Sleepy Jean

Hey Hey we all live in a yellow Submarine!

It all began with a dimpled grin.

Sandy brown hair swept over soft eyes, hips swiveling joyfully behind a bass guitar, its smooth surface lovingly protected by an omnipresent sideways belt buckle.

For many of us, that was our first impression of Peter Tork.

That sunny hippie boy with the mismatched socks sang and played his way into our hearts. Many would come to call him the “dummy,” but to those of us who had Peter has a favorite, what we saw was innocence. A sweetness that drew you in, held you close, and kept you warm when the world got too cold and cynical.

That was what it meant to be a fan of Peter Tork.

In the ‘60s, an article published by LOOK magazine drew the distinction between “Person Peter” and “Monkee Peter” (or, “the Peter Tork character,” as Peter himself was often fond of saying). This dichotomy–real vs. fake, intelligent vs. dummy, creamy vs. chunky–echoed the duality of the man himself, of the two sides of one brilliant, shiny coin that was Peter Tork.

Beautiful. Talented. Complicated.

If you knew Peter, you knew he was all of the above.

He spoke honestly of his struggles with alcoholism, bluntly described his relationships with the other Monkees, never mincing words and instead chose to share his truth–unvarnished, unadulterated–with the world.

If you knew Peter, you knew how hard that truth could be to hear, and how necessary it often was.

Peter stood up for what he believed in. He stood up for the Monkees, fought for their creative independence and freedom side-by-side with Michael Nesmith (who is often given greater credit for spearheading this movement). Yet it was Peter who had the classical training, the music know-how and adeptness to pick up almost any instrument and play it with ease. It was Peter who taught Micky his first licks on the drums, who believed in the Monkees as musicians, and whose fervent passion and dedication made “Headquarters” a reality.

Simply put: Without Peter, The Monkees would not have been the same.

Somewhere in the distance, a banjo is making music, and it’s easy to picture Peter playing it. The iconic image from Monkees In Concert–of Peter in a white cable-knit sweater, hands and legs moving at lightning speed, hair in his eyes, and an almost disbelieving smile on his face–is unforgettable, is one that will endure as the perfect, pure essence of Peter Tork:

In his element, making music, giving his talent, energy, and soul to us, and receiving our love in return.

I love the Monkees Paw episode, mainly because there are tons of stoner jokes and general subversive hilarity. I watch and think, ‘wow they got a way with a lot of freaky shit’ in one little episode.

Behind the scenes, this episode is infamous for two reasons:

1) During filming, Davy and Peter got into an actual physical fight. Davy gave Peter and nutter and in return, Peter punched Davy and he had to go to the hospital for stitches.

2) The boys’ antics on the set particularly angered Hans Conried, who played Mendrek. The episode’s tag features Conried shouting “I HATE THESE KIDS.” He was not joking.

-The episode opens up with a nice STONER JOKE about getting the Monkees Paw from the “regular llama” (the high llama was out back, sleeping it off)

-When they come up with the plan to teach Micky how to talk again, there’s an infamous scene by the Wooden Indian where Davy is high as a kite and can’t stop laughing, causing the other guys to laugh.

-In the next scene, when they attempt to teach Micky how to talk, they also mention: ‘apple’, ‘kat’, ‘hare krishna’, ‘Frodis’, ‘legalize wisdom’ and of course ‘save the Texas prairie chicken’. Pretty ahead of its time, talking about Hare Krishna and legalizing wisom, not to mention Frodis (which no one knew what it meant, but we all do now….)