For The Love Of Harry - The Nilsson Thread

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Davey the Fat Boy
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Re: For The Love Of Harry - The Nilsson Thread

Postby Davey the Fat Boy » 26 Jun 2010, 19:54

Snee - I think his collaboration with George Tipton is one of the great unsung collaborations in music. As great as they were, Richard Perry, John Lennon, Derek Taylor etc could not fill Tipton's shoes.

That alone causes me to be an early-Nilsson partisan.
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Re: For The Love Of Harry - The Nilsson Thread

Postby Sneelock » 26 Jun 2010, 19:55

shit, how can I argue with that?
even me.
Tipton was the right guy for Nilsson, no doubt about it. I love all Perry's flash but Tipton is the guy.

Sneelock

Re: For The Love Of Harry - The Nilsson Thread

Postby Sneelock » 26 Jun 2010, 20:06

still, who produced "duit on mon dei" and "Knilsson"? Harry! maybe some of those indulgences are what Harry wanted to do - wanted to get out of his system.
I guess it all boils down to what you consider strengths and what you consider weaknesses.

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Re: For The Love Of Harry - The Nilsson Thread

Postby Davey the Fat Boy » 26 Jun 2010, 20:19

Sneelock wrote:still, who produced "duit on mon dei" and "Knilsson"? Harry! maybe some of those indulgences are what Harry wanted to do - wanted to get out of his system.
I guess it all boils down to what you consider strengths and what you consider weaknesses.


I think it is similar to the discussion we had about Brando once. We were talking about The Missouri Breaks and his later career as a supporting actor. I thought he was great in that capacity - able to create such vivid characters in such limited screen time. But nobody would argue that his turns in The Formula or A Dry White Season were better than Streetcar or Waterfront where he was able to really dig in.

I think later Harry wasn't after big game much anymore. But he was still a master of what he did.
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Re: For The Love Of Harry - The Nilsson Thread

Postby Davey the Fat Boy » 26 Jun 2010, 20:24

Sneelock wrote:shit, how can I argue with that?
even me.
Tipton was the right guy for Nilsson, no doubt about it. I love all Perry's flash but Tipton is the guy.


Just found Tipton's Facebook fan page. I am the first person to "like" it. :)

Wonder who created it?
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Re: For The Love Of Harry - The Nilsson Thread

Postby king feeb » 26 Jun 2010, 20:30

Goat Boy wrote:Apologies if it's been asked before but what's the best place for a beginner to start?


Aerial Ballet is his most awesome album. It's available as a reasonably-priced two-disc set with Pandemonium Shadow Show (It also includes Aerial Pandemonium Ballet, which is cuts from the first two LPs remixed. I prefer the original mix, myself. There are also some worthy bonus tracks as well).

My first Nilsson disc was The Point, but it's not really the best starting point since it's half music and half narration. But the handful of songs on it are among his best, and it definitely should be one of your first ports of call.

And I like Son Of Schmilsson better than Nilsson Schmilsson, but that's just me.
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Re: For The Love Of Harry - The Nilsson Thread

Postby Goat Boy » 26 Jun 2010, 20:34

Cheers, Feeb.

Good stuff.
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Re: For The Love Of Harry - The Nilsson Thread

Postby Quaco » 27 Jun 2010, 08:21

Wow, I need to spend more time with his early albums. I always had the opposite view, that his early stuff, while obviously very good and well-crafted, was also a bit too twee.

To me, it was with Nilsson Schmilsson that he no longer was just The Beatles' favorite artist but actually started to be on par with them. And this continued with Son of Schmilsson, which is much the same but more so. Richer, funnier, more daring, dumber, yet still retaining the sparkle of quality. I'm a Harry vs. Richard Perry kind of guy I guess. That's his best to me.

Pussy Cats is great in its way, and I lose him a bit after that. I need to listen to the later stuff more too!
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Re: For The Love Of Harry - The Nilsson Thread

Postby Charlie O. » 27 Jun 2010, 13:47

Quaco wrote:Wow, I need to spend more time with his early albums. I always had the opposite view, that his early stuff, while obviously very good and well-crafted, was also a bit too twee.

To me, it was with Nilsson Schmilsson that he no longer was just The Beatles' favorite artist but actually started to be on par with them. And this continued with Son of Schmilsson, which is much the same but more so. Richer, funnier, more daring, dumber, yet still retaining the sparkle of quality. I'm a Harry vs. Richard Perry kind of guy I guess. That's his best to me.

Pussy Cats is great in its way, and I lose him a bit after that. I need to listen to the later stuff more too!

I could have written this. (edit: well, except for the Son Of Schmilsson being richer than Nilsson Schmilsson part.)
Last edited by Charlie O. on 24 Mar 2011, 03:14, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: For The Love Of Harry - The Nilsson Thread

Postby Balboa » 27 Jun 2010, 13:50

This thread is great - the writing is so passionate, all I want to do is listen to Harry Nilsson records! Good stuff.
Of course, I was mostly stoned at the time.

