History Music / MichaelNesmith

[[caption-width-right:350:[[Franchise/TheMonkees Monkee]]. Songwriter. Innovator. BadassBeard.]]
'''Robert Michael Nesmith''' (born December 30, 1942) is an American SingerSongwriter, producer, and actor. Perhaps best remembered as a wool hat-wearing Texan [[Franchise/TheMonkees Monkee]], "Papa Nez" has had quite the storied and innovative career. From helping codify early country rock to basically inventing MTV and music videos with his Grammy award-winning "visual album" ''Elephant Parts'', Nesmith's influence cannot be underestimated. Oh, and his mom invented liquid paper.

As a Monkee, Nesmith had always brought a country sensibility to his vocal spots, and composed a fair few songs that juxtaposed country music with other genres in hitherto unheard ways. Once The Monkees dissolved, in 1970 Nesmith formed The First National Band, one of the first country rock groups, continuing his odyssey of off-kilter country musings, with a trilogy of albums. Nesmith began edging towards pop and rock as the decade progressed, with social commentary becoming an increasingly bigger factor in his works.

!!Discography:

* ''Magnetic South'' (1970)
* ''Loose Salute'' (1970)
* ''Nevada Fighter'' (1971)
* ''Tantamount to Treason, Vol. 1'' (1972)
* ''And the Hits Just Keep on Comin''' (1972)
* ''Pretty Much Your Standard Ranch Stash'' (1973)
* ''The Prison'' (1975)
* ''From a Radio Engine to the Photon Wing'' (1976)
* ''Infinite Rider on the Big Dogma'' (1978)
* ''...Tropical Campfires...'' (1992)
* ''The Garden'' (1994)
* ''Rays'' (2006)

* AbortedArc: You'll notice there is no ''Tantamount to Treason, Vol. 2'' in the discography listing.

* BerserkButton: Don freakin' Kirshner. His releasing ''More of The Monkees'' without even consulting the band got Nesmith so pissed off he punched a hole through a hotel wall, letting him know "that could have been [his] face." Tellingly, Nesmith got to produce sessions himself not long after.
* BreakupBreakout: The only Monkee to achieve anything close to commercial success after the group's demise.

* ConceptAlbum: ''The Prison'', released with a book intended to be read while listening to the record. ''Infinite Rider on the Big Dogma'' is also full of commentary on popular culture of the '70s.
* ConceptVideo: Ah, Mr. Nesmith, what would the anatomy of music video tropes be like today without your guiding hand? ''Elephant Parts'', for one, has got a trunkfull of 'em.

** Three Nashville standards were recorded for each installment of his trilogy with the First National Band: "The One Rose (That's Left in My Heart)", "I Fall to Pieces", and "Tumbling Tumbleweeds".
** ''Nevada Fighter'', ''Tantamount to Treason'' and ''Pretty Much Your Standard Ranch Stash'' all have side twos/second halves made up entirely of non-Nesmith compositions.
** His version of "I Looked Away" is notable because it was recorded only a few weeks after ''[[Music/DerekAndTheDominos Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs]]'' was released.

** Makes an appearance as a "Water man" in ''Tapeheads'', for which he served as producer.
* CreditsGag: ''Tantamount to Treason: Volume One'' splits up the musician credits and sprinkles them throughout the liner notes. In a classic {{Cloudcuckoolander}} moment, the liner notes are a recipe for (apparently quite potent) homemade beer.
* DarkerAndEdgier: ''The Prison''.

** One of the earliest known appearances of his FanNickname was on the back cover of ''Nevada Fighter''... spelled "Papa Nes." Just don't have the same zing, y'know?
* EpicRocking: "[[LongTitle The Back Porch and a Fruit Jar Full of Iced Tea]]", a two-part medley clocking in at nearly eight and a half minutes.

* FakeRadioShowAlbum: ''The Michael Nesmith Radio Special'', which intersperses cultural and social commentary with cuts from his album ''Infinite Rider on the Big Dogma''.
* FanNickname: "Papa Nez"... or "[The] Nez" for short.

