Another Monkee just took the Last Train to Clarksville (OT)

Peter graduated from high school in Storrs. He attended Carleton College in Minnesota, but left before graduating and moved to New York, where he performed in folk clubs in Greenwich Village and met another up-and-coming musician, Stephen Stills.

In California, where both had relocated, Mr. Stills tried out for the Monkees. When that didn’t work out — some sources say Mr. Stills was rejected because he had bad teeth; Mr. Stills himself said that he rejected the job because he wanted to write songs for the show but that would have meant surrendering his music publishing — he recommended Mr. Tork, because people had always told the two that they looked alike.

Tork, who was often hailed as the band's best musician, had studied music since childhood. He was accomplished on guitar, bass guitar, keyboards, banjo and other instruments, and Michael Nesmith, the Monkees' lead guitarist, said Tork was actually the better of the two.

He had been playing in small clubs in Los Angeles when a friend and fellow musician, Stephen Stills, told him TV casting directors were looking for "four insane boys" to play members of a struggling rock band.

Stills, a member of Buffalo Springfield and Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young, reportedly told Tork he [Stills] had been rejected because his teeth were ugly. He thought the handsome Tork might fare better.