Harry Nilsson
A great lyricists. A great songwriter who had brilliant concepts for songs. Too bad he died so young.
You know he never did live shows or toured.
Lennon and Harry were very close friends.
9/12/2008 9:18:16 AM
Yes, the lost weekend/Brandy Alexander period!
9/12/2008 11:47:58 AM
Remember this show, "The Courtship Of Eddy's Father" in the late sixties? Or was it early 70s?
The theme song his sings starts at 3:00. The first person you see after the song starts in a very young Jody Foster!
youtube.com/watch?v=f6wbpx1nm...
9/12/2008 11:53:57 AM
Getting thrown out of the Whiskey/May Pang era...good times.
9/12/2008 11:55:01 AM
Oh, I forgot to say that Harry did the theme song to that show.........................obviously!
9/12/2008 11:55:28 AM
Are you guys familiar with his song,"Think About Your Troubles?"
I love that one.
9/12/2008 11:56:22 AM
How about "Me and My Shadow"?
9/12/2008 12:03:40 PM
You mean Me And My Arrow?
9/12/2008 12:06:34 PM
oops! Yeah.
9/12/2008 12:07:11 PM
Yup that's another one Swan..errr.....Ken!
Now it's off to Lowell General for another surgery......Yippie!!!
9/12/2008 12:09:42 PM
What's up? You ok?
Hope so...
9/12/2008 12:12:32 PM
Hip replacement Paul?
jk...hope whatever it is it's not too serious, maybe just lipo or something.
9/12/2008 12:29:47 PM
Breast reduction
I got 50.00 on either breast reduction or he's having his tonsils out
9/12/2008 12:33:17 PM
Maybe an electrical hand like Luke Skywalker
that would be pretty cool
9/12/2008 12:46:39 PM
I always loved the tune "Jump into the Fire", and when I saw one of my favorite movies (as you'll see here), this tune TOTALLY defines the moment!
youtube.com/watch?v=-mt3_scre...
9/12/2008 12:57:09 PM
Back. That was fun!
Thanks for the concern everyone! Nothing serious. I've had this cyst in my leg for a long time and it was bothering me. I finally decided to get it over and done with. My chief concern was that, being a jogger, I was worried that having it removed would effect my thigh muscle. The doctors insisted that it was on the surface and attached to the skin and wouldn't impact the muscle in any way.
It was interesting. I watched him take it out. Local anesthetic.
he emptied five syringes of Novocaine around the growth and began cutting. All I could feel was a little pressure and tugging.
He excised this thing like a chunk of suet or fat like you'd see from a pot roast or London Broil. Blood all over the place; then stuck it in a container with some solution in it for biopsy. Rip, stitch and sew. I go back in two weeks to have the stitches out.
No worse than having a tooth yanked, really. I've had worse experiences with dentists.
When it was over I put on my pants and shoes, walked out and drove home without any problem. It still doesn't hurt.
The doctor said, for pain just Ibuprofen or Tylenol and topical ointment when changing the bandage.
9/12/2008 3:38:03 PM
Jump Into The Fire! Yes too bad harry wasn't around to reap in the benefits when that some was used in the movie "Goodfellas".
That's Klaus Voorman playing bass on that one.
9/12/2008 3:45:49 PM
Scuse my spellin........guess I am a little fucked-up!
9/12/2008 3:46:57 PM
Feeling it now a bit. I'm starting to gimp around like Walter Brennan....DAG NABIT!!!!
9/12/2008 3:49:21 PM
smoke some weed
have a good weekend brother
9/12/2008 4:50:25 PM
"Think About Your Troubles?" Must be on the compilation I have....
9/12/2008 5:39:42 PM
That Lime In The Coconut song.....All over one C7 chord!
