A SONG THAT STILL HAUNTS THE HEART: “Me & Magdalena” — The Super Rare, Soul-Stirring Collaboration Between Michael Nesmith and Micky Dolenz of The Monkees
There are songs that entertain, songs that inspire — and then there are songs that linger, quietly echoing long after the last note fades. “Me & Magdalena”, the hauntingly beautiful collaboration between Michael Nesmith and Micky Dolenz of The Monkees, belongs firmly to the latter. Recorded late in their extraordinary journey, it stands not just as music, but as a gentle goodbye — a whisper between two friends who had lived, laughed, and grown old inside the same melody.
Written by Ben Gibbard of Death Cab for Cutie, “Me & Magdalena” arrived on The Monkees’ 2016 album Good Times! — an unexpected reunion record that turned into something far deeper than nostalgia. The song’s delicate arrangement, built around simple piano and acoustic guitar, left space for what mattered most: two voices that had once defined an era now meeting again, fragile but full of truth.
Nesmith’s delivery was soft, almost trembling — the kind of voice that carried decades of memory in every breath. Dolenz, ever the dreamer, met him with quiet reverence, his harmonies wrapping around Nesmith’s like light around dusk. Together, they turned the song into something sacred. It wasn’t about chart success or vintage glory. It was about time, friendship, and the kind of unspoken love that only comes from walking the same road for half a lifetime.
Fans who first heard it described the moment as “achingly intimate.” There was no showmanship, no attempt to chase the past. Just two old friends — one cowboy-hearted, one born for the spotlight — meeting in the middle, sharing a song that felt like both a reflection and a prayer.
In hindsight, “Me & Magdalena” carries even more weight. When Michael Nesmith passed away in December 2021, just months after finishing “The Monkees Farewell Tour” with Dolenz, the song took on a heartbreaking new meaning. It became their final conversation — one last exchange of faith and memory between two men who had seen it all.
During their final performances together, Dolenz often introduced the song with a pause, his eyes misting as he looked out at the crowd. “This one,” he’d say softly, “is for Nez.” And when he sang it — alone now — the entire room seemed to hold its breath.
Today, “Me & Magdalena” is more than just a late-era gem. It’s a love letter to a friendship that survived fame, friction, and the passing of time. It’s a reminder that even after the curtain falls, music remembers what the heart cannot forget.
For fans of The Monkees, it remains the song that says what words never could — a harmony of gratitude and goodbye, echoing across the years like a promise that the music, and the brotherhood behind it, will never truly fade.