A Son of the Rock

This posting falls out of the usual sequence of my music posts because Mike Nesmith of the Monkees died only a couple of days ago.

The Monkees may have been a manufactured band but they recorded some great songs like the one below and of course Nesmith went on to have a successful solo career. I also read that his video for Rio provided the inspiration for the setting up of MTV.

Nesmith wrote three of my favourite Monkees’ songs, Listen to the Band; Daily, Nightly; and the one below which came out on the B-side of A Little Bit Me, A Little Bit You, which I bought back in the day. Its title is The Girl I Knew Somewhere. According to Wikipedia it was the first recording the group played on themselves rather than merely providing vocals.

I have mentioned before I alluded to its title in my novel A Son of the Rock. That was in the throwaway lines:-
“Who’s Sile?”
“A girl I knew somewhere.”

I must confess I’m not much of a fan of this video. It is of its time. It’s the only one I could find, though, of the original mono mix which was of course the one on that B-side.

The Monkees: The Girl I Knew Somewhere

There is another version of The Girl I Knew Somewhere on You Tube (possibly a demo?) which features Mike on vocals.

The Girl I Knew Somewhere with Mike Nesmith vocal:

https://youtu.be/Doibz5eVNmc

Robert Michael Nesmith: 30/12/1942 – 10/12/2021. So it goes.