“Now I’m a believer”: Inside Monkees drummer Micky Dolenz’s FBI lawsuit – By Alison Stine (Salon) / Sept 1, 2022
The last surviving member of the Monkees seeks his unredacted FBI file, which describes the band as “beatnik types”
The last surviving member of the Monkees, drummer and vocalist Micky Dolenz, is going up against the FBI. Dolenz, who is 77, has filed a suit against the Justice Department, seeking the release of a file the FBI kept on the rock band during the late 1960s. As The Washington Post reported, the file contains FBI agent observations of “‘subliminal messages’ on a screen at one of their concerts, depicting racial-equality protests and ‘anti-U.S. messages on the war in Vietnam.'”
The agent, whose name is redacted in the part of the file available to the public, described the so-called subliminal messages at a Monkees concert as “left wing intervention of a political nature.”
A decade ago the FBI file on the Monkees was declassified. However, the public document is heavily redacted, almost unreadably so, and Dolenz seeks the full, uncensored one. As Dolenz’s attorney Mark S. Zaid told The Washington Post, “If the documents still exist, I fully expect that we will learn more about what prompted the FBI to target the Monkees or those around them.”
The Monkees were assembled by TV producers in the 1960s, hoping to capture some of the success of mod British bands like the Beatles. The redacted FBI file describes the Monkees’ TV show, which ran from 1966-1968, as “quite successful, features four young men who dress as ‘beatnik types’ and is geared primarily toward the teenage market.” The file also spells the band’s name wrong.
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