the Nilsson thread
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kapoo:
Nice! Finally, the release date of October 26th has been set for Who Is Harry Nilsson (And Why Is Everybody Talkin About Him?), the star studded documentary of Harry Nilsson. All I have to say is get it while its hot folks. I cannot wait for this! Pre-Order here http://www.amazon.com/Harry-Nilsson-Everybody-Talkin-About/dp/B003VZNAUS?&camp=212361&creative=383837&linkCode=wss&tag=fothloofha-20
just watched this, what an amazing documentary. Heres a bunch of random thoughts writen about stuff in the documentary. very cool Brian Wilson calls Harry an experimental melodist, which I think is such a perfect explaination/insight to how he wrote! Brian explains how he created melodies that would often go from low to high, and could meander and experiment and change along the way. I totally get that And I find it fascinating that Brian could just diagnose it like that in an interview. Like they all totally understood each other as writers. Wilson, Van Dyke Parks is in the film prominently, John, Paul, Harry.. Harry tells the story of how he wrote One while listening to the busy signal dial tone on a phone call He talks about how when he went to visit John while they were making Abbey Road, they stayed up all night talking (with a little help from their friends he said) about life love family music, whats it all about.. Harry?s producer at the time w RCA (forget his name) recounts that when Harry returned from his meeting with John/the Beatles in England, that he was completely changed.. a person he no longer even knew. He says Harry sent him a telegram soon after he returned from England stating he was getting a new producer, and never saw him again. Rough! But he wanted full control. Richard Perry control pretty much, though he ended up pretty much breaking it off with Perry in somewhat similar fashion. Always one for full control. Crazy how Harry never wanted to perform live, or be a live performer.. That?s what hurt his career the most.. he would do the occasional live bit for TV, but only when he had full control as it talks about. Very insecure person, yet had total confidence in his writing and recorded product. His first sons name was Zachary Nine Nilsson. Zach discusses and reads a note Harry wrote him in 1971, as he stood over him sleeping in his crib as a little baby. It says: Dear Zach, I stood over and watched you sleep for 30 minutes this morning. Someday you will know how I feel as I write these words. You are beautiful ? you moved your toes and feet proportionately to the noise I made. You were on top of your blanket (an orange blanket with yellow daisies) and your pacifier was an inch from your mouth. It had obviously been released with sleep. I love you. Big Daddy Schmilsson Its an interesting note, right? Like heartfelt but joking. A lot like his music was at that time. The other part of me says I know exactly how Harry must have been feeling at that moment writing that. It talks about how the 1941 song basically mirrors his own life, only in the 70?s. but written before the events were to take place. at least before the part about him walking out the door to join the circus It?s really interesting how basically the last ?great voice? album Harry ever made was A Little Touch of Schmilsson in the Night. An album of standards, of Harry?s favorite songs, performed and recorded while his voice was still in its prime. The urgency he had at that time for that project is interesting looking back, as he really demanded to make it going against everyone elses wishes and advice, ie record company. Its like he knew if it was going to be done right, it had to be done right then A lot of sad things happened to Harry near the end of his life, but I think he was living a pretty noble life towards the end, and really did is best to provide for his family. I just cratched the surface here on info and stories, but I'm starting to waste too much time with this post but its packed with music, interviews, footage of studio partying.. Awesome documentary. I give it *****
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I am really looking forward to seeing this. He was a very interesting character in the history of pop music.
