Mike Nesmith Said This Tune Was One of The Monkees Most Enduring Songs
The Monkees‘ Mike Nesmith, Davy Jones, Micky Dolenz, and Peter Tork created some of the band’s most beloved music. Although all were technically not fully involved in the songwriting aspect of their careers until their third album, Headquarters, the band members contributed vocally and, in Nesmith’s case, as a songwriter for their two earlier releases. However, Nesmith said that one of The Monkees’ tunes was the most enduring. Ironically, it came at the end of The Monkees’ television run.
One month after ‘The Monkees’ TV show aired, the cast had its first number-one record
The Monkees were initially hired as actors to play a struggling rock band. The series linked the onscreen personas of Nesmith, Dolenz, Jones, and Tork to music, making for an enhanced viewer experience.
However, producers likely never expected the explosion of interest in the music of The Monkees along with increased viewership. The series music supervisor Don Kirshner, whose Brill Building firm Aldon Music had an extensive portfolio of songwriters. These talented individuals were brought together to create some of the band’s most enduring hits. These songwriters included Carole Bayer Sager, Neil Sedaka, Neil Diamond, Gerry Goffin, Carole King, Barry Mann, Harry Nilsson, and Cynthia Weil.
One month after The Monkees aired, they had their first U.S. number one with the song “Last Train to Clarksville.”
Mike Nesmith once said this Monkees tune was one of their most enduring songs
Throughout two seasons of The Monkees, the group’s musical legacy encompassed five albums and dozens of songs. However, there was one song that Nesmith once said was their most enduring.
In a story published by The Monkees Live Almanac (via Melody Maker) in June 1997, Nesmith spoke about the song “Listen to the Band.” He said it was one of the band’s most enduring tunes.
“Listen to the Band” was first heard in a live performance on the Monkees’ television special 33 1/3 Revolutions Per Monkee. The song is on the Monkees’ album The Monkees Present, released after Tork departed from the group.
“We were off the air, and it was right at the end of everything when I delivered that record. Everyone said, ‘No, that is not a Monkees song. This won’t work,'” he explained.
“But, much to my satisfaction, it’s proved to be one of our most enduring songs. I think I was able to get everything I wanted to say about The Monkees into it. And I love the way the music recurs, the way it rolls around on itself again so it can be played over and over and over.”
He explained the thought process behind penning this now-iconic Monkees tune
Nesmith told Melody Maker that “Listen to the Band” crystallized everything he felt at the time about the music business and being a member of The Monkees. Nesmith wrote the song during his recording sessions at RCA Nashville.
“Well, it says, ‘Plays a song, and no one listens.’ That phrase says it, and it’s able to crystallize, still, everything I was feeling at that time,” he shared.
“It’s ‘He plays a song, and no one listens, I need help, I’m falling again.’ It’s the feeling of falling backward into this thing of nobody getting it,” Nesmith continued. “But it’s also, ‘Play the drums a little bit louder, tell me I can live without her,’ so the only thing that’s going to give me comfort here is what I’m doing. It takes the spirit of the idea and conveys it. That’s what makes me the proudest.”
