June 2, 2018

Ray Stevens CabaRay Nashville: Micky Dolenz

Hello one and all! Oh yes for me it's an early blog entry...I'm usually a night owl on the weekends and so most of the time my blog entries are posted well past midnight; but, I found myself awake this evening and so I checked the Ray Stevens video page and seen that last week's episode of his PBS television series, Ray Stevens CabaRay Nashville, was uploaded and so I watched it and I'm posting my recap.



The special guest on this episode (originally airing the weekend of May 26th) happened to be Micky Dolenz...the drummer and occasional lead singer on recordings by The Monkees. Ray opened the show with a performance of "Too Much Monkey Business". Not being too familiar with Chuck Berry's catalog of songs...other than those that the general public are also familiar with...I had originally thought that the song might be something new that Ray or Buddy Kalb may have written until I searched for the song's title on-line and seen it had been written and recorded in the 1950s by Chuck Berry...and further research told me it would go on to be recorded by numerous other performers...but nevertheless I enjoyed the Ray Stevens performance of the song. After the opening performance Ray brought out Micky Dolenz and from the start of the conversation you could tell it was going to be lighthearted and up-beat.

Micky's greeting to Ray was rather comical...saying how much his parent's loved Ray's music...and this prompted Ray to counter with "was I your grandparent's favorite, too?". The irony being that Ray, born in 1939, is only 6 years older than Micky (born in 1945) but because Ray's music has largely appealed to, or, it's been more appreciated by, mature older audiences throughout his entire career it's possible that Micky's parent's were in that age bracket purchasing Ray Stevens records in the '60s and '70s. If you look at Ray's chart history you'll see quite a few single releases that did much better with Easy Listening/Adult-Contemporary audiences of the '70s than with the mainstream pop audience.

After this greeting and exchange Micky tells of "Last Train to Clarksville" and it's origin. Ray had mentioned that he didn't know, until recently, that the recording took place at Hollywood's RCA Studio B (not the more noted studio in Nashville, TN). In his recollection Micky mentions that it's actually an anti-war song even though the lyrics do not explicitly cite the Vietnam War. 

In an effort to show that Micky's been around even longer in the public eye Ray makes mention that Micky was a child actor in a television series titled Circus Boy for two seasons. Micky played the role of Corky and that the series was in production from 1956 to 1958 (Ray's first recording, "Silver Bracelet", arrived in 1957). Ray then asks how The Monkees television series came about. Micky states that the guitar was his music instrument of personal preference but the producers of the television series said that he'd be the group's drummer. He mentions that the group had already been musically inclined prior to the television series so it wasn't like they learned how to sing or play instruments during the television series.

Ray asks him about Davy Jones and wondered whether or not Micky and Davy had been life-long friends. Micky mentions that he met Davy, and the other members of the group, for the first time while on The Monkees set in 1965. Micky mentions that Davy had been a child actor in the U.K. and so the two of them shared a similar connection.

Ray asks about life after The Monkees...to which Micky responds with saying that he'd spent a lot of years in England and for more than 10 years he did production work and other activity behind the scenes. The two of them discuss the various writing teams and legendary writers behind The Monkees hit songs. They don't discuss in any lengthy detail...more or less they name drop celebrated writers such as Carole King, Gerry Goffin, Neil Diamond, Neil Sedaka, Bobby Hart, etc. Ray informs Micky that the audience wants to hear some Monkees hits...to which Micky jokingly refuses and comically conveys humility with excessive hand gestures...and I'm paraphrasing here: "oh gosh...no no...nobody wants to hear those!!". You'll see some of that in the video advertisement above.

Micky predictably relents and goes center stage with a guitar and names off several songwriters he credits with crafting The Monkees look, sound, and overall style. At one point, knowing that he's named so many writers, he comically inserts Neil Armstrong's name as well. He mentions Tommy Boyce and Bobby Hart and how vital the two of them were to The Monkees.

While at center stage Micky performs "Last Train to Clarksville", followed by "Pleasant Valley Sunday" and then he replaces the guitar with a tambourine for "I'm a Believer". During a performance of the chorus in "I'm a Believer" Micky walks over to one of Ray's harmony singers, Sabrina, and sings to her. Afterward Ray thanks Micky for appearing and a standing ovation results. Ray closes the show with a performance of "That's Life!", his version of Frank Sinatra's classic. Ray recorded it for his tribute album, Ray Stevens Sings Sinatra...Say What?!?. The episode airing this weekend on local PBS stations is one of the several special episodes this season. Earlier in the season Ray delivered back to back episodes titled Special Moments (a retrospective) and Hall of Fame (clips of previous guests that are members of the Country Music Hall of Fame). The episode airing this weekend is a Tribute Show. In it Ray performs songs made famous by the likes of Jerry Reed, Glen Campbell, Mel Tillis, and Merle Haggard. It'll be uploaded onto Ray's video site next weekend. You can visit it by clicking HERE.

No comments:

Post a Comment

Show your appreciation for the music of Ray Stevens...leave a comment...