Beyond the Blue Horizon was composed in 1930 and premiered in the film Monte Carlo. Michael Nesmith recorded it in 1970 with The First National Band, for the Magnetic South album.
Crickets. It's morning, but not light out yet. A farmer yawns and stretches, gets himself together, and heads outside. He whistles as he feeds the chickens and gets the tractor started up. He begins to hum a song, trying to remember how it goes.
Orville J. "Red" Rhodes has been quietly playing along on the pedal steel guitar with the rest of the group, waiting for the guy to sort out the lyrics. Have you got it? Yep. At 1:54, Beyond the Blue Horizon starts up in earnest, as the sky lightens in the east.
Our happy farmer takes a first lap on the tractor, doing a straight run through of the song. As the sun peeks in the distance at 2:48, his mood brightens and his voice swells. At 3:43 the sun is up and the farmer is filled with joy, smiling and bouncing along. It's going to be a beautiful day. He putt putts off down the lane, as Red bids him a pleasant farewell.
Michael Nesmith has led a charmed life. His mother made a fortune as the inventor of Liquid Paper, he helped start MTV, he won the first Grammy award for long-form music video in 1982 (for Elephant Parts), he was an executive producer of Repo Man, and he formed his own think tank. Oh, yeah, and he was in the Monkees.
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