My Words Just Fail

There's been a lot of stuff going on lately, some happy stuff, some sad stuff and I'll get back to all that in due course with any luck. Right at this moment though, at the very moment I'm typing these words on Wednesday morning, in a hospital somewhere in Essex, one of the few close friends I have is on an operating table undergoing open heart surgery following a sudden illness and a period in a medically induced coma. The rest of us are left reeling at this sudden and terrifying turn of events and send out all our love to his wife and family. All we can do is sit and wait for news.

Inevitably, I find myself sifting through memories of our 40 year friendship in search of any excuse to smile and my mind comes to rest on my 23rd birthday party, a surprise bash thrown for me by the gang. It was a long and glorious evening, one of the oft-recalled highlights being my mate's uncharacteristic 6 minute wig-out to the 12" mix of The Jam's 'Precious'. As soon as the tune started he stood up from the table where we were all eating a meal and spontaneously went for it, big style - totally on his own. Shapes were thrown and the rug was cut - he was a veritable one man Pan's People. At the song's conclusion he simply pulled his chair in and plonked himself back down at the table, leaving us all in a state of slack-jawed hysterics. It's one of those 'you had to be there' memories that still gets pulled out from time to time, on the all-too-rare occasions a few of the old gang find ourselves in the same room. I look forward to chuckling about it again with him soon.

The Jam - Precious (12")

...walkin' down the street....

When we were far younger than we are now, but old enough to know better and had reached the required level of insobriety after an evening's imbibing, a group of my closest friends and I - collectively known as the Furious Five - would stand in a line outside the pub, arms around each other's shoulders and do the 'Monkee Walk'. This consisted of stepping out straight-legged, right-left-right-left, whilst bellowing 'Here we come....walking down the street....', as per a brief moment from the opening credits of The Monkees TV show, until we all broke down laughing. This would mark the conclusion of the night's festivities and would happen two or three nights a week!

The Furious Five are now scattered around the South East of England, so geography prevents us from performing a memorial 'Monkee Walk' to mark Davy Jones' passing, but I'm sure wherever they were and whatever they were doing yesterday when they heard the sad news, each of my former drinking chums would have taken a moment to remember a time when we were all a little less burdened by life - and were a good deal sillier.

R.I.P. Davy Jones.

Here's a favorite Davy-led Monkees tune featuring Neil Young's dazzling fretwork.