Missing Nez
+ 10 Mike Nesmith Talking Points
MISSING NEZ + 10 NEZ TALKING POINTS Singer-songwriter, actor, producer, writer, pop culture seer, and metaphysician of Americana: Michael Nesmith is off to the big vision ranch of the sky. In all my years of working in the Davy Jones/Monkees universe, I worked with Mike the least, but it was his resume that drew me the most. In 1979 I submitted a music video script for my song “Desert Ruby” to Mike’s Pacific Arts media company. Back then I owned every mote of Nez product I could find as his themes resonated with my spiritual quest. In the 90s I added his song “Silver Moon” to my solo set—a song that elevates a basic 3-chord Tex-Mex shuffle into high lonesome transcendentalism. That song was also my ice-breaker when I met Mike during the 1996 JUSTUS recording sessions in Nashville. He was amused that Davy and I took such an interest in “Moon.” Mike struck me as a reserved man carrying inner strength, even as he drove us in a van around Music Row. Andrew Sandoval wrote, “Nez expressed the highest part of his being through his voice, and you could get no closer to him than through knowing his work…”
Over the decades I crossed paths with Mike, and we thoroughly enjoyed his First National Band Redux shows of 2016. On September 15th, 2021 in San Jose, we were blessed to see him for the final Monkees tour. There was a lot of love on that stage (sans the multi-media fare of prior tours), and the set was heavy on Nez, which was fine by me. My fiancé Uma Robin described the show as “like being in a cathedral”—a near holy event. A few weeks after the tour wrapped up, Nez died quietly at home, surrounded by his family—many of whom were involved in his career. As I write this my soul feels depleted, but Mike’s influence and the study of his accomplishments will always be alive. RIP Papa Nez!
My Top 10 Nez Talking Points:
1966 “Mary Mary”—Nez wrote it, The Monkees own it, and Run DMC updated it, but it was first recorded by The Paul Butterfield Blues Band—a mod-ish fuzztone go at a single. Hipsters griped when The Monkees did it, but it reveals that Nez was on to shopping his songs from the start. His songs were covered by Lynn Anderson, Frankie Laine, The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, and (famously), Linda Ronstadt w/”Different Drum.”
1967 “You Just May be the One”—With Nez leading the charge, The Monkees wrested control of their music and made the landmark HEADQUARTERS album. Nez got the opening track (“You Told Me”) and this twangy song in 5/4 time.
1970-71 The First National Band album trilogy—If Monet did country rock, he would’ve sounded like FNB. While “Joanne” and “Silver Moon” charted, the records under-performed but are now revered next to the works of The Byrds, Flying Burrito Brothers, Rick Nelson, and other pioneers of that genre.
1974 Bert Jansch L.A. TURNAROUND—Nez briefly ran a record label and produced singer-songwriters. His work with British guitar legend Bert Jansch is a superb match of talents.
1974 THE PRISON—A novella with a soundtrack; Nez’s brilliant spiritual allegory set to a hybrid of acoustic-electronica. His lyric “hidden behind all the logic one finds without truth” resonated with me. Nez remixed and reissued PRISON 3 times, made 2 sequels, and branched into novel writing.
1979 INFINITE RIDER OF THE BIG DOGMA—This is funky, urban Nez: Romantic, witty, and provocative songs crafted with radio-friendly production. Every one-word titled song has a cosmic punch line.
1977-83 “Rio,” ELEPHANT PARTS, films, and MTV: The suave escapist mini-epic “Rio” become an award-winning video, which prompted a string of successful films (REPO MAN, etc.), videos for Michaal Jackson and Lionel Richie, and the creation of PopClips for Nickelodeon TV—which morphed into MTV.
1992 TROPICAL CAMPFIRE—An album of easeful mind-sweeping that navigates “southwestern tropical campfire's mambo raga songs, their sounds rising from the desert floor ..." + a misty cover of “Begin the Beguine.” It was Red Rhodes’s last recording with Nez.
2005 RAY—Nez’s professional-life’s phases re-told with eclectic jazz swing (echoing his bizarre 1968 WICHITA TRAIN WHISTLE SINGS LP).
2012-2021 GOOD TIMES and “While I Cry”—Nez returned full force to The Monkees fold with tours and the successful GOOD TIMES album. However, the re-introduction of “While I Cry” to their set list brought up a salient point: That songwriting is an act of affirmation and connection. Nez’s early songs were repeatedly rejected by Monkees’s producers because the lyrics were “too heavy,” but Nez knew that real people, kids and adults, have emotional and spiritual range. A pop song can be both bubblegum and an epiphany that resonates throughout the mortal coil.
(From “Capsule” 1979):
Hello people a 100 years from now
It may not make much difference but I'll say it anyhow
Let me tell you of the planet and what we're doing now
It really is bizarre enough to make me take it slow
There are cartoon creations made of people and of lines
And they dance around the TV and they dance around our minds
There are a bunch of different holy men pointing different ways
Don't think, do think, watch out what you say
And we all tried, yes, we tried
We all kept pluggin' like a salmon up a stream
Some of us were dancing
Some of us were screaming
But we tried, oh, how we tried…
I've never seen a hero but I've got 5 million dreams
I've never been to Harlem but I've been somewhere in between
As long as I can keep moving, I'll keep up with the scene
I'm dancing to the rhythm of the road
Yes, I'm dancing to the rhythm of the road
Set the groove, set the mood
Checkin' out what's on the tube
Close the day, it's time to play
I'll put the sounds on the stereo
Drift away Drift away
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