A "stream of consciousness" observation on music and how we relate to it. How we purchase, listen to and enjoy music is changing. What does it mean to be a music fan in a world where every song, performance and video is literally at your fingertips? I hope to be a guide to this new world of musical experience. Featuring tunes and comments about artists, old and new in nearly every genre.
Legendary Monkees vocalist, songwriter and guitarist Mike Nesmith visited the Magic Bag in Ferndale last Sunday, April 7. An appearance by the enigmatic Nesmith is about as rare as the return of the Cicadas. I don't know if Mike has ever played the Detroit area on his own. The Monkees did play Detroit 40 years ago so this could have been Mike's first ever appearance as a solo in these parts.
If you know anything about the history of Rock you know that Mike was an accomplished songwriter (under the name "Mike Blessing") before the Monkees were constructed. Mike always fought against the 'hit-machine" aspect of the Monkees, insisting on contributing his own tunes. Though they were not the hit singles, his tunes were very memorable and highlights of the Monkee's catalog. As their career wound down, Mike's Monkee tunes, often featuring the studio pros who would go on to form Mike's first few solo bands, and featuring no other Monkee performing on them, spotlighted his interest in country and folk music. Mike
was there at the start of so-called "Country Rock" and deserves as much credit as the Byrds and Flying Burrito Brothers in popularizing country music to the rock audience.
Mike opened the show with the only Monkee song he would do in this performance, "Papa Gene's Blues" from the first Monkees album. After all, the Monkees recently concluded tour featured a healthy dose of Nesmith tunes, so perhaps he wanted to feature his extremely under-rated solo catalog. In contrast to the Monkees version, Nesmith's was slower, more reflective. He told stories before each tune, not so much how they were written, but setting the scene for the characters and stories that each song told. The version included here is from his live tour. Below is a version live with the Monkees.
Mike hit most of his catalog highlights chronologically, playing just about every notable Nesmith tune that had got near the charts or had been covered by other artists such as "Silver Moon," "Joanne" and "Different Drum" (a big hit for Linda Rondstadt and the Stone Pony's).
I've posted the setlist from cool website "Setlist.FM." Mike didn't vary the setlist any, at least from what I saw on the setlist site. The actual set list posted is from another night.
Mike's band was great. Of particular note was the presence of Earl Scruggs grandson, Chris, who accompanied Mike on every kinda stringed instrument available. During the encore, "Thanx For The Ride" the pedal steel solo from the late, great Red Rhodes who was a member of Nesmith's First National Band was played at the appropriate point in the song. A great and fitting way to end the show.
For some reason, very recently Spotify has pulled all the solo Nesmith from the website. Don't know why these things happen. Would give you a healthy dose of it through my playlist. I did put the Monkees verson of "Papa Gene's Blues" on though.
Terry Cashman is one of those music business "jack-of-all-trades" guys who has, in turn, been a performer, songwriter, producer and label head. He co-wrote "Sunday Will Never Be The Same" a soft rock top 10 for Spanky and Our Gang in 1967. In the 70's he co-founded Lifesong Records which hit gold with Henry Gross' Beach Boys sound-a-like weeper "Shannon." But he found everlasting fame, at least in sports circles, with his "Talkin' Baseball(Willie, Mickey and the Duke)" tune from 1981. Fans who were disappointed by the month's long Baseball strike bought it in droves. And, in true record biz fashion, Cashman would give them more of the same, with some variations, doing version's tailored to each major league team, the Baseball Hall of Fame, even a version for the The Simpson's TV Show. The original was not without charm, especially when heard in the run up to Opening Day, and it was kinda cool to hear a version with the hometown nine. But Terry did run it into the ground a bit. And his albums, featuring other baseball themed tunes, could be tough sledding. Most of them are on Spotify so you can hear for yourself. That "Talkin' Baseball" backing tape has got to be see-through by now!
Here's the vintage Tiger's version!
As I write this the Tigers just coughed one up to the Twins on a walk off extra base hit. Phil Coke, who closed out the game in the away opener, got his feelings hurt when he nearly got taken over the wall. The best teams are gonna lose 60 games a year, even with Mariano Rivera on the mound in his prime, but this will open up the tiresome debate over whether the Tigers can thrive with a so-called "closer-by-committee." With opening day 36 hours away let's focus on the positive!
Above is the 68 Theme Song. Below is the 84 vintage Theme!
