(Credits: Entertainment International)
The 1960s were full of free living, psychedelia, and spirituality. That was all well and good if you were young and embracing the power of the moment, but in the eyes of the government, this was viewed with suspicion. Conspiracy theories abounded – not too dissimilar to today’s landscape in many ways – over every aspect of the entertainment industry, but when it came to The Monkees, that created a more elusive mystery than most.
They did always say that the band were the American match to The Beatles in sound, dynamics, and looks – but perhaps what their manager may not have anticipated was that it would also involve an investigation from the FBI. It sounds absurd, but the American government was so concerned about the potential malign influence of rock bands in the 1960s that they often placed undercover spies on them. Unnerving as it may have been to discover this, The Monkees could at least be reassured that they weren’t the only ones.
It was infamously common knowledge that The Beatles were subject to various government investigations, with President Richard Nixon even going so far as to place personal spies to stalk John Lennon over a period of years throughout the course of the 1970s. In that sense, as the American mirror image of the Fab Four, it was only natural that The Monkees should be treated with the same suspicion, and thus launched their covert run-in with the FBI.
Similar to The Beatles, the basis for The Monkees’ case was rooted in the political statements they sent in protest of the Vietnam War. Songs like ‘Ditty Diego-War Chant’ and ‘Last Train to Clarksville’ echoed these sentiments, in what the government considered to be “anti-US messaging” – but it still wasn’t clear what exactly within this the FBI were honing their focus on.
Indeed, the entire existence of the investigation was only revealed when heavily redacted files were released in 2011, which disclosed that the band were at the centre of a case. You can obviously imagine how much panic and alarm this would cause, let alone when you’re still in the dark as to why the eyes of the government were on you in the first place. But unsatisfied with leaving this shroud of mystery hanging over them, drummer Micky Dolenz set about hitting back to discover the truth.
As the last surviving member of the band, it’s understandable why Dolenz wants to get to the bottom of the investigation. For that reason, he began the process of suing the FBI in 2022 in an attempt to gather more information, given that, in his eyes, the Monkees never did anything criminal. According to the limited picture the existing files paint, they sent “subliminal messages” through their songs and live performances – but with Dolenz on the case to dispute this, the air of suspicion that surrounded the decade could finally be falling to pieces.
‘Micky Dolenz – freedom fighter’ might sound quite good as a title, but given that his counterclaim has yet to yield any public results three years down the line, the truth of The Monkees’ FBI investigation may never be revealed. It does, however, serve as a chilling warning to all those bands who might dare to walk a little on the wild side – because no matter how right they think they are, the eyes of Big Brother could always be watching.
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