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Monkees guitarist Mike Nesmith dead at 78
Michael Nesmith (L), Micky Dolenz and Peter Tork were recruited to star alongside Briton Davy Jones in The Monkees on US television between 1966 and 1968 (AFP/Noel Vasquez)
Fri, December 10, 2021, 2:07 PM·2 min read
Mike Nesmith, one of four members of 1960s television and pop phenomenon The Monkees, has died, fellow band member Micky Dolenz and his family said Friday. He was 78.
The group were a made-for-TV outfit put together in the United States to rival Britain's The Beatles.
Dubbed "The Pre-Fab Four" -- a play on their artifice and The Beatles' nickname -- The Monkees were a commercial smash, whose catchy pop hits remain instantly recognizable more than 50 years on.
"I'm heartbroken. I've lost a dear friend and partner," tweeted Dolenz, the last surviving member of the foursome.
"I'm so grateful that we could spend the last couple of months together doing what we loved best –- singing, laughing, and doing shtick. I'll miss it all so much. Especially the shtick. Rest in peace, Nez."
US media quoted a family statement saying Nesmith had died at home of natural causes.
Nesmith, Dolenz and Peter Tork were recruited to star alongside Briton Davy Jones in the 1966-1968 TV series about an aspiring band looking for their big break.
The four goofed their way through mild capers, accompanied by a laugh track as the fictional band morphed into a real-life group that ultimately sold millions of records.
Their three big hits were "Last Train to Clarksville," "I'm a Believer" and "Daydream Believer." The band became huge stars.
But the four chafed in the format and under management that they felt had too much control over their music.
After the TV show was cancelled, they began to run out of steam. By 1970, the band had split.
There were periodic reunions over the following decades and 2016 saw the release of an album featuring all four, despite Jones' death four years earlier.
Peter Tork died in February 2019.
Nesmith reunited with Dolenz and the pair toured together, with their final gig in Los Angeles last month.
"It is with deep sadness that I mark the passing of Michael Nesmith," manager Andrew Sandoval wrote on Twitter.
"We shared many travels and projects together over the course of 30 years, which culminated in a Monkees farewell tour that wrapped up only a few weeks ago.
"That tour was a true blessing for so many. And in the end I know that Michael was at peace with his legacy which included songwriting, producing, acting, direction and so many innovative ideas and concepts.
"I am positive the brilliance he captured will resonate and offer the love and light towards which he always moved."
R.I.P. Michael Nesmith, Co-Founder of The Monkees Dead at 78
Alex Young and Wren Graves
Fri, December 10, 2021,
The post R.I.P. Michael Nesmith, Co-Founder of The Monkees Dead at 78 appeared first on Consequence.
Michael Nesmith, co-founding member, vocalist, and guitarist of The Monkees, has died at the age of 78.
“With Infinite Love we announce that Michael Nesmith has passed away this morning in his home, surrounded by family, peacefully and of natural causes,” his family said in a statement. “We ask that you respect our privacy at this time and we thank you for the love and light that all of you have shown him and us.”
The Monkees formed in 1965 when television producers Bob Rafelson and Bert Schneider recruited Nesmith, Micky Dolenz, Peter Tork, and Davy Jones to be in a sitcom of the same name. As Dolenz recalled, “The Monkees was a TV show about an imaginary band, a band that wanted to be The Beatles. Bands all over the country wanted to be The Beatles. We were a band (as portrayed on the TV show) that was never successful.”
However, the band quickly became a hit in real life. Initially, the producers recruited songwriter duo Tommy Boyce and Bobby Hart to write music for the show, as well as for the band’s 1966 debut, The Monkees. The Monkees themselves were not allowed to play instruments on this album, but instead only sang. While the 1967 follow-up More of The Monkees contained more original songs written by Nesmith, including the hit “Mary, Mary,” the band still had little creative input.
That changed with 1967’s Headquarters, which saw The Monkees assume control of their musical expression. From 1967 to 1970, Nesmith emerged as a pop-rock visionary, penning several of The Monkees’ most iconic tracks, including “Circle Sky,” “Listen to the Band,” and “The Girl I Knew Somewhere.”
