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  • Oh, that's incredibly sad news. I love their music and the tv show was funny. I watched it all again a few years ago. He was a great singer and musician. 

  • Aw, no. Mike was my favorite Monkee, too. Tracy didn't mention it (probably because Mike wasn't touring with them at the time), but one of our first dates was to see The Monkees at the Fox Theater in St. Louis. One of my favorite  jokes of the show was, about halfway through, someone mentioned Mike and they all reacted in shock and surprise ["Mike!"] as if they just realized he wasn't there. 

  • I listened to the Monkees before I "discovered" the Beatles. I grew up on their show in syndication during the 70s and even had their albums.

    Mike Nesmith was so determined to be taken seriously as a musician, almost to a fault!

  • IT'S THE END OF AN ERA!

    I had planned to see the Mike and Micky show when it was on their farewell tour, but my heart/health situation took precedent and I was in the hospital when they played their lone concert date in my neck of the woods.

    I caught the other three together on a few tour dates over the years before Davy Jones' passing, and consider myself fortunate that I also saw Micky solo and Peter Tork with Shoe Suede Blues before we lost him.

    But Mike was both the intellectual and the elusive one.

    You cannot discount his contributions to music in general (writing "Different Drum", etc) let alone to The Monkees specifically. Alas I don't remember the group first run, but do recall seeing the TV series on Saturday Mornings after The Archies in 1968.

    It seems like the older you get, the more of your past one loses until there's nothing left but nostalgia and the memories.

    In the end, I guess that's all any of us have.

    At least they're fond ones.

  • I didn't watch the show much but I've always liked the group's music. Almost everything in the article was new to me.

  • Loved The Monkees as a kid, because it's what every kid wants: Your best friends in a clubhouse and all you do is play all day. I had already seen A Hard Day's Night before the show, so I knew it was derivative (a word I did not yet know), but both of them made me want to believe that adulthood could be like that (if you had enough talent, maybe, or money. And three good friends.) I knew better, but I wanted to believe.

    Nesmith was a talented musician (as was Tork, I believe), but he also made a mark as a FOG (Friend of George) and producer. There's very little he was involved in that I didn't enjoy.

    Also, he always wore a specific hat on the show, like Jughead, who was my favorite of The Archies!

  • I confess that I do know I do not know what a "Friend  of George"  means in this context.

    Captain Comics said:

    Loved The Monkees as a kid, because it's what every kid wants: Your best friends in a clubhouse and all you do is play all day. I had already seen A Hard Day's Night before the show, so I knew it was derivative (a word I did not yet know), but both of them made me want to believe that adulthood could be like that (if you had enough talent, maybe, or money. And three good friends.) I knew better, but I wanted to believe.

    Nesmith was a talented musician (as was Tork, I believe), but he also made a mark as a FOG (Friend of George) and producer. There's very little he was involved in that I didn't enjoy.

    Also, he always wore a specific hat on the show, like Jughead, who was my favorite of The Archies!

  • I'm guessing that "FoG" means George Harrison...maybe...sort of...

  • It was just last month that I visited Mohegan Sun casino, where the two remaining Monkees, one of whom was Nesmith, were booked for a farewell tour. His passing is, in this context, ironic; but, it's something of a relief knowing that he was doing, and presumably enjoying, what he did best right to the end.
  • Mike always seemed too serious minded to be involved with the Monkees. He never appeared totally comfortable in the role. It is unfortunate that the music he produced with The First National Band was dismissed out of hand by the elite hipsters of the music business simply because he had been in the Monkees.

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