More Twisted Tales on the Rock and Roll Trail

I have talked about Stephen Stills
( Crosby Stills Nash and Young plus Buffalo Springfield ).
 I just finished a post that went on a bit about Harry Nillson.
Well both of those musicians auditioned for the 1960's TV show, the Monkees. Can you imagine what the musical world would have been like if these masters of rock and pop might have detoured into a Saturday morning TV show?
Stephen Stills, best friends with Jimi Hendrix was once invited to be the bass player in Jimi's band.
He once commented on writing songs about women "there are three things that men can do with women, love them, suffer for them, or turn them into literature. I've had my share of success and failure at all three"
Stephen recommended a friend of his to the television producers, Peter Tork.

A great deal of the Monkees tunes were written by the song writing duo, Tommy Boyce and Bobby Hart. Neil Diamond wrote "I'm a Believer". Glen Campbell and Leon Russell were session players for the TV soundtrack. ( as part of the "Wrecking Crew" of unknown, uncredited professional musicians.)
The song "Last Train to Clarksville" was a hit even before the full cast was in place for the show. The first TV version was performed by Boyce and Hart with their band, "the Candy Store Prophets"
The song was meant to be an anti-war song referring to a train that is heading to an army base during the Vietnam era draft..
The last line says " I don't know if I'm ever going home"

The team of Boyce and Hart wrote songs for Fats Domino, Chubby Checker, Jay and the Americans, Paul Revere and the Raiders...the theme tune for "Days of Our Lives", and performed on the TV shows "The Flying Nun" and "I Dream of Jeannie".

In the mid 70's and later in the 80's, they teamed up with ex-Monkees Davey Jones and Mickey Dolenz to tour the world performing the songs of the Monkees albums. This group called Dolenz Jones Boyce and Hart were the first American rock or pop group to play in Thailand.

Continued Musical Musings on the Twisted Rock and Roll Trail

I started on this path talking about the movie "My Dinner with Jimi"
The movie featured a look a like actor portraying Cass Elliot ( the Mamas and Papas ).. The actress who played Cass Elliot wasn't a good fit. It reminded me of a high school play sort of caliber at that point. Luckily there were other scenes and actors to pull the movie out of the nosedive.

Cass Elliot's real name was Ellen Naomi Cohen. Contrary to legend, she did not choke on a sandwich or hamburger. She did die of an apparent heart attack in London, England while on tour there. The interesting part is that she died in the London apartment of singer/songwriter Harry Nilsson. Cass Elliot was 32 when she died on July 24, 1974.
The wild and crazy drummer for the Who, Keith Moon died in exactly the same apartment, four years later on September 7, 1978. Keith Moon was also 32 years old when he took his turn at dying in Harry Nilsson house.
Keith had been out for dinner with Paul McCartney on the eve of Sept 6. He went home and accidentally or purposely overdosed on doctor prescribed medication. Likely poor Keith couldn't bear the thought of another evening with Paul McCartney, so he just cashed in his chips right then and there.
The wild man Keith Moon is credited with giving the band Led Zeppelin their name.

Harry Nilsson was a singer/songwriter of exceptional talent. He wrote many big selling hits for other artists and had fantastic success himself. His biggest downfall as a pop musician was his huge dislike for touring and live performances.
Harry became friends with John Lennon, and the two went down some very strange, booze and drug fueled paths together. This included getting tossed out of the Troubador club for heckling the Smothers Brothers, and Nilsson throwing a bottle through a 30 foot high hotel window.
Harry Nilsson died of a heart attack in 1994 at age 52. One of his songs that is rarely attributed to him is "Put the Lime in the Coconut"