Nilsson - C or D?

I found VDP and Jimmy Webb's stuff very affecting. And I admired how negatively the guy was portrayed for so much of it. But yes, it did sort of beg for a slightly more in depth discussion of his music.

Re. the decline years...the footage of him recording in '75 or so with the full bar and deli buffet in the studio, catching cigarettes thrown into his mouth and so forth, made me sad I never got around to writing a proposed piece for Stylus on his post-Pussycats records. Nobody declined like Harry Nilsson.

When rainbow beard told his funeral story, and said George Harrison told him his favorite Nilsson song was "Fuck you," I think that was actually Harrison just saying "fuck you" to rainbow beard. I mean, you know, not really, but in the best world, that's what happened.

I didn't know who rainbow beard was and was frustrated throughout the movie. Then I saw him on the VH1 or whatever reality show about Rock Camp.

rainbow beard is p unsettling

Who the hell *is* rainbow beard, Mr. Selzer? others amy also answer.
Not only was his beard/clashing purple velvet suit combo appalling, he just generally seemed like an unpleasant guy.

when i watched this i thought: that guy must get beat up every day of his life.

I think about this docu all the time, tho, just for the Nilsson facts. The story about him robbing a liquor store as a kid!

Personally, I am fond of the clip showing Harry catching a cigarette in his mouth and him lighting it without missing a beat during the Duit on Mon Dei sessions.

yeah, that was nuts. one of the most impressive things for me was just how awesomely slobby looking the guy was. i mean, the album covers of schmilsson and the others give you some idea, but wow, for a star he just looked like a mess. in a good way.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Hudson_(musician)

working with a broad variety of artists including Ringo Starr, Aerosmith, Ozzy Osbourne, Hanson, Harry Nilsson, and the Baha Men.

who let rainbow beard out who who

tread is now #1 result for fuck you rainbow beard

Ooga Booga!
http://img.poptower.com/pic-34398/mark-hudson.jpg?d=600

GAH!

ick.
thought that a big hole in the doc was the absence of a ringo interview. i'm sure the filmmakers tried to get him, but i guess ringo is kind of a cranky dude these days.

maybe he refused to be in it if rainbow beard was and the producers were all well theres no way were giving up rainbow beard i mean its RAINBOW BEARD

HIS BEARD IS A RAINBOW

i asked the director about ringo at a screening in new york, and he said ringo is unwilling to talk about those days on camera. or at least that's what ringo's people told him. it was definitely a hole.

ringo and mark rainbow beard hudson have worked together for years.

ringo apparently is unfamiliar w/the old 'oh nilsson lol crazy times *scratch chin look around nervously*' dodge

Was that at the 92nd st Y screening? I was at the premiere and was about to say I remember them discussing Ringo.

If you read the wiki on Hudson, he and Ringo have had a falling out.

this was at cinema village, where it played for a week or two.

wiki on hudson sounds like it should be the name of a new high-tech village in upstate new york.

It just clicked that this guy was one of the Hudson Brothers (of the Hudson Brothers Razzle Dazzle Show). Ugh.

kate hudson's uncle

on the opposite spectrum of interviewees, van dyke parks is great in this -- super insightful, sincere, dignified.

yeah hes cool 4 sure

I wish Van Dyke Parks was my uncle.

is there a van dyke parks doc cause if not calling all aspiring filmmakers

Every cult music figure has a documentarian who loves them

I was marginally fascinated by how personally devastated VDP and Jimmy Webb appeared to be about Nilsson wasting his talent. Not dying young but wasting his talent. Webb says something like, "The day I learned Harry ruined his voice was the worst day of my life." And at the end, Parks almost cries discussing how Harry had the gall to give up music because he wanted to fight gun violence.

yeah that was interesting -- got the feeling that van dyke really believed that nilsson's gift was as a musician, not as a lobbyist. which is probably otm. webb not even being able to discuss harry's voice problems was a little strange, just since webb seemed so even-keeled throughout the rest of the interviews, but i guess it was a big deal to him.

The rainbow beard bloke, wasn't he Sharon Osbourne's helper on X-Factor?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b8CL23Xl5yo

would shoot ball with

yeah that was interesting -- got the feeling that van dyke really believed that nilsson's gift was as a musician, not as a lobbyist. which is probably otm. webb not even being able to discuss harry's voice problems was a little strange, just since webb seemed so even-keeled throughout the rest of the interviews, but i guess it was a big deal to him.
--tylerw

Watched it again w my wife last night -- and I think that's right. First time around, I was struck by the fact that he seemed like a dick for most of the first half -- firing his producer from his first few records by telegram, dumping his wife and kid and generally carrying on like an asshole. Watching a second time I was struck by what a shitty childhood he had and how it clearly haunted him until he died -- at least until his third wife straightened him out a bit. I thought her point that he lived as if he knew it wouldn't be for very long was interesting.

The first son's scenes were heartbreaking though. After Harry walked out on him just like the damage his father gave him...then to find happiness with a new family and for the first son to experience that.

yeah sort of rough when one of his daughters was like "i didn't even know [the previous family] existed"

i couldnt quite parse the particularities of the 'abandonment' - its seemed like he just got divorced from the 1st kids mom - they were all he abandoned us but then there was tons of stories of them hanging out at seemingly all ages - seemed like he was more generally absent and neglectful than left one day to by cigarettes on the bad dad scale

kinda imagine it was more like he disappeared from his first family's life in the 70s, and maybe reconnected with the son in the 80s, though, yeah not entirely clear in the doc.

i'm torn between being glad there's a harry nilsson doc and disappointed that now someone who can actually tell his story coherently probably won't bother

It seemed pretty clear to me that he left the first wife and never saw the first son again really until the first son was an adult, when they hung out for 1 weekend. I don't remember any stories of them hanging out at all ages.

no one's written a bio, have they?

The first son's scenes were heartbreaking though. After Harry walked out on him just like the damage his father gave him...then to find happiness with a new family and for the first son to experience that.

see also: harry's good friend john lennon.

no one's written a bio, have they?

I've been trying to get my friend, who's a writer and the biggest Nilsson fan I know, to do this, but so far efforts have proved futile.

My sort of hope is that Curtis Armstrong (of Revenge of the Nerds/"Booger" fame), who has sort of emerged as the world's leading Nilssonologist with his liner notes and so forth, will write a proper bio.

wait waht

lol that's weird. why wasn't booger interviewed for the doc?!

fuck a bio i want booger to make biopic

Owen Wilson as Nilsson