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You said it mercyjames Harry said he hated the Beatles when they first came out, because he felt they were beating him to the punch all the time. He had this ability that no one knew about at the time. I find it so fascinating how talented Harry was, but also how hell bent he was on destroying himself. It seems the man totally had a death wish from about Nilsson Schmilsson on. And if not before.. Richard Perry talks about that. But Nilsson?s lifes work was a case study in the notion that an artist should be true 1000% to themselves, their own impulses and desires, everyone else be damned. Take no advice, make no concessions. That?s how he did it his entire career, to a T. And to act that way, and yet be as successful as he was.. sort of mindboggling. The Beatles endorsement definitely gave him some leverage there but his talent was very rare. Pure songwriter, poet, and the finest male pop vocalist I think I?ve ever heard. I mean honestly, lets see John or Paul pull of the songs on A Little Touch Of Schmilsson in the Night.. not happening. I?m such a huge fan RIP
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I've seen only clips of the documentary so far and know only a bit about him. But from the stuff I've heard... he's so unusual. Keeping office hours and actually answering his own phone being just one wacky thing. The fact that he had such high artistic principles and yet he was also smart enough to consider the commercial aspects of his career recording smartly chosen material he did not write. Do you know if his first album is available on CD? I had heard that it wasn't but it was combined with his second album... but with material omitted. Is this true or are both albums available as they were originally released?
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I?m not sure how much he really kept an office. He did at the beginning, while he was transitioning from working at the bank to being in the music business officially. Said it gave him a sense of security, made him feel like he actually had a job. Plus he really didn?t take part in much but recording anyway, so I think he liked having a place to write. I?m not actually that familiar with Nilsson?s first album from 1966, ?Spotlight On Nilsson?. Its basically a compilation of the singles he had released to that point, mostly covers. To me his first album was really Pandemonium Shadow Show. That?s the first one he released when he got signed on RCA in 1967, which Derek Taylor discovered and played for the Beatles. There are two Beatles covers on it, You Can?t Do That
, where he messes with all the different Beatle lyrics as the backing track.. and also a sweet version of the just newly released She?s Leaving Home . It also has 1941, Cuddly Toy which had been a hit for the Monkees, and that nasty version of River Deep-Mountain High! which Ringo claims the Beatles loved. You can catch a wiff of that one at the 2minute mark at this link . At about 2:48 Harry starts shredding. But the full song I cannot find on YouTube? The next album he released was Aerial Ballet, which was just phenomenal. All Nilsson originals except the Fred Neil song. Tunes include One, Together and Don?t Leave Me. Then he did the Skidoo movie soundtrack, the Harry album, the album of all Randy Newman songs, and his original childrens musical, the Point!. Then in 1971 comes that combo album you mentioned. But it wasn?t so much a combo re-release album, as it was a selection of tracks that he chose to remix, from those back2back albums Pandemonium Shadow Show and Aerial Ballet. I think part of the reason for the remix project was his apparent rebellion against the work he did with that former RCA producer. Again, cannot remember his name but as I posted on this thread before, that was literally the very first remix album by anyone cool stuff. To answer your question mercyjames, not sure what is available on CD.. though I know there has been a remaster project for his catalogue in the works for some time. So they may be out there now.. I own all his records on vinyl through 1977, minus Spotlight On Nilsson, and Pussy Cats. The trials of my trying to acquire that Pussy Cats album would crack you up.. Its elusiveness has been utterly amazing. Its like I?m not meant to own it. I won?t bore you with the many ways its slipped out of my clutches. The thing you said about Harry being smart enough to record choice covers throughout his career.. sort of misleading IMO. He chose pretty much every cover he ever recorded just based on the fact that he loved the songs. There may have been an early song or two producers asked him to record, but not many. Its just his versions were so amazing that it looks in hindsight like he chose them because he thought they might top the charts. But I don?t think it was that as much as he saw unrealized potential in them, or that he just loved them. The gammy he won for the Fred Neil song was a total accident. The producers of Midnight Cowboy had asked him, Dylan, Patti Smith and a couple others to write theme song candidates for the film. Harry had cut a version of Everybody?s Talking, as literally a placeholder while they picked the official song. But by the end of shooting it was apparent that the best track of the lot was the original placeholder track. So they used it. His official submission for the film with I Guess The Lord Must Be In New York City, which ended up appearing on ?Harry?. That songs music actually has some similarities (I think) to Everybody?s Talking, in the fast finger picking acoustic guitar styles. sorry for the length of that post mercyjames. you opened a can of worms -
That was great kapoo! Thanks for the info!
