Man. This sucks.
I've mentioned several times before my deep love for the Monkees, but I don't know if I've mentioned that I've always found Michael Nesmith the most talented members of the band (no disrespect to the other members at all). His songwriting was excellent, and he was just so funny too. I watched his Television Parts series on NBC as a kid and highly enjoyed it, without knowing he was a Monkee. He could pretty much do it all.
And now we've lost him.
When I heard of his death, I was surprised but also not surprised. I followed Nesmith on social media, and he didn't look well, even for his age. Plus he had to postpone a previous tour a couple years ago due to health issues, so I've suspected for awhile that he was not in the best of health. Still, I was sad to hear of his passing, and I couldn't let his death go unnoted here.
Here is a clip from The Monkees in which he espouses the love for music and for life that guides musicians, including his bandmate Peter Tork.
Here are just a few of my many favorite Nesmith-penned tunes.
While we're in the Christmas season, please see my previous post from several years ago featuring the one and only Christmas episode of The Monkees here.
Rest in peace, Mike. Share a drink with Davey and Peter for us.
For someone with no prior experience or training, Nesmith was a natural actor, and he had the necessary gravitas to handle the show's sincere speechifying moments like the example you showed. No wonder he was cast as the band's "leader".
ReplyDeleteAnd as you mentioned, a very talented songwriter. So many of my favorite Monkees tunes are ones that he penned.
It has been very heartwarming to witness the outpouring of love and admiration for the Monkees these past few days. Maybe I'll live long enough to finally see them entered in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
I loved him on The Monkees. For some reason, as a kid I was always drawn to what I thought were the more serious-minded members of shows, like Luke Duke, Sabrina Duncan, Jon Baker, or Mike. He was a bit of calm in the chaos. I will miss him. :(
ReplyDeleteThank you Top Cat and Joe, I completely agree with both of you!
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