Infinite Tuesday by Michael Nesmith
Infinite Tuesday by Michael Nesmith
INFINITE TUESDAY is a fun read—but also a bittersweet read. Growing up in the ‘60’s in Los Angeles, I loved listening to the Monkees’ fun tunes, as well as watching their show on TV. To us kids, it never occurred to us that someone else might actually be performing the songs. We just LIKED the Monkees.
Several chapters in INFINITE TUESDAY describe the author’s mixed experience with the band. The show was produced at the “corner of Sunset and Gower, on a soundstage built in the 1930s. Part of the time we were filming, Cary Grant was next door making one of his last films. Sally Field was doing The Flying Nun on another stage.”
Infinite Tuesday by Michael Nesmith
Michael wanted the four to make a more genuine artistic contribution to the band and to the show. He was happy with his modest (by today’s standards) paycheck, but as an artist, he knew he could do more: “I started to think that maybe there would be some further progress in recording an album of us playing and singing our own songs.” He especially disliked being associated with a fake album, which “crossed a line somewhere.”
Michael’s urging that the team actually perform as real musicians did not go over well: “Making our own record was the only idea I ever had for the TV show, and it would prove to be fatal to the whole enterprise.” Headquarters was “the only album the four of us ever made as the Monkees.” Eventually, of course, the four would indeed learn to sing and perform well enough to go on tour. Michael is the first to admit they weren’t really that good—but the live tours were still a fun experience.
Besides the fun look behind the scenes at the TV show, INFINITE TUESDAY tells us some interesting tidbits about the life of Michael Nesmith apart from the Monkees. I had no idea, for example, that the author was really in the U.S. Air Force! (Until everyone figured out he should just leave. He exited with a “General Discharge.”)
