Grave Laughs: Halloween's Comic Side

 IT'S THAT TIME OF YEAR
While driving through a neighborhood near here 
my attention was captured by this home that turned
it's front yard into a graveyard. Seeing this first
grave marker (R.I.P. I'M A Goner) prompted me
to drive around the block, stop and take photos.

This next one is pretty scary. 

Well, do be careful out there tonight. 

HAPPY HALLOWEEN

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Remembering Michael Nesmith: Memories and Trivia

The Monkees. Michael Nesmith lower right.

The beginning of the end for any countercultural movement is when it has been co-opted by pop culture and commercialized. 

The Beats of the 50's eventually became Maynard G. Krebs of the TV sitcom The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis. The "radical" rock music of the British Invasion quickly spawned another TV sitcom called The Monkees, Hollywood's version of the "Fab Four." The show aired from 1966 to 1968 but their music continued, and like the breakup of The Beatles, the Monkees' Davy Jones, Peter Tork and Mickey Dolenz continued to have individual careers long after their sun on the glass onion. 

This past week the world learned that Mike Nesmith, a singer/songwriter in his own write, passed away. 

My memories of the Monkees sitcom was that it seemed juveniles and hokey, but even if you got that impression you pretty much had to agree they recorded a number of catchy pop tunes. When I'd become a "hippie" my youngest brothers were into their and had their albums. As it turns out the music grew on me to the point where I was reading the album liner notes and saw the name Chuck Berry as one of the songwriters. Other songwriters included Tommy Boyce and Bobby Hart, Carol King, Neil Sedaka and even Neil Diamond. Diamond wrote one of their biggest ("I'm and Believer") as well as the Monkees' first Top 5 hit "A Little Bit Me, A Little Bit You."

In short, even if they were supposed to be un-hip, I liked their music and the songs. I also noticed that Mike Nesmith himself wrote a lot of their songs. 

My next memory was of Mike Nesmith performing at Ohio University, not to a massive audience in the Convocation Center but in a smaller intimate space at Baker Center, the student union. He struck me as unpretentious, unassuming and comfortable in his skin.

If I had been a fan of the show, of the four members of the band he would have been the one I related to. He seemed less silly, more thoughtful. You can see it in the photos that he's the contemplative one. I do not recall watching any episodes of the show so I don't know if that carried through there.

When I think of the Monkees other memories come to mind. One occurred in Southwest Ohio. Sometime in the late 60s while visiting my cousin Gary, we went to a Cincinnati Reds baseball game. Uncle Orval was driving and as we drew near to Cincy there was a line of cars on the highway shoulder that may have been a mile long or more on the exit before ours. We were curious what the big event could have been. Turns out, the Monkees were in town.

Nesmith in 2017 in Parsippany NJ
Photo: Rob DiCaterino (Creative Commons)

Another memory that has always stuck with me was how the Monkees on one of their tours was paired with The Jimi Hendrix Experience as the opening act. Whoever put that show together was not altogether in his right mind. During the Hendrix set all the girls were screaming for Davy Jones. In the middle of the 8th concert a flummoxed Hendrix walked off the stage mid-show.

Here are a few more bits of Michael Nesmith trivia. He was born Robert Michael Nesmith and was an only child. I, too, have always been called by my middle name and my youngest brother is named Robert.

Of greater significance are these items. When Michael was 13, his mother, who had been an executive secretary at a bank, invented Liquid Paper. Over the next 25 years she built this product idea into a multi-million dollar international business which she sold to Gillette for 48 million dollars a few months before she died.

* * * 

There were quite a few articles about Nesmith's passing. Here's the one that first caught my eye:

Michael Nesmith, Monkees singer-songwriter, dies at 78
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/michael-nesmith-monkees-singer-songwriter-dies-78-rcna8395

Thank You, Mary Wilson, You Inspired Us. R.I.P.

As nearly every fan of the Supremes has heard by now, Mary Wilson died in her home in Henderson, Nevada Monday. Music by The Supremes was a big part of my high school soundtrack so I thought I'd add a few comments to the many obituaries that have been written.

They were just teenage girls living in the Detroit projects when Mary and Diana Ross thought it would be fun to start a singing group. Wilson was just 15 at the time. They started a quartet called The Primettes and won an amateur talent show. 

In 1961 they changed their name to The Supremes and did a few gigs around Detroit. In 1962 they did their first gig on the road, opening for Gladys Knight & the Pips in Cleveland. 

Later that year they became part of a tour of Motown artists that included many names that would become famous in that decade: Martha and the Vandellas, the Marvelettes, the Contours, Marvin Gaye, Little Stevie Wonder, the Supremes the Temptations & Sammy Ward. I'm sure that being with these others taught them a lot about the nature of show business. With excellent material work with The Supremes cranked out hit after hit. Their second album contained three number one singles that became million sellers, "Baby Love", "Where Did Our Love Go" and "Come See About Me." And the hits ket coming. 

They worked hard and had an aggressive touring schedule for years. On May 30, 1967, The Supremes brought their show to the Historic Duluth Armory where they wowed the Northland. 

