Listen to the Band [Import]

Michael Nesmith | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (December 15, 1998)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Format: Import
• Label: Bmg/Camden
• ASIN: B00000JOOI
• In-Print Editions: Audio CD
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (15 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #355,134 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Track Listings

1. Silver Moon

2. Listen To The Band

3. Different Drum

4. Some Of Shelly's Blues

5. Mama Nantucket

6. Harmony Constant

7. Grand Ennui

8. Bonaparte's Retreat

9. I've Just Begun To Care (Propinquity)

10. Land Of The Valley

11. First National Rag

12. The Keys To The Car

13. Two Different Roads

14. Nevada Fighter

15. I Fall To Pieces

16. Rainmaker

17. Calico Girlfriend

18. Nine Times Blue

19. Little Red Rider

20. Conversations

See all 22 tracks on this disc

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

21 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars I missed Joanne...., April 2, 2002

By 

Patrick Earley (Edmond, Oklahoma USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Listen to the Band (Audio CD)

I have to admit, I was never a Michael Nesmith fan. Not because of his music, but because he was always walking around with that darn Monkee on his back, and I never really thought of him as a serious musical artist. Boy was I wrong wrong wrong! The one song from the 70's that I really missed after all these years was Joanne. I just couldn't remember who did it until recently when I found out it was Michael Nesmith. So I bought this compilation cd just for this one song. I know what your thinkin'. This guy shelled out $14.99 for one lousy song? Well...Yeah. And it was worth every penny. This is one of those rare gems of a song that simply never gets old or sounds dated. The big surprise for me though, was the other 21 tracks on this excellent CD. As great a tune as Joanne is, there are some other ones here that are just as moving. Especially "Some Of Shelly's Blues" which is another one of those songs I recognized, but didn't tie to Nesmith. Also the beautiful "Harmony Constant" and of course "Different Drum", which Linda Ronstadt made famous, or I should say made Ronstadt famous. He also does some fabulous country rock with songs like "Silver Moon", "Nevada Fighter", and the very contagious "Mama Nantucket". He throws in a couple very good covers here too with Harry Nillson's "Rainmaker" and the Patsy Cline weeper "I Fall To Pieces". Folks, I can't even begin to to you how good this music is. Think of it as country music without the twang. And did I mention that this guy can sing? The Monkees should have used Big Mike instead of Little Davey to do their singing for them. I've since become a huge Nez fan since getting this cd, having bought his 2 classic albums "And the hits just keep on coming" and "pretty much your standard ranch stash" on a 2 for 1 cd. This one I also highly recommend because these 2 albums have so many good songs that they almost play like a greatest hits package themselves. Michael Nesmith is one of those guys who deserved to get more recognition than he did. Maybe if the Monkees had been the Fab Four instead of the Prefab Four it would have turned out different for Nesmith. This is one of those rare cd's that I can honestly recommend for fans of all musical tastes. It's just great music... Period

17 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Overdue for a reassesment as a classic country great, July 10, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Listen to the Band (Audio CD)

Like the rest of the entertainment industry, country music has been cynical and money-focused since the late 1940s and early 1950s and it is an exceptional man who can successfully parody its flaws at the same time as celebrating it joys - Michael Mesmith's album Listen to the Band contains a number of covers of country classics as well as some stunningly delivered classics of his own. The 22 tracks on the album are a picture of an artist who has always been too honest and humourous an individual to pander to the makers and shakers of the industry and has paid a price in seldom having the support or airplay to develop into a major artist with a string of hit singles or albums of his own, although he has provided classic tracks for others to bring to prominence. In fact, one of the album's flaws is that it fails to include what was finally his most recognised single, Rio, with its off-centre and very early entry into the music video genre. But what it lacks in this single area, it makes up for in hauntingly touching tracks such as Different Drum, Joanne, I Fall to Pieces and Harmony Constant and foot-tapping singalongs like Mama Nantucket, Calico Girlfriend and Little Red Rider. The remainder of the tracks veer from stunningly produced and presented country rock to wry commentaries on the counrty music scene itself to out-and-out respectful covers of songs that are obviously dear to Michael Nesmith's sense of what country music should be, rather than what it has turned into. Michael Nesmith is reported to feel that he is all written out and preferes to concentrate on the visual side of his talen - this is an enormous pity because this album represents a continuous output of top-class material over the course of more than a decade and I, for one, would love to have seen him perform live, having spent ten years trying to track down his back catalogue in the UK without success until Camden Records released this collection in 1997. We can only take comfort in the fact that all of his albums are to be re-released, in one format or another, in the next few years, many of them in a double-format at a reasonable price. Buy them instantly because, once the musicianship and lyrics get into your head, you'll want to play them again and again and again. Mike Nesmith, you are one of my top three recording artists of all time.

19 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars With Or Without The Monkees, Michael Nesmith Shows The Way, September 23, 1999

By 

Michael Daly "Monkeesfan" (Wakefield, MA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Listen to the Band (Audio CD)

Even after some 35 years of records, music/TV production, and so forth, Mike Nesmith is still best known for his superb work with The Monkees. He captures some of the flavor of his Monkees work in this compilation of some of his best songs from his early post-Monkees solo career.

A number of the songs on this CD were also demoed or recorded during The Monkees, notably Listen To The Band, Some Of Shelley's Blues, I've Just Begun To Care - aka Propinquity - Nine Times Blue-Little Red Rider, and Hollywood. Also included is Mike's version of the 1967 hit he penned for Linda Ronstadt, Different Drum. Mike includes some impressive extra verses in his version. Combined with his slower pace, it is a longer song than Ronstadt's take.

At times I got the feeling that you can take Mike Nesmith away from The Monkees, but you can't quite take The Monkees out of Mike. Mike often double-tracks his songs, and the harmony effect often sounds like he's still dueting with Micky Dolenz. This is especially true in Nine Times Blue and the beautifully haunting Lady Of The Valley - the Micky-Dolenz-as-backup-singer illusion adds nicely to the song.

Of course Mike puts his own stamp down as well, in such numbers as Nevada Fighter and Joanne, and his cover of Patsy Cline's classic I Fall To Pieces.

Mike's music is often referred to as the genesis of later country-rock, some critics saying Mike covers territory later mined by such groups as The Eagles and managing to outdo them. It stands in glaring contrast to the more insipid country-rock of such modern day stars as Shania Twain. Nesmith shows greater maturity and conveys emotion at the time of his latter-20s far better than most contemporary Nashville stars.

Nashville ought to Listen To The Band, for Michael Nesmith still shows them all.