Tropical Campfires [Original recording reissued]

Michael Nesmith | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (June 19, 2001)
• Original Release Date: 1992
• Number of Discs: 1
• Format: Original recording reissued
• Label: Cooking Vinyl
• ASIN: B00004WZ6A
• Also Available in: Audio CD  |  Audio Cassette
• Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (15 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #469,610 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Track Listings

1. Yellow Butterfly

2. Laugh Kills Lonesome

3. Moon Over The Rio Grande

4. One...

5. Juliana

6. Brazil

7. In The Still Of The Night

8. Rising In Love

9. Begin The Beguine

10. I Am Not That

11. ...For The Island

12. Twighlight On The Trail

Editorial Reviews

Along with Lindsay Buckingham's Out of the Cradle this album may be one of the finest and most underrated albums of the 1990s. Nesmith and his crack band run through 12 of the most delicious slices of Americana to be put on record in ages. The mood of the album is a cross between Bahamian, Tropical, Country, and other forms, all forging a unique synthesis of pop that might be very hard to match. Nesmith's songs and vocals are wholly original and personal, and tunes such as 'I Am Not That' and 'Laugh Kills Lonesome' bear the indefinable Nesmith stamp of humor with a compact and irresistible force. In addition to the excellent originals, Nesmith and his band cover two classic Cole Porter songs with excellent results. 12 tracks. 2001 reissue.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars I was stunned to learn it was Nesmith., March 6, 2005

By 

Anonymous Reviewer (Pittsburgh, PA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Tropical Campfires (Audio CD)

I am old enough to remember watching the Monkees on Saturday morning TV when they were still touring. I liked their music but wasn't a huge fan.

Flash forward 35 years. I am in an airport killing time in a bookstore when I hear "Begin the Beguine" playing overhead. I am entranced. I ask the manager what CD he is playing and he pulls out a cassette cover of "Tropical Campfires." I am stunned to find out it is Michael Nesmith. I tell him I think this is great stuff and he says that he plays it because people don't know it exists or how good it is. I leave the store and later buy the CD.

I define a 5 star purchase as one that you play over and over again. Then a few years pass and you play it again and it still inspires you and lights up your nerve endings the way it did the first time you heard it. That's what this CD does for me. To be honest, I have to agree with the other reviewer that Nesmith is not a great singer. In fact, the song that grabbed me, "Begin the Beguine," is probably the worst vocal on the whole CD. But there is a paradox here. This is precisely why I love it. Sometimes a popular song leaves you unmoved when the great vocalists sing it. You just don't "get it." Then along come somebody with a new arrangement or vocal interpretation and suddenly it comes alive for you. This is what happened to me with "Begin the Beguine." Nesmith obviously loves this material and sings and performs it with such passion and enthusiasm that it automatically induces joy in the listener. Just like I didn't "get" opera until I heard Andrea Bocelli, (and truth be told, technically he is a second rate tenor). He is no Pavarotti. Had he been trained from youth he might have been first rate. But no matter. It was the imperfections in his voice that made operatic arias real and accessible to me. Pavarotti never moved me, but Bocelli brought heaven to earth for me. After Bocelli I began to appreciate Pavarotti.

I could never identify with Frank Sinatra "beginning to beguine" because he sounded too perfect and loaded with money. But with Nesmith I can put myself into the picture and actually believe that I am in a tropical paradise. He could be any man singing that song. That's what makes it real for me.

My absolute favorite cut is "For the Island," a spiritual anthem if there ever was one. The words are very simple, but I recognize in hearing them that this is how I truly feel about the world and any hope for the future. Joy again.

"Twilight on the Trail" is my epitaph. It so eloquently sums up what I would offer to others as the whole meaning and purpose of my life. I know I sound cornball but these are the feelings the songs on this CD induce in me. If feeling good and having hope and keeping it simple are cornball then so be it. Maybe I'm just an old fart.

This album is quirky, original, a misfit...and absolutely brilliant. For me, it's like finding a real diamond in a showcase loaded with counterfeits.

