Rant #2,316: For Pete's Sake

Yes, I came back a day early because we have just learned that Peter Tork, Monkees' bassist and really all around good guy in the music world, has passed away from undisclosed causes.

He was 77 years old.

As anyone who knows me knows, the Monkees were my own personal door-opener for the entertainment world, in particular, the music world.

When they came around when I was nine years old, I was 100 percent bought in to the concept, to the music, to the whole shebang.

And Peter was not my favorite.

But he was Peter on the show, the dumb one, the one who didn't get a lot of what was going on, but when they showed them singing and being musical, Peter had the biggest smile on his face.

And no, he wasn't dumb. In fact, in real life, he was far from it.

He simply took the persona of the dumb guy in the band, because he was the only one who could handle such a chore, and yes, it must have been a chore to act dumb when you were actually so smart.

This is a guy who could actually play about 20 instruments, a guy who knew music inside and out, and a guy who had performed on the New York City folk scene for a few years before there even was a Monkees, where he perfected the "dumb" character when things would go sour for him on stage.

He was recommended to the project by Stephen Stills, who could have gotten the part if his teeth were better, but he knew Tork pretty well, and he told the Monkees' producers, and the rest is history.

If things didn't happen that way, we could have had Crosby, Tork, Nash and Young, but that is not how it worked out.

Peter thought he was hired as both an actor and a musician, but he later found out that he was hired as an actor. He, like the rest of the Monkees, ended up rebelling at the notion that they were only there to sing and look good miming their instruments, and they did win out.

He wrote a number of excellent songs for the Monkees, including "For Pete's Sake" and "Do We Have To Do This All Over Again," and he actually was the co-lead singer of their hit song "Words," but he was thought to be the least adept singer in the act, and even when they began to play their own instruments on the records, he was held down much more than the others with the lack of lead vocals and lack of his songs appearing on LPs.

But he did work his way into the Monkees' fabric, and his piano is the one you hear on "Daydream Believer."

After the movie "Head" and the TV special "33 1/3 Revolutions Per Monkee," he was the first to leave the group, and he kind of faded in and out of consciousness pretty much for the next nearly 20 years, appearing here and there, living the rock star life, getting busted for hashish possession, swearing off alcohol, and becoming a teacher.

But when the Monkees dazzled a new generation by repeated airings of the show on MTV, he was there, front and center, with Micky Dolenz and Davy Jones. Numerous reunions followed, he left the act, came back, left again, came back, and when he was a Monkee, he seemed to be having fun.

But his love was the blues, and his side project, Shoe Suede Blues, was what he truly loved.

He had contracted a rare form of tongue cancer some years back, beat it, and not only was he cancer free for years, but the cancer actually changed his voice, made it more forceful while also making it easier to listen to.

I never got to interview him, but Peter was a man of his own convictions, he could be very vocal at times on certain issues, but when he was a Monkee, he knew what his place was.

And I really think he got to love that soft, cushy place too.

So while I am unhappy that I had to come back to this perch to report on his death, his was a life that really should be celebrated, because in his 77 years, he packed quite a bit into that time period, and he gave us lots and lots and lots of memories.

R.I.P. Peter. You done good.