“Do you every listen to any of the older fellas?”
Bing and Bowie in 1977 …
Ferrell and Reilly in 2010 …
Peace on Earth / Little Drummer Boy – Crosby and Bowie / Reilly and Ferrell
1
The fans will stay for an hour or so …
Nominations for induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2016 have been announced. Once again, Harry Nilsson is not on the list. This is a great disappointment to Nilssons fans including many who have participated in the Harry in the Hall campaign the past year.
Sometimes the journey is as important as the destination. The moment has passed, but the movement lives on. We have just been given another year to share what Harry’s music has meant to us with other fans, musicians, and the public in general.
Some kid is going to see one of the videos and start learning how to play a Nilsson tune on his guitar. A filmmaker is going to read one of the articles online and recall a song of Harry’s that is perfect for the soundtrack of her movie. Some people are going to be reminded of why they love Harry’s music while others are going to fall in love with Harry’s music for the first time.
These little seeds we’ve planted have the potential to become large trees – not only to “keep the memory green” but to encourage it to grow.
Help Put Harry in the Hall
[Edit: The recording is “in the can,” but your help is still needed to fund post-production and promotion!]
You can support the effort by donating to the Go Fund Me campaign to raise money to cover the expenses of renting the studio and recording the song.
Everybody’s Talkin’: The Music of Harry Nilsson – At San Diego Rep, May 23 to June 21
The San Diego Rep, located in downtown San Diego, California, presents “Everybody’s Talkin’: The Music of Harry Nilsson,” from May 23 to June 21, 2015.
Two Tony-winning Broadway actors, Alice Ripley and Gregory Jbara, star in the “song cycle that explores the incredible journey from innocence to adulthood through the many stages of love.” Based on the music of “the most famously anonymous composer and performer of our time,” Harry Nilsson, “Everybody’s Talkin'” was created by Steve Gunderson and Javier Velasco (the award-winning team behind “Suds: The Rockin’ 60s Musical Soap Opera” and “Back to Bacharach and David”).
7 p.m. Tuesdays-Wednesdays; 8 p.m. Thursdays-Saturdays (plus 2 p.m. June 6 and 4 p.m. June 20); 2 and 7 p.m. most Sundays. San Diego Rep’s Lyceum Stage, 79 Horton Plaza, Gaslamp Quarter. About $38-$67. (619) 544-1000 or sdrep.org
Nilsson in the News
With the release of the Harry Nilsson Biography and a new box set of Nilsson’s recordings, Harry Nilsson is receiving numerous mentions in the news and other media.
Douglas Wolk illustrates his overview of Nilsson’s career and it’s affect on others, The Surprising, Lasting Influence of Harry Nilsson, at mtvhive.com with videos of Nilsson and others performing Harry’s songs.
On August 6, Jane Fonda talked with Jimmy Fallon about Harry Nilsson’s Nilsson Schmilsson album which was produced by Fonda’s boyfriend, Richard Perry.
Geoff Edgers talked with Van Dyke Parks and Lee Blackman for his August 3 Boston Globe article, Harry Nilsson gets star treatment in new set, book. Edgars also appeared on WBUR’s Radio Boston show to talk about Nilsson (Rediscovering Musician Harry Nilsson).
Sean Fennessey describes Nilsson as “the great lost music genius of the 1970s” in his grantland.com article Deconstructing Harry (August 2).
Ben Greenman lists “The Ten Best Lesser-Known Nilsson Songs” in his July 30, New Yorker article.
While discussion the biography and box set, Slate describes Nilsson as a cross between John Lennon and Paul McCartney: “Harry Nilsson had John’s perversity, Paul’s whimsy, and one of the strangest careers in singer-songwriter history.”
More from the News and Media:
Watch the New Promotional Video for the RCA Albums Box Set
Sony’s Legacy label has released the following promotional video for the upcoming box set of Harry Nilsson’s RCA albums.
Flash Harry Coming on CD
Joining the recently announced biography and RCA box set, Varese Sarabande Records CD of Harry Nilsson’s, Flash Harry, is coming August 13. Originally released on LP and cassette, and only outside the US, by Mercury Records in 1980, Flash Harry was the last album Nilsson released.
The new CD includes four bonus tracks: “Old Dirt Road (alt. version),” “Feet,” “Leave The Rest To Molly” and “She Drifted Away.”
