Michael's only appearance on Dave, here promoting "Timerider: The Adventure of Lyle Swann" and showing two clips from "Elephant Parts." Peter Tork’s appearance here: • Peter Tork on Letterma...
What did you do on elephant parts ? Do you remember what that last conversation with him was about ... can you share it with us ? Was he not well before he died ? They said he died peacefully in his sleep ... but then I also heard he died of a heart attack which is not the same thing
So sad to hear Mike passed. He was my favorite Monkee back in the day. In fact, my freshman year is college, I had a wool cap like Mike's and wore it all the time. Thanks Don. As always a very good job.
I'm quite sure I didn't catch this on its first run, but I do believe I saw it rerun in the spring of 1984. My mum drove into town (Los Angeles) to visit, and my three roommates and I told her to ditch the motel and just stay with us in our apartment. So we were up late one of those nights, kind of one of those "I'm too tired to go to bed" things, and Mike Nesmith was a guest on whatever was on the living room telly. We were listening to him (talking about an award he'd won) so attentively that I didn't even remember, for years, whether the host was Johnny Carson or Dave Letterman. That talk show appearance was how I first heard about Bette Nesmith's great invention -- straight from her dear son, not from the Wikipedia.
I remember these videos appearing on HBO as "shorts" before MTV. Mike was the pioneer of music videos, and MTV. But that all falls back on his time and experience with the Monkees. And very much encouragement from the great, Frank Zappa. Thanks, Mike, for all you've done for modern musicians.
What an interesting interview. Dave really adjusted his energy to Mike's. *That* was a real *chat.* Serious stuff. We all gotta go, and Mike Nesmith did some interesting stuff with his time here. Glad to have seen this piece of it.
I always felt that Mike was to the Monkees what George was to the Beatles. The most interesting member, the most complex sounds. I always preferred his songs. Such a loss, such a loss.
Great piece from Letterman! I like David, and Nesmith is an all time favorite of mine! I only wish this segment was longer! If I were the host, I'd have been more enthusiastic and ABSOLUTELY complimented Mike on already 13 years of incredibly great solo music by 1983, and talked about that extensively. And his Monkee-era and solo songwriting. Dave could have mentioned "Rio", heard in one of the "Elephant Parts" clips shown, and its chart success in the U.K.. R.I.P. Mike Nesmith. Thanks for the incredible music and fun.
You may be right on George being the most interesting Beatle. Certainly the deepest thinker. But Paul was the most complex songwriter musically...the true art-rocker of the four.
He absolutely had the best voice in the band. It wasn’t close. But the “poppy” stuff the Monkees cranked out was better suited for Micky and Davy. As a serious musician, I’d bet that Mike had no problem NOT singing those songs.
Michael was a great songwriter I have several albums and they wonderful. I remember watching the tv show as a young boy in the ’70’s and rediscovered the band and Michael’s music in the early ‘90’s and I have been listening ever since. RIP
Couldn't agree more. He had that old-school Southern charm. And he was so talented -- he was only twenty-two when he wrote that beautiful song, "Different Drum," which in itself is about being strange in a good way.
It's interesting how much of what we would call throwaway TV during the 60's lasted so long. The Monkees. Gilligan's Island. Lost In Space. Star Trek. The Beverly Hillbillies. The Munsters. The Addams Family. The Brady Bunch. (It began in 1969) Batman. It just shows how something which we took for granted had a lasting effect on so many people.
Man, I looked for that for years. I went downtown one day to a huge record store we had down there, about 1988 or 1989 or so, and I finally found it. Zoomed home, got on the phone and called up my buddy. I'm like, "Hey, Alan! Come on over!" "Wha' for?" "I've got Elephant Parts!" "... ... ..." The silence on the other end of the line was funnier than anything he could have possibly said. :D
Been watching and listening to Mike a lot the last 2 years as my 3 year old son loves The Monkees, one of his fave bands, & he always points out Mike when he's on vocals. So the news of his passing makes me very sad!
Like everyone else, I was saddened by the news of Nez. What a loss. I saw The Monkees live the summer of '96 at Pine Knob Music Theater just outside of Detroit. Different world then, for sure. A better world. I'll never forget that experience with my dad (I'm 41 now). It feels like everything is crumbling and passing away in the world. But, the memories cannot be taken away. Ah, the good ole days. They just slipped away like sand. If I'd have known they'd one day be considered as such, I wouldn't have been in such a hurry to move on past em'. That's the thing---- when we're presently experiencing what will one day be considered "the good ole days" ----- we're not aware of it. So, we take it for granted (and rush on through to the next chapter of life). Then, inevitably, we find ourselves longing for what was so flippantly overlooked and disregarded. Life is a self-contradicting oxymoronic paradox. But, if you catch it in the right light, while in the right mood---- it's beautiful.
I rented Elephant Parts VHS back in the mid 80's. Already being a Monkee fan, I was interested prior to watching it. There some classic, funny segments of that tape.
Here is an interesting tid bid as well. VHS is capable of producing near CD quality audio. So Mike Nesmith knew what he was doing by releasing his music on HiFi VHS. Far superior to vinyl. This was also before CDs really took off. Mike was a total pioneer in more ways than one and a creative genius.
