EXCLUSIVE: Hey, hey it's a Monkee: Davy Jones says Beatles were developed, not manufactured

Former Monkee Davy Jones wants it made very clear he would never insult the Beatles.

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I would never ever in a million years," he says on the phone from Florida "I was trying to set an image of professional presentation. I never really said they weren't real."

In an article dated Jan. 2, the New York Post quoted Jones talking about the Beatles first appearance on "The Ed Sullivan Show" on Feb. 9, 1964. "Brian Epstein bought the place out. Instead of insurance salesman and their wives, he put fourteen-year-old girls in there. The Beatles were dressed in the same suits, had the Capezio boots on, the same haircut. If you wanna talk manufactured, you're talking Beatles," the paper quoted him.

Jones was also on that show. He performed in a segment with the cast of the musical "Oliver!" As the Artful Dodger, he sang a song, "I'd Do Anything," one of two done by the cast that night on the CBS-TV Sunday night broadcast.

The Post quote got a strong reaction from Beatle fans, but Jones insists the paper distorted its meaning.

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It's sort of like, you, know, don't let the truth spoil the news. I'm so reluctant to do newspaper interviews because it's so misleading how they interpret what you say. And basically, in regard to that, about the manufactured Beatles ... I mean this is show business. It's engaged in profit for calling."

He says his two older sisters noticed what he was referring to about the Beatles before he did. "

The thing was they'd mentioned this to me way before I ever met the Beatles on "The Ed Sullivan Show" in 1964 and way before Brian Epstein had gotten to them. I thought about it since and I wondered who was in control of the wheel."

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Basically what I said is if you're talking manufactured and Monkees, what is more manufactured than throwing out Pete Best and having a plan. I more or less said it was a plan. And everything is a plan like you and I are talking now."

'I love the Beatles'

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But the deal is I am so in awe of all the time I spent with the boys, the Beatles, and I was trying to express it as John (Lennon) did when he said, 'The Monkees are not like the Beatles. They're more like the Marx Brothers.' Well, the Beatles were more like the Marx Brothers than the Beatles," Jones says.

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Just make you tell your readers that I love the Beatles and what I said was the way they presented themselves was of a manufactured nature."

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There are certain rules you have to play by," he continues. "Well, they set the rules. The Beatles set the rules. And the rules were now just because we have long hair doesn’t mean that we’re rebellious.
But after, obviously, they’d made it, and they got into the limelight, there was more things to be said. And they obviously said them, and sometimes at inappropriate times."

Jones also has great praise for Yoko Ono.

"One of the greatest occasions that I ever saw was when John and Yoko were on 'The Mike Douglas Show.' To me, that was classic. ... One person I would love to meet is Yoko. And despite what the people say about her and her voice and the breakup with her and the rest of the Beatles, it wasn’t her at all. She didn’t do that. He wouldn’t have been able to do the things he did later on if he hadn’t moved into that next phase (with her)."

Jones has fond memories of that night on "The Ed Sullivan Show."  “That was a cool experience. I’d seen ‘Bye Bye Birdie’ on Broadway. I’d seen ‘West Side Story’. I’d seen ‘Funny Girl’. 'I Can Get It For You Wholesale,' ‘Mame’ and all these things. Dick Van Dyke in 'Bye Bye Birdie.' ... And all these amazing people.

"That was the start of the English Invasion. All of a sudden, a thing from ‘Oliver’? We’re gonna be on ‘The Ed Sullivan Show’? I just saw a picture of the outside. They showed a picture of the billboard on the outside. It said The Beatles and also Davy Jones. So that’s a classic for me to remember. I didn’t even know that."

For anyone hoping, a reunion of the Monkees, he says, doesn't look promising. "There’s offers from England right now to go there with the Monkees. We tried that in ’98, ‘99. We sold out wherever we went. And I came back and said I don’t want to do it anymore. ... The Monkees is Mike Nesmith, Micky Dolenz, Peter Tork and Davy Jones. Until that can happen, it’s not necessary."

"Ringo and (his All-Starr Band) is great. Davy Jones from the Monkees is great. Micky, Mike, Peter and Davy, that would be great," he says. "But not Peter, Davy and Micky. Come on. That’s not the Monkees. That’s only three-quarters of the Monkees." 

Jones tells a funny anecdote about Ringo's All Starrs and the late Harry Nilsson. "You know Harry Nilsson would never go out. He made great records, but he didn’t want to perform live. Ringo tells me he asked him to come on the tour and be one of his Ringo and Friends, right? And he said to Harry what do you want to sing?" Jones says Nilsson's answer was “You’re Breaking My Heart," a song Nilsson wrote with an expletive in the lyric. Nilsson, who died in 1994, never toured with the All Starrs.  (Note: We tried to get Ringo's press representatives to confirm or deny this, but received no answer.)

