The Nez

During my commute home I caught the end of "Joanne" on radio. I don't recall which channel I had on, but it was a deep cut, slightly out of place. It gave me pause...upon returning home, I got the news.

He was my favorite Monkee. The "Smart" (or smarter or - maybe - smart-ass) Monkee, he was one of two playing musicians and the only real songwriter in the band. Even early on, before the "band" was given some creative control, their albums featured some of his songs. In late '67 Linda Ronstadt and the Stone Poneys scored a top 20 hit with his "Different Drum".

This playlist includes most - if not all - of the songs he wrote, co-wrote, or sang lead on for the band. "Different Drum", while not a Monkees tune, features the Poneys backed by crack El-Lay sessioneers... kind of like when Mickey sang "Mary Mary" .

Several of the songs, especially the more straightforward, country ones, remained unreleased until the 1990's when they were included as bonus tracks on the rereleases of the band's original catalogue.

Nesmith put out several of the songs on his first solo albums. All were re-recorded, some undergoing a change in tempo, studio treatments, or changes in instrumentation.

Taken together, the recordings show that Nez was onto a country-rock fusion at the same time as the various Byrds and Moby Grape. Any fan of the early years of the genre should give his early albums with the First National Band a listen. The members of the FNB's second incarnation, which cut Nevada Fighter, features several of Elvis's TCB band who Gram would hire a year later for his solo albums.

It's good stuff. Nesmith's voice may be an acquired taste for some, but he's of a sort with Jimmie Dale Gilmore....cosmic Texas cowboy lyrics delivered with a quaver or partial yodel.

According to the radio advert for Nevada Fighter, its second side completes an American Trilogy of some sort, with the b-sides of Magnetic South and Loose Salute making up parts one and two. I guess it tells a story. Not as clear as that told in the Red Headed Stranger, but maybe as clear as that told in Desperado.

We'll let you be the judge.

In the late '70s he began getting into video and film production with the help, one might imagine, of his liquid paper inheritance. In music, he moved out of country into other fields....photon wings, big dogma.....Sunset Sam.

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