(Image courtesy of Videoranch)
Elephant Parts is a collection of comedy skits and music videos made in 1981 by Michael Nesmith. Nez produced and distributed the one hour long video through his company Pacific Arts. In 1982, Michael was the first to be awarded a Grammy for Video of the Year for Elephant Parts. The award was reserved for "video cassettes or discs in any format created specifically for the home video market."
Videoranch announced on Facebook today that Elephant Parts will soon be restocked featuring a new digital video transfer from the master tapes, along with new bonus features. Videoranch is taking a poll on Facebook asking fans which format is preferred: DVD or Blu-ray. Take a minute to vote in the poll below!
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UPDATE 8/30/2016:
Bill Martin, an extended member of the Monkees family, has passed away. Martin was a musician, songwriter, screenwriter, comedic actor, and voice actor. Brought into The Monkees' orbit by his friend Michael Nesmith, Martin's initial contribution to the group came in the form of "All of Your Toys," a song recorded in early 1967 during the very first sessions to feature The Monkees supporting themselves instrumentally in the recording studio. Unfortunately for Martin, Screen Gems was unable to acquire the rights to "All of Your Toys" from its original holder, Tickson Music, for which Martin worked. "All of Your Toys" remained unreleased until it was finally aired on the Missing Links compilation in 1987. After Martin eventually signed with Screen Gems, The Monkees recorded another of his compositions, "The Door Into Summer," which found a home on 1967's Pisces, Aquarius, Capricorn & Jones Ltd. album and stands today as one of the LP's finest cuts. Martin later collaborated on songs with an assortment of artists, including Harry Nilsson ("Rainmaker," covered by Michael on his third solo effort, Nevada Fighter), Dan Fogelberg, and The Turtles. He also performed with a variety of bands throughout his career, including playing keyboards for Linda Ronstadt.
In the early '80s, Bill appeared in Nesmith's Elephant Parts and then co-wrote the screenplay to the 1987 movie Harry and The Hendersons (with Steven Spielberg as executive producer). In 1997, he made a cameo appearance in The Monkees' ABC television special (as the refrigerator tour guide). Martin lent his voice to various animated series throughout the years, too, including Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Transformers, and multiple Star Wars video games. When The Monkees played in Seattle, Washington on their 2013 summer tour, Michael dedicated that evening's performance of "The Door Into Summer" to Bill. In 1989, Martin was interviewed by Paris Stachtiaris and John Di Maio on the Headquarters radio program: Monkees archivist Andrew Sandoval took a moment to remember Bill Martin on Facebook: "Davy Jones used to like to go around quoting his favorite Martinism: 'Hummus where the heart is.'
All four Monkees loved him..."  (1996 Trading Cards) This is one of my favorite scenes from Elephant Parts: A big thanks to Jeff Gehringer for submitting this September 1986 article to the Live Almanac! It covers a wide variety of topics, including the 1986 Monkees revival, Nez watching Micky, Davy, and Peter in concert from the audience in Texas that year, MTV, Elephant Parts, Television Parts, the video magazine Overview, as well as the movies Square Dance, Timerider, and Repo Man. For easier reading, click on each image and then click on it again.     Years after working together on the only Monkees feature film, Head, Michael is reunited with Jack Nicholson at a promotional event for Michael's Elephant Parts (circa 1981).  Published on June 16, 1981, this article talks more about Elephant Parts, Popclips, and music videos. For easier reading, click on the image to enlarge.  The fourth in the series, this article was published in September 1981. A few sentences are missing here and there, but there is more discussion of Elephant Parts (and Popclips, which led to MTV) and the movie Lyle Swann, which eventually became Timerider. For easier reading, click on the image to enlarge.  The second in the Nesmith Article Series, this is a review of Elephant Parts as published in the Stereo Review in September 1981. For easier reading, click on the image and then click on it again.  I have several articles in my collection surrounding Michael's work in the early 1980s that I'm going to start featuring here on the blog. This is the first, published on August 30, 1981 and largely centered around Elephant Parts, Popclips and Michael's other forays into home video at the time. For easier reading, click on the image to enlarge.  On January 13, 1983, Nez stopped by David Letterman's show to promote the movie Timerider. Michael also discussed Elephant Parts with Dave, as well as The Monkees and his mother's invention of Liquid Paper. Recently I have been in contact with Tom Czarnota, co-author of the book Monkeemania: The True Story of The Monkees (1986). Tom has been kind enough to share a lot of photos that you can currently view in the 1968 Australian/Japanese tour section (and soon the 1988 Australian Tour page). Tom also passed along some information about Michael Nesmith's concerts that took place in Australia in 1977. The tour was being conducted on the strength of the "Rio" single in the Australian charts, where it had gone Top 10. (Not to mention the historical significance of Nesmith's video work at this time.) The album from which it came, From a Radio Engine to a Photon Wing, had attained gold status in Australia, which Tom thinks meant sales of 20,000 or more at that time. Nesmith arrived in Australia in November 1977 to perform 11 concerts. He was reunited with First National Band drummer John Ware for the tour, and most shows took place in 1,000-1,500 seaters. A list of venues and cities, courtesy of a poster from Tom's collection, appears below:
Here are Tom's recollections about the show:  "I remember the following songs: Grand Ennui, Calico Girlfriend, Propinquity, Joanne, Carioca, Some of Shelly's Blues, Different Drum, Tomorrow and Me, Rio, Navajo Trail, Silver Moon, and Nadine as the encore song. It was a nice laid back concert, though the band sounded a bit more dynamic than the recording on 'Live at the Palais' which happened a few nights later. One young girl ran up on stage and gave Mike a hug, much to the disapproval of Mike's then wife Katherine, who seemed to be tour manager. There is a picture of this moment in the Monkeemania book." The Live at The Palais album that Tom speaks of was released by Michael's company Pacific Arts in August 1978. Recorded during the tour in Melbourne, legend has it that Nesmith disliked the results, but he later re-released it on CD due to popular demand (with bonus tracks from separate 1981 and 1995 shows). Nez even took time to do a mock send-up of the album in his 1981 Elephant Parts video: Here's a vintage review of Michael's show at The Palais:  (Courtesy of Paul Borg) Tom also noted that Michael conducted several interviews during his visit to Australia: "Mike also gave lots of radio and TV interviews, most of which focused on 2 things - the "Rio" film clip and his time with The Monkees. I remember two radio interviews which Mike seemed to quite enjoy. One interviewer brought up 'The Wichita Train Whistle Sings' and played fragments of 'Tapioca Tundra' as done by The Monkees and Wichita Train Whistle. Another interviewer on an our alternative rock music station knew Mike's solo career extremely well and did an hour long retrospective with him from The Monkees thru to 'Radio Engine.'" Thanks to Tom Czarnota for all of the great information that inspired this blog post! (Live at The Palais is available at Videoranch and also on iTunes.)
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