Mike Nesmith Dies

 Here is the report from Rolling Stone, including:

“With infinite love we announce that Michael Nesmith has passed away this morning in his home, surrounded by family, peacefully and of natural causes,” his family said in a statement. “We ask that you respect our privacy at this time and we thank you for the love and light that all of you have shown him and us.”

Nesmith was known as the Monkee in the green wool hat with the thick Texas drawl, and the writer of songs like “Mary, Mary,” “Circle Sky,” “Listen to the Band,” and “The Girl I Knew Somewhere.” But he raged behind the scenes that the group didn’t have creative control of its albums, and in 1967 led the successful rebellion against record producer Don Kirshner. The group would subsequently release Headquarters and other albums created largely on its own.

I think I knew The Monkees before I knew of The Beatles. I was in kindergarten, I think, when I first saw the show. We were living in Anderson, on Cross Street, and everything seems now a better time. The Monkees are a marker of that time.

All the same, I prefer thinking of Nesmith as Cruisin. Which also reminds me of a time when there was still a chance at better opportunities.

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