History, Media, Music, Songs

RIP Peter

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I was a little too young to be a full-on Beatles fan. In the mid-60s, I hadn’t quite hit puberty yet and didn’t have any of the drama and angst about pop idols that was needed.  But that changed just a few years later when the Monkees hit the pop scene.

Along with my friends, I papered by bedroom walls with Monkee posters, I watched their tv show religiously, I bought every single and album, I read every Tiger Beat and Teen Idol that I could get my hands on. In 1967 at the age of 11, I convinced by folks to let me go to their concert with some friends when they played St. Louis (there was a chaperone with us).  It was the first pop concert I ever attended.

Peter was my favorite Monkee. Davy was most people’s favorite, but I liked Peter; he was portrayed as a little dorky and scatter-brained, the underdog.  I am always attracted to the underdog.  So I was sad earlier this week when I heard the news that he has passed away at the age of 77.  Not distraught but it somehow feels as if a stage of my life has passed as well.  I’m listening to the Monkees right now on my pc.

Who was your first idol?

58 thoughts on “RIP Peter”

  1. Well, this will date me. Although everything does that anyway!

    When I was fourteen I had a small AM radio tucked in the headboard of my bed. At night when I was supposed to be sleeping I quietly played music of a type I couldn’t hear in Iowa. A station in Little Rock had a wild disk jockey who played r & b platters that were really raw. One night he put on a song that made me sit bolt upright, stunned by the sound. The song captured the histrionic loneliness I had begun to feel, and I was shocked that someone had put out a song that I could connect with like that. The song was Heartbreak Hotel. The singer, totally unknown then, was Elvis Presley.

    I went to bed that night as a kid, but when I got up the next day I was a teenager. Oh, the sturm and drang!

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  3. I remember how heartbroken I was when I was a tween to learn that DaveyJones was only 5′ 3″. I was 5’8″ by the time I was in Grade 6 and I had a huge crush on him and I knew I was just too tall to ever go out on a date with him.

    I find that I am an inch shorter now than I used to be. I don’t like that, either.

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  4. Mike Nesmith was my favorite Monkee, though Peter Tork was a close second. By the time I was old enough to appreciate them the shows were on reruns, but that was just fine by me.

    My true first memorable crush, though, was (oh dear) Dick Van Dyke. I was probably 6 or so at the time – Wonderful World of Disney would show a movie on Sunday nights that we would watch as a family. Chitty Chitty Bang Bang and Mary Poppins were favorites – and since I also had a thing for penguins at the time, Mr. Van Dyke became a favorite in part because of his dance with those funny critters in Mary Poppins. There was an Easter gathering about that time when my grandmother gave my cousin Patty and I matching plastic jewelry sets (of the sort that you would buy off a peg in a blister pack – “clip” earrings that never stayed on, horrible bead necklace, probably a faux compact or mirror). The set came with a ring. My cousins will not allow me to forget that I spent a chunk of the afternoon parading around our grandparents’ house announcing (rather dramatically), “I’m engaged to Dick Van Dyke…” Shaun Cassidy and Harrison Ford would enter the scene a few years later, but Dick Van Dyke was really the first.

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  5. Anna and I are about the same age. Monkee’s reruns for me too. I remember we had one of their records and I played that often. But I think I also rested my elbow in the middle of it (who knows; because I could??) So cracked it and my brother was mad at me. But the outer tracks would still play!
    Davey never did anything for me but I liked the other three.

    Jacklyn Smith from Charles Angels was my first crush I think. Jim, from Mutual of Omaha was pretty cool. Marlin was just an old guy.

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  6. Oh, fun stories, baboons. I’m afraid I only knew the Monkees through my little sister’s albums. My teen idol was Hayley Mills. I actually was The Parent Trap twice, at a time when that just wasn’t done. I’m sure I read articles about her in magazines, but I didn’t regularly buy those. I had a 45 record with Let’s Get Together (from The Parent Trap), and side B was Jeepers Creepers… looks like she had a whole album out that I didn’t know about, though..

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    1. BiR, I remember a story about Hayley. I don’t recall the source, but I’m sure of the details. Two American guys attended a dinner party near London. As they left, one said, “Can you believe it? I just heard that Hayley Mills was at our table tonight. Oh, Gawd! I’ve had the biggest crush on her ever since I was a teen!” His friend said, “You know that woman who asked you to light her cigarette? The woman sitting on your left, and you didn’t say a word to her all night? That’s Hayley.”