Following the group’s breakup in 1970, Nesmith briefly led the First National Band, which pioneered the emerging genre of country rock. Nesmith and his bandmates put out three albums between 1970 and 1971, including the hits, “Joanne” and “Silver Moon.”
Nesmith briefly worked on a project called the Second National Band, but as the 1970s progressed, he began to focus more on production. Starting in 1979, he served as an executive producer on PopClips, a music video television program that aired on the cable channel Nickelodeon in 1980 and 1981. The show pioneered the use of Veejays, and is often cited as a direct predecessor to MTV.
Earlier this year, Nesmith embarked on a farewell tour alongside Micky Dolenz, who is now the sole surviving member of the Monkees. His final performance took place at The Greek Theater in November 2021. Check out footage of that performance, as well as a sample of some of his best-known songs, below.
Michael Nesmith, the Monkee for all seasons, dies at 78
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Michael Nesmith, the singer-songwriter, author, actor-director and entrepreneur who will likely be best remembered as the wool-hatted, guitar-strumming member of the made-for-television rock band The Monkees, has died at 78.
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Michael Nesmith, the singer-songwriter, author, actor-director and entrepreneur who will likely be best remembered as the wool-hatted, guitar-strumming member of the made-for-television rock band The Monkees, has died at 78.
© Provided by The Canadian Press
Nesmith, who had undergone quadruple bypass surgery in 2018, died of natural causes at his Carmel Valley home near California's Central Coast, his family said in a statement.
Nesmith was a struggling singer-songwriter in September 1966 when “The Monkees” television debut turned him and fellow band members Micky Dolenz, Peter Tork and David Jones into overnight rock stars.
Dolenz, the last surviving member of the band who completed a farewell tour with Nesmith last month, said on Instagram that he'd lost a dear friend and partner.
“I’m so grateful that we could spend the last couple of months together doing what we loved best – singing, laughing, and doing shtick," Dolenz said. "I’ll miss it all so much. Especially the shtick.”
After the group broke up in 1970, Nesmith moved on to a long and creative career, not only as a musician but as a writer, producer and director of films, author of several books, head of a media arts company and creator of a music video format that led to the creation of MTV.
Nesmith was running “hoot nights” at the popular West Hollywood nightclub The Troubadour when he saw a trade publication ad seeking “four insane boys” to play rock musicians in a band modeled after the Beatles.
The show created by Bob Rafelson and Bert Schneider featured the comical misadventures of a quartet that tooled around Los Angeles in a tricked-out Pontiac GTO called the MonkeeMobile and, when they weren’t chasing girls, pursued music stardom.
Each episode rolled out two or three new Monkees songs, six of which became Top 10 Billboard hits during the show’s two-year run. Three others, “I’m a Believer,” ″Daydream Believer” and “Last Train to Clarksville,” reached No. 1. They had four No. 1 albums in 1967 alone.
Jones, with his British accent and boyish good looks, was the group’s cute lead singer. Dolenz became the wacky drummer, although he had to learn to play the drums as the show went along. Tork, a folk-rock musician, portrayed the comically clueless bass player. Nesmith, with his twangy Texas accent and the wool hat he’d worn to his audition, became the serious but naive lead guitarist.
A prankster by nature, he’d arrived at the audition carrying a guitar and bag of dirty laundry he said he planned to wash immediately afterward. With a harmonica around his neck, he stormed into a casting office, banging the door loudly. After pausing to gaze at a painting as if it were a mirror, he sat down and immediately put his feet up on a desk.
He got the job.
But he rebelled almost immediately when producers told him they were going to call his character “Wool Hat.” He demanded they use his real name, as they did with the other actors.
It would be the first of many confrontations Nesmith would have with producers during a tumultuous two-year run in which “The Monkees” won the 1967 Emmy for best comedy series.
Nesmith and Tork, the group’s two most accomplished musicians, railed against the program’s refusal to allow them to play their own instruments at recording sessions. But when Nesmith revealed that fact to reporters, music critics quickly turned on “The Monkees,” dismissing the show as a fraud and the band as the “Prefab Four,” a mocking reference to the Beatles’ nickname, Fab Four.
