Matthew Flinders Girls High, Geelong, 1977
For a brief period in the late 1970s, a local high school hall was a concert venue. For Marcia Hines, for Michael Nesmith. Maybe a few others too.
The former Monkee had played rather grander venues, but he seemed pretty comfortable up there on the graduation stage. I was just a few rows from the front. Stage right, near the guitarist, Al Perkins.
Perkins spent one song (maybe a slowed -down version of Shelly’s Blues) fiddling with his amp, adjusting things, trying to work things out. At the end of the song Perkins nodded to Nesmith. Nesmith turned to the audience: “Well, let’s do that song again, with Al back onboard!”
A novice concert-goer, I thought bands were supposed to be spot-on all the time. No hiccups. No mistakes. No admissions of errors or technical glitches. The relaxed nature of the gig was happily disarming.
Nesmith carried this approach into the concert album he recorded on that tour at The Palais, in Melbourne. In his liner notes he recalls: “After the show we all sat outside in the recording truck and listened back to what we had done. It was better than we had hoped, and worse…some of the things were too awful to let go by. For instance, on the last verse of Shelly’s Blues I sang so terribly off pitch that I couldn’t stand it. And the very last note I sang on that song, just crawled right out of the woodwork. So I re-did that live in a studio so it’s at least listenable…”
The album’s not perfect, but that’s part of its charm. (A critic complained that you could hear the trams rumbling outside along The Esplanade.)
People are not perfect. Musicians are not perfect. Recordings are not perfect.
It’s this humility that drew me to Nesmith. Plus Propinquity, Joanne, Silver Moon, Roll With The Flow, Calico Girlfriend, Different Drum…
Nesmith’s final show was less than a month ago, when he and fellow former Monkee drummer Mickey Dolenz ended a farewell tour at the Greek Theatre in Los Angeles on November 14.
Stereo Story #642
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Vincent Maskell
Vin is founding editor of Stereo Stories and director/MC of Stereo Stories In Concert.
Lovely tribute, Vin.
Nice!
Reckon I knew all the words to Rio once. Unique talent. Nice work Vin.
Excellent share, Vin. I remember vividly my first big arena concert, “your own” Colin Hay, with Men at Work. And when he sang things a bit differently than they were on the albums I thought to myself, “You can DO that?!” And the world of music, particularly live music, opened up for me at that moment. It’s been richer and better ever since. (Subsequently I’ve heard Colin sing those same songs in that “live” manner many times since, and realized perhaps the albums were in fact the one-offs.)
Touching story, Vin. Jealous that you got to see Michael Nesmith in concert. I’d say the trams rumbling give the recording character Haha I always enjoyed the song ‘Joanne’. He will be missed.
Nice one Vin. Love the fact that Nesmith was so at ease and natural up on stage. As opposed to his latter days with the Monkees when he punched a hole in manager Don Kirshner’s hotel room wall and told him ‘that could have been your face’.
You must have revisited the fine print of those liner notes on that Monkees Greatest Hits album by Glenn A Baker. (No-one calls him Glenn Baker, do they?)
I was at the recorded concert at the Palais and it was a real blast! The whole band were very good (especially Perkins) as the LP, which I picked up years later for just $2, attests. Nesmith was very relaxed and funny. One of best gigs ever, and unlike any other!
Thanx for the memories Mike – you were different and made a difference!
RIP