Thursday, December 30, 2021, would have been Michael Nesmith's 79th birthday. The Texas-born Monkees singer and guitarist (the one with the green wool hat) passed away on December 10, 2021, in California at the age of 78 .
Of all of The Monkees, Nesmith 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.
For a good overview of Nesmith’s music, I recommend The Older Stuff, The Newer Stuff, Tropical Campfire’s, Live at the Britt Festival, Rays, Movies of the Mind, Infinite Tuesday: Autobiographical Riffs -- The Music, and Live at the Troubadour.
More information about Nesmith is available on his Web site at www.videoranch.com.
--Raj Manoharan
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