The Early Days (1963-'64)

Our saga begins in 1963 with an up-and-coming folk singer from San Antonio named Michael Nesmith. While attending San Antonio College, Mike (as he was known then) and his new bride Phyllis Barbour had formed a folk combo in order to gig around the city. They evidently played small-time events like shopping center openings and private parties hoping that one day a shot at the big time might come their way. Phyllis had no big ambition to be a star, but for Mike it was a different story.

During this period Mike also liked to perform solo whenever he got the chance, and his skills had progressed to the point where he was ultimately able to get into a real recording studio to record two of his own songs: "Wanderin'" and "Well Well" (Highness HN-13).

The audience for Mike's music had picked up steadily, and in the summer of 1964 he performed to a reported 3,000 people at a televised Hootenanny in San Antonio. He was then invited out to Massachusetts to perform in Cape Cod, and upon his return to San Antonio he resumed playing club gigs. One of these sets was privately taped.

Mike and his pal John London also performed as a duo, and together they won the San Antonio College "Headliner of the Year" award. Then John moved out to Hollywood, and it wasn't long before Mike convinced his new bride that the odds of success for a struggling musician were better out west. Mike and Phyllis soon left Texas to get an apartment of their own in Los Angeles.

In a bit of early good fortune, Mike's building manager's daughter happened to be a business associate of the singer Frankie Laine, and soon Mike would have his first high profile contact in California. In the meantime, he continued to perform as a trio with John London and various local drummers.

Meanwhile across the pond in London, an aspiring Mancunian jockey by the name of David Jones had recently been bitten by the showbiz bug and had just received his big break, winning the role of the Artful Dodger in the original West End stage production of Oliver!  The show was a major hit, and David soon achieved positive reviews in the press. Before long he found himself on Broadway for an extended run and followed that by reprising his role throughout the United States as part of the show's touring company.

Oliver! was a smash in the U.S., and David soon found himself featured amongst the cast in Life Magazine. Eventually he was even invited to guest on the Ed Sullivan show on the same day as the Beatles' first appearance. Also around this time he entered a New York City recording studio to cut a quick demo reel to assist with future career moves.

Elsewhere, deep in the Los Angeles suburb of San Fernando Valley a young actor named George Michael "Micky" Dolenz (stage name: Micky Braddock) was attending junior college while plotting his next career move. Micky had previously starred in the title role of the hit TV show Circus Boy from 1956-'58 but had only appeared on television sporadically since then. To kill time he was performing music with a local outfit known as the Spartans.

Upon transferring from Valley Junior College to Los Angeles Trade Tech, Micky hooked up with a new five-piece band known as the Missing Links. This was a more professional outfit which reportedly allowed for Micky to play in locales as far off as Denver, where the band performed for a few weeks with teen heartthrob Eddie Hodges. Although he would later be criticized for "being an actor and not a musician", in truth Micky was part of the rock 'n' roll scene from his late teens on.

Across the coast, a young musician named Peter Thorkelson had shortened his surname to "Tork" and was playing his way across basket houses in Greenwich Village by himself or alongside partner Bruce Farwell. Having previously flunked out of college in Minnesota, Peter was committed to making it as a musician. To that end he began networking with several fellow musicians including one very important contact by the name of Stephen Stills. 

By mid-1964 Peter would be married, but the marriage would last just a brief three months. During this period Peter was also out on the road as a sideman for a folk troupe known as the Phoenix Singers. In October of the same year he would become the fourth of the up and coming performers discussed in this entry to appear on television-- in this instance a Canadian folk music series titled Let's Sing Out in which he appeared alongside the Phoenix Singers. His run with the band would be short-lived however, as he was summarily ousted following an LBJ fundraising performance in Denver (perhaps just missing out on a chance to rub shoulders with a young Micky Braddock in the process.)

That these four young performers, with careers seemingly headed in totally different directions, would soon meet under extraordinary circumstances must be chalked up as some form of cosmically derived kismet. Yet meet they would, as you will see in our next couple of installments.


(So far everything you've read is factual. Hang on though, and you'll see our story is about to take some weird twists and turns.)


NOTE: Most background information contained here and intermittently throughout future posts is courtesy of Andrew Sandoval's fantastic The Monkees: The Day-by-Day Story of the 60s TV Pop Sensation. Check it out, won't you?