Nesmith was the one Monkee with talent.
Practically invented “Country Rock” before The Eagles.
Maybe instrumental talent. Mickey had one of the great pop music voices of the 60’s. His vocal rendition on “Going Down” is awesome and he did it in one take. On most early Monkees songs Mickey is the only one from the band you are actually listening to. The rest are all studio musicians.
Yes, he wrote a bunch of great songs, including "Different Drum," which was a big hit for Linda Ronstadt.
Peter Tork was actually pretty talented also. Check out his album Cambria Hotel.
Cruisin’ (Lucy and Ramona and Sunset Sam), a Nesmith music video blast from the distant past.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=72CWBcl526A
Dolenz was happy to be in a TV band, but he did point out later that the members were miscast. According to Dolenz, Jones was a very good drummer and Tork was a pretty good guitar player. Dolenz thought Nesmith would have been better on bass in a real band. However, they all made a lot of money from the TV show.