Countdown To The NILSSON Box Set - Part Two

Countdown To The NILSSON Box Set 

COMPLETE RCA ALBUMS COLLECTION

PART TWO: 

Stephen SPAZ Schnee 

Remembers 

"Without You"
(from the album Nilsson Schmilsson)

"There is not a song in contemporary Rock music that is as perfect as Harry Nilsson's rendiiton of 'Without You.'  The recording gets everything right, from the passionate vocal to the arrangement, production and orchestration.  Emotionally, it is one of the single most powerful performances in recorded music.  It just hits you square in the face and then weaves its way through your veins until it buries its roots smack dab in the middle of your heart and stays there for the rest of your life.  It is not a recording that you forget - it is one that you carry with you  no matter what emotion you are experiencing.  It is a song that reminds us of the sorrow of loss and the joy of love.  At some point in our lives, we've all experienced the pain that Harry sings about.  And a listener connecting with the song on an emotional level brings every word to life... Harry isn't just singing about his own deteriorating relationship, he is breathing the soundtrack to our love lives.  And that's why 'Without You' has become a classic.

Harry was known as one of the best songwriters of his generation, yet he didn't write his two biggest hits.  'Everybody's Talkin'' (from Midnight Cowboy) was written by Folk singer/songwriter Fred Neil and 'Without You' was penned by Pete Ham and Tom Evans from the British band Badfinger.  By now, most people know the tale of Badfinger: promising band signs to The Beatles' Apple Records label, they score some pretty significant hits ('Come And Get It', 'No Matter What', 'Baby Blue' and 'Day After Day'), they leave Apple Records and sign with Warner Brothers, they get screwed over by their manager and the music biz in general, Pete Ham commits suicide in '75, Tom Evans commits suicide in '83... Not a happy story at all.  But the band (which also included Joey Molland and the late Mike Gibbins) are still regarded as one of the best bands of their era. Icons.  Legends.  However,, their own recording of 'Without You' was never issued as a single.  While their's may be the original version (Ham wrote the verses and Evans wrote the chorus), it doesn't quite reach the highs that Harry's version does.  He heard the song's potential and transformed it into something truly spectacular. Pete and Tom may have written 'Without You' but Harry Nilsson reinvented it and now owns it.

Badfinger's original version appeared on their 1970 album No Dice.  Harry was at a party in Laurel Canyon in '71 when he heard the record playing.  He assumed it was a Beatles song he'd never heard before.  While I wouldn't say it sounds like The Beatles, I will also say that I never attended a party in Laurel Canyon in the early '70s. And if the stories are true, there were probably a few different substances being passed around at this particular party. So, to be completely honest, I'm sure if I was high enough, I'd think a fucking Carole King album sounded like The Beatles!

So, Harry, who was working on his Nilsson Schmilsson album, went in and wanted to record a simple piano-based version of "Without You".  A demo was made.  Producer Richard Perry suggested a lot of musical embellishment (including rhythm section and orchestra) and had to fight Harry tooth and nail to get that version recorded.  Supposedly, Harry lost interest in 'Without You' once Perry persuaded him to go big on the arrangement and production.  Harry is rumored to have told the musicians that the song was 'awful'.  Members of Badfinger were unaware of the cover version until they were pulled into the studio and listened to a playback of the song. I can only imagine how powerful that moment must have been: the original writers of the song hearing this majestic interpretation of their very own 'child'. 

'Without You' by Harry Nilsson went to #1 on the U.S. charts.  It remains his career-defining moment.  The song itself has become a true classic.  Practically every Easy Listening artist has taken a crack at it, but nothing comes close to Harry's version.  In 1994, Mariah Carey did an amazing job of sucking the passion, emotion and life out of the song when she recorded it and released it a single. I'm not sure that it was entirely coincidental that our beloved Harry Nilsson died the day her version was released. Shame on you, Mariah. 

(NOTE: When I saw the reunited Badfinger perform at the Roxy in 1979 for the Airwaves tour, they started the song out like the original Badfinger recording but then Tom Evans stepped up to the mic and said "Let's do it like Harry did it" (or something to that effect) as keyboardist Tony Kaye started playing the piano intro just like the Nilsson version. That was a 'chills up my spine' moment, indeed.)"

