{"id":793317,"date":"2019-02-21T11:57:59","date_gmt":"2019-02-21T18:57:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/?p=797311"},"modified":"2019-02-21T11:57:59","modified_gmt":"2019-02-21T18:57:59","slug":"flashback-the-monkees-peter-tork-makes-a-deal-with-the-devil","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/music-news\/flashback-the-monkees-peter-tork-makes-a-deal-with-the-devil\/","title":{"rendered":"Flashback: The Monkees\u2019 Peter Tork Makes a Deal With the Devil"},"content":{"rendered":"
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When Stephen Stills\u00a0turned down a role in a TV show about a Beatles-like fictional band in 1965, he suggested his friend Peter Thorkelson instead. The two had met in the Sixties Greenwich Village folk scene back in New York, and Thorkelson had a similar \u201cNordic look\u201d the producers were looking for.<\/p>\n

Thorkelson, who became known as Peter Tork<\/a>, joined Davy Jones, Michael Nesmith and Micky Dolenz on the hit series about a rock & roll group trying to make it big. Tork, already an established musician, played bass and sang on the show, while regularly taking part in daily shenanigans. \u201cI was hired to be an actor on a TV show,\u201d Tork told Rolling Stone<\/em> in 2016. \u201cThe producers did have hopes that something musical would come out of us when they cast the four of us. But if we couldn\u2019t have done the music, they would have been alright with us just making the TV show.\u201d<\/p>\n

In an episode called \u201cThe Devil and Peter Tork\u201d from Season 2, Tork comes across an ornate harp in a pawn shop. The man running the shop, who goes by the name of \u201cMr. Zero,\u201d allows him to take the harp home and pay for it later, so long as he signs a mysterious contract.<\/p>\n

Though Tork doesn\u2019t know how to play the harp, Mr. Zero (whom we eventually learn is the devil) appears at the home of the Monkees<\/a> and tells him he indeed can.\u00a0\u201cYou wouldn\u2019t joke about a thing like this,\u201d Tork tells the suited man in the video above. \u201cKnowing how I feel about the harp, \u2019cause it would be a very cruel joke.\u201d Suddenly, Tork possesses the ability to play the instrument beautifully. The other Monkees soon overhear this, and are thrilled they have a chance at becoming an \u201covernight success\u201d with a star harp player, though they later learn it will come at a price.<\/p>\n

Though their show would only last two seasons, the Monkees would go on as an authentic band and reunite for tours throughout the decades. Tork, who\u00a0died today<\/a> at 77 of unknown causes, recalled being a Monkee as an incredible experience.\u00a0\u201cI had some musical training, you know, I could read and I could play some instruments,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd yet one of the selling points for me on the show was the character that I brought in, the simpleton, the kind of quiet guy.\u201d<\/p>\n

via:: Rolling Stone<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When Stephen Stills\u00a0turned down a role in a TV show about a Beatles-like fictional band in 1965, he suggested his friend Peter Thorkelson instead. The two had met in the Sixties Greenwich Village folk scene back in New York, and Thorkelson had a similar \u201cNordic look\u201d the producers were looking for. Thorkelson, who became known […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[98],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-793317","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-music-news"},"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-14 10:59:09","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KSMT The Mountain","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/793317","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=793317"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/793317\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=793317"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=793317"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=793317"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}