This Monkee’s Gone to Heaven

Another shocker, as I learn another icon  from my generation bites the dust. Davy Jones, dead at 66, from a heart attack.

The Monkees were actually from the generation before me, but I enjoyed their television show and saw their reunion tour in the late 1980s. Davy Jones still performs, but shame we take things for granted that artists will always be around. And then, damn!

The Monkees are on the “heavy” playlist in our home. My husband plays them quite often. The cutest thing was one day he was playing Monkees videos on our television downstairs and my oldest cat, Billy, came running down. Animals are sensitive to music. My other cat favors The Turtles.

My absolute favorite song that Davy Jones ever sang wasn’t a Monkees song, but rather his own solo song. I just DIE when I hear the song “Girl.” I’m sure everyone remembers the Brady Bunch episode when he sang that song.

Davy Jones Facts

1. Jimi Hendrix was once the warm-up act for The Monkees and toured with them!

2. Glam legend David Bowie was born David Robert Jones and you can find his early works under the name “Davy Jones and the Lower Third.” He later changed his name to “Bowie” to avoid confusion with Davy Jones of the Monkees.

3. In February 1964 Davy Jones appeared on the Ed Sullivan show with the cast of “Oliver” (which he was cast for). On this same show, The Beatles made their first Ed Sullivan appearance.

4. Davy Jones was married three times and has four daughters from his first two marriages.

5. At 5’3″ Davy Jones was a jockey prior to his Monkees fame.

RIP Davy Jones, you will be missed!

Record “Release” Party

They say when a woman cleans out her purse, she cleans out her life.

I feel the same about music.

Now, when it comes to music, I’m a major pack rat. My collection consists of vinyl, tapes and CDs. Call me a dinosaur, but I’ve not yet come into the iPod or iPhone stage. All my music is neatly kept in my dressing room and some of the older cassettes are in boxes tucked away for safe keeping.

As much as I love music, all types of music, I do believe that there comes a time when a woman (or man) should go through his/her collection and clean house.

So for those who still keep a record or CD collection and it’s a lot harder to get rid of something rather than just pressing a “delete” button on an iPod, here are my top five reasons for cleaning house.

1. Greatest Misses. Did you ever buy a “greatest hits” CD only to find out a lot of the songs suck and weren’t really hits at all? Then get rid of it. The “hits” you can always hear on the radio anyway.

2. Misguided Loyalty. Do you have every CD of an artist, including the ones that were lukewarm? Trust me, Steve Jones isn’t going to be disappointed in you as a fan if you toss his “Fire and Gasoline” album. Admit it, it’s the worst thing he’s ever done. Who cares that he was a Sex Pistol, that he wrote some of the greatest songs with Paul Cook, and that everything else he ever was musical gold. That album is awful and it doesn’t need to be in anyone’s collection — fan or not!

3.The Local “Stars.” Okay, so you were dedicated to a friend’s band, back in the 1980s, and went to every single show. That was the time of your life and you have a ton of memories. This band put out a CD, you brought it for support, but it wasn’t quite the same as going to see them live. The CD is in your house gathering dust. Unless they put your name on the CD, thanking you for being their greatest fan, you may as well toss that too. Face it, the ’80s are long gone and you’ll never listen to that CD again. If you ever feel you need to hear it again, you may find it in the $1.98 bin at Vintage Vinyl.

4. CDs or Records that Skip. Yikes! You weren’t exactly careful with your collection and now you have these ugly sounds on your favorite music. Even if it’s something super rare, just throw it out and move on. It’s just so annoying to have a great song pop into your head, but you’re so used to hearing a skip, that skip will be a constant in your psyche.

Remember 8-tracks? Songs would fade out at the end of one track and then pick up on the next. As a child, whenever I heard “A Cowboy’s Work is Never Done” by Sonny & Cher on the radio, I’d automatically hear that “fade out” in my head because it was embedded in my brain thanks to that damn 8-track tape! Just like skips, it’s not good. Your favorite music deserves so much more!

5. Overplayed “Classics.” I can definitely go the rest of my life without ever hearing “Satisfaction” by the Rolling Stones or “Dark Side of the Moon” by Pink Floyd. And maybe even “Stairway to Heaven” by Led Zeppelin. Honestly! Yes, they are great songs. They are fabulous songs! But they are overplayed to the point that I get nauseated when they are on the radio.

“Wayne’s World” came out in the early 1990s and murdered “Bohemian Rhapsody” by Queen. Prior to that movie being out, Queen was an under-rated, hidden treasure that selected music fans cherished (that would be me). For almost a decade, I couldn’t listen to “Bohemian Rhapsody” thanks to “Wayne’s World” (which was a great movie, by the way, but abusing the work of Queen is almost as bad as stepping on Elvis’s blue suede shoes!)

So there you have it … go through your collection and if any of these musings are relevant, feel free to release them from your life. And if you can’t simply “toss,” then just put the shit aside for your next garage sale.

Then when you’re sifting through your music to find something to play, you’ll have a refreshing collection that’s not obscured by stuff you don’t really need to hear!

In Honor of George Washington

Photo by Adam Nemeroff on Unsplash

(Photo Update 2/22/23)

It’s Washington’s Day and legend has it that ‘ol George never told a lie.

Well, guess what? I don’t lie either. Not much. I have no reason to. I have nothing to hide and part of my image is telling it like it is.

And the reason I don’t lie isn’t integrity. My reason for not lying has a very silly story behind it. You see, when I was a teenage punk rocker back in 1981, I met Johnny Rotten, by chance. He was hanging outside of the old Peppermint Lounge in New York City after a Johnny Thunders show on Christmas.

I don’t want to blow his “rotten” image, but he was a very nice guy. Too nice to give me his autograph, as he didn’t feel worthy of that. Instead he offered me a can of beer (which I saved and kept on my dresser for years, unopened).

I was with a few other kids and our driver gave Rotten (who then used his real name, John Lydon when he started his new band Public Image Limited) a ride to the hotel he was staying out. During the ride, Rotten answered all our questions about the Sex Pistols. He was just great and as he got out of the car, he kissed me and the other girl who was with us, on the cheek and said, “Peace and good will.”

Wow, what a thrill for a teenage Sex Pistols and Public Image Limited fan! I came home that night and woke up my grandmother to tell her and she was excited for me. (She believed me, of course).

A few months later I was at a party and shared the story. Some listened in awe, but this one idiot refused to believe me!

Now meeting Johnny Rotten, or any punk musician in NYC during the late 1970s or early 1980s was not that far-fetched. It was a great scene and people just mingled. That’s what we did. There were no attitudes. You could take a piss in a restroom and end up becoming best friends with the chick in the next stall. That’s just how it was and damn, I miss those ultra cool days!

So, instead of walking away from the jerk, in my teenage innocence I tried to convince him that yes, the story WAS true! When he still refused to believe me I said, “If I was to make up a lie, I’d tell a real good one, like I dated Freddie Mercury!”

Well, moving forward, I took that opportunity to promise myself that I’d never tell a lie. This way I’d never be known as a liar (or as some people say “a bullshit artist”) and down the road I could tell my beloved Johnny Rotten story and everyone would believe me!

Now 30 years later, I’ve told so many people the story. And everyone believed me! Although one friend, who either had a bad memory or wasn’t really listening to begin with, distorted the story and thought it was Sid Vicious I met.

No, I never met Sid Vicious. I have to be honest.