‘The Monkees’: Mike Nesmith Once Told a Fan He’d Sing a Song He’d Never Heard of
The Monkees members Micky Dolenz and the late Mike Nesmith answered questions from fans while promoting their live album in 2020. One question triggered the memory of a hilarious fan encounter that ended with Nesmith agreeing to play a song he’d never heard of before.
Mike Nesmith recalled a fans request for ‘Obimbus’
On Live Q&A with Micky and Mike!, a fan asked Dolenz if there was a particular song that Nesmith sings that stands out. Dolenz quickly answered with “Obimbus,” which triggered laughs from others. It also triggered Nesmith’s memory of an encounter he had with a fan years ago, which he gladly shared with fans.
According to the lead singer, a fan approached him before a concert, asking what the band would play. Nesmith asked her what she wanted to hear, to which she replied, “My favorite is ‘Obimbus!’ Are you going to play ‘Obimbus?'”
Despite having no idea what song the fan was referring to, he told her they would probably play it, ending the conversation on a positive note. After the fan walked away, however, Nesmith turned to the person he was with and laughed at the encounter. It didn’t occur to him until he looked at the setlist during the show that the fan was referring to “You Just May Be the One” and misunderstood the song’s lyrics, “All men must.”
The fan wasn’t too far off, though. If you listen to the song again, it’s easy to see why the fan thought the band sang “Obimbus.”
Mike Nesmith couldn’t write pop songs
Nesmith was always open about television producers asking him to write pop songs for The Monkees, which aired between 1966 and 1968. In a 2013 interview with Guitar World, he elaborated on why the pop community made him so uncomfortable.
“When I got on the show, the pop community was strange to me, and, by and large, didn’t respond well to my songwriting or singing,” he explained.
“The show didn’t do anything to help that. I was always outside the main effort of the show’s music. I would’ve liked to have been more accepted as a pop songwriter, but there was little I could do about it since I didn’t know how to write a pop song.”
Despite his lack of confidence, Nesmith managed to write songs like “Sweet Young Thing,” which combined country and pop. For the band’s third album, Headquarters, they contributed more to the instrumentals and writing, which gave Nesmith some freedom. It resulted in some of the band’s biggest hits, including “You Told Me,” “Shades of Gray,” and “You Just May Be the One.”
Mike Nesmith had a change of heart in the end
In Nesmith’s final interview before his death, he had a renewed appreciation for the songs he wrote for The Monkees. Perhaps he knew he was close to the end of his life, which put things in a new perspective. Rolling Stone sat down with Nesmith in October of 2021, describing the musician as “gaunt and pale, unable to stand for more than a minute or two at a time.”
When asked about once comparing The Monkees catalog to “music television,” it was clear Nesmith no longer felt that way. “People unjustly kicked us in the nuts over and over because they thought of it as vapid or whatever word you want to use there to indicate no artistic return,” he explained.
He then told a story about recently realizing where the inspiration for “Last Train to Clarksville” came from.
“I started off listening to my great aunt’s record collection. One record she had was the Mills Brothers’ ‘Till Then.’ The lyrics go, ‘Someday I know I’ll be back again/Please wait till then.’ It recently dawned on me that it was ‘Last Train to Clarksville:’ ‘And I don’t know if I’m ever coming home …'”
Nesmith got emotional at this point of the interview reciting the song’s lyrics. “When I start to sing it, I get deep with emotion and all choked up,” he said.
Nesmith died of congestive heart failure on December 10, 2021.