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Stephen King, in this week's Entertainment Weekly, does his whole pop culture column on Nilsson and focuses on the new documentary on him, which King deems amazing and astonishing, almost a 'work of genuis.' And he rates Nilsson's musical talents very highly. Not that Steven King is the one you should always go by, I just happened to read his column yesterday and this thread brought it up. King wrote that Harry's mom drank herself to death, and that alcoholism finally got a stronghold on Harry too and destroyed him. Very tragic and sad. Have also read recently that the "Pussy Cats" album isn't any good, that John Lennon and Harry were too tore up while producing it for the music to be coherent and well structured or something. Don't know how true that is, having never heard "Pussy Cats."
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Thanks for the heads up on that Stephen King article Susy! Good read, he nailed it all. It is a bit of a hard watch towards the end. Here's the article: http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_3D4uW44cDSw/TMbl-jZt0LI/AAAAAAAAHxY/L9Ryh9tb6Uw/s1600/Harry+Who-Stephen+King.png Alcoholism and drug abuse are indeed a bitch. It's one more reason to respect Sir Paul, I'm glad he never went that route. Glad he doesn't have that potentially fatal flaw. The sad thing for Harry is that flaws like the one's he had will inevitably cause casual fans to dismiss him as a bad guy, or a drunk, etc, rather than what he was; a genius. Legacy is an interesting thing.
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kapoo:
Brian Wilson calls Harry an experimental melodist, which I think is such a perfect explaination/insight to how he wrote! Brian explains how he created melodies that would often go from low to high, and could meander and experiment and change along the way. I totally get that
two songs that perfectly exemplify what Brain Wilson was saying there: Think About Your Troubles
Moonbeam crazy meandering melodies -
SusyLuvsPaul:
Have also read recently that the "Pussy Cats" album isn't any good, that John Lennon and Harry were too tore up while producing it for the music to be coherent and well structured or something. Don't know how true that is, having never heard "Pussy Cats."
Whats up Susy, so I did my best to try and give you a quick flavor of the Pussy Cats album, given limited time, below plus I felt like listening to it so that worked out but the tracks are tough to find!.. the album is well worth hearing, and studying if you ask me Be sure to hear the opening string phrase in Many Rivers To Cross and think #9 Dream, check out the Harry, John (guitar), Ringo (drums), Moon (percussion), Klaus (bass) line-up rocking on tracks like Dylan?s Subterranean.., All My Life, Mucho Mungo/Mt. Elga.. its full on cool. Its just the biggest shame that Harry?s voice was so shot. Put him in 1971 form and that album is sick. PUSSY CATS Side 1 Many Rivers To Cross (Cliff)
Subterranean Homesick Blues (Dylan) All My Life (Nilsson) I cannot find a clip of the song anywhere, but its crazy, with that full line-up I gave you above, Lennon on Backing vocal and guitar I?ve read. Here are the lyrics of decadence: Oh Lord! (What?) I?m full of it! (Good.) Tonight. (Right.) Well I've had my share of my bad times I've been shooting em up drinking em down Taking them pills fooling around all my life But I'm so tired of bad times I have to change my ways And I've had my share of good times I've been moving around living uptown laughing my ass off almost every night But I'm so sore from laughing I haven't got the will to fight All my life I have been waiting to find a reason to give it up for do a lot more every day of my life I'm going to wake up every morning (get a little lil lil lil) Come home every evening (Get a little lil lil lil) Just jump into bed and lie there and laugh with my wife Well I've had my share of bad times I've been shooting them up drinking them down Taking them pills fooling around all my life But I am so tired of bad times I'll have to change my ways And I've had my share of good times I've been moving around living uptown laughing my ass off almost every night But I'm so tired of laughing I haven't got the will to fight Old Forgotten Soldier (Nilsson) Can?t find it.. Side 2 Save The Last Dance For Me (Pomus/Schuman) Mucho Mungo / Mt. Elga (Nilsson/Lennon) Here?s another clip I found of some studio chatter between John and someone, sounds like Harry, but it sounds like they?re