३० ऑगस्ट, २०२२

"When the Monkees launched their inaugural tour in 1967, they played to throngs of screaming teenagers – and at least one FBI informant."

"'During the concert, subliminal messages were depicted on the screen which, in the opinion of [informant’s name redacted], constituted "left wing intervention of a political nature,"' reads a document in the Monkees FBI file. 'These messages and pictures were flashed of riots, in Berkley, anti-U.S. messages on the war in Vietnam, racial riots in Selma, Alabama, and similar messages which had unfavorable response[s] from the audience.'  This tiny portion of the band’s FBI file was released to the public a little over a decade ago, and now Micky Dolenz, the group’s sole surviving member, has filed a lawsuit against the FBI... hoping to see the rest of the file after failing to get his hands on it via a Freedom of Information Act request.... 'The Monkees reflected, especially in their later years with projects like [their 1968 art house movie] Head, a counterculture from what institutional authority was at the time,' [said Dolenz's lawyer.] 'And [J. Edgar] Hoover’s FBI, in the Sixties in particular, was infamous for monitoring the counterculture, whether they committed unlawful actions or not.'"

२९ टिप्पण्या:

Static Ping म्हणाले...

"Know yourself. If you need help, call the FBI."

"Deteriorata", National Lampoon

readering म्हणाले...

Good reminder of the FBI's dark past. Present and future?

Kate म्हणाले...

So when Davy Jones sang "Girl" to Marcia Brady it was a leftwing political intervention and countercultural undermining.

The things that go over your head when you're a kid.

Iman म्हणाले...

Ima believer that Hoover dogged the Monkees.

Buckwheathikes म्हणाले...

The FBI is literally picking Presidents based on who they can control, and if they can't, who they can destroy.

But yeah, let's rehash the 1960s, man.

Blaze up.

JZ म्हणाले...

It will be amusing to see what’s in the file, assuming Dolenz gets it. I got my file from the Michigan State Police around 1980. I was surpassed when I heard they had a file on me! It consisted of two photocopies from the college paper where I worked — though work is not the right word. The people who were assembling my file probably were working hard either.

rcocean म्हणाले...

And the FBI before 1945, "Monitored" suspected Righwingers for being Pro-fascist and Pro-Nazi.
They are now monitoring everyone on the Right for being "white nationlists" and "domestic extremists".

At least the FBI in '67 had the excuse that we were fighting a hot war in vietnam and a cold war with the USSR. What is the excuse now?

BTW, a lot of FBI files on celebraties that I've looked at, are just newspaper clippings and random letters from nosey nellies thinking someone was a Nazi or a Red or Pervert. THe number of times an agent actually went and investigated an actor or singer was small. BTW, John Wayne has an FBI file.

rcocean म्हणाले...

All the Monkees are dead except one? wow.

Joe Smith म्हणाले...

Ha!

Back when the FBI cared about left-wing indoctrination.

Now they enable that shit...

Tim म्हणाले...

The FBI has been busy spying on innocent Americans since J.Edgar Hoover. They just ramped it up againt conservatives since the Obama disaster.

n.n म्हणाले...

Round and around, we've come along way, baby.

Lem Vibe Bandit म्हणाले...

Supposed (hidden) FBI agent talking to Project Veritas:

"There are two types of investigations at the FBI; criminal and Intelligence gathering."

Link to video

The surveillance of the Monkeys appears to be of the intelligence gathering variety.

Granted, I'm not a biologist.

Rollo म्हणाले...

Peter was pretty strange ...

Dude1394 म्हणाले...

I wouldn’t vote guilty against Manson if the FBI were testifying.

PM म्हणाले...

Had no love for the Monkees. Beatles, Byrds, Dylan, but not a teeny-bopper band mashed up by TV producers. Was a snob.

Jaq म्हणाले...

Trust them, trust the FBI blindly.

Now do what they did to Billie Holiday for singing “Strange Fruit.”

cubanbob म्हणाले...

The Monkees? The FBI budget apparently has been too high for over eighty years. The next Republican President needs to have a Republican Congress suspend the Civil Service Acts and let the president fire in mass. The rot needs to be cut out before it completely poisons the country.

Narr म्हणाले...

Praise the Hoov for combatting the Monkeepox. I kid. You couldn't make a character like Hoover up, in fiction.

This story reminds me that I want to see if the FBI has anything on my Opa and Oma.

Josephbleau म्हणाले...

See Man, the Monkeys were crap, but the FBI could pay an Agent to compromise them and try to destroy Davey's adolescent innocence. Oh Man, the FBI is a downer. If the FBI could just wake up and walk barefoot in the grass, Man. Grass, huh, huh, huh.

BUMBLE BEE म्हणाले...

MLK's file available for unsealing next administration. Dems gonna cheat like hell from here on out. Oh... like they haven't already!

JaimeRoberto म्हणाले...

I thought the Feebs were only true in fairy tales.
Meant for someone else, but not for me.
Spies were out to get me.
That's the way it seemed.
Garland haunted all my dreams.

Then I saw my file.
Now I'm a believer.
Not a trace, of doubt in my mind.

Carol म्हणाले...

"Byrds, Dylan, but not a teeny-bopper band mashed up by TV producers"

Byrds were not much of a band either, their tracks mostly played by the Wrecking Crew, but I loved them at the time.I was a couple years too old for the Monkees.

Lotta LA bands were fake and not good live performers.

Josephbleau म्हणाले...

J Edgar Hoover committed legal atrocities, right? But the fing FBI headquarters is named after him!!! I'll take down Abraham Lincoln's statue when you take down your goddam FBI office named after a crook you FBI ignoramuses!! Ephram Zimbulist Junior, F you you FBI loving bastard!!

I will take the FBI seriously only when they rename the DC office the MLK LETTER SUGGESTING THAT HE COMMIT SUICIDE OFFICE BUILDING.

TheThinMan म्हणाले...

The group should now be called "The Monkey."

TheThinMan म्हणाले...

But they exposed agent Plame in their song, "Valerie."

cassandra lite म्हणाले...

Why wouldn't they attend a Monkees concert? They attended every other concert (I remember thinking I spotted three or four at a Joan Baez concert; they didn't blend very well) and every meeting of every youth/antiwar/SDS/Black Panthers/et cetera group. In Berkeley, whoever was leading meetings used to begin with a shoutout to the FBI, CIA, and Alameda County sheriffs.

William म्हणाले...

The rap against Hoover was that he was hyper vigilant of leftists and oblivious of the Mafia. Still, there's never been any allegation that he purposely tried to throw any election and there were never any scandals like Bulger or Hanssen on his watch....He became a power during the FDR administration and to a large extent he was FDR's creation. The left didn't always hate him. He certainly knew how to play the media.....He opposed FDR's Japanese internment program and the execution of Ethel Rosenberg. Is it really proven that he was a practicing homosexual? There were all sorts of people in that era who, whatever their inclinations, were not actual homosexuals.

AndrewV म्हणाले...

It would be amusing if the file turned out to mostly be articles clipped from Tiger Beat magazine.

PM म्हणाले...

Carol @ 6:37

The Wrecking Crew is beyond legendary, but: "The Crew recorded TWO singles for the Byrds, with only McGuinn playing along...one of them was the No. 1 hit "Mr. Tambourine Man" The other was the flip-side: "I Knew I'd Want You."