9/12/2008 5:42:49 PM
ARTIST: Harry Nilsson
TITLE: Think About Your Troubles
Sit beside the breakfast table
Think about your troubles
Pour yourself a cup of tea
Then think about the bubbles
You can take your teardrops
And drop 'em in a teacup
Take them down to the riverside
And throw them over the side
To be swept up by a current
Then taken to the ocean
To be eaten by some fishes
Who were eaten by some fishes
And swallowed by a whale
Who grew so old
He decomposed, doo, doo, doo
He died and left his body
To the bottom of the ocean
Now everybody knows
That when a body decomposes
The basic elements
Are given back to the ocean
And the sea does what it oughta
And soon there's salty water
Not too good for drinking
'Cause it tastes just like a teardrop
So they run it through a filter
And it comes out from a faucet
And it pours into a teapot
Which is just about to bubble
Now think about your troubles, now
9/12/2008 6:19:35 PM
Harry is one of my top 5 favorites. I almost managed to talk my wife into naming our son Harry.
9/12/2008 8:31:40 PM
Wow!!
9/13/2008 1:37:14 AM
See?
I knew Melvern was a smaht bastid!
Nilson's voice sold it.
His lyrics were the real deal.
His arranging was brilliant.
When he recorded, he proved he could perform.
But he never did perform in public.
No live concerts! Ever.
Imagine that?
Lennon knew how good he was as a songwriter.
here's some lyrics.
Even if you don't know the song, just read them.
It's good stuff.
I spend the night in a chair thinking she'll be there
But she never comes
And i wake up and wipe the sleep from my eyes
And i rise to face another day
Without her
Without her, i can't go on
Without her, i can't go on
Without her, i can't go on
It's just no good anymore when you walk through the door
To an empty room
You go inside and set a table for one, it's no fun
When you have to spend a day
Without her, do do do...
Without her, do do do...
We burst the pretty balloon took us to the moon
It's such a beautiful thing
But it's ended now
And it sounds like a lie
I said i'd rather die than live without her
Without her
Love is a beautiful thing when it knows how to swing
And it moves like a clock
But the hands on the clock tell the lovers to part
And it's breaking my heart
To have to spend a day without her, do do do...
Can't go on without her
Without her, i can't go on
Without her, i can't go on
Without her, i can't go on
We burst the pretty balloon took us to the moon
It's such a beautiful thing
But it's ended now
And it sounds like a lie
I said i'd rather die than live without her
Without her
Without her, do do do...
It's so wrong without her
Can't go on
I spend the night in a chair thinking she'll be there
But she never comes
And i wake up and wipe the sleep from my eyes
And i rise to face another day
Without her, do do do...
Can't go on without her
There's no song without her
It's all wrong without her
Can't go on
I can't go on (without her)
9/13/2008 1:42:07 AM
Where are the songwriters?
These days?
I know they are out there!
Nilson, was one of the best, and one of the most unappreciated.
That voice, that skill, and most of all... those good ideas... what should you write a song about?
He knew the answer to that question.
He wrote great lyrics and melodies. He played most of the parts himself.
Drums, bass, guitars vocals, ...but more than that... he had great song ideas.
He was a good singer, a fairly good piano player and guitarist, and an adequate drummer. He was an excellent arranger.
He was also a hell of a drinker!
He knew stuff.
he had hit songs.
The Beatles hung around with him.
David Bowie did too.
Many others admired him, - Jimmy Webb who stole the term "Up Up & Away," from Nilson, with Nilson's permission.
"Gotta Get Up," was Jimmy Webb's favorite Nilson song.
Nilson was a songwriter's songwriter.
Nilsson found himself in a dire financial situation when his financial adviser Cindy Sims betrayed his trust and embezzled all the money he had ever made as a recording artist. The Nilssons were left with $300 in the bank and a mountain of debt, while Sims served less than two years in prison for her crimes and was released from prison in 1994 without making restitution. Nilsson's health had meanwhile deteriorated, and he had suffered a massive heart attack in 1993. After surviving that, he began pressing his old label, RCA, to release a boxed-set retrospective of his career, and also started recording again, attempting to complete one final album. He finished the vocal tracks for the album on 15 January 1994, and then died that night of heart failure.
