By Dave Swanson • March 2, 2017 • Ultimate Classic Rock

Even though Michael Nesmith has bid farewell to his days as part of the Monkees, he’s not slowing down. After giving what he said was his final performance with the group last year, Nesmith took some time to wrap up his autobiography, which will be published on April 18.

Infinite Tuesday: An Autobiographical Riff tells the story of Nesmith’s life, starting with his childhood in Dallas — where he was raised by a single mother, Bette, who invented Liquid Paper — and moving on to the set of The Monkees in Los Angeles, where he became a star with his three young bandmates.

Along the way, Nesmith became a pioneering force in the fields of music video and virtual reality. Infinite Tuesday will covers those subjects too.

To accompany the book, Rhino will release a companion album four days earlier on April 14 with the slightly modified title, Infinite Tuesday: Autobiographical Riffs. The compilation which will include 14 tracks from Nesmith’s career, starting with his first recording, “The New Recruit,” which he made under the name Michael Blessing.

The selections run all the way up through the mid-’00s, and feature solo tracks, songs recorded with the Monkees, cuts by his country-rock group, the First National Band, his 1979 cult hit “Cruisin'” and a solo take on “Different Drum,” a song he wrote that became Linda Ronstadt‘s breakout single with the Stone Poneys. Infinite Tuesday: An Autobiographical Riff will be available in physical and digital formats.

Michael Nesmith, ‘Infinite Tuesday: Autobiographical Riffs’ Track Listing
1. “The New Recruit” – Michael Blessing
2. “Papa Gene’s Blues” – The Monkees
3. “Different Drum”
4. “The Girl I Knew Somewhere” – First Recorded Version/Stereo Remix
5. “Listen To The Band” – Single Version
6. “Joanne”
7. “Silver Moon”
8. “Some Of Shelly’s Blues”
9. “Opening Theme – Life, The Unsuspecting Captive”
10. “Rio”
11. “Cruisin'”
12. “Light”
13. “Laugh Kills Lonesome”
14. “Rays”

Michael Nesmith On 'Infinite Tuesday' And Touring With Hendrix
by Peter Breslow & Lulu Garcia-Navarro | April 16, 2017 | NPR Music

In the mid-1960s, Michael Nesmith was writing songs and working the Los Angeles club scene when someone showed him an ad: A new TV show was looking for people to audition. He did — and the next thing he knew, he was a Monkee.

But Nesmith's career has extended well beyond the as-seen-on-TV band. In his new memoir, Infinite Tuesday, he recalls forming his own group, creating one of the first music videos, writing novels and becoming friends with the likes of John Lennon and Jimi Hendrix. At one point, during the summer of 1967, Hendrix even opened for The Monkees on tour — but it didn't last long.

"We were playing to 10 and 12,000 14-year-old girls," Nesmith recalls. "And so when [Hendrix] walked on stage, it was an absolute anomaly. When he started playing 'Foxy Lady,' they were saying, 'We want Davy, we want Davy!' He could really only take a little bit of that, and after about eight or 10 concerts he finally walked off the stage and said, 'Look, I can't do this anymore.'"

Perhaps even stranger than the touring combination of Hendrix and The Monkees was the story of how that bill came to be.

"We'd all gone out to dinner one time, John [Lennon] was late," Nesmith says. "He came in at a point and he said, 'Sorry I'm late, but I was in a club and I heard this guy and I recorded it. You just have to listen to this.' And he pulled out a little tape recorder, put it on the table and played 'Foxy Lady,' that Jimi was playing live at that club.

"And the table went silent, we were speechless. So when I got back to the hotel I said, 'Strangest thing happened, John came with this tape of Jimi Hendrix,' and Micky [Dolenz] said, 'Oh, I saw him at a club and I asked him if he'll come and open for us!' Thus begins one of the great pop ironies of our time."

Listen to more of Nesmith's conversation with NPR's Lulu Garcia-Navarro, including the story of how his mother invented correction fluid — yes, Liquid Paper — at the audio link.