The last three tracks are previously unreleased outtakes from the Flash Harry sessions which took place at Cherokee Studios in Los Angeles. They feature Lowell George, Fred Tackett, and Bill Payne (of Little Feat); Ringo Starr; Van Dyke Parks; Jim Keltner; Jim Gordon; Klaus Voormann, Dr. John; and Donald “Duck” Dunn.
The CD includes an eight page booklet with additional liner notes by Jerry McCulley. A vinyl version of Flash Harry (limited to 2,500 units) is also planned. The LP will not contain the four bonus tracks.
Harry Nilsson: The RCA Albums Collection
Now that Amazon.com has spilled the beans a little early, here’s a part of the big news that I couldn’t report earlier!
This summer, Sony’s Legacy label is releasing The RCA Albums Collection, a huge box set of Harry Nilsson’s RCA albums on CD along with three additional CDs of outakes and single-only releases. The set includes 17 CDs in total:
- Disc 1 PANDEMONIUM SHADOW SHOW (Stereo and Mono)
- Disc 2 AERIAL BALLET (Stereo and Mono)
- Disc 3 HARRY
- Disc 4 NILSSON SINGS NEWMAN
- Disc 5 THE POINT!
- Disc 6 AERIAL PANDEMONIUM BALLET
- Disc 7 NILSSON SCHMILSSON
- Disc 8 SON OF SCHMILSSON
- Disc 9 A LITTLE TOUCH OF SCHMILSSON IN THE NIGHT
- Disc 10 PUSSY CATS
- Disc 11 DUIT ON MON DEI
- Disc 12 SANDMAN
- Disc 13 …THAT’S THE WAY IT IS
- Disc 14 KNNILLSSONN
- Disc 15 NILSSON SESSIONS 1967-1968
- Disc 16 NILSSON SESSIONS 1968-1971
- Disc 17 NILSSON SESSIONS 1971-1974
The three newly-compiled CDs, Nilsson Sessions 1967-1968, Nilsson Sessions 1968-1971, and Nilsson Sessions 1971-1974, contain a total of 58 tracks, half of which (29 tracks) are previously unreleased.
The set will be released in July, 2013. It is available for pre-order from Amazon.com.
Chester Cannon, of the For the Love of Harry Nilsson blog, suggests that you may be able to order the upcoming box set for less from Amazon.co.uk even if you are in the US.
Auction: The Nilsson Anthology Songbook
During a little housecleaning, I can across an extra copy of The Nilsson Anthology Songbook. So, I decided to offer it on eBay. This rare songbook includes 25 of Nilsson’s songs arranged for piano and guitar. Click here to visit eBay.
The Harry Nilsson Web Pages Site Has Moved to NilssonSchmilsson.com
You may have noticed that the Harry Nilsson Web Pages web site has a new home at http://www.nilssonschmilsson.com/. I moved the site to the new domain because Sony is developing an official Harry Nilsson web site which will reside at http://www.nilssonschmilsson.com/. Until the new site is ready, HarryNilsson.com will automatically forward to NilssonSchmilsson.com.
I’ve always understood that it was a privilege for us to be allowed to use the HarryNilsson.com domain name. Domain names like HarryNilsson.com are very important, not so much for the traffic they attract, but because they impart authority to the web site associated with the domain name. While we think of Harry Nilsson as an incredibly gifted singer and songwriter (and to many of the wonderful people I’ve met over the years, a friend and family member), the name “Harry Nilsson” also represents a very valuable business asset.
Although The Harry Nilsson Web Pages site was never the official Nilsson web site, many visitors probably thought it was due to the domain name. It’s a great compliment to the fans of Harry Nilsson that Una Nilsson, Lee Blackman (the manager of Harry’s Estate), and RCA/BMG/Sony allowed us to use it for so long. Many thanks to Una, Lee, and Sony!
The transfer of HarryNilsson.com to Sony was completely amicable. Lee Blackman called me and asked if I was willing to let Sony have the domain. Without hesitation, I said “yes.” At Mr. Blackman’s request, Sony will include a link to NilssonSchmilsson.com on the new web site.
I’m looking forward to seeing the new official Harry Nilsson web site. It’s just the first of many new, exciting Nilsson-related developments on the horizon.