Ringo was right about autographs

He says he understands the recent controversy about Ringo Starr's autographs. "I love him and he loves me and we've been great pals for years. So he doesn't want to be signing any more pictures and he doesn't want to be answering any more questions? He said to me once when I asked him, 'Well, what do you do when people talk to you whatever, they want a picture, they want a bio.' He says, 'If they don't know who I am by now, they'll never know.' So I've used that ever since."

And he has praise for Starr's efforts to diversify his career. "That’s the difference between being able to sustain a career and to be able to be respected. Even back in the ‘60s, early ‘70s, when Ringo was doing 'Magic Christian' and the other things that he did, he was trying to break the mold. He realized, ‘I can’t break the mold. I’m Ringo f------ Starr from the Beatles.’ But he still did ‘Thomas the Tank Engine,’ and he did some other stuff.

"It would have been great for him to have a great Brian Epstein soon after the Beatles to guide him into a situation. It wasn’t just the Richmond roundabout that changed his life when he bumped over it with Barbara. When he was out of his mind and doing things he shouldn’t have been doing. It gave him a realization and he’s not drank and he’s not been into drugs ever since. That’s like 30 years sober, thank you very much.

"That’s an example. That’s the example we follow," he says. "And his humor. And the love he has for his three compadres. And I have the same for Micky, Mike and Peter, despite what the media might say."

Monkees were a garage band

When the subject of the Monkees' induction into the Rock Hall of Fame, which fans have been campaigning for and hasn't happened reportedly because of industry politics, Jones, at first, sounds bitter. "I don’t think the Monkees belong in the Rock ‘n’ Roll Hall of Fame. I don’t want any freebies. I don’t know what that is, you know. We’re respected by musicians all over the world. People that grew up with the Monkees. They don’t look at our musicianship. The Monkees filmed a TV show. When they stopped filming, we plugged our instruments in and we started rehearsing. We were a garage band. We did over 200 concerts."

Later, he sounds a little more wistful. "If I wasn’t a Monkee and I went to the Rock ‘n’ Roll Hall of Fame, I’d say, 'Well, where’s the Monkees? Where’s Neil Sedaka? Where’s Neil Diamond? I mean Neil Diamond’s not in the Rock ‘n’ Roll Hall of Fame? Neil Sedaka is not in the Rock ‘n’ Roll Hall of Fame? Are you kidding me?"

Would Jones be in favor of an Anthology project similar to the one the Beatles did? "Not Monkees tracks, because a lot of the stuff we did was for the TV show. That was the misguided representation of music. ... We went in and originally we did two or three songs that should go. And all of a sudden they were hits and they decided, ‘We’re not doing two or three songs for each show. We’re going to use ‘I’m a Believer’ and 'Last Train to Clarksville' and whatever the hit of the time is. We’re not going to use all these songs.

"And all these songs are thrown into the bin. And Rhino got them. And Rhino all of sudden, they’re starting to release them. But they weren’t supposed to be for release. That’s not an expression of Peter, Mike, Micky and Davy. Those were songs that were supposedly related to scripts that were written that we were acting out every week."

That wasn't the way it was with the Beatles, he says. "The Beatles are different because they were experimenting with songs. And this didn’t make it or that didn’t make it. And they did a little bit of this and a little bit of that. That I would like to hear 24 hours a day. But not the Monkees stuff. The Monkees stuff was made for a different reason. The Monkees stuff was made for television."

Liked recent documentary

And maybe, for that reason, Jones said he liked the recent "Making the Monkees" documentary on the Smithsonian Channel. The hourlong TV film took an unvarnished look at the evolution of the group.

"I thought it was great. I really did," he says. "I loved to see Bobby Hart. I thought Donnie Kirshner … he’s not a camera person. He belongs behind a desk in an office somewhere. Despite what I reject him saying, he was just an instrument of other people’s talent. And he was a businessman that got very very lucky. ... I thought Bob Rafelson is turning into Bill Cosby. He takes five times as long to say anything that needs to be said."

"I missed Mike Nesmith. That was the only thing I missed. He needs to ... realize that was part of his life. He is now onto other stuff. Micky Dolenz is a hugely talented man. I’m a big fan of his vocals and a big fan of his talent as a director and a producer. Peter Tork’s a great musician. And so is Micky. So is Mike.

"But you know it’s all about attitude. I just hope that one day we can all do 'The Sunshine Boys' together and sit around and have a cup of coffee. As long as we don't end up in the same room at the actors’ home, you know? Then everything will be fine."