Nesmith, meanwhile, had written several songs he hoped to debut on the show, but almost all were dismissed by music producer Don Kirshner, as sounding too country.
Among them was “Different Drum,” a breakthrough hit for Linda Ronstadt in 1967 that validated Nesmith's opinion that Kirshner, hailed by the pop music industry as “The Man With The Golden Ear,” didn’t know what he was talking about.
Things came to a head when all four Monkees demanded they take control of the music. They were warned they would be sued for breach of contract.
At that, Nesmith rose from his seat and smashed his fist through a wall, telling Kirshner it could have been his face.
For years Nesmith would refuse to confirm or deny the incident, even as the other three gleefully recounted it to reporters. In his 2017 memoir, “Infinite Tuesday,” he did acknowledge it, saying he’d lost his temper when he felt his integrity was being questioned.
“It was an absurd moment in so many ways,” he wrote.
It did give the Monkees control over their music, however, beginning with the group’s third album, “Headquarters.”
After the show concluded in 1968 the band embarked on a lengthy concert tour where members sang many of their own songs and played their own instruments before crowds of adoring fans. Jimi Hendrix was sometimes their opening act.
Following the band’s breakup Nesmith rarely rejoined the others for reunion tours, leading many to believe he disliked the band and the show, something he steadfastly denied.
“I really enjoyed being in the show. I really enjoyed working with Davy and Micky and Peter,” he told Australian Musician magazine in 2019.
It was, he would often say, that he was simply too busy doing other things.
Over the years he recorded more than a dozen albums and toured with the First National Band, the country-rock-folk group he assembled.
He wrote scores of songs, including “Some of Shelly’s Blues,” “Papa Gene’s Blues,” You Just May Be the One” and “The Girl That I knew Somewhere” that he performed with the Monkees. Others, performed with the First National Band, included “Joanne,” “Propinquity (I’ve Just Begun to Care)” and “Different Drum.”
For the Monkees’ 30th anniversary he induced the others to reunite to record a new album, “Justus,” for which all four composed the songs and played the instruments. He also rejoined the others for a brief tour and wrote and directed their 1997 TV reunion film, “Hey, Hey, It’s the Monkees.”
Nesmith also wrote and produced the 1982 science-fiction film “Timerider: The Adventure of Lyle Swann” and earned executive producer credits on “Repo Man,” “Tape Heads” and other films.
His 1981 comedy-music video “Elephant Parts” won a Grammy and led to “PopClips,” a series of music videos broadcast on the Nickelodeon cable network that in turn led to the creation of MTV.
Nesmith even published two well received novels, 1998’s “The Long Sandy Hair of Neftoon Zamora” and 2009’s “The America Gene.”
In 1999 he prevailed in a bitter courtroom battle with the Public Broadcasting System over royalties from a home-video deal his media company, Pacific Arts, had struck with PBS. A federal jury awarded him $48 million, concluding the popular purveyor of children’s shows and documentaries had defrauded him.
Nesmith, showing he hadn’t lost his Monkees sense of humor, said afterward: “It’s like catching your grandmother stealing your stereo. You’re glad to get your stereo back, but you’re sad to find out that Grandma’s a thief.”
Both sides agreed on an undisclosed settlement and Nesmith founded another company, Videoranch.
After Jones died in 2012 he began to rejoin the Monkees more frequently, their concerts now earning glowing reviews from critics. He attributed that to most of the group’s original critics having died or retired.
Following Tork’s death in 2019, Nesmith and Dolenz took on the name The Monkees Mike & Micky.
Nesmith and Dolenz wrapped up “The Monkees Farewell Tour” at the Greek Theatre in Los Angeles after a U.S. tour.
Dolenz told the crowd that “Nez” once encouraged him to write songs, saying, “that’s where the money is.”
“Boy, I wished I had listened,” Dolenz said.
Nesmith, who wore a white suit and shuffled off stage a couple times during the show, said “God bless all of you,” during a standing ovation for “I’m a Believer,” the closing number.
“That tour was a true blessing for so many,” Monkees manager, Andrew Sandoval, said on Facebook. “In the end I know that Michael was at peace with his legacy.”
