Where Are These Musicians Now?

[Candy O]

Here you can update us with how our favorite musicians from the past are doing today!

[BeatleBob]

The Animals:

After breaking up the Animals in December, 1968, Burdon entered the Seventies as frontman for a black funk group from the streets of Los Angeles known as War and recorded the hit single "Spill the Wine"(#3) and two albums. When Burdon became discouraged and quit the music business because of what he said was "too much competition", War continued to have a successful career without him, placing 11 more songs in the Billboard Top 40. Burdon eventually changed his mind and continued as a solo artist, recording intermittently throughout the Seventies and Eighties.

As for the other early Animals, Alan Price enjoyed a highly successful solo career in Britain, Dave Rowberry became a session player and bassist Chas Chandler discovered and managed Jimi Hendrix. The original Animals subsequently reunited in 1976 to tour and record a reunion album called "Before We Were So Rudely Interrupted", after which Burdon ventured into new territory by appearing in several European films and eventually starred in and composed the soundtrack for the German film,"Comeback". Burdon reunited with The Animals once again for more world touring in 1983. He also recorded a song called "Sixteen Tons" for the soundtrack to Tom Hanks' feature film, "Joe Versus the Volcano".

In 1990 Burdon toured with Robbie Krieger (formerly with The Doors), did a cameo roll in Oliver Stones' picture, "The Doors", studied acting at The Actor's Studio in Los Angeles, did more professional acting by doing a cameo role in the feature film "The Eleventh Victim", and appeared as featured artist in television shows such as "China Beach". In 1991 he collaborated with follow Englishman and keyboard player Brian Auger to form the Eric Burdon / Brian Auger Band and continued to tour the world, primarily in Europe, performing for his many loyal fans. From this collaboration came the live, double album, "Access All Areas".

In 1994, Eric Burdon and The Animals were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall Of Fame.

Chas Chandler died of a heart attack in 1996. Dave Rowberry suffered a similar fate in 2003.

Burdon's great voice can be heard on national television commercials and he has appeared in several documentary specials on the history of rock n' roll including a series by Time/Life in the States and Granada TV and BBC TV in England. He was a featured artist on the Concert For The Rock and Roll Hall Of Fame and performed in the HBO Special presentation of that concert, where he sang some of his classic hits in a duet with Jon Bon Jovi and he was honoured to have been invited by the family of Jimi Hendrix to perform in the "Jimi Hendrix Tribute Concert in Seattle".

From there, Burdon formed a brand new band and continued performing some of the freshest and most moving songs of his brilliant career. "Eric Burdon's I Band" has toured Europe extensively, performing at the House Of Blues in Los Angeles, Harrah's Tahoe and Reno, and many other forums in the U.S.

Starting in 2001, several past members of The Animals have toured and recorded under the name Animals and Friends.

A collaboration called "Eric Burdon and The New Animals" has its own sound and in addition to the classic Burdon songs, its own material. The new band featured guitarists Dean Restum and Neal Morse, bassist Dave Meros, and one of the true legends in popular music, drummer Aynsley Dunbar. Burdon and The New Animals toured regularly and headlined at numerous tribute concerts and national festivals. In the early part of the new millennium, he completed work for a Greek motion picture, continued to work on his autobiography, issued a new studio CD, hosted Micky Horne's U.K-based Virgin Radio show, put the finishing touches on a live I-Band CD and took part in an impromptu memorial for the late Linda McCartney.

In April, 2004 Burdon released a comeback album called "My Secret Life", his first collection of new recordings in over 16 years. He followed it with a Blues / R&B collection, "Soul of a Man" in January 2006. In January, 2013, Burdon announced his latest solo effort, "'Til Your River Runs Dry", which he was slated to support with a short tour. He was also working on his third memoir, a follow-up to I Used to Be an Animal, but I'm All Right Now and Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood: A Memoir.

The Monkees:

Despite the questions surrounding their musical competence, the Monkees did tour before live audiences. They made their own contribution to rock history by enlisting Jimi Hendrix , then barely known in the U.S., as an opening act for a 1967 tour; Hendrix lasted only a few shows before everyone agreed that the combination was a mismatch (to put it mildly). But the Monkees were always a lot hipper personally than many assumed from their bubblegum packaging. Their albums are strewn with rather ambitious, even mildly psychedelic cuts, some rather successful, some absolutely awful.

In 1968, they gained their freak credentials with the movie "Head", a messy, indulgent, occasionally inspired piece of drug-addled weirdness that was co-written and co-produced by Jack Nicholson (before he had broken through to stardom with Easy Rider).

By 1968, the Monkee phenomenon was drawing to a close. The show's final episode aired in March 1968, and Head, released in November, was not a commercial success, confusing the teenyboppers and confounding the critics. Surprisingly, it was not Nesmith, but Tork who was the first to leave the group, at the end of 1968. They carried on as a trio, releasing a couple of fairly dismal albums in 1969, as well as producing a little-seen TV special.

By the end of the '60s, Nesmith, who had established his credentials as a songwriter with "Different Drum," which was taken into the Top 20 by Linda Ronstadt and the Stone Poneys, was also gone, to start a lengthy solo career that finally allowed him to stretch out as a serious artist. That left only Dolenz and Jones, who fulfilled the Monkees contract with the pointless 'Changes' album in 1970.