By 1970 they had produced a dozen #1 hits that were listened to and appreciated around the world. In 1988 The Supremes were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

* * * 

While looking thru the list of places The Supremes performed I came across a January 2, 1965 concert at the Packard Music Hall in Warren, Ohio. My grandparents both worked at the Packard Plant in Warren, a branch of General Motors. GM, like many major corporations, no doubt built the music hall as a community service. 

* * * 

Here's a website listing all their shows and locations from the beginning. Perhaps your home town was once a whistle stop on the yellow brick road that was their career, though if you read Mary's autobiography you'll see that the challenges are many and there are plenty of thorns among the roses.

Visit: https://concerts.fandom.com/wiki/The_Supremes 

* * *

Still singing your songs.

Leonard Cohen, R.I.P.

I have two friends who saw him perform within the past year. Both said the concerts were amazing. Even at 82, his emotional performances were three hours in length, and left no one unmoved.

I was introduced to his music in 1970, my first year at Ohio U., by a close friend who had been to Woodstock. When we listened to "Avalanche" together I was floored. This was no ordinary songwriter. Like Dylan, even before he'd become "famous" Cohen was massively influential amongst his peers. His transcendent lyrics found expression in others' mouths in ways that Dylan's song flowed through the hallways and corridors of our age even before we knew him. Check in and see how many different versions of his "Hallelujah" have been performed by other artists.  And then, of course, there is "Suzanne."

The old man had style. You could see it in the fierce angle at which he cocked his fedora, the manner in which he wielded his walking stick, the way he wore his face... and the grit in his voice.

Cohen was a Canadian who became part of the New York music scene -- like Neil Young, like the Hawks (who became Dylan's backing band when he went electric), like Gordon Lightfoot, Joni Mitchell and other familiar names and voices of the era, songwriters all. Must be something in the water, or perhaps the bitter winters.

This obit begins by citing a pair of labels he's been called: "the high priest of pathos" and the "godfather of gloom" Expectingrain.com today lists no less than 25 links to obituaries and articles by publications and writers offering last respects, acknowledging his influence and significance. Perhaps anticipating his departure this, his latest album release, received a career-honoring overview from The New Yorker: Leonard Cohen Makes It Darker.

This is but a brief acknowledgement that another bird has flown.

* * * *

Read the Rolling Stone obituary: Leonard Cohen Deat At 82.

* * * *
Photo source: Wikipedia

Robin Williams, R.I.P.

It's difficult to wake and learn that another someone who has been part of your life for so many decades has passed away. The reverberations are felt broadly because his countless films have repeatedly touched our lives. Many of these films would not have been the same without his "mad genius."

In the age of instant everything, his imdb.com profile has already been updated. His Wikipedia bio, too. Robin Williams is gone. His creative range was remarkable and he wasn't afraid to try new things.

Good Morning, Viet Nam
Dead Poets Society
Jumanji
Patch Adams
Mrs. Doubtfire
Moscow on the Hudson
Awakenings
Hook
Bicentennial Man
and on and on and on...

What would Aladdin have been without Robin Williams as the Genie?

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He used to say his Hollywood hero was the late Jonathan Winters Perhaps like Winters his mind was just too hyper-active for a normal existence. Both men had the privilege of making a living in a career that enabled their electric-eclectic hyper-energy outbursts to run rampant and become streaming entertainment. But both struggled at times with who they were. Williams was open about his struggles with mood-swings and depression.

But Robin Williams was not all comic. He gave us serious and challenging performances that connected. It's hard to believe his role as John Keating in Dead Poets Society was already 25 years ago. This passage spoke volumes to me:

We don't read and write poetry because it's cute. We read and write poetry because we are members of the human race. And the human race is filled with passion. And medicine, law, business, engineering, these are noble pursuits and necessary to sustain life. But poetry, beauty, romance, love, these are what we stay alive for. To quote from Whitman, "O me! O life!... of the questions of these recurring; of the endless trains of the faithless... of cities filled with the foolish; what good amid these, O me, O life?" Answer. That you are here - that life exists, and identity; that the powerful play goes on and you may contribute a verse. That the powerful play *goes on* and you may contribute a verse. What will your verse be?

And this line was delivered with equal eloquence.

No matter what anybody tells you, words and ideas can change the world.

My kids grew up on many of these films. There's no question this was a normal experience for Gen-Y... growing up with Robin Williams as a part of the family experience. In some ways when a person like this passes, it is a family loss. I anticipate talking with my daughter about this as we watched Bicentennial Man together on more than one occasion. As the ever-living robot who is destined never to die, Andrew Martin asks (after the death of Little Miss), "Will every human being that I care for just... leave?"

Yes, we all must leave one day. That's part of the human experience. So is having one's heart broken.

In 2000 I wrote a journal note about Good Will Hunting titled "Heartbreaking Beauty."  Life is complicated because we're complicated. In the midst of all our challenges we try to give back something good. Robin Williams gave us some of that.... moments of forgetfulness where we laughed and forgot our troubles.... or moments we never forgot because they left an impression on our hearts and memories.

May the broken wings of his loved ones find healing, comfort and hope through the outpouring that washes their way in the days and weeks ahead.

Photo by celebrity photographer Eva Rinaldi, used by agreement with Creative Commons and does not imply an endorsement of this blog by the photographer.