Texas Musicians: Mike Nesmith

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Howdy from the car dealership. No, I’m not. Just getting new tires. They cost the same here, and there’s the bonus of no “road hazard insurance” to buy. I can take it to any Honda dealership in the country if I have a tire problem. Meanwhile, I’ll celebrate Texas (where I left some tire tread earlier this year) with another Texas-born musician. Mike Nesmith Hey, hey, you’re a Monkee! One of the fun fact that everyone used to know about Mike Nesmith is that his mother invented Liquid Paper. Of course, I have to explain to younger people that there used to be these things called typewriters and when you made a mistake you had to erase it (instead of just backspacing), so you put Liquid Paper over the typo and retyped things. Nesmith, like yesterday’s star Willie Nelson, was an Air Force veteran. He took up music after leaving the Air Force. When he joined the Pre-Fab Four for the TV series he was already successful, with acts recording his songs. After the Monkees, he continued in recording (his song “Joanne” was his biggest solo hit; however, he also wrote the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band’s “Some of Shelly’s Blues” and Linda Ronstadt and the Stone Poneys’ “Different Drum”), and he got into video production as well. In the early 80s NBC ran his show Mike Nesmith’s Elephant Parts, which has the distinction of being the first recipient of the “long-form video” Grammy award. While he will probably forever be known as “merely” a member of the Monkees, there was a lot more to Nesmith’s talent than wearing that wool cap. Mike Nesmith Born Robert Michael Nesmith December 30, 1942, Houston Died December 10, 2021, Carmel Valley, California (heart failure) (age 78) Here’s a Nesmith-penned tune, “Some of Shelly’s Blues,” done quite country (Linda? NO!!!!!) by the Monkees: