I’ve never understood why Michael Nesmith wasn’t embraced more warmly as a solo artist after the breakup of The Monkees. Maybe it was because he made such an issue of not wanting to be a part of any Monkees projects for several years when nearly every band from the ‘60s was launching reunion concerts. (Although Nesmith did join the surviving Monkees for a brief tour after the death of Davy Jones in 2012.) That’s not to say Nesmith wasn’t a success; he certainly was successful as a musician and an innovator in music videos in the late 1970s/early 1980s. Some even refer to Nesmith as “The Father of the Music Video,” which isn’t quite accurate, but I’m willing to give Mike the nod.
Several weeks ago I was hanging out with my friend Ernest, who knows just about every pop/rock song from the ‘70s. But when I played “Rio” for him, he turned to me and said, “Why haven’t I heard this before now? This is delightful!”
I first encountered “Rio” as a music video in the early days of HBO a few years before the birth of MTV. The video was one of a series of Nesmith’s projects to promote his songs as singles. By today’s standards, the film looks a bit cornball with a trio of wanna-be Carmen Mirandas, low-budget special effects, and goofy comedic touches. Yet it’s a charming video, full of nostalgia, whimsy, and fantasy.
From listening to his other solo work (especially his earlier albums), I suspect Nesmith was something of a romantic, maybe even a bit nostalgic. Nesmith was 35 when “Rio” was released, not quite middle-aged, but old enough to connect with something from the music and films of his parents’ generation. The video is no doubt influenced by the Fred Astaire/Ginger Rogers film Flying Down to Rio (1933) with its dances, sets, and carefree atmosphere. “Rio” is a throwback to a simpler time with a simple concept – daydreaming of what it would be like to spend a few hours in an exotic tropical location, dancing the night away before coming back to reality.
I’m hearing a light from the window
I’m seeing the sound of the sea
My feet have gone loose from their moorings
I’m feeling quite wonderfully free
And I think I will travel to Rio
Using the music for flight
There’s nothing I know of in Rio
But it’s something to do with the night
It’s only a whimsical notion to fly down to Rio tonight
And I probably won’t fly down to Rio
But then again, I just might
Nesmith had a gift for giving musical color to his lyrics. Not to get too musically technical, but “Rio” is in the key of D major, with a D chord opening the song with the lyric
I’m hearing a light from the window.
We’re immediately put off-kilter by hearing, rather than seeing, a light from the window, and on the word window Nesmith uses a Bb chord, which is not in the key of D. The chord isn’t dissonant, but it’s jarring, belonging somewhere else, and we have the sense the music is taking us somewhere else, which is exactly what it’s doing.
The lyric I’m seeing the sound of the sea returns to the “home base” of D while reinforcing the paradox of seeing the sound. The word sea settles on a C chord, which is still not part of the key of D “family,” but isn’t as obtrusive as the earlier Bb. It’s almost as if Nesmith is gently disrupting our normal humdrum world, then making us comfortable in this otherworldly flight of fancy. All that’s left to complete the escape from the mundane is to loosen our feet from their moorings to proclaim I’m feeling quite wonderfully free.
And we’re off!
The video “Rio” blends fantasy and reality by utilizing costume changes and camera cuts. We understand the contrast visually, yet even without the film, the song invites us to dream, to fantasize. But the visuals are so charming it’s difficult to divorce them from the music. Music videos soon progressed rapidly from Nesmith’s early efforts, but I don’t remember many MTV videos that have as much fun as “Rio.” Even the last spoken lines of the film elicit a chuckle:
Nesmith (playing a lighting man on a movie set): “Reno? Why Reno?”
Woman dancer: “Not Reno, dummy, Rio. Rio de Jen-er-o!”
“Rio” may not be a great song, but it’s certainly fun. Sure, it’s only a whimsical notion, but sometimes that’s exactly what we need to get us through the day.
“Rio” appears on Michael Nesmith’s From a Radio Engine to the Photon Wing album and the DVD Elephant Parts.