Micky Dolenz is getting set for his upcoming solo tour, “The Monkees Celebrated By Micky Dolenz.” The run begins on April 1, 2023, and includes several dozen shows where Dolenz will present The Monkees’ third album Headquarters with live performances and videos plus all of the band’s biggest hits. Tickets are on sale here. Dolenz turned 78 on March 8.
Released in May 1967, Headquarters was the first album the group recorded after winning a hard-fought battle for control over its music earlier that year. It sold three million copies and topped the charts, making it the band’s third consecutive #1 album in less than a year.
Rhino honors the landmark recording’s 55th anniversary with an expansive new set that shows the genesis of the Headquarters project in full. It boasts 69 previously unreleased recordings, including the entire album newly mixed from the original multitrack elements which were resynched to create the best fidelity version of the album ever available. It also boasts the debut of backing tracks made for an abandoned Don Kirshner-led version of the album, as well as the band’s earliest surviving demos, plus recordings that would be completed in 2016 for The Monkees’ final studio album, Good Times!.
The super deluxe edition contains 4 CDs and a 7” vinyl single with “All Of Your Toys” b/w “The Girl I Knew Somewhere.” Limited to 4,000 copies worldwide, the set was released on Nov. 18, 2022, exclusively at Monkees.com.
This ad for the Monkees’ 3rd album appeared in the May 20, 1967 issue of Record World
“Monkee music was great music,” Dolenz said in the tour’s Nov. 1 announcement. “Terrific songs crafted by gifted writers and produced by skilled producers. But Headquarters will always hold a special place in my heart. I remember the camaraderie, the collaboration, the enthusiasm and the occasional creative angst. And I particularly remember lying on the floor behind my drumkit between takes eating sunflower seeds.”
The creative journey that led to Headquarters unfolds chronologically on the new Super Deluxe Edition. It documents The Monkees’ struggle for artistic control with Don Kirshner, the group’s music supervisor. The group wanted to write and perform its own music, while Kirshner preferred to continue using outside songwriters and studio musicians to record backing tracks, with the band adding vocals later.
In January and February 1967, Kirshner oversaw sessions in New York where more than an album’s worth of backing tracks were recorded for the band’s planned third record. At the same time, in Hollywood, the Monkees – Dolenz, Davy Jones, Michael Nesmith, and Peter Tork – began recording songs with producer Chip Douglas. The Super Deluxe Edition includes the debut of the band’s earliest demos for “The Girl I Knew Somewhere” and “All Of Your Toys.” The band recorded them in January 1967 at Gold Star Studios to convince Kirshner the group should have more creative input.
On the tour, it’ll be the first time that Dolenz has sung lead on some of the tracks and in the case of “Mr. Webster,” the first time the song has ever been performed by any incarnation of the band.
The Monkees Celebrated By Micky Dolenz Tour Dates (Tickets are available here and here)
Apr 01 – Orlando, FL – The Plaza Live
Apr 02 – Clearwater, FL – Bilheimer Capitol Theatre
Apr 04 – Virginia Beach, VA – Sandler Center For the Perf. Arts
Apr 05 – Annapolis, MD – Maryland Hall
Apr 07 – Atlantic City, NJ – Ocean Resort
Apr 08 – Vienna, VA – The Barns at Wolf Trap
Apr 10 – Chester, NY – Sugar Loaf PAC
Apr 11 – Huntington, NY – The Paramount
Apr 12 – Englewood, NJ – Bergen PAC
Apr 14 – Ridgefield, CT – The Ridgefield Playhouse
Apr 15 – Beverly, MA – The Cabot
Apr 16 – Jim Thorpe, PA – Penn’s Peak
Apr 18 – Warren, OH – Robins Theatre
Apr 19 – Kent, OH – The Kent Stage
Apr 21 – Sault Ste. Marie, MI – Kewadin Casino – Dream Makers Theater
Apr 22 – Royal Oak, MI – Royal Oak Music Theatre
Apr 23 – Milwaukee, WI – The Pabst Theater
Apr 25 – Niagara Falls, ON – Avalon Theatre
Apr 26 – Niagara Falls, ON – Avalon Theatre
Apr 27 – Niagara Falls, ON – Avalon Theatre
Apr 29 – Minneapolis, MN – Pantages Theatre
May 05 – Skokie, IL – North Shore Center for the Perf. Arts
May 20 – Davenport, IA – Rhythm City Casino Resort
May 25 – Jeffersonville, IN – Abbey Road on the River
Jun 8-11 – Park City, UT – Egyptian Theatre
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2 Comments so far
Jump into a conversationMicky Dolenz may have one of the all-time greatest voices in pop music. I just wish he’d treat it as so in his live performances instead of reverting to his “Monkees Micky” persona where he feels he has to goof around on stage and even in songs. That type of comedic presentation dishonors some of the greatest pop music ever created and discredits Dolenz portraying him more as adolescent comedian than the amazing singer that he is. Sigh.
I think he’s wonderful just as he is. That’s why people love him so much.