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      1. I lost track of her after high school, and rediscovered her in the 90s – she’d been in a PBS drama The Thorn Trees, and in an American sitcom “Good Morning Miss Bliss”, a predecessor to “Saved by the Bell”, which I then watched, and fell in love all over again. Sadly, I missed the touring company of “The King and I” when it came to the Twin Cities in the 90s (?) with her in the lead. Sigh.

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  7. Oh my goodness! Davy Jones and David Cassidy were big crushes for me. When I got a little older, I really crushed on Captain Kirk and Spock. Or maybe they were all about the same time. Being tall as well, Renee, it’s always disappointing to learn how short some of the big movie stars are.

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  9. Funny that you should start the blog by stating that you were a little too young to be a full-on Beatles fan, vs; I was a little too old.

    My crushes were mostly “real” people; by that I mean people I knew.

    While I was growing up, my uncle Børge was my favorite person in the world. His claim to fame was a full head of red hair, big grin perpetually plastered all over his face and an irrepressible chuckle. He was only nine years older than me, and lived with us for a couple of years when I was six and seven. Unllike most fifteen, sixteen year old boys, he didn’t seem to mind having this little girls trailing him everywhere. We were soul mates and partners in crime. He swore me to secrecy that he hadn’t stopped smoking when my mother thought he had, and we would bicycle all over together visiting older relatives in neighboring villages, people I would otherwise never have met. I loved hanging out with him. He tried to protect me from my mother’s wrath whenever he could, and I simply adored him. When I was sent away to the boarding school when I was eight, he no longer lived with us, but he’d still visit me at the school from time to time.

    When I was fifteen Børge married Birthe, and I was crushed, especially since I didn’t like Birthe. In retrospect I realize that it’s a very real possibility I wouldn’t have liked anyone Børge had married. But, luckily, The Tommy Steele Story had reached the big screens in Denmark at about that time, and I was smitten. I joined a Tommy Steele fan club, the one and only fan club I was ever a member of. That lasted about a year, and then he, too, married.

    There were a couple of years when I was sixteen and seventeen when I had serial crushes on a number of professional bicycle racers. Looking back there are a couple of things that stand out: None of the men I had crushes on were particularly good looking, and I lost interest the moment I discovered that they were married.

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    1. I should clarify my first observation by saying that I was a full-on fan of the Beatles music, but wasn’t particularly interested in any of them as romantic fantasy – although I did think Paul was cute.

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  11. I was only about nine when the Monkees came around, so I was somewhat predictable and favored Davy. I guess I wasn’t old enough to go for intellectual or quirky.

    I remember a Disney special with Peter McEnery. I don’t know whatever became of him, but he was quite dashing in the Fighting Prince of Donegal. Again, I was about nine or so.

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    1. I remember seeing a documentary about Doctor Zhivago, the movie, and someone, I think it was the costume designer who won an Oscar – Phyllis Dalton – was interviewed. Someone mentioned the hairstyles of the women in the movie, and she kind of sighed and rolled her eyes. In the sixties, women in movies had these strange hairstyles.

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  13. It was a great day Thanks
    Chicago is a great city and youngest daughter decided to join older sister there, Olivia theater major at loyola, Emma education at de Paul. I get to visit Chicago for a few more years on a regular basis

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  14. deb looked over on the way to chicago and said “you jinxed him”
    “who”
    “peter”
    “peter who”
    “tork”
    “oh no he died? ”
    “today”
    “damn”

    we were sitting in the kitchen on thursday and i told her the monkees were coming.
    she said it has to be down to mickey and peter now because davey and mike are dead. i said no davey and peter are dead
    we looked it up and found all three were aliove and discussed how peter was sort of the musical intellectual in real life and blew off the other. he had a cbs sunday morning ditty done on him a few years ago and i was mistaken when i thought he was dead.
    mickey and mike are coming
    were not going
    my wife and i have differences of opinions on some things. music, art, food, all the important stuff.
    i used to say the beatles were the best f=group ever and she said they were not. i asked who was and she sheepisnly said the monkees… that brought uproarious laughter and has pyut the monkees in a special place in my heart. in the 90’s when they did their first reunion tour we were there at the orpheum in inneapolis singinf last taind to clarksvill, im a believer auntie grezelda, they really were fun. it takes me back to a group of guys i hung out with in 6th and 7th grade and then didnt see again ever. kind of like the monkees.
    peter was a dork and not the fun the others were. the studio version of a rock band may be the way to go. never mind buddies form the neighborhood, the chemestry of a band can be better seen form the outside sometimes. an arranged marrage like an office team or a baseball team. he was a good addition more mickey mike or davey was not needed. peter was the odd brain appealing to the geek end of the spectrum. rip peter tork. now mickey and mike can be the front men and we can all recall the past with a smile and a remeberance of the off eyebrow doink you would do as the scene moved on to the next slapstick routine. fun times.
    banck through the arctic blast and 70 mph winds this afternoon in the van just o make it interesting. wind surfing on i 94 will be the agenda from 5 til midnight. good company good tunes.
    see you next week
    thanks for the great blog baboons. it makes traveling fun even if i cant get to it some days

