Album of the Day — August 5
Harry Nilsson — Nilsson Schmilsson
Harry Nilsson — Nilsson Schmilsson
05.August.2020
Harry Nilsson
Nilsson Schmilsson
1971
Whether or not most people are aware of it or not, the influence of Harry Nilsson on music is rather considerable.
First, commanding a 3.5-octave vocal range, Nilsson was one of the first to layer and overdub vocals …with his vocals.
Nilsson experimented in such a way that some of his songs sound almost like full-on vocal bands. That kind of vocal overdubbing is much more common today than it was in the late ’60s or early ’70s.
Nilsson was so adept that at a press conference in 1968, the Beatles name checked Nilsson as “their favorite American band.”
Second, he was one of the few artists to achieve any kind of commercial success without touring regularly. Nilsson’s songs were built in such a way, and he was so committed to his work, that performing them live was challenging. At his commercial peak, artists followed the album -> tour, album -> tour pattern …Harry Nilsson actively defied that pattern. This kind of defiance and rebelliousness continue to influence both mainstream and indie artists today.
Third, by 1971, Nilsson’s first two albums, Pandemonium Shadow Show and Arial Ballet, were out of print. Because of his newfound success, he took the master tapes of those albums, remixed, tweaked, and re-recorded vocals. In the end, he created an entirely new album Aerial Pandemonium Ballet — considered to be the first “remix” album, which contains the first mashup song “You Can’t Do That.”
And lastly, in 2015, Harry Nilsson was voted #62 on Rolling Stone’s list of 100 Greatest Songwriters of All Time, describing him as “a crucial bridge between the baroque psychedelic pop of the late Sixties and the more personal singer-songwriter era of the Seventies.”
Because of his success with “Everybody’s Talkin’” from the 1969 movie Midnight Cowboy and his cover of the Three Dog Night hit “One,” his record label, RCA, let Nilsson record Nilsson Schmilsson in London with American producer Richard Perry.
The album took six months to make, and in 1971, that was an unusually long time to record an album. But the album yielded three of Nilsson’s best-known songs, “Jump Into the Fire,” “Coconut,” both written by Nilsson, and the #1 hit “Without You,” written by Badfinger’s Pete Ham and Tom Evans.
If you’ve ever had a gut-wrenching break-up, one you didn’t want, but they did …or maybe one you didn’t want but knew needed to happen …or just had your put through a meat grinder (and who hasn’t), you’d be hard-pressed to find a better song than “Without You.”
Its simple piano intro is egregiously misleading for the complex emotions contained in the lyrics. As more instruments slide into the song, Nilsson’s passion in his vocals builds until we reach the chorus — a man pleading for his lover not to leave.
Without You
No, I can’t forget this evening
Or your face as you were leaving
But I guess that’s just the way the story goes
You always smile but in your eyes your sorrow shows
Yes, it shows
No, I can’t forget tomorrow
When I think of all my sorrow
When I had you there but then I let you go
And now it’s only fair that I should let you know
What you should know
I can’t live if living is without you
I can’t live, I can’t give any more
Can’t live if living is without you
I can’t give, I can’t give any more
Well, I can’t forget this evening
Or your face as you were leaving
But I guess that’s just the way the story goes
You always smile but in your eyes your sorrow shows
Yes, it shows
Can’t live if living is without you
I can’t live, I can’t give anymore
I can’t live if living is without you
I can’t live, I can’t give anymore
Living is without you
In one of the more sublime moments of the song, right around the 2:07–2:11 range as Nilsson goes into the second chorus, you can hear his voice crack on one of the background tracks. You will only notice it if you listen for it, but it’s that minor touch of verisimilitude that adds a unique texture to the song and makes “Without You” one of the more brutal break-up songs.
“Coconut” was the second single off the album and is as much a story as a song. There are four characters, the narrator, the brother, the sister, and of course, the doctor, and all voices are Nilsson’s. A sort of silly song with a Calypso beat to it, it’s best known for its infectious chorus: “Put de lime in de coconut, and drink ’em both up.”
The third single “Jump Into the Fire” is likely remembered for two things:
Being the song played in the film Goodfellas as Ray Liotta is driving around in his Cadillac, coked out of his mind, trying to avoid helicopters and his arrest.
