Peter Tork sings the blues, but not about his past

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Peter Tork sings the blues, but not about his past
November 4, 2010
By Rege Behe
TribLive.com


A little more than 40 years ago, the Monkees caused the same sort of frenzied reaction that marked the arrival of the Beatles in America a few years earlier. There were screaming teenaged girls, countless stories and photos in magazines such as Tiger Beat, and a highly rated television show that aired from 1966 to 1968.

To this day, ex-Monkee Peter Tork hears from fans who say how much the program meant to them. But Tork, who performs Friday with his band Shoe Suede Blues at Moondog's in Blawnox, says one of the reasons for the TV show's popularity was in how the band was portrayed.

"Here's the little secret about 'The Monkees': It was the only TV show of its day, and for decades in either direction, about young adults without a single senior adult figure," Tork says. "That reflected the political reality of the time that authorities had relinquished their moral value."

Tork goes on to talk about the Vietnam War, the injustice so many people his age felt, and other social concerns of the 1960s. But for many, the Monkees were just those cute cuddly boys cast as America's own fab four, even if the band often bristled at the limitations placed on them by the show's producers.

But Tork is not one to gainsay the past; he has nothing but good memories of his time as a Monkee. And while Shoe Suede Blues is his main focus, he's not going to disappoint fans by going strictly B.B. King or Muddy Waters.

"I am, of course, gratified when people come up to me and say 'I came to hear the Monkees' songs, thanks for playing them, but I really loved the blues part,' " Tork says. "I won't say that I'm not paying attention, because I am, given the expectations. I'm aware of my history."

Tork, who was born in Washington, D.C., in 1942 and currently lives in Connecticut, started out playing folk music in Greenwich Village. His heroes were bluesman such as Lightnin' Hopkins and Albert King, but there was one musician he admired who had no influence whatsoever on Tork: Little Richard.

"He was so freaking good that I knew I was never going to cross the yawning chasm between his talent and mine," Tork says. "He was awe-inspiring, and still remains the greatest rock 'n' roll singer of all time."

Tork left the Monkees at the end of 1968 (he was the first to exit the band), tried to launch a solo career, failed, and battled alcohol problems for years. He's been sober for almost 30 years, and recently took time to address graduates of a drug court in California as part of his theory that recovery from any addiction is incomplete without service to others.

"I have been given a huge treasure: to not have to drink, which was my experience," he says. "It was obliged, it was mandatory. To be relieved of that imperative is an enormous gift, a jewel beyond price. There is no amount of money to make me give it up. What would I do with the money? ... And to keep this gift is to deny it to others."