The Summer of Love has begun and psychedelia is in the air. This episode features two songs that were recorded on June 19, 1967 and which reflect the trippiness that defined the moment. Two of the players on these tracks had spent the previous days and nights at the Monterey Pop Festival and somehow still retained enough brain cells to be at the studio 300 miles south the next afternoon, ready to put in a 10 hour day. I’ll trace Peter Tork and Eddie Hoh’s journey from the chaotic and historic final hours of the Festival to the day-long next-day session with Mike and Chip. I’ll give my interpretation of the lyrics of “Daily Nightly” and talk about the Sunset Strip riots that inspired them, as well as Nesmith’s complex relationship to the hippie culture. Then I’ll compare and contrast Barry Mann’s bubblegum psych demo of “Love Is Only Sleeping” with the moody and dreamy Monkees version, talk a bit about 7/4 time and more! This episode is a first in two ways: 1) it features more than one song and 2) it’s the first to feature a song not written by Michael Nesmith. Ok, now that I have this episode out of the way I can start on my taxes. But this came first. I know my priorities. Enjoy. 

A fine addition to the list of pop song "Don't"s...(Don't Bother Me, Don't Let Me Down, Don't Wait For Me, Don't Be Cruel, Don't Worry Baby, Don't Cry No Tears, Don't Ask Me Why, Don't Forget Me, Don't Leave Me, Don't Lie To Me, Don't Make Promises, Don't Stand So Close to Me, Don't Stop Believin', Don't Think Twice...ARRGH! So many restrictions! And that's just off the top of my head..). Anyway..."Don't Call On Me", written by Michael Nesmith and John London in 1964, shares the same first chord, sung note and sung word as "Don't Let the Sun Catch You Crying" (another restriction!), but then becomes its own thing and a glorious thing it is indeed. In this episode I discuss Major 7th chords, bossa nova beats, the quantum leap rock music took in mid-1967, flying Telecasters, Monkee Mania Radio and I even work in a reference to the Apple TV series Severance, because it's the best television show going and you all should be watching it and I can't seem to go an hour without working it into all conversations. This episode features my voice sounding raspy and breathing slightly labored as I just got over my annual February flu. So this episode is unofficially sponsored by Mucinex. Anyway, Enjoy and see you in the Spring! 

I'm starting off 2025 by interrupting the chronological flow of this series, but it's well worth it. This is an interview I conducted in 2022 with bassist David MacKay, whose playing, in my opinion, is as responsible for the sound of late 70's Nez as Red Rhodes' steel was to early 70's Nez. Why did I wait three years to publish this? A timeline might be in order: 
--Spring 2019-No longer with Videoranch but still on good terms with the boss, I interview Nez about The Prison and spend the next months researching and writing about said album, without a specific goal in mind. 
--Fall 2019-Major life change for me, wind goes out of my creative sails. Meanwhile, I start tuning out of all things Nez due to the infighting among his most devoted fans regarding his odd new public persona. 
--Winter 2019/20-I produce and publish the Prison interview as a podcast and begin an almost two year Nez-fast. In the past, his words and music were a salve in painful times, but things felt too weird now. 
--2020/21 - I publish a three part podcast miniseries on The Beach Boys/Grateful Dead 1971 appearance at the Fillmore East and explore other connections between the two biggest California bands. I have a question that I can’t seem to find the answer to and I'm given Dead author/scholar/radio host/mensch David Gans' email and ask him. David Gans replies in a friendly, helpful manner. 
--Nov 2021-I witness Nez's final perfomance/public appearance. 
--Dec 2021-RIP, Nez. I’m still not feeling much like listening to his music but feeling a renewed duty to somehow honor his musical legacy. The Prison feels too depressing so I decide to expand my subject to what happened after The Prison's disappointing failure. 
--Spring 2022- I contact David Gans again to see if he could put me in touch with David MacKay, Nez's wonderful bassist on his stellar 1977-79 work, and husband (of 45 years!) to the Grateful Dead's Donna Godchaux. Gans digs my idea, the connection is made, and after some back and forth, MacKay and I settle on a day in May. 
--May 2022- Zoom Interview conducted with David MacKay, but I have no idea what to do with it and tuck it away. 
--Fall 2023-Andrew Sandoval gets in touch and, unbeknownst to him, our exchange inspires me to start a podcast dedicated to Nez's music. 
--December 2024- after doing one season of Questions But No Answers and feeling pretty good about it, I finally go back and listen to my interview with MacKay and love it! I remembered so little about it that it was like listening to someone else conducting the interview. I decide to turn it into the first episode of 2025. And here we are. Enjoy! 

Happy 2025 to all! Especially to those of you who have been digging QBNA and telling your Nezhead or Nezcurious friends. Who doesn't love an unplanned quickie? Here's a five minute rundown of what I've got planned for 2025. Enjoy. HOWEVER... shortly after recording this I listened to an amazing, eye-opening, heartwarming interview that I conducted in 2022 with a very important, yet seldom mentioned player in the Nez story, particularly in the latter half of the 1970's. Why I've been sitting on this jewel for two and a half years can be explained, but I'll save the story for that episode. Let's just say that after listening to it I decided that I don't wanna wait until I'm covering that era to let y'all hear it. It's too good and I need to get it out there ASAP. So, while the stuff I say in this preview is still what I plan for QBNA in 2025, add to the list a wonderful, special, insightful interview about which I can say no more. See you soon! 

