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• Wednesday, March 12, 2008 07:48 AM

  Too cool

  King, I'm honored you would take my letter and use it to kickstart a column. I've been a salon faithful for yeas and that was my first lettter. Also, your suspicions are correct, mynamehere is not my real name, but Mach Shooty Babbitt was already taken.

  I'm impressed with the caliber of knowledge of The Monkees by a lot of the readers here. Chillman especially. I think he nailed it best as far as including musical legacy elements like Nesmith's country rock songs. Also, The Monkees were the first to use the Moog synthesizer in rock (Daily Nightly). Also,for what it's worth, The Beatles themselves were fans, and not just of the tv show. George Harrison recruited Peter Tork to play on his soundtrack for Wonderwall. I could give a ton more facts about their musical conributions, but the facts are out there for those who want to know them.

  As far as comparing Madonna vs The Monkees. It's just not a fair comparison for a variety of reasons. While I agree that Madonna has had a vast influence in fashion, porn, and pop culture in general way beyond The Monkees, it's doubtful she's inspired to many in the rock genre.

  The Monkees paradox as I like to think of it, is that they are as genuinely rock and roll as anyone in the hall now even though they were "prefabricated." Rock at it's finest is supposed to represent integrity, soul and joy. To link it to a sports metaphor, The guys who made up The Monkees were brought in from the minors to play as the New York Yankees, but fought for their right to be an expansion team. They fought the powers that be and gave up millions to do what they all thought was the right thing. I mean how cool is that?They gave up the steroids and played the game as it was meant to be played. The result of that move are a few albums that I think are indisputably great and as genuine as they come. Lastly for my money, Sunny Girlfriend is three minutes of pure pop joy that can't be beat.

  —mynamehere Read mynamehere's other letters
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