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| kackleya at (no spam) yahoo.com... |
 Posted: Sat Jul 11, 2009 7:39 am |
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My first time posting here. I've never heard any of Michael Nesmith's
solo albums and I noticed at Amazon that there are a few releases of
his early albums, Magnetic South and the second, which I can't recall
now. There are also varying opinions as to the sound quality. I'd
like opinions as to which release is best, essentially where I should
start.
Thank you...
Alan |
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| TonyP... |
| Posted: Sun Jul 12, 2009 3:24 am |
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"kackleya at (no spam) yahoo.com" <akackley at (no spam) live.com> wrote in message
news:1b9532fd-f619-4da6-be3e-99f64c710aa0 at (no spam) h8g2000yqm.googlegroups.com...
Quote: My first time posting here. I've never heard any of Michael Nesmith's
solo albums and I noticed at Amazon that there are a few releases of
his early albums, Magnetic South and the second, which I can't recall
now. There are also varying opinions as to the sound quality. I'd
like opinions as to which release is best, essentially where I should
start.
If you don't have any of them, I'd start with the "Complete First National
Band Recordings"
http://www.videoranch.com/Merchant2/merchant.mv?Screen=PROD&Store_Code=VRS&P
roduct_Code=100-009
Or perhaps buy "The Older Stuff" and "The Newer Stuff".
TonyP. |
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| Ron Fowler... |
| Posted: Mon Jul 13, 2009 12:01 am |
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The Older Stuff is a good sampling of Nesmith's early post-Monkees
recordings, but I like the First National Band stuff so much, I really
have to recommend all 3 albums. |
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| TonyP... |
| Posted: Mon Jul 13, 2009 5:35 pm |
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"Ron Fowler" <lonelysummer at (no spam) webtv.net> wrote in message
news:11398-4A5ACDA9-2863 at (no spam) storefull-3112.bay.webtv.net...
Quote: The Older Stuff is a good sampling of Nesmith's early post-Monkees
recordings, but I like the First National Band stuff so much, I really
have to recommend all 3 albums.
I agree, which is why "The Complete First National Band Recordings" is such
a good choice, and great value.
I'd be ordering now if I didn't already have them long ago! :-)
TonyP. |
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| Posted: Mon Jul 13, 2009 7:07 pm |
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Quote: I agree, which is why "The Complete First National Band Recordings" is such
a good choice, and great value.
I'd be ordering now if I didn't already have them long ago! :-)
TonyP.
To this day, I wonder why when it came to reissuing the three FNB
albums, Mike didn't run the side one songs on disc one and side two
songs on disc two? It was claimed back in the day that the songs on
side one of each of the albums represented contemporary times with the
side two songs representing the older western period. I thought that
was kind of an interesting way to look at the songs but maybe in
hindsight, that line of thinking seemed a little pretentious. Taken
together, "Magnetic South" might have been more of the old western
sound than the contemporary sounds. I would've paired that album with
Nez's last RCA effort, "Pretty Much Your Standard Ranch Stash," as
that album didn't sound too contemporary in 1973. "Loose Salute" was a
dramatic leap over the first album while "Nevada Fighter" wasn't much
of an FNB recording at all, given Nesmith having to use session
players to complete the album. But, all in all, Nez's FNB albums, like
most if not all of his recorded work, still holds up, despite the
majority of that work having been recorded over three decadesago. |
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| Ron Fowler... |
| Posted: Wed Jul 15, 2009 12:11 am |
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Mike once said the three albums were a trilogy, with Magnetic South
being mostly country, Loose Salute being half country and half rock, and
Nevada Fighter being mostly rock....or words to that effect. |
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| Dough... |
| Posted: Wed Jul 15, 2009 12:49 pm |
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"kackleya at (no spam) yahoo.com" <akackley at (no spam) live.com> wrote in message
news:1b9532fd-f619-4da6-be3e-99f64c710aa0 at (no spam) h8g2000yqm.googlegroups.com...
