Elephant Parts

Michael Nesmith was ahead of his time.

Beginning with Rodan, all the way through the final song, Elephant Parts is comprised of "Nez" and his friends stealing shots where they have to and having fun all along the way. There are too many good comedic shorts to list, but if you have an hour to spare, go rent this and give it a watch. Good music - Great laughs!

And no, that is NOT Terry "Hulk" Hogan. The actor's name is Steve Strong.

The 1981 VHS release of ELEPHANT PARTS marked the return of Michael Nesmith to the singer/performer rank he enjoyed as one fourth of The Monkees, encompassing what the group envisioned for their third season, had the NBC network not insisted on repeating the no longer fresh ideas that sustained the first two. In the 11 years since leaving his former band, Nesmith recorded ten albums, and pioneered the MTV format with 1980's hour long Saturday night show PopClips, on Nickelodeon (MTV began Aug 1 1981). This mixture of music videos with comedy sketches was hardly a novelty, but it's a pity that despite winning the very first Grammy for a 'video record,' he never followed it up with another (NBC did air a short-lived revival for eight weeks in 1985 titled TELEVISION PARTS). Despite the dated aspects of some of the material, the sketches are of a remarkably high standard: "Rock and Roll Hospital" shows the dreaded results of 'Bee Gees disease'; "Elvis Drugs" sympathizes with adults who find it 'a bitch' running the world; "Name That Drug" compares favorably with anything from Cheech and Chong, the contestants determined to name that drug 'in three tokes!'; the hilarious horror spoof "Have a Nice Day," not far different from future items like "Scream" and "Scary Movie"; best of all may be the Detroit car commercial, testing consumers' mentality in much the same way as politicians in Washington ('we're not just hoping you're dumb America, we're banking on it!'). Musically, all material is composed, produced, and performed by Nesmith, beginning with a Japanese-inspired take on Nes' biggest solo hit, 1970's "Joanne," while his 1978 LP LIVE AT THE PALAIS gets a plug as a vegetable shredder. Of the five music videos, the most famous is "Rio," taken from his 1976 LP FROM A RADIO ENGINE TO THE PHOTON WING, a video creation that earned accolades across the globe upon initial release. All the others comprise half of his 1979 release INFINITE RIDER ON THE BIG DOGMA, his hardest rocking LP, full of funky disco rhythms without a hint of the softer country sounds from earlier albums (it's actually mentioned just prior to "Cruisin'"). "Magic (This Night is Magic)" is a beautifully sung throwback to the delightful Beach Boys; "Cruisin' (Lucy and Ramona and Sunset Sam)," famously seen with great regularity on MTV, is a solid disco number featuring Hulk Hogan lookalike Steve Strong; "Light (The Electric Light)" is a disco number with saxophone; "Tonite (The Television Song)" shows the singer 'living inside of a little glass room'; and the self explanatory "Dance (Dance and Have a Good Time)," which is only heard during the closing credits (not in its entirety). Others picked up where Michael Nesmith left off, while the artist himself went on to a career producing movies like 1982's "Timerider" and 1984's "Repo Man," and authoring "The Long Sandy Hair of Neftoon Zamora" (1998) and "The America Gene" (2009).

Mike Nesmith was, and continues to be, an innovator and visionary. With "Elephant Parts", he looked at the new technologies available for film making (videotape having reached critical mass, so that 'home video' could be inexpensive.) Quality of entertainment suddenly depended on writing and technique, not so much big up-front expenses for equipment and the people to use them that discouraged any number of director-wannabes.

Music videos had existed for 20 years or more (what exactly is an Elvis Presley movie but story between music videos, the Beatles and of course the Monkees had been doing this sort of thing too), but what made a good video (simple, entertaining 'story', include the band, and always cut on the beat) was not well understood by makers. Mike understood it, and with the help of a collection of crazy and energetic friends made the video equivalent of "I'll get some pallets from the lumber yard for a stage, you get your mom's sheets for a curtain, and you get some clothesline and we'll put on a show right here in the back yard!"

But this backyard show had Mike to know what it should look like and in general how to make it. From this humble beginning, this pathfinding, came MTV, and groundwork was laid for the whole the digital-indie movement (videotapes were cheap to make, but expensive to distribute - once the internet made distribution cheap, anybody with talent -- and loads of people who don't -- could show what they could do.) For the music business, it was discovered that music videos were suddenly ridiculously cheap to make, and became very quickly the primary method of reaching an audience, once MTV made distribution essentially free. From that, came a whole generation of directors, who could get experience away from film school. Pretty long path he blazed, eh?

Elephant Parts (which also spawned a ultra-short-lived TV show, "Television Parts", which Mike sells from his 'video ranch' website (check it out)) is a rapid-fire, no-organization series of Mike's songs (presented as high-quality music videos) and child-of-the-television comedy bits. My personal favorite is the foreign-language-gibberish video. It is, of course, of uneven quality, but all presented in an infectious, high-energy format that pulls you along for the ride. Worth seeing. Hat's off to ya, Mr. Nesmith.

There is something really funny and really pleasant about this video film. I first saw this when I was a kid, and I will always remember the image of a vegetarian big game hunter blowing away lettuce and tomatoes in the produce section of a supermarket. The songs are great, as are the running gags. Some of it may be a little dated, but it's still pretty good stuff.

I just recently tracked down a used copy of "Elephant Parts" and laughed out loud many times through the show. The comedy really holds up and the songs are excellent. Hopefully, with the advent of DVD, it'll enjoy a wide release again. It was hard to find the first time around and deserves recognition. Now I just need to find the "Television Parts" compilations...