I’ve some unhappy information to share right now. Michael Nesmith, the gifted musician who rose to fame as a member of The Monkees, has handed away on the age of 78. I had the pleasure of assembly him in 2019, and I can attest that he was not solely extremely gifted but additionally a genuinely good individual. His contributions as a singer, songwriter, and guitarist will probably be drastically missed.
Michael Nesmith was sometimes called “the Sensible One” amongst The Monkees. Nonetheless, this label wasn’t at all times a blessing for him. Because the intellectually inclined member of the favored Sixties pop group, he typically discovered himself pissed off with the superficiality of youth idol-dom.
Through the run of The Monkees’ tv sequence from 1966 to 1968, Nesmith yearned for a bigger position within the creation of their music. Regardless of being an achieved musician himself, a lot of their music was produced by session gamers and songwriters. He grappled with the concept of what it really meant to be a part of a band, versus merely portraying one on display screen.
In interviews, he questioned the important path of a band and what defines its essence. These have been issues that doubtless didn’t hassle his fellow Monkees as a lot. In 1970, Nesmith determined to purchase himself out of his contract and embark on a solo profession, highlighting his foresight as each a musician and an artist.