When enough years separated the music from the hype, the Monkees underwent a critical rehab of sorts, as listeners fondly remembered their singles as classy, well-executed, fun pop/rock. That led to a predictable clamour for a reunion, especially after their albums were reissued to surprisingly swift sales in the mid-'80s, and their series was rerun on MTV.

Nesmith was having none of it; by this time he was a respected and hugely successful music video mogul with his Pacific Arts company. The other three did reunite to tour and record a predictably horrendous album, "Pool It!" (Nesmith did join them once onstage in 1989). Rhino records has treated the Monkee catalogue with a great deal of respect, reissuing all of their original albums on CD with added unreleased/rare bonus tracks, and even assembling a box set.

Micky Dolenz, Davy Jones, and Peter Tork celebrated the Monkees' 30th anniversary with a concert tour that ran throughout 1996. In 1997, Michael Nesmith joined them for a spring concert tour of Great Britain and Ireland. All four Monkees were with their concert tour in the U.S. in the summer of 1997.

In 1999 Davy Jones was to have co-starred again with Peter Noone and Bobby Sherman on the Teen Idols concert tour, but in early April, Davy announced he would be leaving the tour immediately. Davy did not appear on any Teen Idols dates that year. In 2003, Davy was performing solo shows with his band around the country, as well as training horses.

Micky Dolenz began working seriously on his directing career in 1999. He directed an episode of the ABC-TV sitcom Boy Meets World. With Davy's departure from the 1999 edition of the Teen Idols tour, Micky was asked to take his place on the tour, and he accepted the invitation. He continued to act and perform solo on the oldies circut.

Peter Tork was touring regularly with his blues band Shoe Suede Blues.

Michael Nesmith completed a bicoastal book tour to promote his novel, "The Long Sandy Hair of Neftoon Zamora" (1998, St. Martin's Press). He also began working on his second novel, and trying to drum up interest in getting his script, "Fried Pies", turned into a feature film. Michael Nesmith's long-running legal trouble with PBS was finally concluded when a federal court jury awarded him a settlement of nearly $47 million dollars. PBS appealed the verdict. In 2003, Michael was working on a new album, "Rays".

By 2006, the members of the Monkees were saying that they had no plans to work together in the future. "I would not work with those guys again if my life depended on it," Jones told Scripps Howard News Service. "I can't be responsible for their attitudes and the way they treat people." But by February 2011, Jones had changed his mind as he and Micky Dolenz along with Peter Tork announced plans to play ten shows in Britain in May, including a concert at London's prestigious Royal Albert Hall, before moving to North America in June and July. Michael Nesmith did not take part in the reunion. It didn't take long for old wounds to re-open however, and on August 8th, 2011, the trio cancelled the remainder of the tour "due to internal group issues and conflicts". This marked the third consecutive time which The Monkees, as either a threesome or a quartet, did not complete a tour without either losing members or cancelling some of the dates.

For 2012, Dolenz, Tork and Jones had separate touring schedules, with Dolenz being by far the busiest. All hopes of another full Monkees reunion were dashed on February 29th, 2012 when Davy Jones suffered a fatal heart attack at his Florida home at the age of 66. He is survived by his wife Jessica and four daughters. Not wanting his March 7th funeral to turn into a media circus, none of his former band mates attended. Sales of The Monkees back catalogue shot up 1,267% during the week after Davy's death, with two LPs, re-entering the Billboard 200 album chart. "The Best of the Monkees" was #20 and "Flashback With the Monkees" went to #125. Collectively, the group's albums sold 29,000 copies that week.

The band was back in the news again in August of 2012 when they announced that the surviving members, including Michael Nesmith, would reunite for a 12 date tour of the United States. That jaunt began in July, 2013 in Port Chester, New York.

Although many critics dismiss the band as "the fabricated four", The Monkees left us with a series of fondly remembered, toe-tapping hits from the classic age of Rock and Roll.

[60s Fan]

Thanks for this Beatlebob!!!!!BeatleGirl loves The Animals! And I Love The Monkees!

I only just recently discovered that "House Of The Rising Sun" was a cover song!!!! I was like OMG! For so many years, I've thought that was an original Animals song! But they still have alot of other good original songs so that's ok! Lol!

[BeatleBob]

You're Welcome Sadie!! :-)) That's why I posted The Animals and The Monkees!  ;-)

House Of The Rising Sun:
"The melody is a traditional English ballad, but the song became popular as an African-American Folk song. It was recorded by Texas Alexander in the 1920s, then by a number of other artists including Leadbelly, Woody Guthrie, Josh White and later Nina Simone. It was her version The Animals first heard. No one can claim rights to the song, meaning it can be recorded and sold royalty-free. Many bands recorded versions of this after it became a hit for The Animals."

I too thought it was an Original Animal's song for so many years! LOL! ;-) I Agree, they have some Great orignal songs!!

Glad you learned some new stuff about the Animals from this. I did too! :-) I'm Glad you still enjoyed reading the part about The Monkees even though you already knew everything about them!! :-)

I understand why you would be pissed off about those statements made by the person who wrote the short Monkees Bio!!! LOL! At least he said "The Monkees left us with a series of fondly remembered, toe-tapping hits from the classic age of Rock and Roll." Which is Very True!! :-)

Sadie: You should check out "Match the Themes of Songs", it's Fun!!  :-)