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.
This was most people’s introduction to the voice of Linda Ronstadt as she was the lead singer in the Stone Poneys. The song had been released before by the Greenbriar Boys but wasn’t a hit. (Nor was the Stone Poneys’ version a hit in the UK.)
Its writer though was Mike Nesmith of the Monkees. He offered the song to them but the show’s producers turned it down. He recorded it himself in 1972 and his version has a much more ‘country’ feel.
A wonderfully laconic offering from Michael Nesmith – post Monkees.
Michael Nesmith: Rio
One of those oddities that crop up from time to time concerns Nesmith. His mother invented Liquid Paper – correction fluid of this type is known as Tippex in the UK – see also Mike’s Wiki entry. He inherited her fortune.
I was sad to hear that former Monkee Davy Jones has died, apparently from a heart attack.
Though Davy was nominally the Monkees lead singer, that duty frequently fell to fellow actor Micky Dolenz, leaving Davy to flail away somewhat unconvincingly with a pair of maraccas.
They were probably the first manufactured band, brought together to reproduce the Beatles films’ format on TV, but had some of the best pop songwriters of the day composing for them. This – I chose it because it actually features Davy on lead vocals – was written by Neil Diamond.
The Monkees: A Little Bit Me, A Little Bit You
A Little Bit Me, A Little Bit You was the only Monkees single I bought back in the day and I came to love the B-side The Girl I Knew Somewhere, written by group member Mike Nesmith. So much so I referenced its title in a line of A Son of the Rock.
David Thomas Jones, 30/12/1945 – 29/2/2012. So it goes.
