dolenz , who sang and played the guitar *singing was cast as the drummer. "and i said, 'but i'm a guitar player' and they said, 'we have enough guitar players. you're the drummer.' but you know from my point of view this was a television show about an imaginary rock'n'roll band. like circus boy was about a kid in an imaginary circus. and when i was circus boy they said, 'you're going to learn to ride an elephant.' i said, 'fine, where do i start?' and when they said, 'you're the drummer i said, 'fine, where do i start?'" davy jones, peter tork and michael nesmith -each of whom dabbled in the music business- rounded out the remainder of the monkees cast, but when it came to recording monkee music , much of the including the songwriting was left to the professionals. "we were surrounded by so many incredibly talented people." by the time the monkees began performing as a real band, live in late 1966, they were one of the hottest groups around *girls screaming dolenz has always maintained that he took the music part of the monkee business very seriously. "and