Micky Dolenz: The last living member of the Monkees sues the FBI for secret files on the group
Micky Dolenz: The last living member of the Monkees sues the FBI for secret files on the group
Image source, Getty Images
At their height, the gr oup pop The M onkees were one of America's most popular bands. They were also the subject of an FBI file related to the Vietnam War.
Now Monkees singer Micky Dolenz, 77, is suing the agency for more.
Parts of a heavily redacted FBI file, released in 2011, include reports of "anti-American Vietnam War messages" during a 1967 concert.
The FBI kept tabs on several famous people during the Vietnam War, including John Lennon.
"We know that in the mid to late 1960s, the FBI monitored Hollywood's anti-war advocates, and the Monkees were at the heart of action," Dolenz said. lawyer Mark Zaid told the BBC. "This lawsuit seeks to expose why the FBI was monitoring The Monkees and its individual members."
The Monkees, America's answer to the Beatles, became widely known in the late 1960s for hits like I'm a Believer and Last Train to Clarksville before breaking up in 1970. The band had four No. 1 albums by 1967 - a record still unmatched.
The made-for-TV band also mixed some of those hits with anti-war sentiments, including Ditty Diego-War Chant and Last Train to Clarksville - a song about a man who heads to a military base, fearing he won't return to his love.
But it's not yet clear exactly what drew the FBI's attention to the group.
Most of the seven-page FBI memo - first reported by Rolling Stone - is redacted. In one section of the filing, an unnamed FBI source who attended a concert in 1967 says "subliminal messages" were depicted on screen "which constituted left-wing innovations of a political nature".
At their height, the gr oup pop The M onkees were one of America's most popular bands. They were also the subject of an FBI file related to the Vietnam War.
Now Monkees singer Micky Dolenz, 77, is suing the agency for more.
Parts of a heavily redacted FBI file, released in 2011, include reports of "anti-American Vietnam War messages" during a 1967 concert.
The FBI kept tabs on several famous people during the Vietnam War, including John Lennon.
"We know that in the mid to late 1960s, the FBI monitored Hollywood's anti-war advocates, and the Monkees were at the heart of action," Dolenz said. lawyer Mark Zaid told the BBC. "This lawsuit seeks to expose why the FBI was monitoring The Monkees and its individual members."
The Monkees, America's answer to the Beatles, became widely known in the late 1960s for hits like I'm a Believer and Last Train to Clarksville before breaking up in 1970. The band had four No. 1 albums by 1967 - a record still unmatched.
The made-for-TV band also mixed some of those hits with anti-war sentiments, including Ditty Diego-War Chant and Last Train to Clarksville - a song about a man who heads to a military base, fearing he won't return to his love.
But it's not yet clear exactly what drew the FBI's attention to the group.
Most of the seven-page FBI memo - first reported by Rolling Stone - is redacted. In one section of the filing, an unnamed FBI source who attended a concert in 1967 says "subliminal messages" were depicted on screen "which constituted left-wing innovations of a political nature".
Image source, Getty Images
