Getting Davy Jones-Part Three (From Television Collector Magazine, Fall 1997)

Here's more of my interview with Davy where we visit with other life-long fans and continue to discuss the beautiful connections Davy has made with his fans through the years. I took out a couple of parts (which were already noted in my "Death of a Daydream Believer" post). 

Adored by fans all over the world (including those in his native UK).

Neither the talent of the other three guys nor their teams of songwriters should ever be ignored. However, most of the band's fans I've met are fascinated with Davy. Take for instance, Laurel, a twenty-something recording artist from Queens, NY, who had a hit dance single, For Your Love in Canada. She still kisses Davy's picture and album covers and dreams about him.

"He was my first love, " she notes. "He was the archetype of what a guy should be: charming and witty. Which is funny--my husband is all of those things but whenever I'm upset, I run for the CD box set and I'm instantly a child again. Even the sad songs make me happy."

Fans greet Davy as if he still adorns the covers of Tiger Beat and as if they are still teenager. "A middle-aged lady came up to me the other day, "Davy recalls. "She opened this little cardboard box and showed me this little silver ring. There wasn't anything special about it. And she said, 'About 30 years ago, my sister saw you on the beach in Marina Del Ray. I told her that if you're ever in California and see Davy Jones, tell him I love him.' Well, it happened. I was on the beach. I took the ring off my finger and told her to give it to her sister. It was just a little ring that I probably got from a relative or a friend. So (30 years later) she is standing there. She opened up this little box like it was a treasure. And I went, "WOW!"  Then she broke down and cried. She said, 'I love you so much. I have four beautiful children but I've always loved you and I'll always support you.' and then she walked away, turned at the door and looked at me with tears just flooding down.

"Last night I was going down the line while I was waiting for Micky to get on the bus. I was signing autographs and the fans were saying you're so nice for doing this. A girl said to me, 'Oh, I love your beads.' I had a pair of love beads on for about a week; somebody had given them to me at a concert. I said to the girl, 'Would you like them?' She said, 'Yes.' So I took them off and I put them on her neck. And she'll probably keep them for 25 years."

Marcia Brady's favorite prom date has been divorced twice and entered his fifth decade of life. Eleven-year old Yvonne Gonzalez doesn't mind. She scribes Davy Jones love notes in her journal that begin, "Dear Sparkling eyes..."

For the past three decades, Davy has represented the Prince Charming coming to the rescue of young ladies. "Girls are raised their whole lives with a standard of a fairy tale prince, some gentleman like Davy Jones to sweep her off her feet. It's no accident that Davy always got the girl. When he begins crooning, It's Nice to Be with You, what young girl with innocent sentiments wouldn't be romanticized? ponders April McCray. 

"Another reason for Davy's appeal with little girls was, he seemed almost child-like. Quite often he was dressed in little boy's clothes like in Head's 'Daddy's Song,' and also danced childlike. In Cuddy Toy, he was given a child-like sounding song," she reflects.

Performing Daddy's Song in Head. Fans related to his sweet "child-like" qualities.

Those trademark cherubic lips and perfect shining mop of hair continue to attract fans of all ages. "Those lucky enough to see Davy's screen test (in episode #10 of the Monkees) see how natural he is," notes April. "The camera loves him. He's quick-witted. He could recite poetry and not come across as a nerd. And, he's funny. Davy made me laugh when he swooned. I remember the episode where he's romancing an Arab princess: 'I love your eyes, I love your hair, I love your neck...'He's ready to put on the wig or the Tarzan and scuba diving outfit. Young girls always like a guy who can make them laugh."

April recently attended a live Davy solo performance in New York. In between crooning the old ditties and shaking his tambourine, Davy donned an English bobby cap and "Peter Tork" ears. He led the crowd in a rendition of the Brady Bunch theme song, pretended to pull a bird out of a hat, and told a couple of tasteless, outdated and un-Davy-like John Bobbitt jokes, sprinkled with profanity.

The fans began calling out, "Shut up and sing, Davy!"

Yet, at a time when Mick Jagger was emerging, Davy was a non-threatening male image. He was young and small like a lot of girls. They were not afraid of him.

"When we did the Monkees, I had a lot of guy fans, too," Davy recalls. "They wanted to be like Davy Jones. It was almost like a brotherly thing. For young girls, I never felt like a sex symbol. I was their heartthrob. Because of my height and stature, I was never an aggressive sexual threat. I never related to the fans like I wanted to drag them in here. That's never what our image was all about. I wasn't lustfully looking at the fans. I think they felt that, and their parents, too.

"I was always attracted to older women, having grown up in New York when I was 15, 16 or 17, hanging out at the theatrical haunts. Broadway was filled with Tony Newley and Dudley Moore, Elizabeth Taylor and Judy Garland. I lunched with her many days and Georgia Brown at the Russian Tea Room night times and weekends at Fire Island. I didn't know what was going on. I just knew I liked to be around older people.

"It was kind of a kick to be Davy the Monkee because it was a relief in a sense. It enabled me to sort of hold on to my youth, because I was growing up very, very fast. I wasn't sexually active until I was about 18. It was only because I was around it all my life. Walking into the girls' dressing room and they're all sitting there with their knickers off and topless. I got three sisters, all older, so I was used to the female form."

Getting ready to hit the Broadway stage with Georgia Brown in Oliver!

 Fans still embrace those sweet old pop ditties tighter than a favorite childhood teddy bear. Even though most Davy and Monkee tunes were innocent and upbeat, they still existed in a most turbulent time in history. Young men taking the last train to Clarksville were marching off to the killing field of Vietnam.

In April 1968 when the Monkees were finishing up their second TV season, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was assasinated and our nation was plagued with social and civil unrest. Perhaps we tend to romanticize a tumultuous era through the Monkees and other popular culture icons from that era.

At a Beatles Expo in Connecticut last November, not only were fans surrounded by $500 moptop lunchboxes and Flip Your Wig board games, but hundreds of Davy Jones devotees stood in line for over an hour, clutching photos, posters and album covers, waiting to meet the cute Englishman. Many on hand were not even born when the Monkees first debuted in September 1966.

Fourteen-year old Megan Harper discovered Davy when her friend showed her a Monkees video. "It was January 28, 1995 and my tongue hung out." At the Beatles Expo, Megan had her picture snapped with Davy and got his autograph. But she does have one regret. "I wanted to give him a hug," she notes. "But I was too dazed."

Megan now owns a lot of Monkees goodies, and papers the walls in her room with some 60-plus pictures of Davy and the Monkees. "Davy and I have a lot in common," Megan says. "We're both shot and have an attitude. I read in Micky (Dolenz') book that Davy used to throw a lot of tantrums."

she writes to Davy frequently, not only bestowing endless praise but also sharing details of her own "romantic predicaments." (She has yet to receive a personal response). "I once wrote that 'I wish I was old enough to marry you.' but my mom made me change it."

Megan's mom is a former Monkees fan club member, but unlike her daughter, she was not a Davy devotee. "He was too short and too conceited," she says.