Quote: My first time posting here. I've never heard any of Michael Nesmith's
solo albums and I noticed at Amazon that there are a few releases of
his early albums, Magnetic South and the second, which I can't recall
now. There are also varying opinions as to the sound quality. I'd
like opinions as to which release is best, essentially where I should
start.
Thank you...
Alan
My personal favorite is "And The Hits Just Keep On Coming", just Michael and
the late Red Rhoades... bought it the day after seeing him do a solo concert
at my college a good hundred years ago! |
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| Posted: Wed Jul 15, 2009 3:37 pm |
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Quote: My personal favorite is "And The Hits Just Keep On Coming", just Michael and
the late Red Rhoades... bought it the day after seeing him do a solo concert
at my college a good hundred years ago!
ATHJKOC is a good album with Nez doing what Bruce Springsteen would do
later on with "Nebraska." I remember many of the Bruce gushing critics
talking about how no other artist had ever released an album of just
the singer and a guitar, even though Nez's album was in the same
territory. Granted, with the addition of Red's steel guitar and
perhaps what sounds like an understated electric guitar on one of the
songs. My personal fave tune from that album is "The Candidate," a
political song which didn't take sides. Its message is still relevant
today, something which can't be said for other rock tunes with a
political bent. |
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| Tom... |
| Posted: Sun Jul 19, 2009 5:00 pm |
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Also look for Tropical Campfires and Rays. To be honest, any of his
solo albums are great. |
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| Posted: Thu Jul 23, 2009 3:10 pm |
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The first three are great, plus I'm quite partial to Tantamount to
Treason. There are great songs here and there beyond Tantamount, but
to me it gets a bit more spotty beyond 1972. "Newer Stuff" is all
great, though! |
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| Her Majesty... |
| Posted: Fri Jul 24, 2009 8:44 am |
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I recommend "The Older Stuff," "The Prison," & all the National Band
stuff. |
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| Posted: Sat Jul 25, 2009 2:14 pm |
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Quote: The first three are great, plus I'm quite partial to Tantamount to
Treason. �There are great songs here and there beyond Tantamount, but
to me it gets a bit more spotty beyond 1972. �"Newer Stuff" is all
great, though!
There's a lot of energy going on with "Tantamount to Treason, Vol. 1,"
showcasing Mike as more of a rocker in the middle of his country
period. Mike wasn't breaking through as a country performer. The
country music establishment at the time still had an aversion to pop
and rock artists leaving the genres they had made their mark in and
trying for a career in country music once the pop market dried up for
the artist. For "friendly folks," they yanked out their welcome mat
pretty hard and slammed the door in the face of a pop artist. Nez
likely didn'y help his own standing in the country music establishment
because of his being on record as not liking much of it in the first
place. Would he have achieved more success if he ahd stayed more in a
rock vein? I guess that would've depended on if RCA regarded the music
as commercial enough. Frankly, I think Nez's music was commercial
enough but in defense of RCA (something I'm not particularly prone to
doing), perhaps they got some negative feedback from the pop radio
stations about Nez's music being too country and if they tried to
market his recordings to the country stations, maybe the country
stations complained Nez was too rock to be country. RCA should've been
able to have put Nez over as a solo artist but I think the reason they
couldn't was something they did a poor job of in explaining it to Nez. |
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| TonyP... |
| Posted: Tue Jul 28, 2009 2:52 am |
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<catgod29 at (no spam) aol.com> wrote in message
news:f4547fe1-6a88-4a7b-b782-28ddae2c3fcc at (no spam) r36g2000vbn.googlegroups.com...
Quote: There's a lot of energy going on with "Tantamount to Treason, Vol. 1,"
showcasing Mike as more of a rocker in the middle of his country
period. Mike wasn't breaking through as a country performer.
And yet Songs like "Bonaparte's Retreat", "Talking to the Wall", "She Thinks
I still Care", were pure country
Quote: Frankly, I think Nez's music was commercial
enough but in defense of RCA (something I'm not particularly prone to
doing), perhaps they got some negative feedback from the pop radio
stations about Nez's music being too country and if they tried to
market his recordings to the country stations, maybe the country
stations complained Nez was too rock to be country.
