For Papa Nes

I read this morning that Michael Nesmith had passed away. He was most famous as the guy with the wooly hat in the Monkees. It was Nesmith who pushed for them to play and record their own songs.  His death was a bit of a shock. I wan’t expecting it at all.

I bought these albums by him in the seventies, and liked them a lot. He was an early pioneer of country rock, but like the Burritos, Gene Clark, and Poco, he saw little commercial return for his efforts. Maybe his take on it was too quirky, and song titles like The Grand Ennui and Propinquity were perhaps a bit too cerebral for the masses. At one point he brought out a record titled: And The Hits Just Keep On Coming. He did get a big hit eventually in  the eighties with Rio, and moved into video production.

I think he was one of the good guys.