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      1. It’s pretty crazy in SE MN.
        This is a real old fashion blizzard.

        The county plow guys haven’t seen anything like this for as long as they’ve been working.
        I made a track to the highway but will have to do it again tomorrow.
        Crazy.
        Sure am grateful we have heat and electricity and there was no trees down on the road and glad to be able just to stay home.

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  16. I’ve been trying to remember the first female crushes I had. Well, actually, I’ve been trying to convince myself that I fantasized about more crush-worthy women than the ones who appealed to me back then. By the time I was 18 I was smitten with Lee Remick, who was as classy and talented as she was gorgeous. But the somewhat humiliating truth is the teenaged me was hot for Annette Funicello and Sandra Dee. They were sure cute. But classy? Not so much.

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  17. Oddly, even though I liked the Beatles, I did not have crushes on any of them. Oldest sister had a crush on Paul; next sister liked George. That left me only John and Ringo and I couldn’t make myself go crazy about either of them. The Monkees didn’t do much for me, although some of their songs were fun. I liked Simon and Garfunkel, particularly Simon, but one couldn’t really have a full blown crush on Paul Simon. I also liked Tim Buckley’s music.

    Perhaps the closest thing to a crush I had on a celebrity was the Minnesota Twins. I liked all of them, but was particularly fond of Cesar Tovar and Zoilo Versalles, because I liked how their names sounded.

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  18. Harmon Killebrew, who was quickly replaced by Bob Gibson when I realized I loved pitching a baseball much more than hitting one.

    First music idol? Chicago, the jazz-rock band. Got me hooked on “jazz” to this day, even though they were about 80/20 rock to jazz.

    I liked the Beatles, Beach Boys, Monkees, etc. but didn’t have a crush on any of the guys. Perhaps my first female music idol was Linda Ronstadt, or Olivia Newton-John, or Karen Carpenter, or Petula Clark, or Michelle Phillips of the Mamas & Papas, or . . . well, you get the idea. 🙂

    Chris in Owatonna (Hell of a blizzard last night. Closed I-35 in southern MN. Snow drifts are absolutely glorious, as long as you don’t have to drive somewhere this morning.) This is turning into a helluva winter (for good or bad, depending on your preferences).

    **BSP** Don’t forget, reading fans, Straight River book launch begins this week! TH at Central Park Coffee, SAT at Little Professor Book Center, TUE at Owatonna Fitness Fresh Cafe. All are in Owatonna. See my website chrisnorbury.com for details. Thanks. **end BSP**

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    2. I told my boss I was leaving early on Thursday. When she looked at me like I should be telling her why, I said “my author friend has another book coming out”. I love having author friends. Steve, Kay…anything new on the horizon???

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      2. Bless your heart, VS. I love having friends who love having author friends. (?) Sounds sort of like the infamous Frank Burns’ quote from a M*A*S*H episode: “It’s nice to be nice to the nice.” 🙂

        Chris

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  20. I had several Monkees LPs from when they were first popular. When my daughters were pre-teens, the Monkees TV show had a resurgence and my girls were envied by their peers since they had access to the original records. They second coming was nearly as big as the first (at least in our neighborhood).

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  21. My first idol? Roy rogers
    Singing, cowboy. Dale Evans. Getting the bad guys?
    Who could ask for anything more
    Age 2 or 3 that’s what I remember

    I remember my mom asking who my favorite movies stars were when I was 3 or 4 and it was Haley mills and john wayne
    She thought that was funny
    I had to asked her to explain
    She said it was such a girly girl and such a manly man
    For Christ sake I was 3 the subtleties May of a ring had made their full impression yet,
    I didn’t get James dean and marlon Brando yet and marylin was appealing to me at age 6 or 7 but dale evans had me at 3. I didn’t know you were suppposed to be attracted to them I just liked them

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