“I wonder if he's gay?” (GIF via GIPHY) RIP Michael Nesmith, the most musically gifted member of the Monkees, who died today at 78.
Just one Monkee left, 76-year-old Micky Dolenz (“hey, hey — he's the Monkee”). Nesmith was behind some of the band's most interesting work, and as a solo artist, when he inherited his mom's Liquid Paper fortune (tens of millions in 1980), he put together the TV special Elephant Parts.
That early music-video Christmas tree led to “Cruisin',” one clip, playing regularly on MTV, and I still remember how jarring it was to see half-naked Sunset Sam and hear about how the girls he was presumably in a three-way pansexual relationship with wondered initially if he might be gay.