talking about guitar parts.. a cool early take. Loopty Loop (?) Can?t find it, but its a great version if you ask me. Harry, John, Kaus, Keltner, and it sounds like about 100 other people! Literally sounds like it was recorded in the middle of a house party Black Sails (Nilsson) You can actually hunt and get to basically any of the songs I?m missing via this link.. http://www.last.fm/music/Harry+Nilsson/_/Black+Sails ..but takes signing up for something which is lame. lyrics that are sexual innuedo, laden. Rock Around the Clock (DeKnight / Freedman) Complete noisefest of a song is this one.. starts with some sort of engine sound.. drums are really too heavy.. sounds like Moon and Ringo are both on drums at the same time. And Harry sounds like shit. and Lennon?s production.. I have no idea what happened there -
kapoo:
I?m really into Harry?s 3rd album entitled ?Harry? right now... Mournin? Glory Story
anyone else hearing the similarity in the verse of Mournin' Glory Story, and the verse of For No One :
she wakes up.. -
The time has come the Walrus said to speak of other things Like a fallen star who works in a bar where yesterday is king Fans will stay for an hour or so they still remember his fame But the time has come the Walrus said to call your fans by name
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kapoo:
how freaking beautiful is this :
sorry to bump this thread all the time, everytime I hear this song I?m mesmerized. Beauty to the nth degree. Haunting writing by Randy Newman. And of course sung to perfection by Harry. Milk truck hauls the sun in The paper hits the door The subway shakes my floor and I think about you Time to face the dawn and grey of another lonely day Its so hard living without you Its so hard living without you Everyone?s got something They?re out trying to get some more Got something to get up for but I ain?t about to Nothings gonna happen Nothings gonna change It?s so hard living without you It?s so hard living without you. It?s so hard. So hard so and here's another beauty written by Harry, listening right now. this song is allegedly about visiting a brothel great tune though! Bath
Im leavin here this morning but I don?t know where I?ve been Im going home to take my bath but I?ll be back again Yeah I?m leavin here this morning With a smile upon my face I?m beginning to think there?s hope for the human race.. Im leavin here this morning but I don?t know where I?ve been there?s a lot of talk about the place but I?ll be back again Yeah I?m leavin here this morning With my eyes all opened wide And I?m awefully glad she let me come inside Do wah could do. ..from a raft of nothing we can build a boat.. and with a shaft of light as faith I'm sure she'll float.. but on a rough and story sea.. the going won't be easy.. but if we don't there'll be nothing left for everybody.. -
Well it was not as Nilsson?y of a Christmas as I anticipated, but any Nilsson is sweet Nilsson!! I?ve been buying tracks on iTunes with my newly acquired gift cards.. those were nice gestures I just bought ?Jesus Christ You?re Tall? why not. but PussyCats vinyl was no dice again this year, though the search is more mine at this point and I don?t think I even clearly asked anyone for it this time. don't know why I just don't look it up and buy it online .. So I can't stop listening to it, this song is really great! but I refuse to post the clip thats available on YouTube.. while its good its so depressing.. (here it is
) and the version on Aerial Pandemonium Ballets so rips it to shreds , when it sounds more like a Pepper track, uptempo. Anyway the song is called Mr. Richland?s Favorite Song. Read the lyrics, I love them. Lyrically sometimes, I see Nilsson as a not so distant early relative of Eminem in the way they could just write flow. Not so much similar in content meaning (though Harry in is day was pretty defiant, but never violent) but rather in their flow and versatile delivery and meters. Harry gets pretty crazy sometimes. When he was young he sang in a band and the fans all looked the same And the fans he had were younger than he and they loved to scream his name They?d leave at the end of the third show Go home and talk of the fun Well isn?t it nice the parents would say Well isn?t it nice you?ve got someone Someone to idolize H must look twice your size I think its great you?re going through a phase And I?m awfully glad it?ll all be over in a couple of days well the calendar changed the pages fell off but the singer remained the same and he never grew tired