RAVER: ’60s Crossovers Pt. 1
Howdy campers! This week’s RAVER is a little different in that it doesn’t feature just one specific artist, but a whole host of them hanging out and co-mingling.
That’s right — it’s crossover time!
Obviously, ’60s musicians were a tight bunch and often did things normal friends do: go on vacations together, party at each other’s houses, carpool, and, oh yeah, swap wives. Most of the time, all this fun stuff was done in the privacy of homes or recording studios, but every once in awhile, a photographer crept in and got the scoop.
Take, for instance these pics of Micky Dolenz and Michael Nesmith hanging out with the Fab Four. At the time, this was huge. The Monkees were at least as big as the Beatles in the US, and this was to be a huge summit. Who knew what would happen? Nostradamus should have foreseen this.
This photo was snapped at one of the “A Day in the Life”/Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band recording sessions and was published in the June 1967 issue of 16. From left to right is Cynthia Lennon, Phyllis Nesmith, Mike Nesmith and Ringo Starr.
At the same time, Micky Dolenz was also tooling around with the Beatles, reportedly getting pretty stoned with Paul McCartney, which explains their dazed expressions in these photos. (Apologies to poor Martha. She didn’t deserve to get mixed up in their shenanigans!)
I’d pay big bucks to know what piece of sage wisdom Brian Epstein is imparting on the bleary-eyed Monkee.
Micky was a man about town, and a favorite bud of lots of English rockers… and mods, too. (Insert “mockers” joke here.)
Good try spinning the Dolenz/Juste romance as “ain’t no thang,” 16. In reality, Sammy and Micky were basically attached at the hip. She even joined him on some of the Monkees’ tour dates that summer and, in 1968, they were married.
Back stateside, the Monkees’ stand-in and pal David Pearl penned a column for 16 that ran in several 1967 issues. In one, he describes a wild night out with Micky and Davy Jones, along with Chip Douglas (then-bass player for the Turtles and producer of the Monkees’ 1967 album Headquarters) and several members of the Raiders. Of course, there just happened to be a photographer there, too. (Nah, this couldn’t be a publicity stunt… could it?)
Look out for names of several landmark Greenwich Village music joints, including the infamous Night Owl Cafe.
The Monkees weren’t the only ones hanging out with rock royalty or the Beatles, though. In 1966, the Lovin’ Spoonful’s tour took them to jolly ol’ England where they were regaled in high fashion, including parties with the Fabs and Stones. This article from 16‘s September 1966 issue skims over the trip, which Hit Parader covers much more in-depth, but that’s for another day…
Meanwhile, on the American leg of the same tour, the Spoonful played a few dates with another little-known band called the Beach Boys. Only a few photos made it into the October 1966 Hit Parader, but they show Carl Wilson and Spoons drummer Joe Butler engrossed in (I’m sure) deep conversation, and Al Jardine strumming away on John Sebastian’s autoharp.
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Besides tours and hangouts, photographed crossovers often happened at events where everyone who was hip had to be there, or be very, very square. Like this party for Los Angeles’ Top 40 radio station (which now, like New York’s famed 1010 WINS is solid talk and news) KFWB, pictured in the May 1966 issue of 16.
Of course, other stars were rubbing elbows all over the world at press events and parties. Like Mick Jagger and Jan Berry (from Movie Teen Illustrated, July 1966)…
…Brian Jones and Bob Dylan (Hit Parader, August 1966)…
And this epic gathering of four of the Dave Clark Five with the Supremes (16, April 1965).
To their credit, teen mag editors, like Gloria Stavers, knew crossovers were popular subjects. Readers wanted to think their favorite band members were best friends, even if they never appeared in photographs together.
16 began piecing together articles billed as, for example, “Peter & Gordon with Chad & Jeremy” (see below from June 1965), that really meant nothing, as they were merely a series of photos laid out like a comic book. And yet, it still satisfied their readers, and even convinced me to look twice when I was researching this article.
Although — this particular faux-crossover contains a real one from Dick Van Dyke, probably snapped when Chad & Jeremy appeared on his Show in 1965.
The moral of the story: rock stars hung out, did a lot of drugs together, and we’ll probably never get to see the really good pics. Damn.
Stay tuned for part two!
