David Browne
Entertainment Weekly
cc: John McAlley
Mitch Schneider
VIA FAXES
212 522 0559
818 380 0430

Dear Mr. Browne;
I read with dismay your benighted and shallow review of our new album "Justus." I read reviews in the hope, now faint, that critique is alive somewhere in the literary and journalistic communities and I might learn something. But, as your review so aptly demonstrates, this just isn't so.

I am not sure why you chose to dwell so much on the number of times I and my colleagues have been around the sun; maybe its because you have not been around that many times yourself and have not had the chance to climb enough learning curves to know the difference in meaning life takes on when one's perspective changes. If so, then not surprisingly you have missed several important ideas contained in the album.

Your addled and misguided comment that in his song Never Enough "the 51 year old" Micky sings "with a straight face" that he "can't fill your sweet loving cup" goes directly to my point. Clearly the 'loving cup' you perceive has to do with anatomy, but this is not the intention of the words at all. The song is about divorce, not mating; it is about the crushing and mind numbing pain of separation, not the adolescent consideration of sexual stamina. The "loving cup" is the open, greedy, demanding hand, once loving and supportive, now cruelly grabbing at the shards of a shattered love affair.

"Admiral Mike" is not about "ad copy"; it's about irresponsible journalism, and mindless journalists.

"I Believe You" is neither cosmic nor jazzy. I'll give you the word "lounge" since in your hands it is clearly editorial and I have no idea what lounges you haunt, but I suspect it is mis-applied here. The song is about believing in something you know you shouldn't, driven to such belief through loving someone, and the terrible realization there is nothing else to be done except believe, though it may come to a sorry end. Nothing too cosmic about that, if you've experienced it. And if your comment about it being "jazz" has to do with the extended chord structures then you know nothing of jazz.

And by the way, what do you mean, or does anybody mean for that matter, "play their own instruments"? Whose instruments do you suggest we play? Or is this just a parroted phrase, whose garbled meaning only bothers serious writers?

I'll keep my eyes open for the review that understands the music as it was intended and offers real and, I am hopeful, constructive comments on how it may have been better. Yours is not it. Instead, it seems to me, it's half-witted journalism, combined with poor writing skills and even less insight.

Hope this helps,

Michael Nesmith

BTW, you have my permission to publish this letter, in fact, I think you should and I hope you will, but you may not publish only a portion of it or edit it in any way. This letter is copyright 1996, Michael Nesmith, and is my sole and exclusive property.

MN

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