On first hearing you will either love this CD or hate it. No in-between on this one. And if you decide you hate it after listening to the samples buy it anyway and put it away for...oh...35 years. Then listen again.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Without a doubt . . ., March 20, 2003

By 

Mich (Somewhere in the NE) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Tropical Campfires (Audio CD)

Michael Nesmith continues to astound. It's been a long long time since he was the gangly stork hiding behind his green wool hat and twelve-string. Since the end of the Monkees he's been a country-rock founding father, the innovator (or one of the innovators) of MTV, a grammy winner for his video "Elephant Parts," and throughout has continued to be a consummate songwriter and musician.

His musical tastes and influences are as eccentric and eclectic as he is, moving from folk and pop music to country to experimental, back to rock and roll and now, with "....tropical campfires...." to a mix of sounds with a distinctly Latin flavor.

The album starts with a warm, meandering tune called "Yellow Butterfly"--Nez's vocals are soft and understated; his voice has aged here, but aged well, the youthful power having yielded to a more mature sound, one that sings and speaks with the ease of experience. "Laugh Kills Lonesome" is an upbeat tune that swings with the sound of John Hobbs's agile piano. Nez lends his silky voice to the Cole Porter works "In the Still of the Night" and "Begin the Beguine." The vocals on "Brazil" are amazing--for myself it represents the struggle not to slide to the floor; the man's voice is sexy, no doubt about that.

In short (as I realize I have only covered half the songs), the album offers something for everyone. You won't find any hard rock here, but you will find smooth, rich sound delivered by the soulful voice of the man once referred to (JUST once) as Woolhat.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Half The World Concerned With A Latin-Spiced Masterpiece, June 28, 2002

By 

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

This review is from: Tropical Campfires (Audio CD)

I didn't quite know what to expect from Mike Nesmith's 1992 long-player, but when "Yellow Butterfly" wrapped up, I knew this was going to be his very best solo effort. Hooking up with a brand-new backing band and strikingly effective Dolby stereo, Mike and CMA-winning pedal steel maestro Orville "Red" Rhodes compose and conduct a long-player of often-stunning heart and pull.

For Red Rhodes, it was somewhat courageous to weave into pedal steel again, as previous health problems had seriously curtailed his musical efforts. It would also be something of a last hurrah, as he would pass on some three years after the end of "Tropical Campfire's" sessions

"Yellow Butterfly" is the most contemporary country number of the album. The next number, the Charlie Russell-influenced "Laugh Kills Lonesome," is a humorous Miami Sound Machine-flavored Tex-Mex number, followed by the slow-and-steady ballad "Moon Over The Rio Grande."

"One...." is an instrumental effort, and also a telegraph, for the exact rhythm flows directly into the much-later "....For The Island."

Sandwiched between is the most haunting number of the album, "Juliana." As Mike does not double-track his vocals here, the excellent Micky Dolenz harmony illusion is thus not to be found, but the backing band make up for it with their own harmonies throughout the album, and are at their best with "Juliana."

"I Am Not That" captures the later flavor of SheDaisy (who used Mike's keyboardist John Hobbes on their Whole Shebang CD), but with far greater originality and humor with some very funny wordplay in the verses that also betray some of Mike's 1960s experiences - "I cannot 'Twist and Shout'" and "I am not The Walrus" are obvious '60s references; "I am not the singer, I am not twenty-two" is presumably a more subtle reference to his days with Micky, Peter, and Davy.

The Latin flavor is hardly alien with Mike - it imbued such numbers as Mike Murphy and Owen Castleman's Monkees contribution "What Am I Doin' Hangin' Round?" as well as his own "Loose Salute" composition "Tengo Amore." Here, though, Mike takes the Latin flavor to its logical conclusion. Mike may not be The Walrus, nor The Boss, nor The King and Queen, nor Jack Frost, but he is Mike Nesmith, master of sophisticated compositions, superior vocals, and emotional pull.

So goodbye goodbye, the "I Am" world, goodbye goodbye, so long....