15/02/2023
Remembering musician and actor Peter Tork who was born Peter Halsten Thorkelson on this date February 13, 1942 in Washington, D.C
Tork began studying piano at the age of nine, showing an aptitude for music by learning to play several different instruments, including the banjo, acoustic bass, and guitar. He attended Carleton College before he moved to New York City, where he became part of the folk music scene in Greenwich Village during the first half of the 1960s. While there, he befriended other up-and-coming musicians, such as StephenStills. In fact it was Stills who recommended Tork audition for The Monkees after he was turned down.
Tork was a proficient musician before he joined the Monkees. Though other members of the band were not allowed to play their instruments on their first two albums, he played what he described as "third chair guitar" on Michael Nesmith's song "Papa Gene's Blues" on their first album. He subsequently played keyboard, bass guitar, banjo, harpsichord, and other instruments on the band's recordings.
He co-wrote, along with Joey Richards, the closing theme song of the second season of The Monkees, "For Pete's Sake".
In 1968 Tork bought out the remaining four years of his contract for $160,000 and left the group.
Tork went solo with a group called Peter Tork And/Or Release with then-girlfriend Reine Stewart on drums (she had played drums on part of
"33⅓ Revolutions Per Monkee"), Riley "Wyldflower" Cummings (formerly of the Gentle Soul) on bass and – sometimes – singer/keyboard player Judy Mayhan. The Release could not secure a record contract, and by 1970, Tork was once again a solo artist.
In the early 1970s, where he joined the 35-voice Fairfax Street Choir and played guitar for a shuffle blues band called Osceola.
Tork returned to southern California in the mid-1970s, where he married, had a son, and took a job teaching at Pacific Hills School in West Hollywood for a year and a half. He spent a total of three years as a teacher of music, social studies, math, French and history, and coached baseball at several schools.
On July 4, 1976, Tork joined Dolenz, Jones, Boyce & Hart onstage at Disneyland for a guest appearance during their concert tour. Later that year, he reunited with Jones and Dolenz in the studio for the recording of the single "Christmas Is My Time of Year" backed with "White Christmas", which saw a limited release for fan club members that holiday season.
A chance meeting with Sire Records executive Pat Horgan at the Bottom Line in New York City led to Tork recording a six-song demo, his first recording in many years. With George Dispigno as an engineer, Horgan produced the six tracks, which included two Monkees covers, "Shades of Gray" and "Pleasant Valley Sunday". but Seymour Stein, president of Sire, rejected the demo.
In 1981, Tork released the single "(I'm Not Your) Steppin' Stone" (backed with "Higher and Higher") with the New Monks.
In 1986, after a 1985 tour with Davy Jones in Australia, Tork rejoined fellow Monkees Jones and Dolenz for a highly successful 20th-anniversary reunion tour (Nesmith was not available for a reunion).
Tork and Dolenz recorded three new songs for a greatest hits release. The three Monkees recorded "Pool It!" the following year. A decade later, all four group members recorded "Justus", the first studio album with the full group lineup since 1968; it would be another 19 years until that happened again, with the release of "Good Times!".
Since 1986, Tork had intermittently toured with his former bandmates and also played with his bands, the Peter Tork Project and Shoe Suede Blues. In 2011, he joined Dolenz and Jones for "An Evening with The Monkees: The 45th Anniversary Tour" in 2011.
In 2012, Tork joined Dolenz and Nesmith on a Monkees tour in honor of the 45th anniversary of their album Headquarters, as well as in tribute to the late Jones. The trio would tour again in 2013 and 2014. In 2016, Tork toured with Dolenz as the Monkees, in what would be his final tour before his death February 21, 2019 at the age of 77.
