Monkees' Bass Player Peter Tork Is Dead

The Monkees' deliberately goofy bass and keyboard player, Peter Tork, has died at age 77, reports the Washington Post. Tork had been diagnosed with a rare form of tongue cancer in 2009. His death leaves two surviving members of the group, Micky Dolenz and Michael Nesmith. Lead singer Davy Jones died in 2012. The group was concocted for television, and while The Monkees TV show ran for two seasons, it spawned huge record sales and a massive fan base—even if the four musicians didn't even play on the group's albums, at least initially. Both the Post and an obituary via Gray News observe that the Monkees were modeled loosely on the Beatles, and Tork was his band's Ringo Starr. (More Monkees stories.)