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Michael Nesmith brings 50 years worth of music from more than 15 albums to Lorain County Community College's Stocker Arts Center on Thursday, Nov. 14.

(Alexandra Battaglia)

PREVIEW

Michael Nesmith

What:

Music of the Mind Tour

When:

7:30 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 14.

Where:

Lorain County Community College's Stocker Arts Center, 1005 N. Abbe Road, Elyria.

Tickets:

$35 to $85, plus fees, available at the box office, Ticketmaster locations, online at

and by phone at 1-800-745-3000.

CLEVELAND, Ohio -- It's OK to admit it: You LIKE the Monkees. The music is fun and catchy, and those guys on the TV show were just plain cute!

But as we subsequently learned, there was a lot more to the late Davy Jones, Micky Dolenz, Peter Tork and Mike Nesmith than the characters created for a dumb TV show to sponge off the Beatles' popularity.

Jones was a one-time jockey, Dolenz had a long career in showbiz even before the TV gig, and Tork, the son of an economics professor, was a looooong way from the buffoon he played.

Perhaps the one most like his character is Nesmith. The son of the woman who invented the typewriter correction fluid Liquid Paper (she sold the corporation to Gillette in 1979 for $48 million) is just as brooding and intellectual as his TV persona.

For a long while after the show ended, Nesmith had a reputation as a recluse. But the reality is that he was exploring all the media that interested him, from books to film to poetry and, of course, music.

Nesmith, who brings his “Movies of the Mind’’ tour, which focuses on his prolific catalog conceived over a half-century in music, to Lorain County Community College’s Stocker Center on Thursday, Nov. 14, shared some of his views in an email interview.

PD: It may sound like a simple question, but WHY did you become a songwriter? What is there about the medium that lets you express who you are?

MN: A song is more natural to me than straight prose because of the rhyme. Poetry can satisfy to some degree, but the melody and rhythm of a song lifts the poetry up into finer air, and the melody inspires me. I can hum a melody, and it brings the words to mind -- not so much the other way. A song also forces one to be succinct.

PD: There are some who say that even the most fictional songs are somewhat autobiographical in that they reveal something about the author. Given your reputation (real or imagined), do you worry about showing too much of yourself in your music?

MN: No. That's a bridge all writers have to cross. When one writes, there is a de facto decision to share, and there has to be an early comfort with that, otherwise the writing is a journal or a diary. The point of writing is to share and create a reciprocity with the reader/listener/watcher.

PD: Your long career lets you have a unique perspective on music itself, plus you've always been an innovator. What sort of impact do you think technology has had, not just on the industry, but on the production itself? Has the ease of things like Pro Tools and Garage Band homogenized or sterilized music?

MN: I find the technology an overall benefit. As a professional tool, the advantages are wonderful and provide a creative environment that is unprecedented. In the hands of an amateur, it gives a decided lift and sense of possibilities.

PD: You have said that you never really stopped playing, that you just didn't play out as much. Why now? Did Davy Jones' death have any impact on your decision?

MN: David died as we all were discussing the possibility of a Monkees tour. Suddenly, it was just the three of us, and it didn't feel right to withdraw. Then the tour turned out to be a lot of fun and a real arena for expression. This was around the same time I had decided to tour with my catalog of songs I had written, and it all began to fall together in a way that I found myself in the middle of touring both solo and as a performer with the Monkees. It was such a positive experience I have wanted to keep at it. Solo touring is a fertile ground for new music and ideas. It's all been good.

PD: We all know the Rolling Stone quote about your post-Monkees music being "the best music you never heard.'' Which song, either from your solo career or with First National Band, gives the best picture of the real Michael Nesmith and why?

MN: I'm not sure. I have long abandoned self-examination through my songs. That's a bit like self-examination through one's children. Its not the best place to find out who you are. I think it is true that the writings reveal the real person and point out their deeper spiritual sense -- their ideas of moral courage and so forth. But it has never proved helpful for me to go over those works to discover myself. I find that in my own heart in a secret place.

PD: In a way, you're kind of like the child actors who've spent decades trying to overcome the public perception of them as perpetual 8-year-olds. How hard has it been to convince people – both in the industry and the public itself – that you're not the guy in the toboggan anymore?

MN: I have no wish to change the perception. People who are startled at the passage of time and the fact I am a mature man still seem to enjoy the songs and the way they are played. People who have grown with me and followed the writings and records and movies, et al. regularly are comfortable and seem to enjoy watching as the ideas take root, grow and start to yield benefit in their own lives. In every case, it is the songs that are eternal and timeless and where the proper focus is placed.

PD: Linda Ronstadt, who recorded your song "Different Drum,'' is nominated for the Rock Hall this year. Some detractors say that since she's best known for covers like "Blue Bayou'' and "That'll Be the Day,'' she's not really Hall-worthy. What say you? And, since this IS the home of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, should the Monkees be considered?

MN: The HOF is a private enterprise, and I respect the right of a business person to make certain decisions unilaterally about their own business. So I have no agenda for the HOF. If it were a public institution, then it would be different, but since it isn't, I feel fine about it. The HOF owners, staff and members have a right to populate their museum with those they choose and enjoy. That's fair enough for me.

PD: You've been involved with music, writing and video. Which is your favorite medium and why?

MN: Right now I am exploring the possibilities of the Internet and Virtual Worlds. There is real depth there, and I find it just the right place to build a cultural hearth fire.