of singing his song and the fans still called his name they leave at the end of the second show go home to talk of the fun for most of the fans were married by then so they had to be in by 1 I?m awfully glad the husbands would say I?m awfully glad you got someone Someone I realize Who used to look twice his size I think its great you still remember his name and I bet if he knew you were there for the show he?d be awfully glad you came The time has come the Walrus said to speak of other things Like a fallen star who works in a bar where yesterday is king Fans will stay for an hour or so they still remember his fame But the time has come the Walrus said to call your fans by name -
So I?m all about finding similarities in the songs of Harry Nilsson and Macca, and I found another! Let me know if you hear it? production is vastly different, but the song structure is eerily similar. Especially the music in the verses. But actually the chorus too. Live long and prosper. You Gave Me The Answer
All I Think About Is You Am I full of it? -
No you nailed it Kapoo. Very similar. BTW, I'm a huge Nilsson fan too...unfortunately my knowledge is pretty superficial so I won't be able to help your thread much...but i am loving the fact that it's here...keep it up!!
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Blue Ruins:
No you nailed it Kapoo. Very similar. BTW, I'm a huge Nilsson fan too...unfortunately my knowledge is pretty superficial so I won't be able to help your thread much...but i am loving the fact that it's here...keep it up!!
Exactly! Thanks for noticing it right along with me Blue Ruins! Harry actually does that a lot in his songs, sometimes blatantly referencing the Beatles, or doing littl subtle things with the music. Cool ! Yeah there?s some decent stuff in this thread I think, for any Harry head who might want to go back and check it out. I posted lots of pics and links, hopefully a few of them still work Harry?s amazing, this threads definitely been a nice little outlet to share my impressions of his work anyway, one mans impressions. I got into him and basically cultivated his entire career for music and info I own almost all his vinyl, quite a collection. Funny the entire 16 albums I think I own probably cost me $50 total. vinyl rocks. A true more for less $$ proposition And in return for your post, I will provide you the customary deep cut.. Harry doing Randy Nwman?s Sail Away. And giving the vocal the Randy treatment
Aint no lions and tigers, aint no mamba snake Just a sweat watermelon and the buckwheat cake -
PUSSY CATS This is a great day in my world. the Pussy Cats vinyl is mine at last! Yay So I'm reading the Liner Notes in the gatefold right now.. and transcribing them for you here. A blessing from me to you they are by Derek Taylor. His writing cracks me up. Such a stylish character he was. Here are the liner notes These are written at 78 and should be read at 33. I have one hour to catch the plane. You have all your lives. Lucky bastards. Funny thing is, that when I was in New York last week with George Melly I remembered everything Harry and John said and did except that I had to write these notes. Most of what Harry and John did was bloody funny and sometimes terrifying. They have been living a vampire timetable recently but have sucked no blood except for each other?s and not so much of that. Anyway, the cross-transfusion works, so what the hell. I am so glad they met; it is hard to convey here. They are madmen in tandem but, as I?ve said before, very well brought-up so they?ll get by without their apple pie so run rabbits run, goddamn you; the brave men are taking over. Our heroes, Lennon and Nilsson, met in 1968, in Surrey, very strange, both quite tentative with each other, like very little children at a birthday party handing gifts to each other and blushing. The gifts they are exchanging now are without compare (sorry if you?ve read this before ? it remains true and improves daily) and to see them the other night in a studio in New York the city in which Harry was born and to which John (like all Liverpudlians) belongs, one singing, the other producing was pretty (expletive deleted) marvelous. I was with a few other people (Lord Melley and retinue) and only heard one song (Save The Last Dance For Me) and then John said that our non-stop chattering would put Harry off his stroke, so maybe we should go into another room and have a drink or something. Actually, we hadn?t said a bloody word (hardly dared to breathe or strike a match) any of us, and