Hey, Hey, We’re The Monkees, And The FBI Said We Monkey Around

// When telling the tale of 1960s music, there are music snobs out there that write off the Monkees as a gimmick band. They didn’t come together organically, they were the brainchild of producers hoping to mimic The Beatles film success who then set out to build a unit around Davy Jones — who already had a contract with them. In a sense, they were a modern boy band before modern boy bands… who also had a goofy fun TV show. But they really did a lot of fantastic stuff and don’t deserve to be overlooked.

But they were also a popular music group whose facially apolitical content belied its distinct countercultural vibes. Add in the group hobnobbing with the rest of the late 1960s music scene, and the Monkees are the sort of people that scared J. Edgar Hoover.

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Now, decades after the fact, the last Monkee wants to know what was up:

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Huh, Micky Dolenz, the lone surviving member of The Monkees, has lodged a FOIA lawsuit for FBI records related to the band. pic.twitter.com/MAYhKEwAGQ

— Kyle Cheney (@kyledcheney) August 30, 2022

Here’s the full complaint.

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For what it’s worth, one of the Monkees was able to properly serve the DOJ faster than Donald Trump’s band of merry dumbasses could. Maybe he could fill them in on the tricks of the trade… which are all clearly spelled out for any competent lawyer to find.

7. In fact, the FBI acknowledges on its website that it maintains responsive records regarding the Monkees, including information that continues to be withheld. It describes seven pages as follows:
The Monkees were a U.S. pop band created for a television show of the same name in 1966. The band also toured and made record albums even after the show was cancelled. References to the band appear in two places in FBI files: a 1967 Los Angeles Field Office memorandum on anti- Vietnam war activities and a second document redacted entirely. See https://vault.fbi.gov/the-monkees.

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It will surprise you not at all to learn that the undersigned counsel are national security lawyers Mark Zaid and Bradley Moss whose FOIA work is well known around these parts.

I wasn’t sure the FBI had files on the Monkees, but then I saw this complaint, now I’m a believer.

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Joe Patrice is a senior editor at Above the Law and co-host of Thinking Like A Lawyer. Feel free to email any tips, questions, or comments. Follow him on Twitter if you’re interested in law, politics, and a healthy dose of college sports news. Joe also serves as a Managing Director at RPN Executive Search.

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Bradley Moss, FBI, Government, Mark Zaid, Micky Dolenz, Monkees, Music