The Monkees' Head: 'Our fans couldn't even see it'

From usatoday, Davy Jones doesn't really want to talk about Head. The former Monkees heartthrob is happy to talk about his old home in Manchester, his new home in Florida, his racehorses, his theatre career – anything, basically, except the cryptic, psychedelic art movie that, in 1968, marked the end of the Monkees' short tenure as the biggest rock band in America. "We were pawns in something we helped create but had no control over," he says crossly. "We should have made Ghostbusters, OK?"

Head could never be mistaken for Ghostbusters. It's a fourth-wall-shattering, stream-of-consciousness black comedy that mocks war, America, Hollywood, television, the music business and the Monkees themselves. These days, it is fondly remembered as one of the weirdest and best rock movies ever made, and a harbinger of the so-called New Hollywood. Quentin Tarantino and Edgar Wright are both fans. DJ Shadow and Saint Etienne have sampled its dialogue. According to director Bob Rafelson, the Beatles and the Rolling Stones both requested private screenings, while Thomas Pynchon attended a screening disguised as a plumber. But to the fans who had made the Monkees household names, it might as well never have existed. "The movie dropped like a ball of dark star," says bassist Peter Tork. "The simile of a rock in the water is too mild for how badly that movie did."

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