Robert Michael Nesmith was born Dec. 30, 1942, in Houston, Texas, the only child of Warren and Bette Nesmith.
His parents divorced when he was 4 and his mother often worked two jobs, as a secretary and painter, to support her son and herself. It was that latter job that inspired her to whip up a typewriter correction fluid called Liquid Paper in her kitchen blender. By the mid-1970s it had made her a fortune, which she eventually left to her son and to nonprofit foundations she endowed to promote women in business and the arts.
Her son, who was married and divorced three times, is survived by four children, Christian, Jason, Jessica and Jonathan.
___
Former Associated Press writer John Rogers was the main writer on the story.
John Rogers And Brian Melley, The Associated Press
Nesmith, who had undergone quadruple bypass surgery in 2018, died of natural causes at his Carmel Valley home near California's Central Coast, his family said in a statement.
Nesmith was a struggling singer-songwriter in September 1966 when “The Monkees” television debut turned him and fellow band members Micky Dolenz, Peter Tork and David Jones into overnight rock stars.
Dolenz, the last surviving member of the band who completed a farewell tour with Nesmith last month, said on Instagram that he'd lost a dear friend and partner.
“I’m so grateful that we could spend the last couple of months together doing what we loved best – singing, laughing, and doing shtick," Dolenz said. "I’ll miss it all so much. Especially the shtick.”
After the group broke up in 1970, Nesmith moved on to a long and creative career, not only as a musician but as a writer, producer and director of films, author of several books, head of a media arts company and creator of a music video format that led to the creation of MTV.
Nesmith was running “hoot nights” at the popular West Hollywood nightclub The Troubadour when he saw a trade publication ad seeking “four insane boys” to play rock musicians in a band modeled after the Beatles.
The show created by Bob Rafelson and Bert Schneider featured the comical misadventures of a quartet that tooled around Los Angeles in a tricked-out Pontiac GTO called the MonkeeMobile and, when they weren’t chasing girls, pursued music stardom.
Each episode rolled out two or three new Monkees songs, six of which became Top 10 Billboard hits during the show’s two-year run. Three others, “I’m a Believer,” ″Daydream Believer” and “Last Train to Clarksville,” reached No. 1. They had four No. 1 albums in 1967 alone.
Jones, with his British accent and boyish good looks, was the group’s cute lead singer. Dolenz became the wacky drummer, although he had to learn to play the drums as the show went along. Tork, a folk-rock musician, portrayed the comically clueless bass player. Nesmith, with his twangy Texas accent and the wool hat he’d worn to his audition, became the serious but naive lead guitarist.
A prankster by nature, he’d arrived at the audition carrying a guitar and bag of dirty laundry he said he planned to wash immediately afterward. With a harmonica around his neck, he stormed into a casting office, banging the door loudly. After pausing to gaze at a painting as if it were a mirror, he sat down and immediately put his feet up on a desk.
He got the job.
But he rebelled almost immediately when producers told him they were going to call his character “Wool Hat.” He demanded they use his real name, as they did with the other actors.
It would be the first of many confrontations Nesmith would have with producers during a tumultuous two-year run in which “The Monkees” won the 1967 Emmy for best comedy series.
Nesmith and Tork, the group’s two most accomplished musicians, railed against the program’s refusal to allow them to play their own instruments at recording sessions. But when Nesmith revealed that fact to reporters, music critics quickly turned on “The Monkees,” dismissing the show as a fraud and the band as the “Prefab Four,” a mocking reference to the Beatles’ nickname, Fab Four.
Nesmith, meanwhile, had written several songs he hoped to debut on the show, but almost all were dismissed by music producer Don Kirshner, as sounding too country.
Among them was “Different Drum,” a breakthrough hit for Linda Ronstadt in 1967 that validated Nesmith's opinion that Kirshner, hailed by the pop music industry as “The Man With The Golden Ear,” didn’t know what he was talking about.
Things came to a head when all four Monkees demanded they take control of the music. They were warned they would be sued for breach of contract.
At that, Nesmith rose from his seat and smashed his fist through a wall, telling Kirshner it could have been his face.
