| Ladies & gentlemen, Papa Nez.
Nesmith is a name a lot of people don't know that influenced a lot of names that people do know.
Mike invented a lot of things; he invented "Different Drum" (Rondstadt used different pronouns than Mike's own version would years later) and "Mary, Mary" (already a hit for Paul Butterfield before the Monkees recorded it, and later a hit for Run-DMC), he invented the Monkees' rebellion; he invented the country-rock style (albeit with a lot of help from rockabilly); he invented the concept of MTV (the original concept, not the present incarnation), and he was the cause of the invention of Grammys for music videos (Elephant Parts--which has excerpts linked in the Videos Forum--got the very first one).
Without Nez, you have no Eagles, Weird Al is a short-lived novelty act, and Milli Vanilli might have gotten away with their hoax.
I only have Wichita Train Whistle and And the Hits, but both are great albums. Plus, I've heard all of Tropical Campfire's (apostrophe intentional), and a lot of the 1st & 2nd National Band stuff. This of course, is before starting on his vast collection of Monkees songs.
As for Koga's statement, the most well-known solo songs of his (aside from different spins on his Monkees material) are probably "Different Drum", "Joanne", and "Rio", the first being addressed earlier and the last being in Elephant Parts (there's a link to the segment in the Videos Forum).
Michael was always the most financially successful ex-Monkee, partly due to songwriting royalties, partly due to being a strong businessman, partly due to his repeated critcal acclaim, partly due to his multimedia endeavors (he's produced several movies and helped establish PBS Home Video; he's written books, etc.)......and partly due to the fact that his mother invented Liquid Paper and left him an utterly gargantuan inheritance.
And remember, "I'm-a Luigi, number one!" |