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  1. Bugger. When Davey Jones died I said that he wasn’t my favourite Monkee, but their importance to the younger me could be demonstrated by the fact I remembered the order of my favourite Monkees. Mike Nesmith was my favourite Monkee.

      • I’ve spent most of my life trying to convince any who would listen that Rio is an absolute classic and that most of his stuff is worth a listen.

        Sad news.

        • Rio is a classic song and was the sound of this summer in my house.

          And then there’s Circle Sky. I’ve seen Head and it is not a good film but Circle Sky and The Porpoise Song are two great moments in it. And Circle Sky edges it for the white suit and white SG combination.

  2. I’m expecting reports to mention Liquid Paper, MTV, and bobble hats.
    Maybe these two tracks will make an appearance too:
    Listen To The Band

    Different Drum

    (it’s his song, but I prefer that version)

        • It’s interesting that a few of the tracks on the album sound much like they would if the writers had sung them. It suggests the arrangements are very much as they would have been on the demos. The most obvious other one is the Adam Schlesinger track (which would have sat comfortably on the final Fountains of Wayne album) but then he was also responsible for the production of most of the album.

  6. Sorry to hear. Mike brilliantly produced Bert Jansch’s ‘comeback’ album ‘LA Turnaround’ in 1974. The title came from Mike talking about ‘turnarounds’ (bits where a tune changes sections), which Bert found baffling. They’re both here, in this short film from Tony Stratton Smith’s mansion.

  9. Ever contrary, whilst I tried, Lord I tried, to get my head around his solo material, given the claims made he invented country rock etc. But it never quite cut the mustard, even when Red Rhodes steeled in for the ride. But still my favourite Monkee for all that.

  10. Head is a truly wonderful film! I remember the TV Times giving it a really sniffy review (see Performance/The Knack/Likely Lads/Charlie Bubbles/anything foreign) in about 1984 when it was shown at some ungodly hour – I was hooked within 30 seconds.

    You can’t go too wrong with the run of albums: Headquarters – Pisces – Birds – Head.

    It’s such a pity that the reason for the group’s existence – the TV show – is nowhere to be seen. Those summer holiday showings in the early 1970s (the first time they were shown in colour in the UK?) are etched in my mind alongside Champion the Wonder Horse, Robinson Crusoe, Banana Splits, Laurel & Hardy, The White Horses, Tintin etc.
    You’d watch the Monkees (everyone did) and then you’d play football for 10 hours.

    • Repeats of The Monkees was one of the many glories of the early years of Channel 4. See also The Addams Family, the Munsters and weekday afternoon black and white films chosen by Leslie Halliwell. Fookin boss.

    • …and then, 10 hours later, as the day dimmed, you’d run home hoping you wouldn’t get a bollocking for being late, while singing ‘Last Train To Clarksville’ at the top of your lungs.

      So sad to hear this news. Condolences to all who loved him and his music.

      Look after yourself, Circus Boy, you’re the last survivor, and we go back a long, long way now.

  11. Peter Tork was my favourite when I was 14 years old in 66/67 but how I loved Mike’s songs (written by or sung by) on those first 4 albums.
    R.I.P. ‘wool hat’ Only one left now…….😕

    • Thank you – I’m sure we looked a few months (hey, it could be years) ago and it seemed a bit sparse.
      Fantastic picture quality – I’ll be watching a few tonight (with my wife, who, as a young girl, bought the TV 21/Lady Penelope magazines which originally trailed the series… “The Monkees are coming your way” etc. – NME did the same thing without the sexy pictures!).
      I adore them.

      A revealing offshoot from the Get Back film is that the Beatles were really strong on their own history (don’t believe any Paul interviews from the last 40 years when he says’ “Which album was that on? – HE knows) and they continually made reference to stuff that is completely dismissed now – Mary Hopkin, Peter and Gordon, for example.
      The Monkees are (I think) revered now.

      • They started playing Every Little Thing in part 1 and I punched the air and said YES. The great buried Beatles classic that the public never noticed. But THEY remembered. And George started it, the man who claimed not to know anything about the Beatles…. The scamps…

    • I saw them live in 2011, Nesmith wasn’t there, the other three were. After Davy Jones passed away he started touring with them again and recently did the “Mike and Mickey tour” with Dolenz. Maybe he didn’t get on with the diminutive Mancunian?

      • When Peter Tork passed away I saw an interview with Mike Nesmith and Mickey Dolenz on an Australian TV show. Nesmith stated that he didn’t like Peter Tork and they never spoke to each other apart from the occasional “hello”. Despite this he said he was very upset at Tork’s death.

  15. @deramdaze

    Stuff gets put up and taken down off YT all the time with seemingly no rhyme or reason. Apps like Clip Grab Make it absurdly easy to download and keep stuff though.

