Love Is Understanding: The Life and Times of Peter Tork and The Monkees

by Sergio Farias

Between 1966 and 1967, “the Monkees sold more records than the Beatles and the Rolling Stones combined!” Whether this is true or not, they had a revolutionary TV series and they raised the bar of rock concerts. As songwriters and musicians, their musical diversity ranged from the pioneering use of the banjo and the Moog synthesizer in pop music to becoming one of the forerunners in the creation of country rock. This creative unity won admirers like the Beatles, Jimi Hendrix, Frank Zappa, and Timothy Leary. However, when they exposed the modus operandi of the American record industry, they paid the consequences, and public opinion designated the Monkees as just a prefabricated group at the height of the counterculture. After the band broke up, its members were relegated to brutal ostracism. Peter Tork was the most affected. Though he was a scholar, a classical musician capable of playing seven musical instruments, and an excellent actor and songwriter, for some Peter was simply “the dummy.” This book seeks to do justice to the Monkees’ extraordinary legacy in pop culture, revealing the ups and downs of the band’s backstory and tracing Peter’s dramatic trajectory and pilgrimage through life. A true rock and roll survivor, but, above all, a brilliant artist.

“Sergio Farias delves into the history of the Monkees, a band that lived through the glory and disgrace of stardom after coming face to face with the record industry.” O Globo.

“This book fills an existing gap regarding the history of the Monkees” Folha de São Paulo.

Genres: Music, Biography

354 pages, Kindle Edition

Published June 21, 2022

Reviews

[Koren · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the third Monkee's bio I have read and I think maybe the most well-written. I always think it is a shame that due to internal conflict, the Monkees only lasted 3 short years and the 4 never again became as big as they were in the beginning. They hated the music they were making, even though it is some of the biggest selling music ever, ranked right up there with the Beatles. Peter went through some rough times, but came out ok. This book is as much a history of the music scene in the late 60's as it is a history of one group that made it big.

[Kifflie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sergio Farias does a great job of outlining Peter's career with the Monkees and adds in some interesting details of the period from 1969-1986 when Peter struggled to get his solo career started and was also wrestling with alcoholism.

The author isn't writing in his native language and there's some awkward English phrasing here and there (plus some typos that should have been caught by a proofreader), but I could tell that he loves his subject and worked hard to pull together his research.

The last chapter is a bit of a quick survey of everything since 1986, and I might have liked more detail here, but that's forgivable.

It's also good to get perspectives on how the Monkees were perceived outside of the English-speaking world.

[David Phillips · Rating 5 out of 5]

As a Monkees fan, this was a really good read.

I have always been fascinated by Peter Tork's life, his involvement with the Laurel Canyon scene and immediately post-Monkees and this covers that period really well.

It's about as in depth a book as you can get when the subject and many of his associates, family, friends, etc are unavailable to be interviewed but, it has a neat narrative, follows Tork's life a a good pace and, for me, includes just enough of the other Monkees without losing sight of Tork as the main focus.

Definitely recommend for any Monkees fan.

[Krista Hansen · Rating 4 out of 5]

A few factual errors- The Daughters of the American Revolution protesting Hendrix was a concocted story- but overall a fun read,well worth the effort for any '60s music fan.