Nilsson - C or D?

documentary was kind of formless and boring, oh well.

Well, the "Imagine: Nilsson" documentary was on BBC1 over the weekend, and is now on iplayer.

I thought it excellent...

This thing about "Nilsson shot his voice forever thanks to Lennon" doesn't hold up for me.

Even in the doc, they spoke of his contribution to The Fisher King as being "well, his voice was shot and his whistling all over the place" and then the track got played, and it sounded great.

Even "Many rivers to cross" sounded raw/ragged, but in a good way.

Been on a major Nilsson jag since watching the documentary. The piano/harpsichord coda to "Cowboy" on Nilsson sings Newman. Wow

That's a nod to the theme to Midnight Cowboy actually. And yes, it's awesome.

that version of Cowboy is so great. hard to imagine such power coming out of a sparse arrangement. nilsson and newman seem so perfect for each other.

Fuck, i knew the piano reminded me of something. Pretty dumb of me not make the connection. It really is a tremendous album though. I like a lot the rest of his catalogue but tbh i'm not much of a fan of the wackier material so it's my favourite. Dunno how they left "Snow" off the original tracklist either.

"Snow" is pretty much my favorite thing on the record. It's devastating.

the double- and then triple-tracking at roughly 7:15 = teh awesome
2012 republican presidential nominee III: can romney get santorum out of his hair?

Yeah, I dunno, Shakey, I have to say I think Harry's voice really shows the strain when he tries to tackle that later, political-meter-data-based material.

"people let me tell you 'bout mitt rom-ney"

"You're breaking my heart/you're tearin' it apart/So Ron Paul"

I can't live, if living is without Newt.

"Buy-y-y-y i-y-y-y Santorum (orum)
Try-y-y-y i-y-y Santorum (orum)
If you buy-y-y-y i-y-y-y Santorum
You will hear me singing...
'Down from the mountain to Mitt Romney
Down from Mitt Romney to the people
Teach 'em how to pray'

Buy-y-y-y i-y-y-y Santorum (orum)
Try-y-y-y i-y-y Santorum (orum)
If you buy-y-y-y i-y-y-y Santorum
You will hear me singing...
'Herman Cain (oh yes he will!)
Herman Cain (leavin' in the mornin' yeah)'

Buy-y-y-y i-y-y-y Santorum (orum)
Won't you try-y-y-y i-y-y Santorum (orum)"

Fuck it, somebody should have just done all of "I'll Be Home"...

Herman Cain, Herman Cain
When your nights are troubled and you're all alone
When you're feelin' down and need some sympathy
And there's no one else around to keep you company
Remember baby, you can always count on me
Herman Cain, Herman Cain, Herman Cain.

Herman Cain, Herman Cain
Wherever you may wander and wherever you may roam
You come back and I'll be waiting here for you
'Cause no one else will ever love you the way I do
I'll be here to comfort you and see you through
Herman Cain, Herman Cain, Herman Cain.

So, finally saw the documentary last night along with my sweets -- she was very intrigued and fascinated by his voice and immediately asked if I had anything by him (far too few things, actually -- aside from scattered tracks, just Son Of and the Popeye demos, oddly enough). She thought the documentary itself was a little too long though we were running it late in the evening, but she had a point since the film as noted is a bit poor on structure and detail at points, so it feels a bit like a slog. Still, loved the footage that did pop up and as an initial taste of everything there's been worse. Now I need to look through that For The Love of Harry blog...

Be careful Ned - you'll end up downloading all 11 volumes (22 discs!) of Harrities. I speak from experience.

This is not a bad thing.

true! Just giving you fair notice that you it's deep water you propose to enter.

Ha, well, I've already started that process. Meantime I'll order up Nilsson Schmilsson today from iTunes lest my girlfriend get testy.

I'm partial to Nilsson SIngs Newman. Great mix of voice and viewpoint.

Nilsson's the best, your girlfriend is great.

That she is. :-)

been listening to the 1st two proper albums today, boy they are fucking great.

I love that the Popeye demos are what Ned had on hand, too! I think every album he did up through Son of Schmilsson is SOLID, a perfect gem, and every album after that has 2-3 movingly perfect deep cuts.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UrQ8NHz6T4Q

man he really shot his voice in the mid 1970s. jeez.

also: go hog wild, ned:

http://fortheloveofharry.blogspot.com/2011/05/purple-chick-son-of-harrities-series-22.html

"go hog wild, ned" is a great line.

Started downloading it this morning!

When the TOTP repeats started happening, I was happy to see Nilsson's face in the top thirty run-down. "Look! Nilsson and a proper hit, everyone!"

Spaceman is sooo good / some of the alternate versions are downright spooky.

Why is this stuff only on boots? And is his wife ever gonna release the album he was working on when he died?

"Spaceman" got lodged in my brain in fall '10 and hasn't left.

any favorites from the Harrities list? are these for hardcore fans only?

Then there's this collection as well:

http://fortheloveofharry.blogspot.com/2011/12/bonus-tracks-volumes-1-3-2012.html

i really like those monkees demos: http://fortheloveofharry.blogspot.com/2011/05/son-of-harryties-02-mr-lennons-favorite.html
will admit that i have a five-disc nillsson rarities collection, and it is probably enough for me...

a LOT of the stuff on that 22-CD collection, especially the later years, is dodgy-to-worthless.

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.

!!!! I just bought Knnillssonn the other day and was going to post about it. It's good. Not quite up there with the best of them, but certainly better than the snoozier albums of his I've heard, eg A Touch of Schmilsson. Just enough weirdness to stay alive. Love all the plucky-plucky strings (real? fake?) and the crazy song about being in an Agatha Christie story.

― Doctor Casino, Tuesday, August 21, 2007 1:36 PM Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

listening to this again for maybe the third or fourth time since that post, record is sounding pretty fucking great on a couple classes of rye, turned up loud. Just great sound, his voice against all this plucky echoey space.

yeah, i think "all i think about is you" is one of his best.

I'm just getting over a chesty cold infection..

I reckon I could sing a blinding version of "All I think about is you" right now, if I could avoid coughing.

"Blanket for a Sail" is one of my favorites on this.

They're releasing a 17cd box! http://fortheloveofharrynilsson.blogspot.co.uk/2013/05/the-rca-albums-collection-2013.html

It has the tearjerking 'I Want You To Sit On My Face' on it, which is worth the price of admission.

nice!

whoa!

the only disappointment is they don't include the abridged/remixed/resequenced/etc version of his first two LPs which is actually damn good in its own right.

OTOH i already have that on CD so I can just keep that disc or rip it or whatever.

oh wait they do have that album on there, nevermind. it just seems placed in a weird order.

The albums are in the order in which they were actually released. "Aerial Pandemonium Ballet" came out way way after the two albums from which it's derived.

ah, i see.

it took me a minute to notice the three discs of unreleased stuff. whoa.

btw this is going for WAY cheaper on amazon.co.uk compared to USA amazon

which means that one of you is getting me a birthday present

that amazon uk/us price diff is bonkers. is that common? or is that likely a mistake? i never shop on amazon uk.