Michael Nesmith – guitarist and songwriter for the Monkees – passed away last Friday, December 10, at the age of 78.
An underrated, deeply eclectic songwriter, Nesmith was the driving force in transforming the Monkees from a controlled-from-a-boardroom band that didn't play their own instruments, never mind write their own material, to a group that controlled their own destiny and artistic choices.
Though an on-again, off-again participant in the Monkees' scattered studio and onstage reunions from 1986-2012 (the band broke up originally in 1970), Nesmith re-teamed with surviving members Micky Dolenz and Peter Tork to tour as The Monkees following the death of Monkees member Davy Jones in 2012.
Nesmith and Dolenz – before and after Tork's death in 2019 – toured as The Monkees Present: The Mike and Micky Show, playing their final show just a month ago, on November 14, at the Greek Theatre in Los Angeles.
You can watch fan-filmed footage of the set-closing, four-song encore from that evening's performance below.
As he did on the Monkees' original, 1966 recording of the tune, Dolenz handled the vocals for "(I'm Not Your) Steppin' Stone" a Paul Revere & the Raiders song the Monkees took to #20 on the Hot 100. The song would later become an unlikely garage-punk standard, with anti-establishment luminaries such as the Sex Pistols and Minor Threat recording covers of the tune.
Nesmith returned to the stage to assist Dolenz with "Daydream Believer," a song the band topped the charts with in 1967, and turned in a gutsy lead vocal for "Listen to the Band," a minor hit he wrote and sang for the band in 1969.
Appropriately, the Monkees ended the final set of their career with "I'm a Believer," the Neil Diamond tune that shot the band to superstardom, and remains a ubiquitous pop standard to this day.
"Stay safe," a gracious Nesmith told the audience at the song's conclusion. "God bless all of you."
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