A DAY WITH SHADES OF GRAY - RIP DAVY JONES

Those of us who have a love for 60's music are certainly experiencing a great deal of sadness today; Monkees singer Davy Jones has succumbed to a heart attack. The Monkees may have been a prime target for the rock critics back in the day due to their "manufactured image(discussed in the 1968 Head soundtrack segment "Ditty Diego")" and their using a lot of session musicians in their early recordings(numerous other notable 60's bands did too, yet they were never targeted), but they had certainly earned a lot more respect over the years. One cannot deny their significant contributions to the world of psychedelia, music videos, and country rock. I don't know about you, but I'm hard-pressed to come up with another musical group who can be gone for almost 20 years, reunite, and place 7 albums on the Billboard 200 during 1 year! Not bad for a "fabricated" band, I must say! Remember their 3rd album "Headquarters?" They showed that they had decent musical chops that were good enough to stay right on the heels of Sgt. Pepper during the summer of '67(after it had spent a week on top of the album charts).

I had The Monkees as The Retro Attic's February artist of the month and had Olivia Newton-John slated for March. I have decided to push Olivia back to April and continue focusing on The Monkees for March. March's difference will be the inclusion of rare Davy solo tracks and some tracks from Dolenz, Jones, Boyce And Hart's mid 70's effort. If there is a special Monkees or Davy Jones related track you would like to hear, then please feel free to use our request form on our site.

Thank you for all of the wonderful musical memories Davy; you will be severely missed, but rest assured that The Retro Attic - Rare 50s To 80s Oldies will keep them alive and well!

Davy's 1971 Bell LP - To Be Featured In March

"When I Was Young, Life Was Such A Gas..."

I'm sure many of you are pulling your hair out now(or in my case, gray hairs - the more I pull out, the happier I will be!) from watching the sudden hiking of the gas prices. Rumor has it they may go up as much as 60 cents by the time the summer arrives! Instead of getting more depressed with the present situation, why don't we go back over 30 years and take a somewhat humorous listen to how the gas situation used to be?

The year was 1979. During that summer, many of us sat in long lines at the gas stations due to a major oil crisis. We bided our time in our Pintos(or a forest green station wagon for yours truly) by discussing with our buddies what disco records we were going to bring to Comiskey Park for a "barbeque," what medicines could cure a stomach ache from a 6 pack of Billy Beer, what tools could pry a melted "Helen Reddy's Greatest Hits" 8 track cartridge from the dashboard, and what a bright future the TV show "240 Robert" was going to have(I don't know about you, but I liked Joanna Cassidy).

Some of you may have rushed out and bought a copy of the below minor charter by a group of British comedians called The Barron Knights. "The Topical Song" parodied a Supertramp classic and reminded us how frustrating it was to fill up the car tank back then. I know times were different, but c'mon...I'd welcome back a dollar a gallon with someone washing my windshield and checking my oil if it meant dealing with the frustration of waiting an hour to get to the full serve island!

Was that summer a "gas" for you too? If so, then keep your ears open for this long-forgotten comedy tune here on The Retro Attic!

This "Topped Off" At #70 In 9/79