Rant #3,130: Can You Dig It?

Today, I am going to tell you about the tale of an old T-shirt.

It is a shirt that I really enjoy wearing for a variety of reasons, but it riles my wife each and every time that I put it on.

“Why don’t you throw that thing out already?” she asks me every time I wear it. “It’s old and it has holes in it.”

“Yes” on both accounts, but I simply cannot throw out this shirt.

It is comfortable, is a bit different than the norm, and I have always liked the shirt since I first bought it in 2012 or so.

The shirt memorializes the Monkees first and only motion picture, “Head,” certainly one of the strangest movies ever filmed but if you give it a go—or two, or three, or maybe even four watches, and you have an open mind, you will see that this is actually one of the best films about rock and roll ever put on celluloid.

More to the point, the shirt honors the LP that came from this film, with its mirror cover making YOU the actual subject of the album cover ever time you look at it.

And the film had a great soundtrack, featuring songs written by Carole King and Gerry Goffin, Harry Nilsson and the Monkees themselves, including “Porpoise Song,” “Daddy’s Song” and the blueprint for neo-country metal cowboy space rock, “Circle Sky.”

And yes, both the film and the LP flopped badly when released in 1968, as the Monkees deconstructed themselves in this movie and imploded while doing it, but over the last 55 years, the film, its soundtrack, and anything having to do with “Head” have reached cult status.

But back to my shirt …

If I remember correctly, I bought this shirt at one of the Monkees’ innumerable reunion concerts that began in the 1980s and lasted through Mike Nesmith’s death nearly three years ago.

I think this was at their 2012 reunion, after Davy Jones passed away and Nesmith rejoined Peter Tork and Micky Dolenz on the concert stage.

I had never seen a “Head” T-shirt before, so I snapped it up, and I have worn the shirt for the past nearly dozen years or so—

And it probably looks like I have worn it for each and every one of the more than 3,000 days encompassing that time period.

It has a couple of small holes in it, it is all stretched out … but I like it, so I continue to wear it.

I am not going to a wedding or bar mitzvah, so really, does it matter that I still wear the shirt on days that are ho hum and nothing special?

I think guys are like that.

Most of us are not clothes horses, we like the clothes that we like, and we will wear them until they are unwearable.

I remember an episode of “The Dick Van Dyke Show” where on a lazy weekend, Rob would wear this old, nearly ripped-to-shreds getup and it would make Laura crazy.

I guess it is the same way over here; when my wife sees this shirt, she just goes bananas (yes, the Monkees/bananas connection is duly noted).

But again, I like the spirit that the shirt conveys.

I have told my wife a thousand times that if I had a substitute or a replacement for the shirt, I might just ditch this one and wear that one in its place, but since I don’t have one, well, this shirt marches on.

And our weather story for today and the next few days leans me even more to wearing the shirt at least once during the next three or four days, because it is going to be in the 80s each of these days, and this is a cool shirt to wear on such hot days.

Guys, and you ladies too--haven’t you ever had something that you know is beyond its expiration date, but you keep it out of allegiance to whatever it is?

I guess I feel that way about this shirt.

I loved the movie, I loved the soundtrack, I really enjoyed the entire Monkees’ project and program, so the shirt still lives on my body, not every day but certainly every once in a while.

And “As We Go Along,” I will continue to wear this shirt, even though my wife certainly will ask me “Do We Have To Do This All Over Again?”

And I will reply:

“Can You Dig It?”