* IAmNotSpock: Doesn't seem to like people assuming that he and his Monkees character are one and the same. As far as he is concerned, "Michael" is who he is, and "Mike" is a Monkee he portrays from time to time. He is credited with playing "Mike Nesmith" rather than himself in ''Film/{{Head}}'', after all.
* IdiosyncraticEpisodeNaming: All the songs on ''Infinite Rider on The Big Dogma'' have one word titles, plus more descriptive parenthetical subtitles.
* IdiosyncraticCoverArt: His trilogy with the First National Band. Each features some sort of picture motif in a circular frame, surrounded by one of the colors of the United States flag: ''Magnetic'' (blue) features the American bald eagle; ''Salute'' (red) features a war veteran (and a rat) making a salute; and ''Fighter'' (white) another bald eagle (in profile this time).

* LargeHam: A kind of understated, restrained kind, but when he goes all out... oh boy! ''Live at the Palais'', in particular, features gloriously hammy performances of "Roll with the Flow", "Grand Ennui", and "Nadine (Is It You)".
* LiveAlbum: ''Live at the Palais'' and ''Live at the Britt Festival''.
* LongTitle: The albums ''And the Hits Just Keep on Comin''', ''Pretty Much Your Standard Ranch Stash'', ''From a Radio Engine to the Photon Wing'', and ''Infinite Rider on the Big Dogma'', alongside a few songs.

* MoodWhiplash / SomethingCompletelyDifferent: "The Candidate" off the ''And the Hits...'' album is a strange, dissonant rumination over the fleeting world of politics... and it opens the second side.

* NewSoundAlbum: The 1976 release of ''From a Radio Engine to a Photon Wing'' (in case the name didn't clue you in) marked a transition to a new style of unconventional pop with some minimal country influences. Reached full flower with ''Infinite Rider'', with sort of a proto-sophistipop sound throughout and focus on themes such as consumer culture and... well... factions.

* NonIndicativeName: ''And the Hits Just Keep on Comin'''. Ironically, one of the songs on the album -- his own version of "Different Drum" -- was a hit... for Linda Ronstadt, that is.
* OneHitWonder: The First National Band had two hit singles, but only "Rio" made any sort of impact as far as Nesmith's solo career is concerned.

* PepTalkSong: "Keep On", "Release"

* RearrangeTheSong: His '[=70s=] albums included re-recordings of several songs originally recorded as Monkees tracks (though most had not been previously released as such)...
** "Calico Girlfriend", "Nine Times Blue", "Little Red Rider", "The Crippled Lion", and "Hollywood" on ''Magnetic South''
** "Conversations" (aka "Carlisle Wheeling") and "Listen to the Band" on ''Loose Salute''
** "Propinquity (I've Just Begun to Care)" on ''Nevada Fighter''
** "Some of Shelly's Blues" on ''Pretty Much Your Standard Ranch Stash''
** "Circle Sky" was remade for The Monkees' lamentable 1996 reunion album, ''Justus''. Nez also did his own version of "Different Drum" on ''And the Hits...''

* RecycledTheSeries: ''Television Parts'', a short-lived series in the same vein as ''Elephant Parts''.

* RefrainFromAssuming: ''Infinite Rider on the Big Dogma'' appears to parody this somewhat with the parenthesized titles on the album cover. Most of them fit, anyway.

* RuleOfThree: His album trilogy, natch. What's more, each album cover bears one of the three colors of the American flag, and each includes one classic country cover.

* SelfEmpowermentAnthem: "Roll With The Flow"

--> "I was once criticized for writing a song with the word 'impelled' in it. C'mon, man! What he didn't know was that I have written songs with words like 'bereft', 'preclude' and 'prism'." [[note]]He's actually written ''two'' songs with "prism" ("Daily Nightly" and "Joanne"). [[/note]]

* SingleStanzaSong: "Beyond the Blue Horizon".
* SpiritualSuccessor: ''The Garden'' is this to ''The Prison'', being referred to as a sort of companion piece.

* ThreeChordsAndTheTruth: ''And the Hits...'' consists of precious little else than Nez and his guitar, longtime compatriot Red Rhodes on pedal steel, standard country chords and the truth. Except [[SomethingCompletelyDifferent that one song]], of course.

* XtremeKoolLetterz: "Thanx for the Ride".

* IAmNotSpock: Doesn't seem to like people assuming that he and his Monkees character are one and the same. He is credited with playing "Mike Nesmith" rather than himself in ''Film/{{Head}}'', after all.

** His version of "I Looked Away" is notable because it was recorded only a few weeks after ''[[Music/DerekAndTheDominoes Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs]]'' was released.

* NiceHat: His infamous wool cap, of course, but also his array of cowboy hats.