The exceptionally inspired drumming of Jim Gordon that pulses throughout the song. Without Gordon, “Jump Into the Fire” sucks.
Some of the musicians that play on Nilsson Schmilsson read like a who’s who of artists that would shape the genre we now know as “Classic Rock”:
Jimmy Webb — Piano (Songwriter known for “Wichita Lineman” and “MacArthur Park”, etc.)
Herbie Flowers — Bass (T. Rex)
Bobby Keys — Saxophone (The Rolling Stones, Lynyrd Skynyrd)
Jim Keltner — drums (session musician for, well, just about everyone)
Gary Wright — piano, organ (singer/songwriter of “Dream Weaver”)
Jim Price — Trumpet, etc. (The Rolling Stones)
Nilsson Schmilsson would get four Grammy Award nominations for the album in 1971:
Best Male Pop Vocal Performance for “Without You”
Record of the Year for “Without You”
Album of the Year for Nilsson Schmilsson
Best Engineered Album, Non-Classical for Nilsson Schmilsson
Nilsson would win for Best Male Pop Vocal Performance.
CRITICS:
Andy Beta at Pitchfork said: I’ll always love the way he paved over the sub-Lennon scream of Badfinger’s chorus on “Without You”, beyond the simplistic resignation of the original and into a cathartic, climactic release. Aiming for the heart and the top of the pops, though, Nilsson’s Schmilsson, in its shuffling, slightly askew, and idiosyncratic way, hit it all perfectly…”
In Rolling Stone, Barry Walters wrote: “Blessed with a tenor that could make angels weep and the smarts to know how to use it, Nilsson nevertheless failed to ignite the album charts until 1971’s Nilsson Schmilsson. The hit single was Nilsson’s powerful cover of “Without You,” a previously overlooked cut written and first recorded by Badfinger. The rest of the album established Nilsson as a talent of unusual depth and scope…”
Even Robert Christgau liked Nilsson Schmilsson, giving it an initial grade of A-minus before upgrading to a solid A: “You probably know by now whether you dig Nilsson’s whimsy and vocal pyrotechnics. If so, the two-and-a-half years since his last real lp (Harry) have been worth it — this is his best, a real demonstration of his studio mastery. If only every artist could learn to mark time until a good record was ready.”
Nilsson Schmilsson would prove to be Harry Nilsson’s peak before sliding into the usual Behind the Music like stories of discontent and addiction. Most notably as a member of the Hollywood Vampires (a drinking club started by Alice Cooper). He became best friends, and primary co-conspirator, with John Lennon.
The stories of Nilsson and Lennon carousing around Hollywood during Lennon’s 18-month “Lost Weekend” sabbatical are legendary. One of which includes a particularly nasty dispute that led to the Beatle and Nilsson getting kicked out of the Troubadour for heckling comedians The Smothers Brothers and allegedly assaulting a waitress.
Imagine being the person who had to kick out two of the biggest rock stars in the world …and how bad they must’ve behaved in order to get kicked out.
Another story being that while Lennon was producing Nilsson’s Pussy Cats in 1974, Paul and Linda McCartney stopped by the studio. And along with Nilsson, Stevie Wonder, and Bobby Keys (and alleged mountains of cocaine), an impromptu jam session took place — it would prove to be the last time John Lennon would record with Paul McCartney.
Rock and roll historical side-bar: Harry Nilsson’s London apartment was the home to not one, but two, rock and roll deaths (he was not present for either). Cass Elliot, of The Mamas and Papas, died there after a performance in 1974. In 1978, The Who drummer Keith Moon died there of an overdose of Clomethiazole, a drug Moon was taking to combat alcoholism.
The shadow that Harry Nilsson cast on rock and roll is much larger than people realize. Nilsson was creatively cantankerous and not one to be pigeonholed as just a pop musician. He wrote a musical Zapata, he did the soundtrack for Robert Altman’s Popeye, and long before it was trendy, he recorded an album of American standards by Irving Berlin, Bert Kalmar, and Harry Ruby called A Little Touch of Schmilsson in the Night. He started a production company and wrote a movie, The Telephone with writer Terry Southern.
If he were still alive, rest assured, Nilsson would have a clothing line and at least one alcoholic spirit.
Sadly, he is not, Harry Nilsson died in 1993.
Thankfully, his music lives on.
We won’t ever really be without him.