I Wanna Be Free

About this episode

The episode discusses various versions of 'I Wanna Be Free' by The Monkees and related garage rock covers.

Some minor audio issues this week - Weldon's mic is too hot! - but it's tempered by a gentle song by The Monkees - "I Wanna Be Free" from 1966. Infact, they did two versions - the first is sweet, simple and stringy with a vocal by Davy Jones, the second is Dylan-bait with Mickey Dolenz singing. Mod and The Rockers from Virginia did a garage version in '67, and then there's a soulful gender-flipped version by Vivian Reed from '68. Finally, another in our growing list of unlikel...

People in this episode

Hosts: Weldon Hunter, Erik Komarnicki

Topics covered

• garage rock
• music history
• cover versions
• The Monkees
• audio issues

Keywords

• The Monkees
• I Wanna Be Free
• garage rock
• Davy Jones
• Mickey Dolenz
• Vivian Reed
• Mod and The Rockers

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Mod and The Rockers

Books & works: I Wanna Be Free, The Monkees

More episodes of In The Past: Garage Rock Podcast

• Be a Caveman?! ... With The Gruesomes! · June 12, 2026 · 2h 15m
• Road Runner · June 6, 2026 · 1h 39m
• Alligators! · May 31, 2026 · 2h 16m
• My White Bicycle · May 23, 2026 · 1h 52m
• 2 Good 2 Ignore: Point Five · May 15, 2026 · 1h 24m
• Rick Picks · May 8, 2026 · 1h 48m