Hey, Hey, we're the.....?

        There are some ideas so bad that one can merely shake one's head and try to forget them. Unfortunately, it's more difficult to unsee and unhear one of these bad ideas actually brought to fruition in a public forum.  an example would be Liza Minelli deciding to sing again. Another such an ill conceived scheme is the unfortunate decision to "reform" the Monkees! Today I was assaulted, visually and auditorially, as I worked the crossword, by their "performance" on Good Morning America.

        Let's be clear; the two relatively talented members of this rather horrid "pre-boy band" boy band were Davy Jones (dead since 2012) and the truly multi talented Michael Nesmith, who apparently had the good sense to tell the originator of this ill conceived fever dream scheme to "f**k off."

        That leaves 2 remnants of the original tripe fest . Peter Tork  became a Monkee  primarily because Stephen Stills didn't photograph well and turned the job down, recommending  Tork in his stead. A real shame, that, I wonder what ever happened to the Stills kid?  Mickey Dolenz became a Monkee hard on the heels of his rousing, yet unsurprisingly short lived and unacclaimed, dramatic triumph as "Circus Boy." 

        Meanwhile, the real brains behind the Monkees, other than the occasional Nesmith penned song, were the team of Boyce and Hart, who actually played and sang lead on most songs in the studio and then watched as the Drab Four overdubbed them for airplay. These guys churned out top forty hits for others, but never really received the acclaim they probably reserved for not killing the Monkees for murdering their work.

        But back to today's nightmare. Dolenz, who played at drums on the show, simply stood and may have been actually singing (more on that later) while Tork (bass player) seemed to be faking it on a keyboard beside him. They were surrounded by six other real musicians, who were not only playing, but, since they were all on microphones, were also singing, to the point that it was difficult to tell whose voice was actually carrying the melody.

        Tork now resembles Don Quixote as portrayed on Broadway by Richard Kiley, only even scragglier and older, while Dolenz'  face now resembles an overripe heirloom tomato. (no offense intended to tomatos). In short, the Monkees now resemble the Orangutans and their "talents" are woefully and sadly gone. 

     Sometimes "Let's get the band back together!" is just a really bad idea. This is especially true  when half of them - the talented half - are either dead or missing.