Nilsson - C or D?

But ....man....Nilsson Sings Newman.....phew....extraordinary...

A friend of mine in college swore by Harry's later albums, like 'Duit on mon dei.' I haven't heard them myself. Thoughts?

Not completely sure, but it must be one of his very earliest albums.

Joy to the world was a beautiful girl
But to me Joy meant only sorrow

Does anyone have either of those two double-CD sets comprised from his last late 70s records? I like the few songs I have from them on comps, and I'm intrigued...

Thoughts about his best record? Those first three are all filled with absolutely brilliant pop confections, but also some filler. Pussy Cats is pretty terrific in places -- "Don't Forget Me" being one of his best twisted ballads.

You're not the only choo choo train,
That was left out in the rain,
The day after Santa came.
You're not the only cherry delight,
That was left in the night,
And gave up without a fight.

He also apparently finished his last album right before he died in 1994. Would love to hear that...

And??!? Sadly, I am Soul Seekless right now...

Hours later I caught Harry heading for the hotel bar with friends and I asked him about a rumor I heard that their might be a POINT II in the works (animated sequel and album to The Point) and he said there was some talks about it. He said he wanted to call it "Back To The Point". Obviously, it was never made - but he did seem to have some fondness for The Point. At this point in his career Harry's voice was raspier than ever - and he never did recover to the point where he released anything like his earlier albums. I think he had just done the Popeye Soundtrack, which of course he didn't sing himself. But now hearing that there may be demos to it I certainly would love to hear what that sounded like.

My last recollection about Harry is a bittersweet one... he decided to join the Beatlefest house band onstage during one of their sets, and although it got a standing ovation from the audience - it was more out of appreciation for the man than it was for the vocal performance anyone was hearing that night. Harry was obviously drinking and at times when he spoke you either couldn't hear him or understand him - but I remember just the same how everybody went crazy for him. How could you not? I mean - this was Nilsson.

"Put a lot of echo on it if you can..."

I'm probably going to wind up snatching everything through Pussy Cats (already got that, Newman and Aerial Pandemonium Ballet) except Touch Of Schmillson, but I was wondering if anybody wanted to defend his post-Pussy Cats work. I've heard most of its really uninspired but I was wondering if anybody had a differing opinion.

Anyhow, Got the Camden 2CD Aerial Pandemonium Ballet thing. Brilliant stuff. Got a couple of singles back in the day, "Daybreak" and "All I think about is you" which are both fine and grand. too.

You know, I wrote a song in the style of (Harry's lonely version of) "One" — the subject of which was Harry's rumoured death. It was called "Coffin Full of Stones" and, yes, recounted the Marianne Faithful story. You know that story, right, Dada?

"Cuddly Toy", btw, may be Harry's best song from that era. My gf (now fiance) positively adored that song — that is, until I told her what it was about...

yeah that all makes sense. Nilsson def had a better, more versatile voice than any of the Boys

Well, I don't know, Brian and Carl are pretty good singers! I get a strong Bobby Darin vibe off (in particular, but not exclusively) Nilsson's first album.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/pop-genius-harry-nilsson-left-an-unreleased-record-behind-now-you-can-finally-hear-the-completed-version/2019/09/24/0ae20126-dec7-11e9-b199-f638bf2c340f_story.html

wow, almost didnt recognize his voice on that sample track

UCLA sounds completely in keeping with latter day Nilsson. Title track, agree, sounds like nothing else he did. I would love to hear the demos as well.

https://i.imgur.com/Boy1C5O.png

dude was ahead of his time...

https://open.spotify.com/track/6fvIzrJ6boUDFF19fH4S2s?si=a48JN0ddSVeLd89E0LCCDQ

There are some days where I think that Pussy Cats may be his best album.

It's been reported that Zak Nilsson (Harry's son) has passed away after a long struggle with colon cancer.

I didn't know this, but when Paul McCartney heard he was starting chemo, he sent him this letter.

Confirmed on the Nilsson FB page.e

He appears w/Mom & Dad in the upper corner of the Son of... gatefold.

https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/2176/9085/products/R-682504-1350386714-1971_jpeg_1024x1024.jpg?v=1598380339

Just saw this. RIP.

Recently picked up ... That's the Way it Is as I continue very slowly filling in his post-Pussy Cats records. It's good! STE at Allmusic always gave me the sense this was the nadir of his recorded output, but it's feeling very consistent with Knnillssonn and Sandman, just wayyy more reliant on covers and therefore less compositionally or melodically surprising. If you like 50% or more of those records, you'd probably like 50% or more of this one.

That run of three albums: "Duit on Mon Dei", "Sandman" and "...That's the Way It Is", is pretty dire compared to the rest of his discography, although there's definitely good (even great) stuff on all those albums. "Knnillsson" is different beast entirely.

i hardly ever put them on individually, but there are enough good tracks across all of them to put together a pretty good album-length playlist imo

Yes, you could get one very good album out of the three, shorn of dross like "How to Write a Song" et al.

https://i.imgur.com/utaGNbW.jpg

This came on and I was like “how did I not know that Lennon covered this?”

