Brrr! Brrr! Brr! Brrr! Insistent ringing of the telephone… late at night. Who can that be? Must be somebody important. Hand reaches out. “Hello?”. The operator says: “A Mister Dolenz is calling you from America”. Micky? Instantly awake. It IS somebody important. V-E-R-Y Important.
Micky talks fast. Here’s what he said…
“Hi! How’s it going over there in London? Would you be so kind as to pass on my very best wishes to all the fans there? You know something—I never can get used to the fact that when it’s night-time over there, it’s day-time here. Kinda upside-down, but I sure hope I didn’t wake you up. Just wanted to chat with you and tell you that I’m still wanting to visit with you all just as soon as we get some time off.
“But that’s our trouble. No time. We know only too well that it’s good to get out and meet fans in different countries but with the television series… boy, there’s no chance. Now this current series is finished, bar a few details, we’ll be having a month off, making up for the pressures of this last year.
“Whatta year it’s been! And still the great moments are coming up. Like our Album ‘Pisces, Aquarius, Capricorn and Jones’ is up there at the top of the American charts. And we’re very happy that you like ‘Daydream Believer’ over your side.
“Hey, I got some things I wanna tell you. You know my best pal Rick got married… well, his wife Frew is a real groovy gal.
Went to Mexico Permalink
“We’ve all been to some interesting places. Like when we took Frew to see the Mexican Grand Prix, one of the top motor races. I’m mad about cars. Maybe it stems from the time I was a student and had to take part-time work to make some bread. I spent some time at a gas station, where I picked up a lot of knowledge about cars… though I never thought I’d have enough money to buy what I liked!
“Anyway, at the Grand Prix, I took some film on my new camera. I think I’m going movie mad. We have people round to the house, here in Laurel Canyon, and I play the projectionist and show some films. Some of my own, others are big feature things like ‘King Kong’ and ‘Alice in Wonderland’, and the Dot and Line cartoon, too.
“Of course you’ll probably know that I knocked off one ambition not long ago. That’s by direciing and writing one of the Monkee television shows. For ages I’ve wanted to be there on the OTHER side of the camera, telling the others what to do. Yep, I’m actually in the show, too. Dolenz the Director—sounds good yeah? Can’t say much about the show I did, ’cos it’d just spoil the surprise of it.
“Let’s see, I told you about my 16 millimetre filming—what else? Aaaaaah, cars. Well, I bought a Go-Kart but quite honestly I didn’t really enjoy it. It kinda lacked… well, zoooom. Know what I mean? So now I’m after an Enduro Kart, which really goes. Like it can do between 130 and 140 m.p.h., which is plenty zoom.
“And I’m also looking for a new car to drive around town. Right now I fancy a Ferrari, but I could change my mind before I’ve finished talking to you. Nice cars, Ferraris. Another ambition is to do something in the motor-racing scene. One idea clicking around right now is to launch a new formula five racing car.
“Hear any strange noises going on in the background? Well, my house right now is just like a hotel. People everywhere you look… we’ve had as many as thirty or forty people staying over some nights. Which is groovy, ’cos I like people round me…
“All kinds of guys just come round and look me up. It was great meeting up with some of the Hollies, during their tour over here. They just sort of appeared. And we get disc-jocks, too. Get around and talk about the business—you know the stuff. And best of all is that Sammy is here at long last. She digs the scene very much—I keep telling her there’s a lot to dig about London, too. Miss you all madly, he said blowing a kiss!
“My recording studio is all ready and looks great. We got the whole of it carpeted now and we had a groovy jam session just a few days ago with the Buffalo Springfield, who are a great and talented bunch of guys.
Dogs and cats Permalink
“I clean forgot to tell you about my menagerie. Right now, we got seven cats and three dogs roaring about the place. I’m still trying to dream up names for some of them. Like two of the cats are called ‘Canada’ and ‘Dry’, and another is ‘Icecream’. And most important is the one called ‘Sam’… guess who gave me that Siamese beauty. Yeah, Samantha. What scared me stiff was that I lost ‘Sam’ for a while there—eventually found him by the next-door house. Phew—talk about feelin’ shaky! Oh, yeah—one of the dogs has a strange name. I call it ‘You Dog’! Like it?
“I’ve been talking on too long. I guess you wanna get back to sleep. But don’t you forget now… give my love to all the fans over there in your country. Love you, love you, love you all. It’s been real nice chatting to you again.”