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Re: For The Love Of Harry - The Nilsson Thread

Postby Oenyaw » 27 Jun 2010, 14:38

I finally found a good copy of "Nilsson Shmilsson" on vinyl last month. That is such a classic.

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Re: For The Love Of Harry - The Nilsson Thread

Postby Davey the Fat Boy » 27 Jun 2010, 15:46

Charlie O. wrote:
Quaco wrote:Wow, I need to spend more time with his early albums. I always had the opposite view, that his early stuff, while obviously very good and well-crafted, was also a bit too twee.

To me, it was with Nilsson Schmilsson that he no longer was just The Beatles' favorite artist but actually started to be on par with them. And this continued with Son of Schmilsson, which is much the same but more so. Richer, funnier, more daring, dumber, yet still retaining the sparkle of quality. I'm a Harry vs. Richard Perry kind of guy I guess. That's his best to me.

Pussy Cats is great in its way, and I lose him a bit after that. I need to listen to the later stuff more too!

I could have written this.


Well far be it from me to tell you which stuff to love. One of the great things about this thread is realizing that just where you think he is falling off, someone else thinks he just gets going. I just spent the morning re-reading this entire thread and it struck me that so many of us viewed the guy so differently. What other artists can you say that about?

I won't try to talk you out of loving the Richard Perry records. I love them too. But I hope at some point you will reconsider your verdict on those early records. I could see casual listeners dismissing them as twee, but you guys are too smart for me to think that is all you get from those albums. Yes they are twee (I tend to gravitate towards twee), but those records are really deceptive and often dark underneath the veneer of froth. You can still love the Perry records more, but do give the early records another go.
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Re: For The Love Of Harry - The Nilsson Thread

Postby B » 27 Jun 2010, 16:58

I love it all but the Tipton stuff first turned me on.

As mentioned earlier it's Harry's personality that always shines on the records. That's not to say there aren't songs there - far from it! - especially on those early records. Harry loved music above all, and had overflowing personality and that's what comes through every time I hear him.

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Re: For The Love Of Harry - The Nilsson Thread

Postby Balboa » 23 Mar 2011, 22:05

BUMP
Of course, I was mostly stoned at the time.

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Re: For The Love Of Harry - The Nilsson Thread

Postby BARON CORNY DOG » 26 Mar 2011, 14:50

Balboa wrote:BUMP


:shock:

I put on Nilsson Schmilsson the other night. I keep it around for a few great songs and the simpatico vibe of the cover. It has always been an unsatisfying record to me and that didn't change.

But I watched the movie last night.

Holy shit. I think I thought I knew, but I now know that I didn't know.

I'll be back.

In the meantime, perhaps this should go in Classic Threads. I actually searched for it on google and found it that way. I read the last four or five pages and realized Balboa bumped it earlier this week!
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Re: For The Love Of Harry - The Nilsson Thread

Postby Bungo the Mungo » 26 Mar 2011, 14:52

:shock:

I was just looking for a torrent of the docu! came back to BCB to find this thing BUMPED!




A friend of mine loved the film, anyway. I might even have to BUY the fuckin' thing :evil:

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Re: For The Love Of Harry - The Nilsson Thread

Postby Bungo the Mungo » 26 Mar 2011, 14:57


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Re: For The Love Of Harry - The Nilsson Thread

Postby Davey the Fat Boy » 26 Mar 2011, 17:14

Every time this thread gets bumped, an angel gets their wings.




...and I end up reading it all over again. I wish there were 500 more Nilsson records. Sigh.
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Re:

Postby Quaco » 26 Mar 2011, 18:08

toomanyhatz wrote:I'd like to do the write-up for Pussy Cats- a very underrated record that gets unfairly lumped in with sloth and cocaine use. I've always found it fascinating- some truly wretched moments and some truly magical ones bump heads. And it's got the same sheen that Walls and Bridges does, and they both seem to mask a weird kind of desperation.

OK, do it! I just re-read the thread, and the record reviewing got a bit unfocused as it went along, much like Harry did! Still, it must be done ...


toomanyhatz wrote:Great writeup. I think it still might be my favorite. I probably rate "Gotta Get Up" higher than you, I think it's classic pop in a tin pan alley vein, with delicious wordplay and an appropriately peppy and alert melody.

I can't begin to say how much I loved "Jump Into the Fire" when I was a kid, and I still get lost in both the bass and drum sounds. That's production.

And I can't think of singing more perfect than his on "Without You."

How cool it was that we got to play bass and drums on this recently. You did a great job on the detuning bass solo too!
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Re: For The Love Of Harry - The Nilsson Thread

Postby Jock » 27 Mar 2011, 10:14

Is this of any use to you guys?
http://fortheloveofharry.blogspot.com/
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