Bear Manor Books Interview with Peter Tork Author Sergio Farias

Bear Manor Books Q&A with Sergio Farias, author of the new Peter Tork book Q: Did Jose Feliciano and Stephen Stills play with Peter before the Monkees? A: Yes, that was between 1963 and 1965, when Peter played gigs in Greenwich Village. Q:How many instruments did Peter play? A:. Six instruments. Piano, keyboards, banjo, guitar, bass and French horn. Q: On the first album “The Monkees”, none of them played instruments, like other groups at the time – Byrds, Mamas and The Papas etc. A: Yes, the vast majority of groups at that time did not play their own instruments on recordings. Peter was the only one who played guitar on the first Monkees album. Q:Is it true that Peter recorded with George Harrison? A: Sure. They had a session recording in London for the “Wonderwall” soundtrack. Q: The parties at Peter’s house in Los Angeles were notorious, tell me more about it. A: There’s a Rolling Stone article “Inside the Los Angeles Scene,” placed Peter as one of the most influential people in the city. Jimi Hendrix, Jim Morrison, George Harrison and Ringo Starr were Peter’s guests. It was where Pete Townshend, leader of the Who, and John Sebastian, of the Lovin’ Spoonful, first met. Among these were David Crosby, Stephen Stills, and Graham Nash, as a group began to rehearse in Peter’s mansion Q: In 1970, Peter and his group Release recorded a demo for Ahmet Ertegün, why didn’t the project go ahead? A: They recorded material was supposed to be the foundation of a Release album, with a mixture of rock and roll and folk ballads sung by a singer called Judy Mayhan. When the material got there, producer Jerry Wexler was delighted by Mayhan’s vocals, but not so much by Release as a whole. Q: Ten years later, Peter recorded another demo for Sire Records. A: He recorded and mixed six tracks in a New York studio. Nevertheless, when the producer Pat Horgan handed the demo off to Seymour Stein, the president of Sire, he didn’t like the material.

Q: In 1980, the Monkees were invited to get together for an Emmy Awards ceremony, which ended up not happening because of a writers’ strike, would this be the first time they’d gotten together since the 1960s? A: No. Peter recorded a single with Micky in 1971. He played with Micky and Davy in a few gigs in 1976 and 1977, and recorded a Christmas single. Q: Did the Monkees made a triumphal comeback in 1980s? A: All in all, the Monkees was the top grossing tour in 1986, and had ten records on the 1986 US charts—more than at any other point in the 1960s. Q: What about Peter solo career after Monkees 20th Anniversary Tour? A: Peter Tork had a brilliant solo career. He released several albums, included a piece that he wrote for piano and sixty-five-musician orchestra. Peter still acting during the years. He was a artistic genius and a great human being.

Love Is Understanding: The Life and Times of Peter Tork and The Monkees Between 1966 and 1967, “the Monkees sold more records than the Beatles and the Rolling Stones combined!” Whether this is true or not, they had a revolutionary TV series and they raised the bar of rock concerts. As songwriters and musicians, their musical diversity ranged from the pioneering use of the banjo and the Moog synthesizer in pop music to becoming one of the forerunners in the creation of country rock. This creative unity won admirers like the Beatles, Jimi Hendrix, Frank Zappa, and Timothy Leary. However, when they  exposed the modus operandi of the American record industry, they paid the consequences, and public opinion designated the Monkees as just a prefabricated group at the height of the counterculture. After the band broke up, its members were relegated to brutal ostracism. Peter Tork was the most affected. Though he was a scholar, a classical musician capable of playing seven musical instruments, and an excellent actor and songwriter, for some Peter was simply “the dummy.” This book seeks to do justice to the Monkees’ extraordinary legacy in pop culture, revealing the ups and downs of the band’s backstory and tracing Peter’s dramatic trajectory and pilgrimage through life. A true rock and roll survivor, but, above all, a brilliant artist.  “Sergio Farias delves into the history of the Monkees, a band that lived through the glory and disgrace of stardom after coming face to face with the record industry.” O Globo. “This book fills an existing gap regarding the history of the Monkees” Folha de São Paulo.

Bear Manor Peter Tork Book Order Links:

https://bearmanor-digital.myshopify.com/products/love-is-understanding-the-life-and-times-of-peter-tork-and-the-monkees-paperback?utm_campaign=emailmarketing_127225659426&utm_medium=email&utm_source=shopify_email

Bear Manor ebook Order link: https://shop.app/p/7017916268578

Amazon Peter Tork Book Order Links:

https://www.amazon.com/Love-Understanding-Times-Peter-Monkees/dp/1629339121/ref=sr_1_1?crid=N48H7TQ4GKXC&keywords=sergio+farias&qid=1653398445&s=books&sprefix=Sergio+fa%2Cstripbooks%2C96&sr=1-1

Fred Velez, 2022.