Psychedelic Bubblegum - Bobby Hart

As everyone knows, Bobby Hart is half of the hit songwriting team, Boyce and Hart, who is best known for the smashes they wrote for the Monkees, but he was and is also a solo performer, a band member, a publisher, a producer and much more. Here he tells his tale of growing up with country music and 50's rock'n'roll and becoming an ultra successful songwriter and performer in the 60's and 70's.

Moving from Arizona to Hollywood, his story ranges from working in a print shop to cutting demos of his own songs, trying his hand as a 50's solo artist, becoming adept at writing his own songs, having hits as a co-writer of "Come a Little Bit Closer" and "Hurt So Bad", meeting and then joining forces with Tommy Boyce and writing some of the 60's most enduring and catchy (and well-done) bubblegum music. During all of this he also performed and sang in numerous acts, became part of the Monkees backing band, had hits as simply Boyce and Hart as well as Dolenz, Jones, Boyce and Hart and then concentrated more on the back end of writing and producing.

Of course, his 50's and 60's remembrances are my favorites and he is a bit cheesy at times (hell, he and Boyce did a Vegas show with Zsa Zsa Gabor!) but his musical stories are generally fun and interesting. Unfortunately for me, at least, he is also highly spiritual and becomes heavily involved in a meditative practice and a good portion of the later chapters are obviously trying to proselytize, making me skim over a lot of it.

Other than that, though, his tale is generally enjoyable and is a different take on the 60's - the more manufactured side of things - than the hedonistic, crazed rock'n'rollers that I normally read about. Maybe not essential, but a good read for fans of his songs.