The Monkees bassist Peter Tork dies at 77
Peter Tork, who rose to teen-idol fame in 1966 playing the lovably clueless bass guitarist in the made-for-television rock band The Monkees, has died at the age of 77.
A statement on Tork's Facebook page says he died after living for 10 years with adenoid cystic carcinoma, a rare cancer of the salivary glands.
"Peter's energy, intelligence, silliness, and curiosity were traits that for decades brought laughter and enjoyment to millions, including those of us closest to him," it reads. "Those traits also equipped him well to take on cancer, a condition he met with unwavering humour and courage."
His bandmate, Micky Dolenz, tweeted he was heartbroken at the news.
Tork, an accomplished multi-instrumentalist, was performing in Los Angeles clubs when he learned from fellow musician Steven Stills of a casting call for "four insane boys" to star in a TV show about a struggling rock band.
He, Dolenz, David Jones and Michael Nesmith became overnight sensations when the show took off in 1966. Their hits included Daydream Believer and I'm a Believer.
Tork was often hailed by the other Monkees as the band's best musician. He had studied music since childhood and was accomplished on guitar, bass guitar, keyboards, banjo and other instruments. Michael Nesmith, the Monkees' lead guitarist, said Tork was the better of the two. Tork said he played bass because none of the others wanted to.
Tork said he adopted his "dummy" persona from the way he'd get audiences at Greenwich Village folk clubs to engage with him in the early 1960s.
Nesmith was the only member of the Monkees who Tork knew before the show's debut. Nesmith had been running "Hoot Nights" at the Troubadour nightclub in Los Angeles where Tork would occasionally perform.
"As I write this my tears are awash, and my heart is broken," Nesmith posted on his Facebook page Thursday. "I have said this before — and now it seems even more apt — the reason we called it a band is because it was where we all went to play."
Initially, the Monkees was a band whose members didn't play their instruments or write many of their songs. That was something that infuriated both Tork and Nesmith.
In later years, Tork would tell of going to an early recording session, only to be told dismissively that he wasn't needed, that session musicians were laying down the musical tracks and all the Monkees were needed for was the vocals.
"I was a hired hand, and I didn't quite know that, and I didn't quite get it," he told The Associated Press in 2000. "I had fantasies of being more important than it turns out I was."
Eventually he and Nesmith wrested control of the band's musical fate from Don Kirshner, who had been brought in as the show's music producer. By the group's third album, Headquarters, the Monkees were playing their instruments and had even performed live in Hawaii.
The band went on a lengthy concert tour in 1967 that at one point included Jimi Hendrix as the opening act.
The final episode of the Monkees' TV show aired in March of 1968. Tork left the Monkees later that year amid creative differences but reunited for tours with the others every few years. His last was in 2016.
Tork also recorded blues and folk music and made several TV appearances.
