The tributes kept on pouring
in honoring the life and legacy of Mike Nesmith this past weekend.
The singer/songwriter/producer/entrepreneur/book writer/inventor and whatever other titles you want to bestow on him, and also once and forever one of the Monkees, died on Friday, and the accolades came fast and furious, from the famous and not so famous.
People like you and I literally clogged up Facebook with tributes, and fellow musicians, Brian Wilson among them, sang his praises.
Andrew Sandoval, who helped put the last Monkees reunions together, and is a Monkees historian second to none, noted that Nesmith, being a devout Christian Scientist, only used standard medicine when there was no other way to turn, but Sandoval said that Nesmith decided, when he got sick is one last time, that this would be his last rodeo, and rode out the sickness by getting the benefits of not medicine, but the applause he received on stage as the final Monkees tour played out.
And yes, Mickey Dolenz also chimed in with his own tribute, which was as heartfelt as any.
If you want to actually hear Dolenz’s tribute to his friend and “partner in crime” in the Monkees, you absolutely have to get the LP “Dolenz Sings Nesmith,” which came out earlier this year and has made many Top Album Lists for 2021.
The singer/songwriter/producer/entrepreneur/book writer/inventor and whatever other titles you want to bestow on him, and also once and forever one of the Monkees, died on Friday, and the accolades came fast and furious, from the famous and not so famous.
People like you and I literally clogged up Facebook with tributes, and fellow musicians, Brian Wilson among them, sang his praises.
Andrew Sandoval, who helped put the last Monkees reunions together, and is a Monkees historian second to none, noted that Nesmith, being a devout Christian Scientist, only used standard medicine when there was no other way to turn, but Sandoval said that Nesmith decided, when he got sick is one last time, that this would be his last rodeo, and rode out the sickness by getting the benefits of not medicine, but the applause he received on stage as the final Monkees tour played out.
And yes, Mickey Dolenz also chimed in with his own tribute, which was as heartfelt as any.
If you want to actually hear Dolenz’s tribute to his friend and “partner in crime” in the Monkees, you absolutely have to get the LP “Dolenz Sings Nesmith,” which came out earlier this year and has made many Top Album Lists for 2021.
It really is THAT good, whether you are a Monkees/Dolenz/Nesmith fan or not.
And other outlets also chimed in, including the major news outlets in print, on radio and television, and on the Internet.
You can probably spend an entire day going through one obituary or another, one tribute or another, from these areas, and you would still need another day or two to get through them all.
Sirius Radio’s various channels saluted Papa Nez by playing both his music and music of the Monkees in general in heaps this past weekend.
Funny, but on the 1960s channel, they had a recorded tribute to Nesmith, and then would invariably follow it with a song he had peripheral participation in, such as “I’m a Believer” or “Daydream Believer,” rather than play songs he either wrote and/or performed himself.
Although Nesmith is related to a pretty good trivia question—“Who is the only Monkee not to be the lead or co-lead singer on one of their Top 20 hits—we know Micky and Davy Jones sang on the bulk of their hits, but Peter Tork was the co-lead voice on “Words,” which made the Top 10 on Billboard’s Hot 100—he did produce several charted songs for the act, including “Tapioca Tundra,” “The Girl I Knew Somewhere,” “Listen to the Band,” and “Good Clean Fun,” so why weren’t those songs played to highlight his talent?
Well, on Sunday afternoon, Sirius ran its tribute on its 1960s station, and finally followed it with “Mary Mary”—which Nesmith wrote and which was vocalized by Micky—so at least they kind of got it.
MeTV showed a two-hour “The Monkees” TV show marathon on Sunday afternoon, and it spotlighted episodes where Mike was the lead player, including one where he got gypped into a song deal—with a Monkees' song he actually did not write in real life, “Gonna Buy Me a Dog”—and another where he unsuccessfully ran for mayor to stop construction of a new highway through some old agers' residences, only to find that the project had been re-routed through the Monkees' own dwelling.
Watching these shows as an adult, you saw how uniquely creative they were 50 years ago, sort of live-action cartoons that captured the antics of this supposed foursome of nearly broke musicians who managed to live in a beach house.
The shows were so different from the norm of the time, and you could see where the seeds of something called MTV were planted in Papa Nez’s mind even back then with the pace of these shows and the musical segments selling the music way back when to every nine-year-old on the planet, including me.
And the Decades channel plans its own “The Monkees” TV show marathon this coming weekend, so the accolades just keep on comin'.
I was looking through some of Nesmith’s musical journeys yesterday, and I came across a song called “Angel Band,” a tune which Nesmith did not write, but recorded under the Monkees moniker but which was not released until decades later, on a compilation album called “Missing Links Volume 3” a compendium of tunes that the foursome never had released during their time in the spotlight.