well John knew it but he is nothing if not tactful and both he and Harry told me later that it was paranoia-avoidance and well I knew that and as recording studios are no places for people without real tasks to perform, I was glad to leave and wait for the real thing which you now have in your hands. When I first heard Harry in 1968 (see liner notes for his ?Aerial Ballet? album) and the later met him it was strong (heterosexual, if you don?t mind) love at first sight and I knew he should meet John. (Later of course he met the fab other three; with Ringo too he has formed a magical team.) They are both tuffians (neither ruffians, nor very tough, but a bit of both) and able to exert terrific pressures on each other without either snapping The consequent tension is one of the great wonders of the music business and if this album isn?t great and famous I will eat my (right) elbow. As I say, how can I say about the music when I haven?t heard it and yet there are a couple things I know about them you should know: For instance, their arrogance is a mask for unending warmth and enthusiasm, not only for the people they know and the things they need for their life support systems (music, praise, a few dollars in their back pockets and pieces of brown paper down their socks) but also for people they don?t know and will never meet again. They are givers, not takers. Maybe they?re right, maybe they?re wrong, maybe they?re weak, maybe they?re strong, maybe they?ll live lives of regret, maybe they?ll give much more than they get, but never the less they?re in love with you, and certainly I am with them. In the very early days of their friendship John was ?Famous? and Harry was ?Not Famous,? but it was with the greatest pleasure that John went public with the statement that Harry was his favorite American group (just as many years earlier he and his musketeers had done the same for the beautiful Byrds) and it was with great difference that Harry allowed RCA to exploit this endorsement. Both responses emerged as the right ones and now, and now, and now?look what has happened?hand in hand, by the edge of the sand they dance by the light of the moon and bring joy to the world. Something like that. - Derek Taylor
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such an anticlimactic acquisition, this Pussy Cats album is. Not musically, oh no! In that way its top shelf its just that I have wanted it for so long, and basically dreamed about giving it a spin, now that I own it and have it in my hands, it seems sort of normal. Who knew in 25 seconds it would be just another record But its sort of special still I tell you what, one song jumped up and punched me in the face, upon initial listening.. Save The Last Dance For Me. There is so much rhythm in that track, Harry?s timing and phrasing and vocal subtleties are impeccable. and - in her arms - you?re gon - na be? oh darling, - save the last - dance - for - me? And John?s rhythmic horns arrangement, towards the end of the song, by around 2:30, it has built into this like mechanical rhythm enhancer, and I gotta say it just pops more on vinyl. That?s what has been coolest going backwards from CD to vinyl for me, is hearing what makes an impression 2nd time around. Save The Last Dance For Me - John produced/arranged the song, Ringo drums on it too!
So anyone else like this track? Mucho Mungo pops more too. Vinyl pretty much always pops more. ?Pops more? is an odd set of words that's the sleeve of a killer single released in France. I don't have that.. -
Blue Ruins:
BTW, I'm a huge Nilsson fan too...unfortunately my knowledge is pretty superficial so I won't be able to help your thread much...but i am loving the fact that it's here...keep it up!!
Btw Blue Ruins (and everyone), just because your Harry knowledge may be superficial or basic, doesn't mean you can't add anything here. Even just throwing out a song of his that really hits home with you would be sweet, and I'd love to pontificate on it as well. Or if nothing 'hits home' per se, whatever, any song you like, I'd like to hear about it. This thread obviously gets some views, people should really check out Harry's early stuff. If you like what Paul does, I don't see how you wouldn't love all Harry's stuff through Nilsson Schmilsson. Whatever, I'm not going to beg Bwt I'm listening to Pussy Cats right now (Save The Last Dance), and its occuring to me that the intro, piano, is basically the same as the opening of his song Remember. Both great, same vibe. There's somethin for ya Good night