By now you're no doubt well aware that Monkees lead singer Davy Jones died today at the age of 66 following a heart attack. His bandmates have each posted their goodbyes: Peter Tork, Micky Dolenz and Mike Nesmith, the Monkee with deep Dallas roots.
The Thomas Jefferson High School graduate didn't embrace his band's legacy as profoundly (or as profitably) as his bandmates, who would record and tour without him for decades following the demise of the so-called Prefab Four. (The closest he came to performing a Monkees song during his July 1994 performance in the West End was when he did his "Different Drum," hastily goofed through during this 1966 episode.) And yet for all his forays into country-rock and moviemaking, Nesmith was and will always be a Monkee man as well. And so, on this day he offers these condolences, from which I pull this excerpt:
While it is jarring, and sometimes seems unjust, or strange, this transition we call dying and death is a constant in the mortal experience that we know almost nothing about. I am of the mind that it is a transition and I carry with me a certainty of the continuity of existence. While I don't exactly know what happens in these times, there is an ongoing sense of life that reaches in my mind out far beyond the near horizons of mortality and into the reaches of infinity.
That David has stepped beyond my view causes me the sadness that it does many of you. I will miss him, but I won't abandon him to mortality. I will think of him as existing within the animating life that insures existence. I will think of him and his family with that gentle regard in spite of all the contrary appearances on the mortal plane.
David's spirit and soul live well in my heart, among all the lovely people, who remember with me the good times, and the healing times, that were created for so many, including us.
I have fond memories. I wish him safe travels.