“Angel Band” is a classic gospel tune, and Mike takes lead on it, and gives it his all … but it also stands as an eerie epitaph for a life and career that touched so many bases.
Here are the song’s lyrics, which stand as a testament to Nesmith and his ability to always find the next challenge, and conquer that challenge, with the exception of his own demise.
“My latest sun is sinking fast
My race is nearly run
My strongest trials now have past
My triumph is begin
Oh, come, angel band
Come and around me, stand
Oh, bear me away on your snow white wings
To my immortal home
Oh, bear me away on your snow white wings
To my immortal home
Oh, bear my longing heart to him
Who bled and died for me
Whose blood now cleanses from all sin
And brings me victory
Oh, come, angel band
Come and around me, stand
Oh, bear me away on your snow white wings
To my immortal home
Oh, bear me away on your snow white wings
To my immortal home
Oh, come, angel band
Come and around me, stand
Oh, bear me away on your snow white wings
To my immortal home”
Few could say it better than Michael Nesmith, even when he was covering others’ tunes, and I am going to leave it at that.
And other outlets also chimed in, including the major news outlets in print, on radio and television, and on the Internet.
You can probably spend an entire day going through one obituary or another, one tribute or another, from these areas, and you would still need another day or two to get through them all.
Sirius Radio’s various channels saluted Papa Nez by playing both his music and music of the Monkees in general in heaps this past weekend.
Funny, but on the 1960s channel, they had a recorded tribute to Nesmith, and then would invariably follow it with a song he had peripheral participation in, such as “I’m a Believer” or “Daydream Believer,” rather than play songs he either wrote and/or performed himself.
Although Nesmith is related to a pretty good trivia question—“Who is the only Monkee not to be the lead or co-lead singer on one of their Top 20 hits—we know Micky and Davy Jones sang on the bulk of their hits, but Peter Tork was the co-lead voice on “Words,” which made the Top 10 on Billboard’s Hot 100—he did produce several charted songs for the act, including “Tapioca Tundra,” “The Girl I Knew Somewhere,” “Listen to the Band,” and “Good Clean Fun,” so why weren’t those songs played to highlight his talent?
Well, on Sunday afternoon, Sirius ran its tribute on its 1960s station, and finally followed it with “Mary Mary”—which Nesmith wrote and which was vocalized by Micky—so at least they kind of got it.
MeTV showed a two-hour “The Monkees” TV show marathon on Sunday afternoon, and it spotlighted episodes where Mike was the lead player, including one where he got gypped into a song deal—with a Monkees' song he actually did not write in real life, “Gonna Buy Me a Dog”—and another where he unsuccessfully ran for mayor to stop construction of a new highway through some old agers' residences, only to find that the project had been re-routed through the Monkees' own dwelling.
Watching these shows as an adult, you saw how uniquely creative they were 50 years ago, sort of live-action cartoons that captured the antics of this supposed foursome of nearly broke musicians who managed to live in a beach house.
The shows were so different from the norm of the time, and you could see where the seeds of something called MTV were planted in Papa Nez’s mind even back then with the pace of these shows and the musical segments selling the music way back when to every nine-year-old on the planet, including me.
And the Decades channel plans its own “The Monkees” TV show marathon this coming weekend, so the accolades just keep on comin'.
I was looking through some of Nesmith’s musical journeys yesterday, and I came across a song called “Angel Band,” a tune which Nesmith did not write, but recorded under the Monkees moniker but which was not released until decades later, on a compilation album called “Missing Links Volume 3” a compendium of tunes that the foursome never had released during their time in the spotlight.
“Angel Band” is a classic gospel tune, and Mike takes lead on it, and gives it his all … but it also stands as an eerie epitaph for a life and career that touched so many bases.
Here are the song’s lyrics, which stand as a testament to Nesmith and his ability to always find the next challenge, and conquer that challenge, with the exception of his own demise.
“My latest sun is sinking fast
My race is nearly run
My strongest trials now have past
My triumph is begin
Oh, come, angel band
Come and around me, stand
Oh, bear me away on your snow white wings
To my immortal home
Oh, bear me away on your snow white wings
To my immortal home
Oh, bear my longing heart to him
Who bled and died for me
Whose blood now cleanses from all sin
And brings me victory
Oh, come, angel band
Come and around me, stand
Oh, bear me away on your snow white wings
To my immortal home
Oh, bear me away on your snow white wings
To my immortal home
Oh, come, angel band
Come and around me, stand
Oh, bear me away on your snow white wings
To my immortal home”
Few could say it better than Michael Nesmith, even when he was covering others’ tunes, and I am going to leave it at that.
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