Papa Nez Turns 75!

Happy birthday to Michael Nesmith. The cool Monkee was probably my first musical hero. When cable came to my hometown in 1979, the old television series aired on WFLD channel 32 out of Chicago. I watched it every morning that summer. During the school year, the program moved to lunchtime. I would tune in for many years. I lived across the street from my high school, and in my first couple of years there I would come home and have a quick sandwich while watching the band's zany antics on the tube.

Lucky for me I had much of the Monkees' music at my disposal from the get go because my mom had been into them when she was a girl. It would be many more years before I discovered Nesmith's solo albums, and I think that's the way it needed to work out. I imagine I wouldn't have appreciated the twang of his early and mid-'70s output in my youth. I, of course, love it all now. Through the years, I have played quite a bit of Nesmith's work on these pages, but here is one from his solo years that may not have been spun.

"Tanya" was recorded in either 1980 or '81 with the idea it would be included in Nesmith's musical movie 'Video Ranch.' As he says on the liner notes for the 1989 album 'The Newer Stuff', that project never got past the script stage. He did go on to give his official Web site that name. "Tanya" is a pretty song that sounds, well, of its time, but I love it anyway. Kind of has the same feel as some of the songs on Brian Wilson's 1988 solo album, if you know what I mean.

"Tanya"

I would be remiss if I didn't also call to your attention that Davy Jones would have turned 72 today. Take it easy, ladies.

This clip brought back great memories of the WFLD morning lineup when I was a kid.