On Monday, December 30, 2013, Michael Nesmith of The Monkees (the one with the green wool hat) turns 71 years old.
Of all of The Monkees, Nesmith has had the most prolific and successful solo career. He pioneered the country-rock music format in the early to mid-1970s, founded the music and video label Pacific Arts, and basically created the concept of MTV. In addition to producing films and music videos, Nesmith also won the very first Grammy Award for Best Home Video for Elephant Parts, which later led to NBC’s short-lived Television Parts. In an interesting side note, Nesmith’s mother invented liquid paper and sold it to Gillette for a substantial fortune, which Nesmith inherited.
Nesmith has been very busy in the last couple of years, performing several solo tour dates in the United Kingdom and the United States and rejoining the surviving Monkees for small tours in the United States.
For a good overview of Nesmith’s solo music career, I recommend The Older Stuff, The Newer Stuff, Tropical Campfire’s, and Rays.
More information about Nesmith is available on his Web site at www.videoranch.com.
--Raj Manoharan
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