Jan Carr has had two memorable opportunities to hear Davy Jones sing “Daydream Believer” over the past 39 years.
In 1972, she got a personal invitation to Jones’ concert at a Navy base in Japan.
She heard him again at Saturday’s Monkees concert at the Sleep Country Amphitheater. But this time, Jan got to sit next to her husband.
They were newlyweds in 1972, Ron said, and he was an officer on a U.S. Navy destroyer. His 20-year-old wife joined him in June at the base in Yokosuka, Japan, but Ron had to leave a couple of days later.
While his ship was busy shelling ground targets in Vietnam for 18 months — they had to replace the barrels on the 5-inch guns four times — Jan was living in a hotel on the base.
“I was bored, and was looking for the swimming pool,” Jan said, when she heard music coming from the officers club.
“I went back to the hotel to get my camera — a little Kodak Instamatic,” she said, and tracked down the music. It was Jones, rehearsing for a July 4 concert.
Busted!
She was sitting in back, taking some snapshots, when Jones’ security man came up and asked what Jan was doing.
“I told him I was a reporter with Stars and Stripes,” a newspaper for the U.S. military community.
The security guy nodded, walked away … and returned with a question: “Don’t they use 35 mm cameras?”
“Yes,” she admitted. But Jan was allowed to stay. After the rehearsal, the security guy told her, “Davy wants to meet you.”
They posed for some photos, then Jones gave Jan a front-row ticket to the concert.
Ron says he appreciated how graciously his wife was treated.
“That was a real high point for a 20-year-old who was alone in Japan, halfway around the world from home,” he said.
Like Jan’s 1972 concert seat, Saturday’s tickets didn’t cost the Carrs anything. It shows how much has changed for the Vancouver couple since 1972.
“Our kids bought the tickets,” Ron said, “as a combined Mother’s Day-Father’s Day gift.”
And at the end of the show, the Carrs got a photo with Jones.
Off Beat lets members of The Columbian news team step back from our newspaper beats to write the story behind the story, fill in the story or just tell a story.
