards), Liam Mullholland (drums) One of my best memories!” - Keiki, Twitter, March 28, 2019 [tweet]

More about the Dashboard Saints, and specifically, Peter and Lauren, in an older post.

"[W]hat has happened to me as a result of the kind of recovery that I’ve been able to experience is that I’ve come to see that, in a very positive sense, there is nothing to lose, and to the extent that I’m aware of this, I expect to be able to make a kind, some — I hope and pray — to be able to make some kind of a statement aesthetically and artistically as well that, I think, will be a little bit stronger than I’ve been able to do heretofore." - Peter Tork, Headquarters radio, September 1989

#Peter Tork #Jerry Renino #Lauren Ellis #David Rosen #Liam Mullholland #1990 #Dashboard Saints #Tork fan photos #90s Tork #<3 #bearded Peter #Headquarters Radio #can you queue it

Filming “The Frodis Caper” (November 27-29, 1967; this final episode of the TV show first aired on March 25, 1968). (All?) photos by Henry Diltz.

“The four speak to each other as acquaintances and one gets the impression of a working-hours-or-sessions relationship only. They appear to be a little too polite to each other, too aware of each other for comfort. Peter defers to Micky’s talent as a director. ‘You know, like we were doing one TV show with Micky directing,’ Peter imitates Micky’s muggings. ‘He takes the script, flips it open and says, “Let’s see here now… we shoot starting with page seven… here boys,” he calls over the camera crew and in bright sunlight shoots in four hours with no rehearsal what it normally takes 12 hours to shoot.’ Micky grins, bows politely with a ‘Thank you, kind sir.’” - article by Peggy King, Oakland Tribune, December 7, 1968

“I think Micky’s [directorial] job, Micky’s ‘Frodis Caper,’ I thought that was a brilliant job.” - Peter Tork, Headquarters radio, September 1989 (read more about "Monkees Mind Their Manor," the episode Peter directed, here)

"Lady's Baby" (Tork) alternate vocal [More on YouTube.] Photo 1 in this video by Nurit Wilde, photo 2 by Bridgeman Images.

"[At the Troubadour, Peter] sang one of his new songs, ‘Lady’s Baby,’ and was called back for an encore." - Disc and Music Echo, May 18, 1968 (x)

“Peter isn’t sure what he’s going to do now [that he has left The Monkees], but he’s feeling free for the first time in months. Toward the end of the Monkees’ run at Screen Gems, Peter said they’d go into recording sessions and not even speak to each other much less play together.” - Circus, June 1969

“[Davy] got sick of banging the tambourine all day long. And [Micky] lost faith in himself. He never did believe he was a decent drummer, so he didn't want to do it anymore. Mike wanted to produce his own records. He wanted to have total control. I was the only one who believed in the group per se, and so there I was all by myself, wanting a group, with nobody to be a group with.” - Peter Tork, When The Music Mattered (1984)

“Taking the expression of following one’s muse quite literally, [Peter] sought to re-create in the studio the very environment that inspired him to compose the song. This endeavor included having a recording engineer crawl on the ground after young Justin to capture real-life ‘smiles and coos’ (as in the song’s lyrics). Both lady and baby giggled and squeaked through hours of expensive recording time, which seemed to infuriate some members of the band and their musical coordinator, the late Lester Sill. ‘“Lady’s Baby” was a very weird and ridiculous situation,’ recalls engineer Hank Cicalo. ‘To accommodate Peter at the time, he wanted to do this thing and he wanted it to be real spacey. So what we did was we set up the studio and brought rugs in and made a little room with pillows. He would bring his friends in and they’d sit around and he’d play a little bit. It was pretty outrageous: days and days of doing the same piece of material. ‘They would just sit around for hours and drink wine and carry on, and try to get takes of this tune. Maybe we would make one or two takes. It was OK for me as an engineer because it was like taxi time. But he wouldn’t take any help from anybody. At this point in time I thought my communication with the guys was pretty good, and I could talk to them and whatever else. There were a couple of times he got a little hot about doing this. I’d say, ‘Hey, you’re wasting a lot of time. Either we do this track, or we get on with it.’ We must have done a hundred takes on that thing. He sort of went off on his own in a lot of ways. And there was a little resentment between the guys in not working together.’” - The Birds, The Bees & The Monkees box set liner notes

“Hey listen, fair is fair. They laugh and joke about that [‘Lady’s Baby’]. OK, it cost as much to do I think as ‘Good Vibrations.’ They were laughing about Peter Tork, but that [song] is a true-to-life thing. He was living with a woman [Karen Harvey] at the time and she had a little baby [Justin Hammer] and that changed his life, you know? That gave him something to think about. He was being downtrodden by the studio in regard to his recording and his playing and his songs and everything else, but the guy was the salt of the earth. It wasn’t just Hare Krishna, waterbeds and brown rice. That guy was a very, very accomplished musician. He needed magic to be able to get in and do ‘Lady’s Baby.’ It’s a nice song. It’s true. It’s got the warmth and everything of what he was living. ‘Lady’s Baby’ touches me, lets me know that I am free, whatever it is. I remember it so well. It’s a real tune, you know? I love it.” - Davy Jones, The Monkees: The Day-By-Day Story of the '60s TV Pop Sensation (2005) (x)

"[M]y darling Karen, with whom I am still very good friends all these years later.” - Peter Tork during his My Life In The Monkees & So Much More tour, 2013 (x)

"We’re still very, very good friends." - Karen Harvey, The News Journal, July 16, 1989 (x)

Q: “The Birds, The Bees & The Monkees sessions was a productive time in the studio for The Monkees. However, none of your stuff like ‘Lady’s Baby’ and ‘Tear The Top Right Off My Head’ made it to the album. How come?” Peter Tork: “To tell you truth… I… I never was able in those days particularly — I’m getting better at it these days — but in those days I was almost entirely unable to fight for what I saw as quality. If I didn’t get somebody fighting on my behalf then it didn’t, just didn’t come to pass. And none of the other guys was much interested in supporting my sense of quality, they had their own agendas and each one of them… I mean, not that I was left out in this regard, no one of us really supported any of the others except that, that I like to think that I tried to support Micky in a way which, for some reason, he never did pick up on. I mean, I think that Micky has a certain kind of genius that he was never able to acknowledge in himself. But be any of that as it may, I just basically think that I wasn’t feeling a part of it anymore already by that point, I’d already felt like I was odd man out, and of course I quit almost immediately thereafter. In fact, I think it’s The Birds, The Bees & The Monkees that has some tunes that were recorded after I quit.” - Headquarters radio, September 1989 (x)