Did The Monkees play their own instruments or write their own songs?
— Yes, but not at first. Because The Monkees were originally supposed to be an imaginary band on TV, their producers/supervisors didn’t think it was necessary for them to play or write the music on their records. For their first two albums the guys didn’t play (but Mike Nesmith did write a few songs) mainly because of their music supervisor, Don Kirshner, who’s standards were #1 hits & he didn’t believe The Monkees were capable of that. After many battles with the “big guys,” the Monkees were finally allowed to play their own music on their third album “Headquarters” & also performed live concerts. As far as writing their own songs, The Monkees themselves wrote some of the band’s most memorable tunes such as “Mary, Mary,” “For Pete’s Sake,” “The Girl I Knew Somewhere,” “Goin’ Down,” “Listen to the Band,” & many others.
