This Day in 1966: Peter Tork Plays Solo at the Troubadour

52 years today, Peter Tork played a date by himself at the Troubadour, getting a chance to make a name for himself just in time to set aside his solo career in favor of making a Monkee out of himself. 

Tork had been part of the burgeoning folk music scene in New York’s famed Greenwich Village during the first part of the 1960s, along with several other notable artists, among them Stephen Stills. When Stills auditioned for The Monkees, he might not have gotten one of the lead roles himself, but he did suggest that they give Tork a shot at the series, a gesture which transformed Tork’s future in a way that neither he nor Stills could ever have imagined.

Tork, however, was already deeply involved in folk, so it’s not inconceivable that scoring a shot at playing at the Troubadour couldn’t have eventually led to a boost in his profile to such a degree that he became a big name in his own right. Once Tork became a member of The Monkees, however, he wasn’t in a position to pursue his solo endeavors as often as he might liked, nor was he in a position to do much in the way of songwriting for The Monkees. 

As such, Tork’s Troubadour gig is looked back on as a true what-might-have-been moment.