Davy's book had a lot of anecdotal stories of things that happened to him, and what he did along the way, from Oliver! through his experiences in the 3 Monkees stages: Stage One (`66-`69), Stage Two (`75) and Stage Three (`86). The stuff in between is a bit of a snooze. The book is done in personal travel-log style. Who knows what whacky stuff is coming from real-life Davy Jones... "So I poured a bowl of flour over his head! (haha!)" Sounds just like the actor Davy Jones on the TV show. This travel-log focus was mostly about the girls, the gigs, and the indentured servitude he suffered on the TV show. What was completely missing was any respect for the music. He barely mentions anything about the amazing music they were provided by artist-songwriters Carole King/Goffen, Neil Diamond, Harry Nilsson, Boyce & Heart, Mike Nesmith, David Gates, Paul Williams (not nearly a complete list), to which the Monkees aspired. Unlike the many pop-star autobis I've read -- wherein the hero always insists `it's always about the music,` it seems like Davy went out of his way to avoid talking about the music. Granted that Davy was among the actor-half of the Monkees -- he contributed virtually no original songs in Stage 1 -- for him the music was just a means to an end -- to get on stage and be a song-and-dance performer and joke-maker. For me it was always about the music, not the acting.
When it came to describing what was going on objectively around Davy's life at any given time during the book's progress, Davy's long time editor-and-friend, kicks in and tells you (in italic text), why Davy's anecdotes are significant in a back-and-forth format between the two of them -- so the editor wrote almost half the book (in italics). Also there are a lot of pictures and documents of him in historical various contexts mixed in between the text block along the way. Some are relevant to what you're reading, others not on the current timeline. Visual overkill.
As is well known in Monkees legend, prompted by the 2 musicians in the group, Mike and Peter, after the first two multi-million selling albums, the boys succeeded in sacking Exec Producer Donny Kirschner (and thus also Boyce and Hart) out of the picture, so that the `band` could hencforth have full control of the records and songs. While I loved the Monkees remaining four albums as much as the first 2, they progressively didn't sell as well (`Headquarters` one million albums was considered a letdown back then). By the half-million mark of `Pisces-Jones` and `Birds, Bees,` the TV and Record empires eventually lost interest and prompted the teenage girls to move on to the forever promise of (get this...) Bobby Sherman(!), at the same time the Monkees decided to ditch the girls (via the `Head` album) and become a real rock band. Desperate at the Stage 1 crunch, but Davy, Mickey, Mike, and to a lesser degree Peter, eventually spent most of their lives making a decent living performing this music for decades to come. Fortunately editor Alan Green provided most of the backdrops, as Davy had very little to say about what it all meant along the way, preferring to key on his love-life, souped-up cars, teenage girl mob attacks (including ones whereupon hair is yanked out), etc. Focusing on mostly goofy stuff and his dry British sense-of-humor, Davy's writing is not very compelling and somewhat tedious.
Davy's book ends in 1986 on a high note, when MTV reprises the Monkees 20th year and the Gen-X video youth responds, enabling the group to have a financially successful year on the road playing stadiums. How sad that Davy passed away in 2012 before filling in the 2nd 20 years that had also proved fruitful for them performing Monkees music.
In Bobby Hart's autobi, after the 2nd album when the boys got Kirschner out and took control, he wrote, `They got what they wanted, but lost what they had.` True. They left a bundle on the table after the mutiny. Kirschner, Boyce and Hart really knew what they were doing! Tommy and Bobby had assembled for the Monkees music tracks, the Wrecking Crew, a crack studio band featuring the hottest pop rock players that included Leon Russel and Glen Campbell, (among other amazing musicians). But every lead vocal was done by either Mickey (the mega hit-maker), Davy (the heartthrob), or Mike (the brilliant composer). Once again, Davy doesn't touch any of it, and writes, at book's end, only one page on each of the other Monkees, most of it unflattering.
During Stage 1 in the '60s, had the boys stayed put a few more years in commercial mode they probably would have been able to earn substantially more $$ at the time and more importantly, stay relevant in the music biz. But neither occurred. It's hard to explain to today's young music lovers, surrounded by dozens of pop-tarts and the Computer Recorded Anodyne Pop cranked out relentlessly by the 5 media conglomerates, how important and meaningful rock and pop music was to young people in the '60s and '70s. Especially from songwriter-artists, who flourished then by piping in their own thoughts and feelings into the music they composed, arranged and performed (now virtually extinct). From that spirit, at the time, one can certainly understand why the Monkees (average age 22) chose `death before dishonor.`
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