MICHAEL NESMITH: THE SOLO YEARS

ONE OF THE MOST INNOVATIVE ARTISTS THIS CENTURY
Updated 06/11/2002

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HISTORY

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Michael Nesmith, the underrated singer-songwriter and former/recurrent member of the Monkees is one of the music and video industries' best kept secrets. He began his career as a struggling singer-songwriter and recorded a few singles with Colpix in 1965. In 1966, he landed a job with Screen Gems as one of the Monkees! He enjoyed much success but little creative control which led to a confrontation with Don Kirschner, the musical supervisor of the group. His direct approach allowed the Monkees to record and perform songs as a real group beginning in 1967.

Following this action and much bad press, the popularity of the Monkees waned and Mike decided to leave the group in late 1969. He started a solo career with RCA Records in 1970 releasing 3 albums with the First National Band.

1999 Camden UK Reissue of Magnetic South & Loose Salute

These first albums featured some minor hit singles, including his more popular single, Joanne, and Silver Moon.

The First National Band disbanded during the recording of the third album. Mike released his next album, Tantamount To Treason, Volume I with a reformed Second National Band. The band disbanded almost as fast as the album was released. This album of varying styles did not fare well in sales and RCA pressed Mike to release albums with hits.

Following this album, Mike continued recording under his name only and released some additional titles through RCA. To gain more control of his works, Mike left RCA after fulfilling his contract and he formed Pacific Arts. His first release was one of his most innovative works, The Prison. This was a concept ahead of its time. It combined an original story with a soundtrack to be played while reading the story to enhance the reading. Although this wasn't received well by the public, it still remains innovative today.

As Michael continued his music career, he pioneered the music video industry by developing a mini-movie to accompany his hit song Rio in 1976. The idea eventually led to him selling the idea of music & video to a major entertainment company and soon cable channels like MTV were created. It could be said that Nez was the "Father of Music Video"!

In the early 80s, Nesmith concentrated his skills on movie and video producing and created a special home video comedy "album" called Elephant Parts. This achievement was awarded with a Grammy in the new category for Best Home Video Presentation.

Following Elephant Parts, Nez created a television series based on the comedy skits in Elephant Parts entitled, Television Parts. This short-lived Friday night half-hour comedy sketch show on NBC, featured comedy greats in earlier form including Jay Leno, Jerry Seinfeld, Bobcat Goldthwait, Garry Shandling and many others including Nez himself. It was a great idea featuring little 4-minute "films" as Nez called them always offering something different to the viewer. Unfortunately, with low ratings due to a poor time slot, it didn't catch on! A compilation of clips and material not seen in the show were assembled for the Television Parts Home Companion home video release.

A number of major motion pictures were produced by Mike through Pacific Arts into the mid-to-late 80s including Timerider, Repo Man, Tapeheads and others. This prevented him from joining the Monkees for several reunion tour dates.

In recent years, Michael has continued to prove his genius talent in projects like The Garden, which had the same story-music concept as The Prison. This time, the album featured less-distracting instrumental music with the exception of the last track, Life Becoming.

He added his producing, songwriting, and performing talents to the new Monkees 30th Anniversary album release, Justus! Unfortunately, Mike decided not to attend tour dates to promote the new album in the US. He did appear in the UK tour dates, however.

Mike is currently at work on his second novel (his first was The Long Sandy Hair of Neftoon Zamora) and is working on another movie called Fried Pies. Also look for DVD reissues of Mike's movies and a reissue of the Timerider soundtrack, Live At The Palais and The Wichita Train Whistle Sings on CD from Videoranch.

While it is unfortunate that most of Michael Nemsith's work is overlooked, Michael's fans still appreciate his work and look forward to his continuing projects. Check out Videoranch for new information on the availability of Michael's solo works and links to sound and video samples. Give it a try. The folks at Videoranch are real nice and always available to help!