Oh, What Can it Mean?: R.I.P. Davy Jones of the Monkees

Back in the day, The Monkees were known as the "Pre-Fab Four," a corporate creation designed to rip off the musical stylings and personal chemistry of The Beatles. 

Peter Tork took the Ringo/buffoon role. Mike Nesmith was George, the quiet one who always tried to get his songs on the albums. Mickey Dolenz was John , with the sharp wit and urgent voice. And Davy Jones, who died of a heart attack yesterday at 66, was Paul, the cute one with the sweet voice. (Of course none of these caricatures were really so cut and dry.)

Nevertheless, The Monkees had music's greatest songwriters and studio musicians at their disposal, and created some of the best pop songs of the 60s. R.E.M. often cited them as an early inspiration; early bootlegs from Athens feature their cover of “(I’m Not Your) Stepping Stone.”

In general, my favorite Monkees tracks tended to be sung by Dolenz rather than Jones. But one thing Davy did have that not even The Beatles could claim was that funny way of dancing whlist sashaying — an early, more innocent version of the serpentine slither Axl Rose did in Guns ‘n’ Roses. 

I had a couple of friends in college who put some serious time into getting that Davy Jones dance down, but they could never quite nail it.
 

The Davy Jones shuffle: Oft-imimated, never duplicated. Here it is starting at around 1:10 in his most famous song “Daydream Believer,” a song that’s pretty much impossible to not love.



Let's send Davy out with a  lesser known Jones/Monkees classic: “Valleri,” a tune which seems to have a decided Buffalo Springfield influence.



R.I.P. Davy Jones. Get more Monkees on iTunes here.