1970 Magnetic South Calico Girlfriend Nine Times Blue Little Red Rider The Crippled Lion Joanne First National Rag Mama Nantucket Keys to the Car Hollywood One Rose Beyond the Blue Horizon Non-album tracks Smoke! Smoke! Smoke! Rose City Chimes Loose Salute Silver Moon I Fall to Pieces Thank for the Ride Dedicated Friend Conversations Tengo Amore Listen to the Band Bye, Bye, Bye Lady of the Valley Hello Lady Non-album track 1st National Dance
Today’s song is Calico Girlfriend: I couldn’t find a solo studio version on Youtube, so I had to link to a recent live performance. We are primarily discussing the Magnetic South version, however. A fine way to start Mike’s solo career proper and I think the song works better here than it had as a samba. The quality of the musicians he was working with is immediately apparent and Red Rhodes naturally shines. A breezy and energetic album opener. 4.5/5.
Finally, back to material I know and can comment on! Woo-hoo! "Calico Girlfriend" - Great song, terrific album opener and a super shot across the bow announcing Nesmith's real solo career. The First National Band were an awesome backing group for him. All in all a high 4/5 from me.
Calico Girlfriend - At last we properly launch into Nesmith’s 70’s post-Monkees solo material. And what a great way to begin! Nez pulls no punches, he’s finally free to do the kind of music he’s been wanting to do. The First National Band is great, especially the amazing Red Rhodes who takes ‘Calico Girlfriend’ and every song on ‘Magnetic South’ to a whole new level. It’s fascinating to note the parallels between ‘Magnetic South’ and The Monkees last Album ‘Changes’ to the Beatles ‘Let It Be’ and the first ‘McCartney’ album, as they all were released pretty much around the same time. (I’ll save that discussion when we talk about ‘Magnetic South’ in whole). My rating for ‘Calico Girlfriend’ - 4/5.
Calico Girlfriend - 4.5/5 This is one of my favorites from Nez. Just a great, fun song. I prefer the Monkees-era arrangement one slightly over this one, even so this one with Red Rhodes on the steel pedal guitar is enjoyable. So many of these tracks feel ethereal to me. The first 4 Mike solo albums (FNB/SNB) are among my favorites for Mike's solo output.
"Calico Girlfriend" -- 5/5 Great start to the album. Red really shines here, and to my ear, this is the way to arrange this song.
While Calico Girlfriend on Magnetic South is a great tune, my favorite will always be from Live at the Palais. An LP which delivers 5 after 5 for me. This version I do like a bit better than the Monkees era track as I always (as many people do) enjoy Red Rhodes' efforts. I will give this a solid 4.
“Calico” is nothing short of 5/5. Great arrangement, vocal, and Red Rhodes takes this to another dimension entirely. “cosmic partners” indeed! FYI, for those wondering what the hell “Calico” means in the first place (from Wikipedia): Calico (/ˈkælɪkoʊ/; in British usage since 1505)[1] is a plain-woven textile made from unbleached and often not fully processed cotton. It may contain unseparated husk parts, for example. The fabric is far less fine than muslin, but less coarse and thick than canvas or denim, but it is still very cheap owing to its unfinished and undyed appearance. The fabric was originally from the city of Calicut in southwestern India. It was made by the traditional weavers called cāliyans. The raw fabric was dyed and printed in bright hues, and calico prints became popular in Europe. Printed calico was imported into the United States from Lancashire in the 1780s, and here a linguistic separation occurred, while Europe maintained the word calico for the fabric, in the States it was used to refer to the printed design. ******************************* So, there you go... Apart from this song, I’d always associated the term with cats. Also from Wikipedia: These colorful, small-patterned printed fabrics gave rise to the use of the word calico to describe a cat coat color: "calico cat"
...and I’m BACK! Wonderful effort to kick off Nez’s post Monkee career. Like George Harrison, he had a backlog of material that either wasn’t right for the group or there just wasn’t enough room. Calico Girlfriend is a little of both. I don’t see this one as ever having been a serious contender for a Monkees LP and it’s all the better for it as the new arrangement and the inclusion of Red Rhodes make all the difference. 5/5
Yeah, though ten Nesmith writing credits makes financial sense and he did produce other artists around this time such as Penny Arkade and the Corvettes.
