Micky Dolzen, the sole survivor of The Monkees, has sued the US Department of Justice to see the full FBI file on his band. The FBI had released a heavily-redacted file more than a decade ago but in June this year Dolenz filed a Freedom of Information Act request to see the whole thing. The Feds apparently didn't respond within twenty working days as required by law so now he's suing. According to the lawsuit, The Monkees "were known to have associated with other musicians and individuals whose activities were monitored and/or investigated b the FBI, to include, but not limited to: John Winston Lennon (and the three other Beatles as well) and Jimi Hendrix." Gill Kaufman writes in Billboard:
A portion of the document released by the FBI noted that an FBI informant attended a show on the band's inaugural 1967 tour, describing, "subliminal messages" that were allegedly depicted on the screen, "which, in the opinion of [informant] constituted 'left wing intervention of a political nature… These messages and pictures were flashed of riots, in Berkley, anti-U.S. messages on the war in Vietnam, racial riots in Selma, Alabama, and similar messages which had unfavorable response from the audience."
