…good Facebook pal, Simon Godfrey, mentioned Harry Nilsson in a post today, and… if yeez’ll excuse the pun, struck a chord with this ol’ Jurassic immediately… I’ve shared before just for the hell of it, tunes by the incomparable Harry… those of us who grew up in that age straddling the Flower Power generation and the post-Stones/Beatles mania have many great artistes to look back on and enjoy… Harry Nilsson was a one-off… he did things with his voice that many operatic and theatre musical singers find impossible… he was able somehow to bend the WURDS into the emotion in his songs… there was an edge to the tone, a sort of grittiness that made him special… many others have tried to do cover versions of his hits… ‘Without You’, for example, or ‘Have You Ever Seen A Moonbeam’ and ‘The Coconut Song’ are classics that really belong only to his renditions… my all-time favourite of his is the one featured at the top here, ‘I’ll Never Leave You Alone’… listen to the way he almost sobs through some of the lines… it’s not ‘blues’, it’s not ‘gospel’, it’s not ‘jazz’… it’s pure unadulterated Nilsson at his best… I heard a story once, and am unclear as to its truth, that sum’times the studio would put Harry into the sessions with his back-up musicians, supply any amount of booze and other ‘enlighteners’ if they so wished… then let them jam for hours, recording everything they played… the result often produced magical music… meantime, enjoy the number above… see yeez later… LUV YEEZ!…
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I still have my Son of Scmillson vinyl album. I also have You’re Breakin’ My Heart on my iphone.
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,,,now you’re talking REAL good stuff, that man 🙂
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Loved this post Seumas. Brings back memories of my kind of music and the artists I loved best. Thank you!
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… yes, it’s good to wander back from time to time to REAL music 🙂
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Reblogged this on muddled musings of a mangled mind.
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Ah this made me think and reminded me of a friend who produced Bad Finger early in their career and before there was a tragedy in the band. Wonderful songwriters – Ham and Evans I believe. They wrote Without you which Nilsson recorded. Just saying lol
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,,way to go, m’Lady…connections all around us ! 🙂
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Wonderful songs, writers and performers…such lovely memories. 🙂
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:):)
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Indeed 🙂
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Great singer, fantastic songs.
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…timeless, David… timeless…:):)
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Everybody’s talking at me…………………….
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Reblogged this on theowlladyblog.
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