Yeah the Eagles were not able to sell Country/Folk/Rock either were they 
Probably just as well they weren't on RCA I guess. However Elvis was big
enough to do Country/Rock there.
Quote: RCA should've been
able to have put Nez over as a solo artist but I think the reason they
couldn't was something they did a poor job of in explaining it to Nez.
I'm sure they explained to Nez what they wanted to sell. What they should
have been doing is explaining to others what Nez was actually recording!
Seems to me so many labels just wanted every artist to have top ten hits and
million seller albums. That is *never* going to happen, and they CAN make
money from slightly lesser selling artists IF they know how. They will never
admit it's their failure rather than the artists though.
TonyP. |
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| Ron Fowler... |
| Posted: Tue Jul 28, 2009 11:40 am |
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Nez was not gonna endear himself to folks in Nashville with song titles
like 'Propinquity", "Carlisle Wheeling", and "The Crippled Lion". Mike's
take on country music was less commercial than what was typically coming
out of Nashville in those days. His more accessible material like
"Joanne" and "Silver Moon" obviously did well, but Nez was never the
type to say "I'm gonna write 10 more songs just like the ones that were
successful". |
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| Posted: Tue Jul 28, 2009 6:00 pm |
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Quote: And yet Songs like "Bonaparte's Retreat", "Talking to the Wall", "She Thinks
I still Care", were pure country
"Talking to the Wall" was more of a pop song than country song,
although Nez's arrangement of the song gave it a slight country
flavor. "Bonaparte's Retreat" was a country (or) western oldie, going
back to the 30s or 40s, I believe. The arrangement was kind of
different, what with parts of the song almost too quiet. Nez's version
of "She Thinks I Still Care" was as good as any version there ever was
of that song, even better than most of the versions that were out
there. I think RCA could've gotten Nez some radio airplay on his take
of that song, although country radio stations still had a preference
in those days for songs three minutes and under. But, even at four
minutes plus, their listeners might've taken a shine to Nez's version
of the song.
Quote: Yeah the Eagles were not able to sell Country/Folk/Rock either were they
Probably just as well they weren't on RCA I guess. However Elvis was big
enough to do Country/Rock there.
Actually, the Eagles had success with their first single and album,
and that success would continue right on up through their break up and
continue on through their reunion, right up to today. It was almsot as
if they could do no wrong. Of course, had they been on RCA or Warners
or Capitol or Columbia, their story might have been radically
different. Being on Asylum was the best label for them, although to
this day, I wonder what David Geffen held against Nez that he didn't
hold against Linda Ronstadt, Jackson Browne or the Eagles? Elektra/
Asylum might've been the perfect label for Nez to develope as a solo
artist but as soon as Geffen got in power there, he didn't want
anything to do with Nez. As for Elvis, he was more than big enough to
do what he wanted to do musically but in the 70s, you could almost
always tell when he was bored to death with the country ballads he was
doing versus the rock and pop songs where he was just animated with
energy.
Quote: I'm sure they explained to Nez what they wanted to sell. What they should
have been doing is explaining to others what Nez was actually recording!
Seems to me so many labels just wanted every artist to have top ten hits and
million seller albums. That is *never* going to happen, and they CAN make
money from slightly lesser selling artists IF they know how. They will never
admit it's their failure rather than the artists though.
You're spot on about what the labels want of every artist. Most people
and even the artists don't get that the record companies are in the
business to make money by the selling of the music. But, their failure
in selling lesser artists isn't because they don't know how, more than
it's a case of not having the money to properly promote every artist
signed to their label. Some of the artists signed to a record label
may only be on the label because someone at their label doesn't expect
them to sell, but likes them enough to sign them to the label. Artists
with no expectation of getting any hits should have their artist
royalty exempt from being used to repay the record company for the
costs associated with the recording, manufacturing and distribution of
their recordings. Those recordings are likely charged off the record
company's taxes, another reason they shouldn't be allowed to stick it
to the artist, but that is never going to happen either. |
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