The Monkees

The Monkees are an American pop band that released music under their original incarnation between 1966 and 1970, with subsequent reunion albums and tours in the decades that followed. Assembled in Los Angeles in 1965 by Robert "Bob" Rafelson and Bert Schneider for the American television series The Monkees, which aired from 1966–1968, the musical acting quartet was composed of Americans Micky Dolenz, Michael Nesmith, and Peter Tork, and Englishman Davy Jones. The band's music was initially supervised by producer Don Kirshner.

Quotes

Michael Nesmith

• We may be the only group legitimately fighting the thing which most groups claim to be totally anti, and that’s establishment. I mean, we may have been the only one to have won. Because we actually did. We hadn’t seen a royalty check or anything. We were on top; we were number 1. And we finally went in ... and we said ‘you do it our way, or we quit’. And that’s all there is to it.
  • Pop Chronicles, Show 44 - Revolt of the Fat Angel: Some samples of the Los Angeles sound. Part 4, 1968 interview.

• I never really left. It is a part of my youth that is always active in my thought and part of my overall work as an artist.
  • August 8, 2012 Rolling Stone interview

About the Monkees

• Here, I'm going to make you a big star ... and you don't have to pay any dues. ... For that, you're going to get no respect from your contemporaries." ... To me, that was the cruelest thing.
  • Phil Spector on The Monkees, Pop Chronicles, Show 44 - Revolt of the Fat Angel: Some samples of the Los Angeles sound. Part 4, 1968 interview.