Nesmith sneaks a Byrds-y country rocker about better living through chemistry onto an album marketed to 11 year olds. He also borrows the intro to a Stones song. With Nesmith on 12-string rhythm guitar, Tork on 6-string lead guitar and John London on bass (and Dolenz on drums) I kinda wish this was the touring lineup. Woulda been a more versatile, impressive sounding band with a fuller sound. I meant to riff on this thought but forgot, so I'm leaving it here,   

I'm back! Is anyone still here? Sorry about the longer-than-intended break. Life happens. Also, excuse the fact that I introduce this as Episode 9, disregarding the summer reruns. I'll be taking those down so it's not so confusing. This episode traces the life of one of the best, most concise pop songs Nesmith ever wrote and I think the only song in the Monkees catalog that was released in a session musician version as well as full band version ("Words" and "She Hangs Out" don't count as Micky's not on drums). We'll also hear a great acoustic cover version by a guy one might normally associate with experimental noise rock. And listen at the end for a couple newsy items, like how I'll be playing a gig of Nez covers with the great Mick Lawless (of Monkees Mania Radio) and his band Loose Salute on December 7 in Worcester, MA. I believe it's their farewell show and I'm honored to be the drummer. I finished this episode just as election results were coming in. Sigh. While he was never a political activist, one can do the research and and surmise that Michael Nesmith believed in gender and racial equality and that "we're all brothers under the skin" as he said in his 1968 interview with John Gilliand. He was raised by a poor, single mother who started her own billion dollar company and Nez spent a good bit of his resources championing woman artists and entrepreneurs, keeping his mother's Gihon Foundation alive. Good luck out there. Be nice to each other. 

Two reruns in one day? Well, I didn't wanna leave you hanging. By request, here's part two of my 2016 interview with Andrew Sandoval, conducted before a Monkees show on an insanely hot July day. Here are my original 2016 notes. (The pic is from when I visited his office when I was in LA for the FNB show in Jan 2018). 

Prolific is the new unprolific (at least for now). And so, right on the heels of Part One, I give you Part Two, or the conclusion, of my conversation with Andrew Sandoval. 
More stories, revelations and insights into the life and career of one of the hardest working people in the music industry. I admittedly turn into a bit of a chatty fanboy in this half but pull myself together and stick with (most of) my planned questions. Enjoy.

A devoted listener has been nudging me to repost my two-part interview with Andrew Sandoval from 2016. Here's part one....(I took the accompanying photo later on, Jan 2018 in his offices) 
ORIGINAL NOTES FROM 2016:
Veering away from the regular format, this is part one of a two part interview with producer/engineer/historian/author/singer-songwriter Andrew Sandoval. In 1990, at the age of 17 he wrote the liner notes for and sequenced The Monkees' Missing Links 2 album for Rhino Records. Since then he's produced countless reissues and rarities collections (Big Star, The Kinks, Bee Gees, Turtles, Beach Boys....), was nominated for a Grammy in 2010, has authored two books and countless liner notes and has been Tour Producer for The Monkees since 2011. The Monkees are celebrating their 50th anniversary this year and Andrew has been a huge part of making it a year to remember for Monkees fans, with the critically acclaimed (!!!!) new album, Good Times! as well as a Blu Ray box set of every Monkees episode, plus their film Head and tons of recently unearthed rare stuff. Our chat took place at the Hampton Beach Casino Ballroom (New Hampshire) on the afternoon of July 16, 2016.

Now that summer's almost over, here's the second rerun. "How Insensitive" was written by Antonio Carlos Jobim, but inspired by Chopin. Its English lyrics aren't a translation of its original Portuguese lyrics, but both tell a bleak story of love gone wrong. Besides Michael Nesmith's 1968 country fusion interpretation, we'll also hear versions by Astrud Gilberto, Tony Bennett, Frank Sinatra (with Jobim), Judy Garland, William Shatner (!), Sinead O'Connor (RIP), Iggy Pop and more! 

Overcome with the need to keep my audience engaged I realized that there are a few episodes of my old podcast that I could re-post, which deal with songs that most Nezheads should know well. Without bias, I still say that the Second National Band version is the best version of this heartbreaking song. But that doesn't mean you shouldn't check out all the other versions featured here! Listening to this episode ten years later was a little mindblowing. I was bracing myself for some cringey moments, but I was mostly pleasantly surprised. I am a bit forceful in possibly trying to push Gram Parsons down a peg while waving my Nez freak flag and I've since mellowed in that regard. I hadn't yet become his friend and employee. I'm a Parsons fan too and fully recognize his amazing talent and hate that he couldn't get his life together and deliver on all he promised and live to see how much people still love and are influenced by his work. I think my agenda was to level the playing field and give Nez his due props in country-rock history. I've learned first hand that it's easy to love Parsons while Nez is a more acquired taste. But right around this time, due to his triumphant return to the public eye, there seemed to be a positive re-evaluation of Nez's musical achievements and he always seemed taken aback in the many interviews he gave in his final decade, to hear his work praised after assuming he'd been largely forgotten. This is why the First National Band Redux shows were so triumphant and beautiful. Who knew in 2014 what was going to happen? Crikey, that's a loaded question. Anyway, enjoy!.