For years Nesmith would refuse to confirm or deny the incident, even as the other three gleefully recounted it to reporters. In his 2017 memoir, “Infinite Tuesday,” he did acknowledge it, saying he’d lost his temper when he felt his integrity was being questioned.
“It was an absurd moment in so many ways,” he wrote.
It did give the Monkees control over their music, however, beginning with the group’s third album, “Headquarters.”
After the show concluded in 1968 the band embarked on a lengthy concert tour where members sang many of their own songs and played their own instruments before crowds of adoring fans. Jimi Hendrix was sometimes their opening act.
Following the band’s breakup Nesmith rarely rejoined the others for reunion tours, leading many to believe he disliked the band and the show, something he steadfastly denied.
“I really enjoyed being in the show. I really enjoyed working with Davy and Micky and Peter,” he told Australian Musician magazine in 2019.
It was, he would often say, that he was simply too busy doing other things.
Over the years he recorded more than a dozen albums and toured with the First National Band, the country-rock-folk group he assembled.
He wrote scores of songs, including “Some of Shelly’s Blues,” “Papa Gene’s Blues,” You Just May Be the One” and “The Girl That I knew Somewhere” that he performed with the Monkees. Others, performed with the First National Band, included “Joanne,” “Propinquity (I’ve Just Begun to Care)” and “Different Drum.”
For the Monkees’ 30th anniversary he induced the others to reunite to record a new album, “Justus,” for which all four composed the songs and played the instruments. He also rejoined the others for a brief tour and wrote and directed their 1997 TV reunion film, “Hey, Hey, It’s the Monkees.”
Nesmith also wrote and produced the 1982 science-fiction film “Timerider: The Adventure of Lyle Swann” and earned executive producer credits on “Repo Man,” “Tape Heads” and other films.
His 1981 comedy-music video “Elephant Parts” won a Grammy and led to “PopClips,” a series of music videos broadcast on the Nickelodeon cable network that in turn led to the creation of MTV.
Nesmith even published two well received novels, 1998’s “The Long Sandy Hair of Neftoon Zamora” and 2009’s “The America Gene.”
In 1999 he prevailed in a bitter courtroom battle with the Public Broadcasting System over royalties from a home-video deal his media company, Pacific Arts, had struck with PBS. A federal jury awarded him $48 million, concluding the popular purveyor of children’s shows and documentaries had defrauded him.
Nesmith, showing he hadn’t lost his Monkees sense of humor, said afterward: “It’s like catching your grandmother stealing your stereo. You’re glad to get your stereo back, but you’re sad to find out that Grandma’s a thief.”
Both sides agreed on an undisclosed settlement and Nesmith founded another company, Videoranch.
After Jones died in 2012 he began to rejoin the Monkees more frequently, their concerts now earning glowing reviews from critics. He attributed that to most of the group’s original critics having died or retired.
Following Tork’s death in 2019, Nesmith and Dolenz took on the name The Monkees Mike & Micky.
Nesmith and Dolenz wrapped up “The Monkees Farewell Tour” at the Greek Theatre in Los Angeles after a U.S. tour.
Dolenz told the crowd that “Nez” once encouraged him to write songs, saying, “that’s where the money is.”
“Boy, I wished I had listened,” Dolenz said.
Nesmith, who wore a white suit and shuffled off stage a couple times during the show, said “God bless all of you,” during a standing ovation for “I’m a Believer,” the closing number.
“That tour was a true blessing for so many,” Monkees manager, Andrew Sandoval, said on Facebook. “In the end I know that Michael was at peace with his legacy.”
Robert Michael Nesmith was born Dec. 30, 1942, in Houston, Texas, the only child of Warren and Bette Nesmith.
His parents divorced when he was 4 and his mother often worked two jobs, as a secretary and painter, to support her son and herself. It was that latter job that inspired her to whip up a typewriter correction fluid called Liquid Paper in her kitchen blender. By the mid-1970s it had made her a fortune, which she eventually left to her son and to nonprofit foundations she endowed to promote women in business and the arts.
Her son, who was married and divorced three times, is survived by four children, Christian, Jason, Jessica and Jonathan.
___
Former Associated Press writer John Rogers was the main writer on the story.
John Rogers And Brian Melley, The Associated Press
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