9/13/2008 1:59:57 AM
. Everybody's Talkin'
Coconut
Without Her
Me And My Arrow
Spaceman
9/13/2008 2:09:30 AM
Looking back on those lyrics...
I just wish that one day in my life, I could be that good.
Just one day.
Look how simple it is.
He says so much.
He creates an image, a mental image of where he is, and how he feels, and it's done so well.
I spend the night in a chair thinking she'll be there
But she never comes
And i wake up and wipe the sleep from my eyes
And i rise to face another day
Without her
Nilson was a great songwriter.
Try doing that.
9/13/2008 2:19:41 AM
Harry was one of the greats!
9/13/2008 4:00:37 AM
I'm sure that things would have turned around for him by now if he was still around today!
9/13/2008 4:04:14 AM
CC, Melvern, Kennium...thank you...I thought I was the only one who had a great appreciation for Harry Nilsson!!
I LOVED Me and My Arrow when I was a kid. Everyone's Talkin', Without You.
Brilliant. Tragic.
Thanks Crazy Cat!
9/13/2008 8:37:32 AM
I remember when the day he died was the same day as the Oscars. I was watching when Dustin Hoffman got up to present. The news must have not caught up to the room b/c he said the man Harry Nillson, composer of "Everybody's Talkin" the main theme of Midnight Cowboy (which Hoffman starred in) had passed away that day.
I remember the sound of the whole room collectively gasping, it was eerie but I never realized how popular he was. His music was definitely part of my soundtrack growing up.
9/13/2008 9:43:30 AM
Carl would have loved those vids too. I hope he sees them when he comes back from vacation!
9/13/2008 3:39:00 PM
did he do "Your Breakin My Heart"
9/15/2008 12:21:02 PM
Yup. That was him, and that's a funny song, isn't it?
I actually remember WBCN getting in trouble for playing that one on the air.
9/15/2008 1:03:39 PM
Of course you know that Nilsson's gigantic, definitive rendition of "Without You" was penned by Pete Ham of Badfinger.....
youtube.com/watch?v=pybs_1vgw...Barb, you mentioned the word "tragic". Indeed it was for Pete Ham—who wrote the song—as well as for Tommy Evans. They both committed suicide.
Also refer to Hams composition "Day After Day". Very sad and profound songs.
youtube.com/watch?v=6rfsyg7--...
9/15/2008 2:35:45 PM
That slide work on "Day After Day", stylistically, you can tell it's George Harrison—who produced the song and pitched-in during the recording session. Very Beatle-esque!
9/15/2008 2:51:12 PM
Paul
That slide work isn't Harrison, I believe the story went something like, ,,,The day Badfinger did the slide session, they found the Beatles pedel steel hangin around Apple.
The Bad finger guitar player was messing with it, & he did the session on it, but it does sound just like Harrison.
9/15/2008 3:38:48 PM
I believe the liner notes on the reissue of the record say that it was Ham AND Harrison.
9/15/2008 4:43:28 PM
I got it from Wikipedia. I though that it sounded like George and I checked first before writing it in.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/day_aft...So it says he played "some of the slide", but it sounded so much like him I just figured he did the whole thing!
9/15/2008 6:54:00 PM
That's probably right Ken!
9/15/2008 7:55:37 PM
As a fan, I appreciate all the wonderful comments about Harry's music. I'd like to invite y'all (I'm from the South) to visit the Harry Nilsson web pages at
harrynilsson.com/.
11/18/2008 12:35:35 PM
Just a couple of notes about earlier comments ....
In addition to writing and performing the theme song, Harry Nilsson also "sang" all the incidental music for the first season of "Eddie's Father."
It was during a Comic Relief telethon that Dustin Hoffman (who marrated Harry's "The Point!") took a moment to mention Harry's passing. Robin Williams and Whoopi Goldberg, the hosts of the show, had also worked with Harry.
Harry did live to see how wonderfully his "Jump Into the Fire" was woven into Goodfellas. He told a story of inviting his older kids to see the movie at a cineplex. He was disappointed that they snuck off to see a different movie.
-- Roger
11/18/2008 1:57:54 PM
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