I’ve used this headline before, borrowed from now deceased Atlanta columnist Lewis Grizzard.
I thought I should say a word about Michael Nesmith who died of heart failure Dec. 10, given the fact that the Monkees were a big influence on my 9-year-old self.
The wool-hat wearing Nesmith was perhaps the most serious of the four-member Monkees, a pop/rock band formed for a TV show of the same name in the mid 1960s. It was an obvious attempt to tap into the enormous success of the Beatles. (Get it: Monkeys and Beetles!!!)
I was all in as a youngster. It came on Saturdays about noon after the cartoons were winding down. I probably knew Monkees songs before I even heard a Beatles song. ‘Here They Come,’ ‘Stepping Stone,’ ‘Last Train to Clarksville,’ and ‘Pleasant Valley Sunday,’ among other Top 40 hits.
So in reading the extensive Wikipedia profile of Nesmith, it was good to hear he had a full life before dying at 78.
Although all Monkees were supposed to have musical skills, the instrumentation for much of the featured songs on shows were done by studio musicians, a source of friction between band members, especially Nesmith, and the producers. Of the Monkees, Davy Jones, Peter Tork and Mickey Dolenz, Nesmith seemed to be the one with the most musical talent.
He wrote several of the Monkees songs, he formed a pioneering rock/country band, and he wrote songs for other people including the classic ‘Different Drum’ by Linda Ronstadt and the Stone Poneys.
I have a hit single, 45 rpm, from Michael Nesmith and the First National Band, called Joanne.
The song is a plaintive love song complete with some octave climbing hiccups — yes this Monkee could yodel. Nesmith also worked on several film projects and won awards for his video work.
Other fun facts:
He was an Air Force veteran, trained as an aircraft repairman, and honorably discharged after a tour of duty.
His mother invented ‘Liquid Paper” and created a company around it which she sold for $42 million,
He received a Grammy for Video for his hour-long television program Elephant Parts.