There’s a great scene from the sitcom “Married … With Children” that illustrates the prejudice against The Monkees perfectly.
Bud and Kelly Bundy have won a performance by the speed-metal band Anthrax in a radio contest. Square-peg neighbor Marcy Rhoades digs a tunnel to check on the kids (they are trapped in a snow storm while Al and Peg are vacationing in Sweatbucket, Fla., with Edd “Kookie” Byrnes) and eyes a group of “killers.” In learning that they are musicians, Marcy bursts with nerdy glee, “I don’t want you to think I’m un-hip. I chased The Monkees like everyone else.”
Since debuting in 1966, The Monkees, a rock group made-to-order for TV, have been fighting the “un-hip” stigma.
Forty-five years later, it looks as if The Monkees now are winning that fight. My Facebook page lit up like a Christmas tree at Rockefeller Center when I posted that I would be interviewing the four members of the group. The posts generated more responses and “likes” than anything I’ve submitted to date. A recent plea in Goldmine to induct The Monkees into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame was embraced with a unanimous YES!
Read the complete article – The Monkees still have plenty to say. by Jeff Marcus
