Yesterday, one of my musical heroes passed away. Davy Jones, singer with The Monkees, died of a heart attack and reminded millions of people "of a certain age" around the world that our heroes can't live forever.
The thing about our idols is that they are forever captured on celluloid, film or audio recordings in their absolute prime, never aging, never gaining weight, never dying.
In real life, though, they age just like the rest of us, and go about their lives dealing with all the very same things we all deal with each day. Of course, along with it, Davy, Peter Tork and Mickey Dolenz got to bask in our continuing adulation for decades after The Monkees' original heyday.
When they first hit the scene in the mid-sixties, the fact that they were a completely fabricated set of characters in a TV show did not stop the world from believing they were real. Their playfully Beatlesque shenanigans endeared them to a generation of kids and the music itself rocketed to the top of the charts, going so far as to outsell the Fab Four at times.
I was too young to experience them then, but a decade or so later, a local station began airing episodes of "The Monkees" in syndication and I was immediately a fan for life.
I still have the first Monkees 45 RPM record that my parents bought for me on my 12th birthday. For such a small piece of plastic, it holds a lifetime of memories and is more valuable to me than gold.
Of course, despite the fact that The Monkees "broke up" nearly 40 years ago, they had remained incredibly active.
Each summer, it seemed, some varied incarnation of the band would hit the concert trail and we fans would show up, not so much out of obligation but out of need to relive a moment of our youth. Sure, we'd notice that Peter was looking a little thin, or that Mickey was going gray, but that didn't stop us from returning to a better, simpler time where our lives still lay in front of us and the future remained unwritten. We could put aside our troubles for a few hours and rejoice in the wonderful music and memories that Davy Jones and The Monkees had been a part of in our lives.
With Davy's passing, we find ourselves contemplating the idea of never seeing him on a concert stage again, wondering if we appreciated him enough all those years and if we'd have changed anything. For me, Davy will always live on...forever young, smiling, and in great voice.
Rest in peace, Davy, and know that your music touched us all.