Texas native Nesmith didn’t get cast as the philosophical Monkee for nothing. Surreal humor of cartoonist Paul Crum as titular inspiration, Nez winds through his life segueing from an enlivening friendship with author Douglas Adams to growing up the only child of a single mom who invented Liquid Paper in hyper-conservative Dallas. The most salient Monkees passages include co-conspiring on the movie Head with Jack Nicholson and the 1968 Nashville sessions that presaged country rock’s ascendancy. Otherwise, the author doesn’t dwell on his pre-fab four and doesn’t need to. His spiritual journey away from and back to Christian Science, and his earnest if not entirely successful attempt to use his fortune to promote thought leadership are more interesting stories. Not to mention laying the groundwork for MTV, producing Repo Man, and winning a $47 million judgment against PBS for fraud. Deeply thought out, Infinite Tuesday adds yet another notch to Michael Nesmith’s Renaissance-like credentials.

Infinite Tuesday: An Autobiographical Riff

by Michael Nesmith
Crown Archetype, 306 pp., $28

This article appears in December 15 • 2017.

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Greg Beets was born in Lubbock on the day Richard Nixon was elected president. He has covered music for the Chronicle since 1992, writing about everyone from Roky Erickson to Yanni. Beets has also written for Billboard,Uncut, Blurt, Elmore, and Pop Culture Press. Before his digestive tract cried uncle, he co-published Hey! Hey! Buffet!, an award-winning fanzine about all-you-can-eat buffets.