A MONKEE SINGS R.E.M.? MICKY DOLENZ TALKS THE ART OF THE COVER VERSION
HE'S PREVIOUSLY recorded albums of the songs of Goffin and King, and his late friend and Monkees bandmate Mike Nesmith. Now Micky Dolenz turns his attention, and wondrously un-aged vocal chords, to R.E.M., with a new EP which includes his versions of Shiny Happy People, Radio Free Europe, Man On The Moon and Leaving New York.
“It was a friend of ours [Monkees archive keeper], Gary Strobl, who originally suggested doing Shiny Happy People to me years ago,” says Dolenz down the line from his Hollywood home. “And I remember hearing that R.E.M. were big fans of The Monkees. In fact, there's a clip on YouTube of them playing Stepping Stone when they were kids. Then Peter Buck played guitar on our
Christmas Party album a few years ago… it just all came around full circle!”
The EP is released by the 7A label, home of other Monkeerelated reissuing and 2021's
Dolenz Sings Nesmith. The latter
“A great song is kind of hard to screw up.” MICKY DOLENZ
was produced by Mike
Nesmith's son Christian, who's back behind the desk for Dolenz Sings
R.E.M. “We sent a shortlist to Christian,” says Dolenz.
“The way he'd re-envisioned his father's tunes was phenomenal, and he did his own due diligence and research, and kind of demoed them on an acoustic guitar.”
The songs were recorded in Nesmith's wellappointed home studio in North Hollywood (“I've tried ‘remote' and I don't like it,” says the singer), and were finished in March 2023. With instruments by Nesmith and drums by Christopher Allis, additional vocals were provided by Dolenz's sister Coco and Nesmith's partner Circe Link.
“There's a saying I learned in England,” says Dolenz, who names
Losing My Religion and Man On The Moon as favourite R.E.M. songs. “‘You don't keep a dog and bark yourself.' I've used that as a mantra. I don't micromanage, I let them get on with it. Of the few talents I might have, I'm a singer. So I'm going to back off and show up when it's time for me to start singing. Frankly, I think Christian did a wonderful job.”
Dolenz Sings R.E.M. arrives in November, when he'll play an in-store launch gig at Wuxtry Records in Athens, Georgia, where Buck and R.E.M. singer Michael Stipe met in 1980. “They know about the launch,” says Dolenz, “and they've been incredibly supportive.” (Indeed, of the EP Stipe commented, “I have died and gone to heaven”; Buck declared it “unreal”; and bassist Mike Mills decreed it to be “beyond awesome”). Intriguingly, there may yet be other groups destined to be thrilled by their songs getting a Dolenz makeover.
“I'm thinking about continuing the theme and doing another one,” says Dolenz, whose 500-page photo book I'm Told I Had A Good Time also arrives in December. “There have been a lot of suggestions bouncing around, a lot of writers, different themes… finding great material, that's where it starts. A great song is, you know, kind of hard to screw up. So I'm looking for ideas. You have any?”