★★★★★ 0/5

Vale: Mike Nesmith

Musician and filmmaker Mike Nesmith, best known for The Monkees, has died.

3
Leave a comment

Musician and composer Mike Nesmith, best known for The Monkees, has died aged 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,” Nesmith’s 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.”

Nesmith was 25 years old when The Monkees premiered in 1966. Although it ran for only two seasons, it became an instant smash, with 35 million in record sales, and earning the group five top 10 albums and six top 10 hits.

Nesmith’s songwriting credits included Linda Ronstadt “Different Drum,” and he was The Monkees’ most prolific songwriter, penning classics like “Mary, Mary,” “Papa Gene’s Blues,” “You Told Me,” “You Just May Be the One,” “Listen to the Band,” “Sweet Young Thing,” and “The Girl I Knew Somewhere.” In 1979 he had a hit with “Rio.”

In the ‘80s, he once again made music television history, when a program he created for Nickelodeon, PopClips, was sold to the Time Warner and developed into MTV. His collection of video shorts, Elephant Parts, won the first-ever Grammy in the Music Video category in 1981, and in 1984 he served as an executive producer of the punk/cult film Repo Man. His mother also founded Liquid Paper, sold to Gillette for $48m.

The news comes less than a month after he and his bandmate Micky Dolenz wrapped The Monkees’ farewell tour with an emotional performance at Los Angeles’s Greek Theatre, during which Nesmith broke into tears several times.

Dolenz, the last living Monkee, paid tribute on social media saying, “I’m heartbroken. I’ve 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. I’ll miss it all so much. Especially the shtick. Rest in peace, Nez. All my love, Mick.”

Source: Yahoo

3 Responses

  1. Yes; so much more than just being one of the Monkees.
    That 1977 (moderate) hit called Rio was released about the same time as Peter Allern’s much more well-kown song ‘I go to Rio’. In any event, the accopmanying video clip was a landmark achievement, most and entertaining and I sometimes still watch it when I am doing a deep dive into YouTube 70s music.

  2. I saw a brief article about when the Monkees had a party with the Beatles in 1967, Mike Nesmith had met John Lennon, McCartney and the other Beatles that year whilst on Vacation in England as did Micky Dolenz, only Davy Jones went to see his father, they developed a solid bond of true friendship. The party they had lasted all night, Micky sang both Monkey and Beatles songs while Peter Tork and George Harrison huddled in a corner, each interested in Eastern philosophy, religion and classic music plus the more serious problems of the world.
    Ringo Starr who stayed at home with wife Maureen, expecting their second child was joined by Peter later who walked to his house, they both climbed into Ringo’s treehouse and talked until six in the morning. ( Source: Monkee spectacular. Published: Oct 1967) R.I.P. Mike.

Leave a Reply