    I got to briefly meet and chat with him when he graciously stopped to sign my copies of the three National Band albums, Hits Keep Coming and Standard Ranch Stash after he played a Zig Zag concert at – I think – London’s Victoria theatre in 1973 or 74. Still have them to this day

  16. I bought his National Band LPs in 1973 in lunch break from my first job. They were cut-outs – deletetions I guess – for 99p each in Fox Records Croydon right by the bus station. Don’t bother looking for it, it’s not there any more. Later I got his next few LPs.

    Saw him twice in London; at the Roundhouse in 1974 with my one true [lost] first love at the Zigzag concert, and then a few years later in Victoria.

    I’d lost track of his career though I think he did a London show using just a laptop a few years ago, but he was a part of my early years – first job and first love. I still listen to those records, well on mp3 my daughter has the vinyl.

    Right now I’m listening to Nevada Fighter and then dabble with all the others, not forgetting Rio.

    Then I’ll just roll with the flow, even though it’s going to roll right out of here.

    • Gosh, that Zigzag concert had the most astonishing collection of performers; I can’t imagine anone putting on such a thing these days outside of a Glastonbury stage perhaps. The 5 CD set is an absolute belter.

      • @Vulpes-Vulpes

        Pretty sure that was the 5th anniversary one at the Roundhouse which I didn’t go to. The one I saw him at was the following year at Victoria Theatre – can’t recall if Red R was with him on that occasion or not. Anyone else here who has a better memory than me?

        Saw him again the following year at Sheffield Uni when he was touring The Prison. Would have loved to have caught him with the reconstituted FNB and was hoping they might have got him for the Legends spot at the annual Country2Country Festival, but alas it was not to be. The live album they recorded at the Troubadour is terrific, btw

        • Yep, the little Zigzag Concert boxed set is the Roundhouse one for the 5th anniversary of the (long gone but not forgotten) magazine; that’s the other long gone but not forgotten mag of course, not the one we started with. Such an eclectic mix of acts along with the Nes’ – Chilli Willi, John Stewart (who even covers Daydream Believer), Starry Eyed.. and the inestimably wonderful Help Yourself, all on one bill. Americana, in all its dimensions, right there, in 1974.

          • @Vulpes-Vulpes

            Pretty sure JS actually wrote Daydream Believer. Reason why I know this is that I was a huge fan of ZZ and still have a few copies knocking around my house – the one with Joe Cocker on the front is in the other room even as I speak.

            On a couple of occasions I rang Pete Frame whose home number was listed in every issue for clarification on some arcane musical matter. Really nice bloke who talked to me for far longer than I had any right to expect – a good life lesson I have always tried to emulate myself. While now hopelessly outdated, his two volumes of brobdingnagian Rock Family trees are essential adjuncts to every serious music lovers’ record collections.

            • Of course, that’s correct. In my mind it’s a Monkees number from habit!

              Like you I have a few increasingly tatty Zigzag copies hanging around the house. A few years back you could still pick up individual issues on eBay too, but rarely the early ones, which I enjoy the most, before they went all noowave. I have one issue that features Debbie Harry looking ropey in some sort of thrift shop zebra print thing, and another with Gaye Advert leering at the camera with a ton of eye makeup on, also looking fashionably knackered and worn. Their typography too went all Sniffin’ at that time, and the bands they focused upon were not usually my thing. I recall though that they thought highly of Television, however, which redeemed their taste to my ears, as those guys were one of the best live bands I ever saw.

              And Pete Frame’s collected masterpieces are still on the bookshelf in the living room to this day!

  17. Only today, listening to a live version, when Mike informed us, did I come to know that Joanne was about a cow.
    Joanne was her name and she lived in a meadow by a stream. Blindingly obvious once you pay attention.

  19. Don’t worry I came here yesterday to do the same when I saw the news break on Twitter. Since first hearing my sister’s copy of Headquarters when I was a very young child The Monkees have been musically ever present. Firmly setting my radar to pop. Its all their fault 🙂 Through here i was introduced to the First National Band stuff. He’s just been around for as long as I remember. It’s very, very sad…

    Bugger. This is an answer to @noisecandy up there ⬆️

  21. I got to see the great man about 6/7 years ago at the Union Chapel, and I have banged on ever since about it being one of the best gigs I have ever been to. He was charming, erudite, funny as hell, and absolutely all round brilliant.

    I was never a huge Monkees fan, but a friend introduced me to the solo Nes in the mid 70s and I have loved his stuff ever since. If you can still get it the, the Pacific Arts box set is a great collection of the later 70s stuff (and includes a terrific live album), but the RCA recordings are the motherlode.

  22. The Monkees were the object of ridicule from us ‘serious’, Melody Maker reading fans, but their music has stood the test of time far better than most of the twaddle that John Peel championed in the late sixties. We should have taken notice that they were welcomed with open arms by the uber cool Laurel Canyon set. Even Frank Zappa.
    Mike would probably rather be remembered for being in the vanguard of the country rock , but never mind. The Monkees were great.
    PS, Did I ever tell you about the time I saw Peter Tork play a low key gig at a riverside pub in the Ribble valley in Lancashire?

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