* NonindicativeName: ''And the Hits Just Keep on Comin'''. Ironically, one of the songs on the album -- his own version of "Different Drum" -- was a hit... for Linda Ronstadt, that is.

* BadassBeard: Sported a notable one from around the late '70s to the early '00s, featured lovingly throughout ''Elephant Parts''. His Monkees days also saw him with legendary, dense sideburns.

* PepTalkSong: "Keep On"

* BerserkButton: Don freakin' Kirschner. His releasing ''More of The Monkees'' without even consulting the band got Nesmith so pissed off he punched a hole through a hotel wall, letting him know "that could have been [his] face." Tellingly, Nesmith got to produce sessions himself not long after.

* NeoClassicalPunkZydecoRockabilly: His 1968 album ''The Wichita Train Whistle Sings" is not only all-instrumental, but an oddball mix of big band, soft rock and country.

* {{Instrumentals}}: He recorded an album of country instrumentals, ''The Wichita Train Whistle Sings'', while still a Monkee. Subsequently, his solo career had a few here and there.

* BornLucky: The narrator of "The Grand Ennui".

--> "I was once criticized for writing a song with the word 'impelled' in it. C'mon, man! What he didn't know was that I have written songs with words like 'bereft', 'preclude' and 'prism'." [[note]]He's actually written ''two'' songs with "prism" ("Daily Nightly" and "Joanne"). [[/note]].

* ''And the Hits Just Keep On Comin''' (1972)

* {{Cloudcuckoolander}}: Yeah, no other mind could birth the insanity that is ''Elephant Parts''. Also, his Facebook profile regularly features messages ostensibly written by his dog, Dale.

* CoverVersion: Three Nashville standards were recorded for each installment of his trilogy with the First National Band: "The One Rose (That's Left in My Heart)", "I Fall to Pieces", and "Tumbling Tumbleweeds".

* LargeHam: A kind of understated, restrained kind, but when he goes all out... oh boy!
* LongTitle: For several albums-''And the Hits Just Keep on Comin''', ''Pretty Much Your Standard Ranch Stash'', ''From a Radio Engine to the Photon Wing'', ''Infinite Rider on the Big Dogma''.

* NewSoundAlbum: The 1976 release of ''From a Radio Engine to a Photon Wing'' (in case the name didn't clue you in) marked the beginning of Nesmith's new style of experimental pop with a finger on the pulse of popular consciousness. No country to be found in here.

* NonAppearingTitle: Nez was ''very'' fond of these.
* NonindicativeName: ''And the Hits Just Keep On Comin'''. Ironically, one of the songs on the album -- his own version of "Different Drum" -- was a hit... for Linda Ronstadt, that is.

* PopStarComposer: For ''Timerider'', albeit being his own creation.
* RearrangeTheSong: His [=70s=] albums included re-recordings of several songs originally recorded as Monkees tracks (though most had not been previously released as such)...

** "Some of Shelley's Blues" on ''Pretty Much Your Standard Ranch Stash''

* ThreeChordsAndTheTruth: ''And the Hits...'' consists of precious little else than Nez and his guitar, longtime compatriot Red Rhodes on pedal steel, standard country chords and the truth.

* RearrangeTheSong:
** The two later installments of his trilogy included re-recordings of "Listen to the Band" and "Propinquity (I've Just Begun to Care)", originally recorded under The Monkees' name.
** "Circle Sky" was remade for The Monkees' lamentable 1996 reunion album, ''Justus''.

* CreatorCameo: Appears as a race official in ''Timerider'', and his song "Dance" is briefly heard when someone's messing around with Swann's bike... this serves as a plot point as it alerts the bandits to the presence of Swann's "riding machine".

* FaceOfTheBand: It ''is'' Michael Nesmith & The First National Band, after all.

* LongTitle: For several albums-''And The Hits Just Keep on Comin''', ''Pretty Much Your Standard Ranch Stash'', ''From a Radio Engine to The Photon Wing'', ''Infinite Rider on The Big Dogma''.

* PopStarComposer: For ''Film/TimeriderTheAdventureOfLyleSwann'', albeit being his own creation.
* RearrangeTheSong: The two later installments of his trilogy included re-recordings of "Listen to the Band" and "Propinquity (I've Just Begun to Care)", originally recorded under The Monkees' name.

* RunningGag: In ''Elephant Parts''.

* VerbalTic: Has a notable habit of pronouncing "the" as "thee".