The Monkees Monkees Controlled Music
 Critics of the Monkees complained that they were simply a prefab, made-for-TV knockoff of the Beatles, but the Beatles took it in stride, and made the Monkees welcome. John Lennon was a fan of the show, publicly comparing its humor to The Marx Brothers. George Harrison praised their self-produced musical efforts, saying When they get it all sorted out, they might turn out to be the best. (Peter Tork was later one of the musicians on Harrison's Wonderwall Music, playing Paul McCartney's five-string banjo.) Longtime Beatles confidant Peter Shotton wrote in his memoir The Beatles, Lennon and Me, The Monkees are what the Beatles pretend to be. During the time when the Beatles were recording Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, the Monkees were in England and met the Beatles at a party and Nesmith attended the A Day in the Life sessions at Abbey Road Studios: he can be seen in the Beatles' home movies. Dolenz was also in the studio during a session, which he mentioned while broadcasting for WCBS-FM in New York.
The massive success of the series and its spin-off records created intense pressure to mount a touring version of the group by late 1966. Against the initial wishes of the producers, Dolenz, Jones, Nesmith, and Tork went out on the road. The results were far better than expected, however, and wherever they went they were greeted by scenes of fan hysteria. This gave the four performers increased confidence in their battle for creative control over the music chosen for the series.
The band had no time to rehearse a live performance. They worked on the TV series all day, recorded in the studio(s) at night, and slept very little. The weekends were usually filled with special appearances or filming of special sequences. However, during the filming of the show, there was often down time between setups. The instruments, consisting mostly of Gretsch guitars and drums, and Vox keyboards and amps, were set up, but off for the filming of the series. Between takes the Monkees would turn them on and practice the live performances. Eventually the performances began to be used at times during the series. One instance is in the episode Too Many Girls (Fern and Davy). It opens with a live version of (I'm Not Your) Steppin' Stone being performed as the scene was shot. Later an entire episode was filmed featuring live music. The last show of the first season (Monkees on Tour) was shot in a documentary style by filming a concert in Phoenix.
The Monkees had complained that the producers would not allow them to play their own instruments on their records. This campaign eventually forced the series' musical coordinator Don Kirshner to let the group have more participation in the recording process (against his strong objections). This included Nesmith producing his own songs, and band members making instrumental contributions. The Monkees were capable of playing their own instruments on the recordings and they had written some material, but, except for the few songs forced through by the Monkees' campaigning, they were not allowed by Kirshner to play or use their own material. Led by Nesmith, the band eventually rebelled against Kirshner, who was later fired.
The animosity between Kirshner and the Monkees began in the very early stages of the band. The Monkees' off-screen personalities at the time were much like what became their on screen image (except for Peter). This included the playful, hyper-active antics that are often seen on screen. Apparently, during an early recording session, the four Monkees were clowning around in the studio. The antics escalated until Micky Dolenz poured a Pepsi on Kirshner's head (Micky at the time not knowing Kirshner by sight). This is rumored to have upset Kirshner to the point that he decided to try to never again have the four Monkees together in the studio at the same time and spend as little time with them as possible. This rule severely limited the involvement that the Monkees could have with the music. Eventually their only involvement was to come in individually to record vocals when needed. This greatly disturbed the band members, especially Nesmith, and became the catalyst behind their rebellion.
The climax of their rivalry has been said to have been a rather intense argument between Nesmith & Kirshner, over Kirshner releasing an earlier Kirshner produced, Neil Diamond written song, A Little Bit Me, A Little Bit You, as a single, without consent of the group. It's been said that during this heated exchange, Nesmith, in anger, punched a hole in a wall with his fist, pointed to the hole, and told Kirshner, That could have been your face, motherfucker!.
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