Neko Case blew into town Sunday night and made sure to perform one of the highlights of her new album: a cover of Harry Nilsson's heartbreaker "Don't Forget Me." Commenter DLC then asked for a brief on Nilsson. So, thanks to a grant from the Nilsson Education Foundation, here's a quick lesson in the late singer-songwriter's towering awesomeness.
I. Songs Schmongs
"Don't Forget Me"
Duh. The original is pretty affecting on its own. Part of the power of Case's cover is that one of its intended recipients is the late Nilsson himself.
"Me and My Arrow"
An early example of Nilsson's unlikely genius for bounce. Bouncy, bouncy, bouncebouncebounce.
"Jump Into the Fire"
The man could also hit. To hear just how hard, listen to LCD Soundsystem's cover of this song. The original is mean, dirty and drunk, too. (See also: Goodfellas.)
"All I Think About Is You"
Big men aren't afraid to cry big tears. No one who has ever paid rent in the state of longing should do without this one.
"One"
Well, it is the loneliest number.
"Gotta Get Up"
The children's version of the McCartney half of "Day in the Life." And that's a good thing.
"I'll Never Leave You"
Liar.
[Couldn't find a stream of this one. Sorry.]
II. Albums Schmalbums
Nilsson Sings Newman
In which Nilsson yields to his interpretive impulse and finds, in a young Randy Newman, a songwriting voice as saturnine and vinegary as his, only more articulate. A truly great record whether you like either artist apart from the other (or if you, unaccountably, like neither).
Nilsson Schmilsson
OK, it has "Coconut" on it. It also features 6-foot-2 Nilsson on the cover wearing a bathrobe, a singular moment of truth-in-album-art-advertising because even its punchiest numbers (including a couple on this list) convey utter morning-after dissipation. Basically, this is Tonight's the Night for people who prefer tequila to heroin and need something to play seven hours after 3 a.m. while rinsing vomit out of the corn flakes bowl. Again, that's a good thing.
Pussycats
Music for 4 p.m. the same day. With John Lennon during his lost weekend and just before the start of his househusband years. It achieves with covers and throwaways and tattered voices and alcoholic nerves what few albums of all originals manage: It's basically a Raymond Carver story set to music, one about drunk, lovelorn, self-pitying rock stars. Not a great album but an unforgettable one.
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I <1>love Nilsson. So sad the general public only knows him--if they know him at all--for "Lime in the Cocoanut" and the guy who got drunk with Lennon during the so-called Lost Weekend. I love you, Harry.
The first record I ever owned was Son of Schmilsson. I wrote a blog entry about it recently: http://kansascitysoil.blogspot...
My favorite Nilsson -- and it wins by just one single unkempt-beard hair over other equally great songs in his repertoire -- is his version of "Save the Last Dance for Me" from Pussy Cats. The original version, written by a handicapped guy whom Scott probably knows by name without looking up, was made chintz-famous by the Drifters.
But, like all of the songs on Pussy Cats' songs Nilsson's reinterp is burned out, slow, drungover and beautiful.
Dreadpirate, the thing about Touch is that the arrangements are by Gordon Jenkins, who did some great work for Sinatra (along with some syrupy stuff that hasn't aged well) and wrote "Goodbye," one of the deepest troughs in the most indispensable dark-night-of-the-soul album ever, Sinatra's Sings for Only the Lonely. Whimsy, even irony, work in Nilsson's favor across his discography, but his readings of "Over the Rainbow" and "Always," among other standards on Touch, indeed make that record its own brand of classic, and I almost included it here.
DLC, thanks for the thanks, but I have to counsel you that you need to get yourself at least 9 feet closer to Newman. Those early Reprise albums -- 12 Songs, Sail Away and Good Old Boys -- are musts.
A Little Touch of Schmilsson in the Night is one of my favorite used CD store finds. It's a bit like Willie Nelson's Stardust, with a lot more whimsy provided by Harry and the lyrical flourishes he adds to songs like It Had to Be You.
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