I was in 3rd grade when the Monkees TV show first aired. Watching the show I immediately knew this much: the Monkees were cool! How did I know they were cool? Because they were on TV and because all the other kids in my class acknowledged that the Monkees were cool.
Like the other boys my age, I wanted to dress like the Monkees. Wanted to wear my hair like the Monkees. (My mom wouldn’t let me. “Boys don’t wear their hair like girls.”) Wanted to be in a band like the Monkees. I hadn’t started piano lessons, yet, but somehow I already suspected that wasn’t going to do it.
A year or so later—in 4th grade—as I was referring to the cool-ness of the Monkees, one of my classmates informed me that I didn’t “get it.”
“Are you kidding, Marler?” I was told, “The Monkees aren’t cool! That’s for little kids.”
“They aren’t cool? Really?”
“Nope.”
Apparently, a band had to be much edgier than the Monkees to be cool. I have no idea who or what qualified as edgier and cooler when I was in 4th grade, but I knew that I had committed a serious cultural faux pas and accidentally revealed my decidedly un-hip musical tastes.
Oh well, life went on.
I’m in my 50’s now and, like so many others, was saddened to hear about the passing of Davy Jones. Frankly, it doesn’t matter to me whether the Monkees are (or were) cool, or not. I liked their music then and I still like some of it now.
R.I.P., Davy Jones, Dec. 1945 – Feb. 2012.
No comments:
Post a Comment