Don, you are to be commended repeatedly. Your channel is beyond incredible. Many, moving videos, such as this, I've teared up on multiple occasions. Thank you, sir. Subscribed today.
I've watched the Rodanne clip many times and I still laugh, It's fricken hilarious! It's starts at the intro where Michael is desperately trying to keep from laughing! I've watched Time Rider several times thru the years, what a great movie it is and a very creative and unusual storyline!
I dumped TV in 1997, but I forgot just how subtleiy hilarious David Letterman was. Mike was holding his own as well, though I suspect it went over a lot of folks heads...😁
I grew up to them. I was a Huge Beatles fan!! In fact in 67ish I wanted to have my name changed to John. So you never let your friends know you liked them well until the Last train was a anti Vietnam war song so they became cool. But I will say the best Monkee song & one of my all time fav of all songs is You just may be the one! Rip Mike, Peter and Davey...
I actually wore a wool cap in the summer for a while in junior high because of Mike. He was the coolest and funniest Monkee, and his were the best songs. And he had the best, most interesting post Monkees career. He was the George Harrison of the Monkees heh heh.
His greatest contribution. Funny, smart, and satirical. Emilio's deadpan lines and Harry Dean Stanton were great and I often say to myself "Radiation is GOOD for you"! at random appropriate times. Along with Buckeroo Banzai, it is half of a two film genre, IMHO.
Ha! The things you learn on RU-vid! I had never heard of liquid paper and after looking it up... Tippex!!! At least that’s what we call it over here in the U.K.!!! Brilliant... that’s some serious pub trivia right there! “Did you know that the mother of Michael Nesmith from the Monkees invented Tippex?!” Lol
Your early Letterman posts, D.G, show a much more variegated guest booking philosophy than later, when the show became the great late night hit. In the early days it seemed to be about who was simply available (whether or not something needed to be pitched) and who among them might be interesting. Later, it was much more about ratings and marketing. It's only that so many of the greatest segments seem to come from the first 18 months of the show, and then that magic slowly trails off in a different direction.
Timerider was cool & clever for what it was, even at a $1 million budget. Glad that Mike was able to get into movie production as well during his life.
i remember nesmiths nbc special it had a lot of future stars and was very entertaining. He seems very creatively intelligent and a bit impatient with run of the mill stuff but who knows from a brief interview. sorry to see him go. farewell
I always liked his little cameo as a cabbie who picks up Bobcat Goldthwait in Whoopie Goldberg's Burglar (Bob: "You look a little like Elvis...not when he was all fat and on drugs and everything"). RIP
My comment is if it wasn't for Michael Nesmith it would be no monkeys he was my favorite. I actually played the guitar myself and actually had my mom buy me a green beanie with a pom pom and had her so on four white buttons. Later on I became a big fan of Gretsch guitars which is the guitar he most likely was famous for. We miss you Michael
Thanks for another neat video, Don. I have a question and I'm not sure how else to reach you. I saw a clip on your channel featuring a young, disheveled standup comic whose act involved lots of screaming and panicking and such. Do you know who the comedian is or which video he was in? Thanks!
Sounds like Sam Kinison. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-WM6XFmNuTsg.html Or Bob Goldthwait. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-QEmQlfLQtbg.html
Sam Kinison had an unusual life and he was actually a child preacher . His brother has said that when he was holding him as he was passing away that Sam was talking and saying something along the lines of okay I'll come home now ... to someone the brother couldn't see .
I remember watching an interview with Rafelson once and he said that the Monkees were the four least talented people he ever met and I remember being surprised by it at the time but now watching both Peter and Michael on Letterman I have to scratch my head and wonder maybe he had something there, I mean at least from his perspective not mine of course
So, let me get this straight: You watch a video and listen to music at the same time? Hmm...I don't know. You really think people will want to watch this? I mean, listen to it? I mean -- gak, this is so confusing!
Mike was the only member with big family money, he never had to do anything he didnt want to do to make money. I assume most of his business ventures were self funded vanity projects.
They wasn't the case initially. Nez and his mom didn't have a lot of money as he was growing up. But Bette Nesmith's company finally started to turn a profit in 1968 when Nez was on "The Monkees" and earning his own bread. She turned that company into a multinational corporation. Bette sold the company to Gillette for $48 million in the late 70s; Nez reportedly inherited about half on her death in 1980. That did indeed give him some freedom. In his memoir Nez had interesting things to say - pro and con - about inheriting so much money.
@@cherylhulting1301Interesting , thank you for explaining that ... and I figured that since his mom was a single parent and he was born in the 1940s ... and she didn't invent the stuff until the mid-1950s , then I knew he did not grow up with the silver spoon ... he possibly had a good bit of struggling in his early childhood . Do you remember what he said about the negative aspects of inheriting that money ?
@@gardensofthegods I do. The primary thing is that, while the money gave him a lot of freedom and no more worry about bills, Nez was quietly devastated by his mother's loss. He grew up just with her, until she remarried when Nez was in his late teens. They were very close. Bette died from a sudden stroke at age 56, and I think he would have traded the money for more time with his mother. He also talked about the responsibility of managing the money well, which was something he hadn't learned to do well when he had and blew through his first Monkees fortune. There was making sure that people weren't courting friendship just for his money. Lastly, though he didn't go into many details, he said the inheritance came between him and his second wife, and contributed to their eventual divorce.