Interesting to compare Nilsson's "Vine Street" to Van Dyke Parks' version starting off "Song Cycle"...

Or Harpers Bizarre's version.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sEkbPrsoX_c

... and Lulu's version!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=epxh3CetPo8

that Harpers Bizarre version is nice

This came on and I was like “how did I not know that Lennon covered this?”

Because he didn't? Lennon used the same string arrangement for "#9 Dream."

Nilsson's version is a cover tho ... of a Jimmy Cliff song.

Lennon freely admitted he copped it too.

Even in the depths of my Nilsson obsession - admittedly a long time ago now - I had no idea he had recorded an entire (unreleased) album of Yoko Ono songs. It was recorded in the mid 80s and there's been talk for a while of releasing it - Sean Lennon is involved in the release somewhere - no sign of it yet.

Anyway Harry's voice is pretty grizzled, though a lot less than Dennis Wilson's on Pacific Ocean Blue for instance, but he can still sell a song. I've not heard all of it but I really like what I've heard and it's fascinating to hear him singing to an all electronic backing.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MLmWj_SZAm0

something very surreal about that. idk if it's him sounding like Huey Lewis or the massive amounts of reverb on everything, it just sounds wrong for Nilsson. good tune though!

Pulled out Son of Schmilsson tonight, don't usually go for that one 'cause in my head it's long on the "slightly dark wackiness" angle - but I always forget, first of all, about "Spaceman" which is easily one of my top favorite Nilsson songs and probably one of my favorite songs of the Seventies period....and also about "The Lottery Song" which is just a gorgeous, sweet little treat. Wow. Totally totally slid past my ears the first x times I listened to this record.

― Doctor Casino, Sunday, November 4, 2012 9:18 PM bookmarkflaglink

lol i went through this entire experience AGAIN today, came here to post about how "The Lottery Song" has come out of nowhere to possibly being a personal top 15 Nilsson song. why won't it stick with me?!? maybe it's because the album's ratio of great to willfully goofy is just a little bit off... he really made such an abrupt, willful swerve away from indelible pop-rock greatness, and laid down essentially the template for every record he'd ever do afterwards. i like most of those albums to varying degrees, but it's hard not to wish he had ONE more Nilsson Schmilsson to his name, when things like "Spaceman" and "Lottery Song" are right there making clear he 100% still had it in him...

I’m with you on Lottery Song but Spaceman had always left me cold. I have a high Nilsson tolerance but I almost always skip Spaceman.

Oh man, that one floored me the moment I first heard it on the 1978 Greatest Hits album, and it still works its magic. I find it really relatable, and the ascension from the understated opening "bang bang, shoot 'em up, destiny" to Nilsson in his bombastic wailing mode gives it more of a sense of progression and variety than might actually be there in the lyrics and composition.

I love Spaceman as well, he's so clearly at the peak of his powers on that album but just decides to dog it for whatever reason. hard to think of too many non-Zappa albums like that.

Best albums list imo:
1. Harry
2. Nilsson Sings Newman
3. The Point

That’s probably about right. All of the early proper albums are solid. I like most of that more than The Point because I relate to the lyrics more. But The Point, like Nilsson Sings Newman, really does demonstrate his strengths very well. Pre-Pussycats, he could make other people’s material blend seamlessly with his own work. Post Pussy, they were just competent covers.

I like Nilsson a lot. In terms of personal favorites, my three would be Nilsson Sings Newman, Nilsson Schmilsson and Pussycats, but it says a lot that I enjoy all the music that could be tied to those albums as well, whether it's demos, outtakes, prior or later Randy Newman covers or Son of Schmilsson itself. He just has a rich and eclectic discography that's rewarding to sift through even if it's not entirely consistent. I think the only stuff I don't like all that much would be at the tail end when his recording career was winding down. The standards album is okay - I happen to love at least some of those songs, and I treasure the albums Gordon Jenkins did for Frank Sinatra, but Nilsson's album doesn't feel all that special aside from being a detour. (To his credit, he did it while his voice was still in protean shape, so I can't say I regret his decision to make it - if he was going to make a standards album, that was the time to do it.)

I can’t stand the production on Pussycats. I don’t know what it is that Lennon does but a lot of his productions have this smeary shit sound. I more or less accept it with Lennon’s own music because that’s just how he wanted it to sound. Hiding his voice, early rock pastiche, etc. It’s wretched applied to Nilsson who always benefited from clarity and attention to detail. Pussycats has some good stuff on it but the sound of it bums me out, not just the blown-out vocals.

It makes sense to me taking the album as a snapshot of a harrowing lost weekend. Like whenever I was around severely inebriated people who seemed to be having a riotous time, I pretty much figured what they were experiencing in real-time was pretty much a smeared, off-kilter, unfocused and hard-to-grasp perspective of everything going on around them.