Total Control: The Monkees Michael Nesmith Story [Paperback]

Randi L. Massingill (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 15, 2005

Total Control: The Monkees Michael Nesmith Story Hey! Hey! Its the untold story of The Monkees "Wool-hat" Michael Nesmith with the behind the scenes scoop about touring with Jimi Hendrix, filmmaking with Jack Nicholson and so much more. Also detailed is his invention of MTV and his mother Bette who invented Liquid Paper. This 2005 Revised edition features two updated chapters and additional photos (176 total photos). 296 pages. ISBN: 0-9658218-4-6 296 pages 5.5 x 8.5 in perfect bound 176 photos Publisher: FLEXquarters.com LLC Publishing Contact: Brad Waddell 702-374-0231 FLEXquarters.com Publishing 2620 S Maryland Pkwy #557 Las Vegas, NV 89109-1692 USA

Product Details

• Paperback: 300 pages
• Publisher: FLEXquarters.com LLC (January 15, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0965821846
• ISBN-13: 978-0965821841
• Product Dimensions: 8.7 x 5.5 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 2.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #507,493 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

36 of 39 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars An opportunity lost, July 16, 2006

By 

Ed Rose "dwwashburn" (toronto, ontario Canada) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Total Control: The Monkees Michael Nesmith Story (Paperback)

Author Randi Massingill commits two cardinal sins with this book. She offers next to NO insight into the man's work, glossing over huge chunks of his career with mundane, trite or insulting comments like (re:Tantamount To Treason)"Most of the songs are too long with unneessary or badly done musical bridges", or (re: Pretty Much...) "...is great to listen to if you are in a bar and you are drinking up a storm...". The musical "observations" of his Monkee years or his Pacific Arts years fare little better. Secondly, you can feel Massingill's antipathy for the man drip off the pages. There's a sarcasm and condescension that mars the already razor thin insight into one of the cornerstones of not just the country rock movement, but of modern North American pop culture. No one digs a fluff piece, but this book smacks of haste, opportunism, and envy. One star for some of the (poorly reproduced) pictures, the little bits on the '97 Monkee reunion tour, and the idea of the book itself. Crapola.

25 of 28 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Informative and interesting, but..., August 19, 2005

By 

R.L. Holly "piper909" (Austin, TX USA) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Total Control: The Monkees Michael Nesmith Story (Paperback)

Randi Massingill's biography on Michael Nesmith -- musician, actor, and visionary -- is the only one available on this seminal figure in pop culture and thus fills a gaping need. While engaging and accurate as far as basic facts go, there is not much in-depth analysis presented and little surrounding context to Nesmith's career and life. His music and filmmaking are not examined in the detail which they cry out for. It's a good book for a biographical overview and some observations from some of Nesmith's associates, but there is little direct input from the subject himself (as Massingill makes clear in her introduction, Nesmith avoided involvement, as did some of his closest compadres). There is, however, much material drawn from archival interviews with the other Monkees and Nesmith's first wife, Phyllis. The manuscript would have benefited from tighter editing. For example, although there are discographies and filmographies in the appendixes, in the main body the author frequently neglects to mention the dates of releases or events being described, making it unclear when important milestones have occurred. Massingill's prose betrays some awkwardness in places: among the clunkers that jumped out to me are sentences such as, "the completed 'Timerider' would sit on the shelf for a while so a distributor could be found," "Michael had several movies lined up for which he was going to serve as executive producer, but after time they vanished from the scene," "Michael's appearance would insure [sic] that they would get some publicity," and "it was astounding to the completest [sic] Nesmith collectors". And the presentation could stand some improvement. Don't let go of your first (1997) edition; many photographs have been changed, the text has been entirely reformatted, but most hurtfully, the reproduction quality of the pictures is substandard. The first, offset-printed edition offered acceptable image reproduction, but in this print-on-demand edition the images are sometimes grainy or indistinct, looking like photocopies of newspaper clippings. Possibly this can be addressed in the future as printing technology improves.

16 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars The real Nez isn't in this book, January 13, 2009

By 

AB "AB" (New York, NY) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Total Control: The Monkees Michael Nesmith Story (Paperback)

I first read this book back when I first became a Monkees/Michael Nesmith fan and didn't really know a lot about the man. Naturally, I liked the book. Now, years later, I picked up the book with much more knowledge and it's staggering how terribly it's written and how disrespectful it is to Michael. Also, this woman needs to hire a fact checker. There are a few extremely obvious glitches in timelines that she overlooks, and she barely glosses over other important events in Nez's life. Rumor has it that Massingill contacted Nez and wanted his input and initially he was going to help her out, but he asked her to wait because he wanted to finish a few other projects first. And she ignored his wishes and just charged on. In addition, she used some materials (photos, etc.) that Michael expressly did NOT want included. Obviously, he's not too fond of this project.

Basically, I think it says enough when Michael Nesmith himself doesn't even approve of this book or its author. Don't waste your money!