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Eric Lefcowitz – Monkees Historian
April 28, 2011 by brad
Filed under Eric Lefcowitz
Eric Lefcowitz began writing in the early 1980s, releasing his first book “The Monkees Tale” in 1985. Thanks to exposure on MTV, the book became a bestseller and Lefcowitz has subsequently become known as a historian on the influential 60s band.
Since then, Lefcowitz has published in a variety of settings including an anniversary article on the movie “Dr. Strangelove” for the New York Times, several books including “Tomorrow Never Knows: The Beatles’ Last Concert” with famed music photographer Jim Marshall and a series of articles for the website
Retrofuture.com. Lefcowitz now runs a specialty food business called Retrofuture Products which promotes emerging independent food producers, including his own line of space-related novelties.
In his spare time, he plays in the band The Mulligan Gang, is raising three children, and still has time to walk his dog Maxi. In 2011, Lefcowitz released the biography “Monkee Business: The Revolutionary Made-For-TV Band.”
We at Monkees.Net are thrilled to have Eric writing occasional articles for us here and answering fans questions. Welcome Eric!
Hi Eric, I have a bit of history for you that is rather unique. After the first season of the Monkees, my family moved to French Polynesia and lived on the island of Moorea. I think it was 1966 or 1967. Anyway, one of the people that produced the show came down for a visit and was staying at the hotel we lived next door to. Knowing how much we missed seeing the show, the owner of the hotel introduced us to this person. He was amazed that the Monkees had fans this far away from home. He promised to give the boys our best wishes and how much we missed them. We were blown away when a box showed up with a letter from the group and lots of cool pictures and t-shirts. We were in heaven! I never had the opportunity to thank the guys for thinking of us so far away. Now they are back on tour, love it! They are appearing nearby, but tickets are not in the budget right now. If you contact them, please give them my thanks and relay the story. Still a big fan, along with my three daughters and even my grandkids. Keep playing guys! TahitiChris
Hello Eric,
This is my second attempt to post this as the first one disappeared when I typed in an “incorrect” special code to post it. That’s fine – here goes – . I want to thank you for writing such a great book. The book “Monkee Business – The Revolutionary Made for TV Band”. You and I are only a year apart but this book tells about the missing pieces I wanted to know and never really understood until now. You had an opportunity to find this information while I worked in an office processing paperwork. I loved my job but your’s had to have been so much more fullfilling. This book explains from the beginning to not so long ago how the Monkees came about. I loved to the book so much that I asked my husband to read it. He is currently on chapter 17. He loves to read and me not as much – so when I asked him to read something I am passionate about, he does, no questions asked. So far he likes the book. We went to the concert in Anahiem in (I believe in 2001). This happened to be the last tour for Mickey, Davy and Peter due to some disagreements? I found out in the book why, but, I was so happy to be able to see them in concert. I never had the opportunity to see them in concert previously. They were absolutely fantastic!!!! I really hoped that Mike joined them for a complete reunion, but I believe he had other jobs he was currently working on at the time. I was able to see them at the Greek Theatre in October 2012 and I have to say that was AMAZING!!!. I loved it!!!. I heard that a couple of people wanted to “fill in” for Davy to perform “Daydream Believer” but I am SOOOO happy they didn’t do it. The performance was pristine! – so classy and tasteful. I loved it! and so much so that I hope they don’t stop performing after they complete the 12 date tour for 2012. It has been so long for the group that I can only imagine they are having the time of their life re-grouping and performing together. The concert was put together so well. I am just so happy they re-grouped and had a great time! If they decided to come back to So Cal I’ll be there to see them again! Eric, I can’t thank you enough for writing this book – it has filled me in with so much information, Thank you!!!
I loved “Monkee Business”, I didn’t realize that the Pre-Fab Four had had such an impact on the culture. I have been a fan of Mike’s solo music for a very long time and knew what contributions that he’s made, but the group as whole I never considered. They boys got a lot of grief from their peers for not being a so called organic band. I am a fan of The Who and from what I know of that band they were not exactly formed organically. They found each other out of necessity and manage to make it work. The Eagles were formed around Frey & Henley and I’m sure that they’re are others. And it’s no shame that the records were made by studio musicians. The Beach Boys, Mams & Papas, and Byrds, to name a few didn’t play their own instruments in the studio. That was practice back then.
It seems to me that everybody missed the part about The Monkees being a TV show, with actors/musicians play the part of a fictional band. I guess some folks think that if it’s on TV it must be true. As luck would have it the producers cast Peter & Michael never fully realizing their contributions would make to this made-for-tv group. If it hadn’t have been to their insistence on proving themselves as the great musicians that they were, I doubt the Monkees would have been as influential as they have been.
In an interview with “Dangerous Minds” Monkees historian Andrew Sandoval talked about The Monkees movie Head. He said that Sony Pictures still has all the film elements of the movie including, “loads and loads of outtakes and missing scenes.” He also added that a lot of this footage is decomposing.
I hope Rhino has plans to save this irreplaceable footage from decomposing any further and restoring it for a special Blu-ray release of Head!
Rhino takes product suggestions. So, shoot them an email at (drrhino@rhino.com) about saving and restoring these irreplaceable outtakes & missing scenes and releasing them on a special Blu-ray of Head!
Please, spread the word, maybe if enough fans emailed Rhino it might happen!
Here’s a link to that interview…Head discussion starts about 17 min. in.
http://www.dangerousminds.net/comments/monkee_business_with_andrew_sandoval