Yes, you're right - things started to become way more fractured after Chip Douglas left, I think? So they were all producing and playing, just on their own projects (if I recall Nesmith didn't want to have much to do with the others' songs). Dammit, you've made me pull out my copy of the Monkees day-by-day book, and…

"Plagued by questions about whether or not they played their instruments (they didn’t at first)"