you've freaked peter's mind!
02.05.03 @ 1:44 p.m.
I notice that Mike Nesmith always vamooses as soon as a Romp starts...
I'm watching The Monkees Blow Their Minds, specifically the Frank Zappa interview. It's really hilarious, and I don't watch it very often because, well, Blow Their Minds is not the world's greatest Monkees episode.
The interview with Zappa great - Mike and Frank pretend to be each other and get in a few good natured digs at each other in the course....
Frank (as Mike): ...I'm just one of these unpopular musicians.
Mike (as Frank): What? No, you're the popular musican, I'm dirty, gross, and ugly.
What can I say, I have a fondness for Frank Zappa. We share a birthday. My dad has a copy of The Mothers of Invention Freak Out that I want to borrow again sometime, and I'm looking forward to our Art Rock unit... well, actually, it's just a big hunk of Zappa songs in a week or two in Rock n Roll. I wonder if I should offer this Zappa interview (with a video for, ah, I think the song is Mother People, which consists of Nesmith conducting whilst Zappa bashed apart a car.
More than a fondness for Zappa is my total love of Mike Nesmith. He is... I don't know, I'm just crazy about him. I think he's tremendously sexy and talented, not to mention having a wild sense of humor. Yes, on the Monkees show he's kind of the reserved one at times, but his deadpan sense of humor appeals to me there and the random quirkyness of Elephant Parts is hilarious. (Especially the detective sketch!)
After our Country Rock unit, I started listening to the First National Band's albums again. (I'm currently waiting on a double album of Nevada Fighter and Tantamount to Treason, even though I already own Nevada Fighter. I wanted the bonus tracks that only come on the double album!) Some people like to say that Mike is one of the fathers of country rock. I think he's certainly undervalued, probably due to the stigma of being a made-for-tv-bandmember. Sweet Young Thing, Papa Gene's Blues, and The Kind of Girl I Could Love added a little country flair to the Monkees first two albums and are all excellent songs. Hah, last time I was on KBOO, Mort, Belle, and I played Sweet Young Thing but neglected to announce who it was by. Toward the end of the show, someone called in to ask who did that great, cajun-sounding song and just would not believe Mort when he told him it was Nesmith off the Monkees first album. Those first two albums are just fantastic, provided you ignore the Davy ballads that plague the thing. But then, I don't like ballads, really. The Davy ones give me what I like to refer to as Emotional Diabetes. Too sickly sweet. But Mike can rock, and so can Micky. Unfairly, Micky got the lion's share of the spotlight when Mike was (in my opinion) the most talented of the group. An established songwriter (his Mary, Mary had been picked up by the Paul Butterfield Blues Band pre-Monkees and Linda Ronstadt had a huge hit with his Different Drum), a good guitarist, and one of the most gorgeous voices I've ever heard, he was neglected. He didn't get any singles until the Monkees were going downhill. He didn't have the pop sound in his writing as far as Don Kirshner was concerned.
And as far as the personalities of the Monkees were concerned, I think Mike was frankly the most masculine of the four, though in the second season he seemed to pick up some over fastidious mannerisms. The impression I get from myself (and other devoted Nez girls) is that he has the animal magnetism of the group. Like Fitzwilliam Darcy, there's the feeling that behind the strong, silent exterior, there's passion. He's like a post-Elizabeth Mr. Darcy. A Mr. Darcy that's learned that liveliness and ability to laugh at himself.
Trust me to come up with a Monkees/Austen link. Actually, I long ago decided that Mike is Mr. Darcy, Peter is Mr. Bingly, Micky is Col. Fitzwilliam, and Davy is so Mr. Wickham. Heck, Riverwood Park started out on that principle, or close to it. Two of the main male characters still carry traces of their Monkees origin. Mike and Micky's real names are Robert Michael Nesmith and George Michael Dolenz, and Robert Beckford and George Rowland have long been loosely based on those two. Col. David Carter is a caricature of what I sometimes perceive as David Jones' womanizing on the show.
I've gone hither and yon with all this Mike-worship. I'll go off to the DWG now and indulge in a bit of Darcy-worship before tackling my Anthro research.
Previously
fuck it @ 08.01.05
fanciful imaginary sea voyages to come @ 07.20.05
*dies* @ 07.19.05
more ootp @ 07.17.05
harry potter: driving our children into devil worship @ 07.17.05
