"Star Collector" off Pisces, Aquarius, Capricorn And Jones, Limited, was tailor written for the Monkees by Gerry Goffin and Carole King, maybe five years before King would move to L.A. and write one of the great women albums of all time, Tapestry.
The song, with lead singer Davy Jones, is a piece of incipient sexism and a catchy pop tone plus subdued psychedelic freak out at the end. On its own, a beloved song, but at its heart a disturbing putdowns of groupies.
The Monkees would've known from groupies, as the young celebrities par excellence, they had girls by the thousands throwing themselves at them. And groupies would've come with the territory.
In the song, Jones takes a swipe at a girl for only sleeping with young celebrities and even with that knowledge, he finds himself obsessing. "It won't take much time, before I get you off my mind", Jones claims in one of his toughest vocals. It begs the question as to why she is on Jones mind at all and, indeed, why he is overacting. The truth is the groupie got under his skin and he thinks she isn't worthy of him.
Despite the movie "Almost Famous" going some way in saving groupies from their reputation as semi-prostitutes, And despite Keith Richards' tribute in his autobiography "Life", groupies, but really any promiscuous women, are roundly condemned by the men who share their appetite and a society more than ready to condemn them.
Before DNA testing could prove who the father of a baby was, and before condoms and the pill could control unwanted pregnancy, men had a vested interest in controlling female promiscuity, so they made up lies about it. And in 2012 people like Presidential candidate Rick Santorum, perpetuate them.
In 1967, Jones neither wanted the girls he slept with, nor did he want them to sleep with other people. The song claims, it is the star collectors pecking order that bothers him, but the give away is "she only aims to please…" that's the real point. Her sexual pleasing…
The problem with female promiscuity is that romantic love and sexual intimacy are so closely related that women themselves take pride in their own monogamy, while there is no physical reason to do so. It is a social pressure and an emotional pressure and it is very difficult to break free of it.
There is only one good reason for monogamy: because people want to be monogamous and if you make a promise, for instance a wedding vow, it is incumbent upon people to keep itheir promise.
But look at promiscuity this way: if prostitution was legalized instead of demonized, if there were awards for, say, best sexual encounter by a woman age 45 – 54 showing on CBS prime time, the tattered taboos of the second eldest professional would be destroyed.
Davy has feelings for the girl but in the end he is stuck in status symbol land and responds to his affection by destroying the girl's reputation. It won't take much time, before she gets Jones off her mind.
In the mid-seventies the Monkees, in one of their incarnations, retaining only Mickey, I believe, made an appearance at the LA convention center. They only made it the first day of their two-day schedule, as only three or four showed up to the promotion. My young aunt, a sweet, but admittedly homely lass, and her school chum, who was a fierce fan and budding groupie got to attend. She had several clippings of her name in print, quite an impressive trophy to my preteen mind. Mickey gave a vinyl album to my 12 year old male cousin, calling him the prettiest girl in the room. A low point in their career…
the world is based upon women sexually exploitating themselves for money