Michael Nesmith - 1975-11-30 - Drury Lane, London, UK (R.I.P 1942-2021)

Michael Nesmith

1975-11-30
Live at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, London, UK
Audience recording, very good quality
Mp3 @ 320 kbps

Last month (on December 10, 2021), songwriter-musician-actor-producer-novelist Michael Nesmith died at the age of 78 of heart failure, just a few weeks after finishing a successful 'final' tour with fellow 'Monkee' Micky Dolenz. Of course, Nesmith was best-known as the reluctant member of that infamous '60's TV pop group The Monkees, but he accomplished much more than that, as he was a pioneer in the development of country rock in the early '70's, as well as an innovator in music videos and home video production. Following his time in The Monkees, he spent most of the rest of his career trying to live down that image, before finally coming to embrace the fans and his role as a Monkee in his later years. Already having some success as a singer and songwriter, soon after being cast as 'Mike' for the TV show pop group (1966), Nesmith was frustrated to learn that the band's music was to come from professional songwriters and musicians and not from the band itself, which he began rebelling against almost immediately. Although the producers did put 1 or 2 Nesmith songs on the first couple albums, Nesmith's rebellion eventually succeeded in letting the band play and write most of the music by their third album, Headquarters (1967).  But the band's music turned out to be more successful than anticipated (far more than the TV series, which was cancelled after 2 seasons), producing big hit singles and albums. Although it provided a showcase for some of his songs, Nesmith was never quite comfortable in the band, and by 1970 (and after 8 albums), Nesmith left The Monkees (at great personal expense, as he had to buy back the remaining three years of his contract) to go off on his own. Nesmith then formed The First National Band (which featured pedal steel player Orville 'Red' Rhodes, who would continue play alongside Nesmith throughout his career) to back him up and released a series of strongly country-influenced albums, Magnetic South (1970),  Loose Salute (1970), and Nevada Fighter (1971), which are now considered pioneering achievements in country-rock music. The backing band changed a bit for the next album (billed as the Second National Band, but still featuring Red Rhodes), Tantamount to Treason, Vol.1 (1972), which was a critical and commercial failure. Nesmith followed that with the ironically titled And The Hits Just Keep On Coming (1972), which featured only him and Red Rhodes on guitar and pedal steel. Michael's last album for RCA was Pretty Much Your Standard Ranch Stash (1973). At this time Michael was getting more involved in production, serving as producer for several other artists, and starting his own multimedia company, Pacific Arts, which released most of his subsequent albums, beginning with his unique 'book with a soundtrack', The Prison (1974). Through his Pacific Arts Multimedia company, he pioneered the music video format and home video productions with his award-winning long-form music video Elephant Parts (1981) which mixed together music videos and comedy bits into an hour-long video for home sales. Nesmith also developed the music video show Pop Clips for Nickelodeon TV, which was then sold to Time Warner and became the basis for the MTV Network. To honor Michael, today I have a show from 1975, which followed his string of increasingly unsuccessful RCA albums, and near the start of his ventures with Pacific Arts. This show consists of 2 sets, the first featuring Michael with a full band (including Red Rhodes), and the second with just Mike and his guitar. In addition to a varied selection of Nesmith's music (but notably, no Monkees songs, as he generally did not play them through most of his solo career), the sets feature Michael's abundant dry humor (at the start he claims to be Michael's opening act, followed by many jokes and references to the poor sales of his albums), thus there is quite a bit of talking between songs, but that's all part of the show. In the last half of the second set, Michael presents the story and some of the songs from his 'book with a soundtrack' concept for The Prison, which was his most recent release at this time.  All in all a wonderful show from Michael from this point in his career. I've also added a couple of additional bonus tracks from another show from around this same period.
 

Tracklist:
Set 1 (With Band):
01. Band Introductions
02. Calico Girlfriend
03. Joanne
04. Mama Nantucket
05. Silver Moon
06. Listen To The Band
07. Crippled Lion (instrumental - Red Rhodes)
08. Propinquity
09. Different Drum
10. Roll With The Flow
11. Some of Shelley’s Blues
12. Grand Ennui

Set 2 (Solo):
13. Introduction
14. Harmony Constant
15. One Rose
16. The Other Side of Goodbye
17. Wax Minute
18. Introduction to The Prison
19, Life The Unsuspected Captive
20. Continuing story of The Prison
21. Dance Between the Raindrops
22. Story continues
23. Marie’s Theme
24. Conclusion of The Prison story
25. Lampost

Bonus Tracks (1974-04-28 - Roundhouse, London, UK)
26. Tomorrow and Me
27. The Upside of Goodbye

Band Lineup (1st Set only):
Michael Nesmith - guitar, vocals
Red Rhodes - pedal steel
Steven Leach - guitar
Dave Pegg - bass
Dave Mattacks - drums

Michael Nesmith_1975-11-30_London.rar