Well, I’m in a bit of a pickle now. There are only a few tracks between Calico Girlfriend and Lampost that I won’t score as a 5. Oh well! Here goes.... Calico Girlfriend - 5/5 More later.
“Palais” is so interesting to me, in that Nez “rocked up” all those earlier songs for that tour. At the time I first heard it (1987 or so?) I liked it more than the FNB sound. My young ears just didn’t fully appreciate the “country” of country-rock the way I do now. I lean more towards the studio stuff now, as Red’s a vital part of the songs IMO, but I still like Palais. Wish Nez liked it more. I think an expanded edition (If the tapes exist — Iain Lee, are you out there?) would be sublime. More when we get to that album.
Seems like it’s just me and you, Guy. The US must be having a lazy morning. Re your Calico post, are you familiar with the silver mining town of Calico? The song was originally part of the Ballad of Calico album that Mike Murphey wrote for Kenny Rogers & the First Edition but this is the keeper from Murph’s debut album. He also does What Am I Doin’ Hangin’ Round on it. If you haven’t heard this album, it’s great.
I spoke to Al Perkins a few times when he toured with Kevin Montgomery. Of course I mentioned Palais and his face lit up. As you say, more later.
I am being lazy too... Spending time here on this forum, all morning, having just finished a Monty Python’s Flying Circus mini-marathon on the IFC channel. Should really get moving, go the gym, do something with this day. I did not know about that mining town! So maybe Nez’s song refers to that, rather than the (brightly patterned) clothes his girlfriend wears? Will give this a listen. Hearing Murphey’s “What Am I Doing Hangin’ ‘Round” will be a treat. I don’t know Murphey well, beyond what Nez has covered. That, and “Wildfire.” But I’ve tried my best to forget that one. Sorry. Looking forward to hearing this album though.
Calico Girlfriend 5/5 What a way to start off his proper First National career. (I kind of wish this was a separate thread).
Just to be clear, when I said “it’s the keeper” I was saying that I prefer Muphey’s version over the Kenny Rogers. Note: there is no filler on Geronimo’s Cadillac!
If you could take Mike's vocal and acoustic from "Samba" and graft it on to London/Ware's rhythm section, that'd be my ultimate version. But Red probably gives this version the edge, regardless - that pedal steel is just insane. 5/5
"Calico Girlfriend". Get ready, because I think the first side of Magnetic South is as perfect as a single side of any LP can be. While "Calico Girlfriend" doesn't quite reach the heights of the songs to come, it's so close that it's still... 5/5 ...for me. Related: Circe Link covered "Calico Girlfriend" on her 2013 solo album, and parts of her arrangement (namely, the distinctive backing vocals) were incorporated into the version the FNB Redux has played in recent years. (Circe Link is a fairly prolific recording artist, and of course a member of the FNB Redux, part of the Mike & Micky revue, and longtime partner of Christian Nesmith!)
Calico Girlfriend 5/5 The beginning of the triptych. And a great beginning as well. The locale of Calico makes much more sense now. I do really like Mike's Monkee version but the FNB is well polished. I love how Red is the lead player in the band. Nez was never that good at lead guitarist so Red was perfect leading on the Electric Hawaiian Pedal Steel Guitar. Was that a first for a band to do that?
I love her vocals and on a lot of the Circe Link albums she uses vocal layering. ... which makes me really wish Nez had used Circe Link to provide music for "The Ocean" since he didn't feel the need to bother (except with genetic synthesizer noises). What an awful way to end such a wonderful trilogy. What was he thinking? Oh well, more about that much later.
The Michael Nesmith Album By Album Thread Just not done song by song which I prefer better Although that's a great thread!