Happy birthday, Peter Tork. Let's see, born in 1942, so that makes him 67. He was my favorite Monkee in '67 and now he's '67 himself.By now I'm much too old to have favorite Monkees. Part of it probably comes from having kids, and you can't have favorites there. Or at various jobs, where everyone has to be your favorite, the apple of your eye, to keep the peace.
But back then Peter Tork looked exactly like the free spirited kind of guy that appealed to me, the great hair, cute looks, and the metaphysical, intuitive, spiritual, complex stuff of asking questions and discerning what there is of reality. He was definitely the go-to Monkee for that side of things, like George Harrison. And I really did like the hair, and the belt with the buckle off to the side.
I think it'd be weird to be famous, especially where the arc of widespread fame was as short lived as it was for the Monkees. The worst thing would be to always be associated with a particular year, like 1967, then have people asking you about things you did in that year. In their case, 1966-1968 were the big years. So here it is over 40 years later. You step out in public and someone wants to know why you did so and so back then. To me that would be terrible. Please go away and let me live in peace. But everyone's life is different, so you can't really say you're shortchanged when it comes to life because you were famous in 1967 and continually associated with it through time. It's probably a good thing, because you can still make a living based on the association.
Then one big positive is that complete strangers like me wish you happy birthday! Or maybe that's a negative. I don't think I'd like it. It'd be like complete strangers being your friends on Facebook. What do I care what they're doing? I don't.
