 Peter Tork (qv) actually did play guitar on "Papa Genes Blues,"  one of the songs on their first album. This was done at the  insistence of Michael Nesmith (qv), who produced this song as well  as "Sweet Young Thing" for the debut LP. Other than Peters guitar  deployment here, it is widely known that none of the four Monkees  played any instruments on their first two albums, supplying only  vocals; in the case of Nesmiths tracks he himself was producer.  This all changed on their third LP, "Headquarters," in which they  sang and played on every track, with some backup help from Mikes  longtime bassist pal John London (I) (qv), producer  Chip Douglas (qv) and bassist Jerry Yester (qv). Their fourth  album, "Pisces, Aquarius, Capricorn, and Jones Ltd." had a little of  both studio musicians and Monkees playing the instruments (this was  due to the crushing time constraints of a hectic concert tour as  well as filming the TV shows second season; primary outside  involvement revolved around the use of drummer "Fast Eddie" Ho), and  by the fifth album, "The Birds, the Bees, & the Monkees," they had  gone full circle, employing studio musicians and supplying only the  vocals, again due to time constraints. They would continue this  practice until they stopped recording altogether in 1970, but picked  it back up for their 1996 comeback LP, "Justus."