Davy Jones died nearly exactly a year ago and I mention this because, well, because he died almost exactly (February 29th, 2012) a year ago today.
And also because I just bought the first season of the Monkees on DVD and have been working my way through the 32 episodes with a fair amount of pleasure. as much as I remembered? No, not really, but filled with moments and I even prefer the one minute of improv atthe end of each show than I remember. There is an early one with Davy talking about coming home for a visit before the Monkees hit and his father not letting him in until he cut his hair. So once the Monkees hit, Davy bought his dad a house but kept it in his own name. "Now let him try to kick me out!" Jones concluded with a life.
Still in the first year, "The Spy who Came In from The Cool" was a pleasant enough spies and red maracas special. Not bad but nothing special except for one scene where Davy Jones was being secretly filmed by the C.I.S. (aka C.I.A). "Are you sure he doesn't know you are filming him?" asks the C.I.A. man as Davey breaks into the old shoe shuffle and a dynamic version of Stephen Foster's "Old Folks Home".
It is simply magical. Jones has a twinkle in his eyes as he roots up his old British Dance Hall past and performs and sings the evrsion Paul Robeson sure did.
Watching it today, that history (I actually wrote the same thing about a week before he died), that not coming out of rock and roll but out of musical theater and vaudeville, was money in the bank. It was a dmention nobody else had and Jones could turn it on at will.
Jones was one of the greats… he isn't close to being forgotten.