Stephen SPAZ Schnee

Countdown To The NILSSON Box Set - Part One

Countdown To The NILSSON Box Set 

COMPLETE RCA ALBUMS COLLECTION

PART ONE: 

ALAN HABER 

Remembers 

SON OF SCHMILSSON

"Without question, Harry Nilsson’s Son of Schmilsson was the right album for the right time. When it was released in 1972, I was 17 and had my sights set on college. I was especially open to new ideas. Enter into my record collection this completely unhinged set of songs that perfectly summed up the artist’s newfound penchant for baiting the listener with a love song and, in the next heartbeat, pulling out the rug from under you and dialing up an in-your-face rocker preceded by a healthy belch.

Despite all that, this was a pretty typical Nilsson album. He hadn’t abandoned his gifts for melody or whimsy; he just dressed them in funkier clothes. For every lowbrow joke on the record—the aforementioned belch preceding the wild and wooly rock ‘n’ roll oldie, “At My Front Door”—there was a straight-ahead, old –fashioned, sweet little number like “The Lottery Song,” in which a couple flirts with winning the big prize amidst hopes of growing its value in Las Vegas. Well, sort of sweet, anyway. And there was “Turn On Your Radio,” a beautifully-arranged, pretty song about hope and being at peace with the one you love, even if that person is far away.

There were other, more sanguine numbers that threatened to eclipse the less dainty ones. “Remember (Christmas)” was one, a beautiful, wistful look back at a life lived to the fullest. There were a few, emotionally-invested rockers, too: the bluesy, horn-infused “Spaceman,” the equally bluesy, late-night jazz club vibe of “Ambush,” and “Take 54,” a take-the-chick-and-run song of the highest order. And—oh yeah, that was about it.

That leaves the jokes, and they were plentiful. Low and even lower still, but plentiful. And melodic, too, wonderful compositions that showed that Nilsson hadn’t abandoned the things that got him here, wherever that was. There was the faux country song “Joy,” delivered in a mock country crooner tone and actually—somewhat suspiciously, some might say—released as a country single by RCA. And let’s not forget the jokey-on-the-surface “I’d Rather Be Dead,” sung with gusto by Harry and a group of senior citizens. Believe me, even at 17, the sentiment was not lost on me. Who wants to wet their bed?

Of course, the song on everybody’s lips was the infamous “You’re Breaking My Heart,” which proudly flaunted the f-word and sent parents around the world running towards their kids’ stereos with a hammer. Such language!

That leaves this album’s centerpiece, the anthemic love song “The Most Beautiful World in the World,” a two-part number that eschewed the obvious frat boy jokes for a more sentimental approach. The song’s first section, adopting a catchy, pop construction colored with a faux island beat, finds Harry professing his love for the whole, entire world. The second section is an altogether loftier proposition. Here, Harry gets down to business, calling out the world’s various attributes (“Your mountains when you’re mad/Your rivers when you’re sad/And those deep blue seas/I love you for your snow/Your deserts down below/I love the way you wear your trees”) and declaring that he “just couldn’t stay here without you.”

But Harry’s not fooling anyone. The punch line is right around the corner. “So when you get older/And over your shoulder/You look back to see if it’s real/Tell her she’s beautiful/Roll the world over,” he sings, and, bingo, the payoff!: “And give her a kiss/And a feel,” as the orchestra and Hollywood blockbuster chorus swell behind him. A beautiful setup followed by a tiny, smutty joke. Really a song about a girl? Who knows. Pure Harry.

Surely, Son of Schmilsson was not the work of the man who made Pandemonium Shadow Show. Or Harry, even. This was the work of an artist bent on market self-destruction, a man who began making the recorded left turn his raison d’etre. But it’s the album that I always come back to because it synthesizes the various colors of the artist’s writing and performing gifts. The songs make you laugh, cry, laugh again, and shut the door and put a towel at the bottom to keep your parents from hearing the smutty jokes.

Son of Schmilsson is the most beautiful album in the world, to put it mildly, and an astounding 41 years after its initial release, it remains my favorite Nilsson platter. Plus it’s got Richie Snare, George Harrysong, Nicky Hopkins, Peter Frampton and Klaus Voorman making the songs come alive. Who could ask for anything more?"

Alan Haber 
(DJ/Journalist/Programmer of Pure Pop Radio)
http://loudcity.com/stations/alan-haber-s-pure-pop,