10 minute read
Harry Nilsson
BEYOND THE ‘FRIDGE
Cool New Harry Nilsson Collection Connects the Dots Between His Fans
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BY LEE VALENTINE SMITH
BORN OF THE PANDEMIC, HARRY & Me: Memories of Harry Nilsson is a thoroughly enjoyable love letter to legendary singer-songwriter Harry Nilsson. For the uninitiated, Harry Edward Nilsson III was an American singer-songwriter who reached a creative and commercial peak in the early 1970s. His top 10 hits “Without You,” “Coconut” and “Everybody’s Talkin,’” are prime examples of his genre-defying canon of material. Nilsson’s style spanned rock, soul, Great American Songbook-style pop and world music, often produced with groundbreaking studio experimentation. The reclusive artist was averse to live performances and excessive promotion, thus his recordings succeeded on their own merits, through endorsements from his fans and peers. Pop groups of the era, including The Monkees and Three Dog Night, scored massive hits with his songs and The Beatles often referred to him as their favorite American singer-songwriter. On the 50th anniversary the enigmatic performer’s seventh album Nilsson Schmilsson, veteran authors David Roberts and Neil Watson recently spoke with INsite about the new book, Nilsson’s many fans - and that lucky kitchen appliance on the cover.
An incredible spirit of community runs throughout the project. David Roberts: Our expectations were that it would be a fun thing to work on, but it exceeded everything because the fan base of Harry Nilsson is just the most amazing bunch of people. We’ve had contributions from literally everyone - from a 93-year-old nun in California to a 16-year-old schoolgirl in England. They’re an amazing bunch. I’ve worked on a few music books before but I don’t think I’ve ever seen a fan base as fascinating as the people who contributed to this one. It’s not just a standard biography - anyone can do one of those. For this one, you’ve included the real voices of the fans. Of course, some of them are quite famous, including Harry’s old pal Micky Dolenz of The Monkees. Neil Watson: That’s right. I think for me, the point at which I thought, ‘Oh, now this is really becoming exciting,’ was when I got my first contribution for the book, from Micky Dolenz. That’s what initially spurred me on about doing it, actually. His quote was the first celebrity that I had success with. From then on, many other cool and well-known people came on board, like Randy Newman and Marc Cohn.
Yet you placed everyone on equal status. Watson: Exactly. If it was Nilsson’s teacher or someone who was a fan or a well-known musician who’d worked with him, they were all given the exact same status. I mean, we didn’t get Paul McCartney in the end, though I did try. But if we had gotten him, it would’ve said simply, ‘Paul McCartney, Musician.’ I think it really worked to have everybody on the same terms - with the one common denominator being their love of Harry Nilsson. Roberts: Neil was already a fan but I really grew to love his music. I found out so much about the man as a comedian, poet and a loving father. He liked a bit of fun. But the friends that he drew to him - it wasn’t just a coincidence that some of his best friends were people like John Lennon and Ringo Starr. Some of the stories are quite riotous. So all of that combined, contributed to a great story.
Harry & Me contains many laugh-out-loud comedic moments. Roberts: I’m glad you picked up on that because that was our feeling. The publisher said to us, ‘How do we describe it to the designer?’ We said to him, ‘Think Monty Python.’ Because there are, as you see, lots of connections. Harry was friends with various members of the Pythons. I think that is the sense that comes through. There are some hilarious stories. Harry’s own experience of comedy was so formed by Monty Python - but much earlier than that with Laurel and Hardy. There’s a lovely story, actually, where as a fan, young Harry, I don’t quite know how old he was, but I think he was in his teens, managed to get the telephone number of Stan Laurel and rang him up. Watson: He’s just got this wild and wacky sense of humor which hopefully, we’ve portrayed. Even with the cover.
Yes, tell us about the significance of the refrigerator on the cover. Watson: We were thinking about what type of cover to do. I thought, my goodness me, right across where I live, in the next house, is a very, very fantastic artist called Alison Stockmarr. I’ve known her for a while. She does these fantastic pieces of art where she cuts out little, tiny things and puts them onto books or record sleeves. They’re just fantastic. When I went and asked if she’d be interested in doing the cover, she said yes, straight away. But she didn’t know anything about him at all. So David and I had a meeting with her and almost straightaway, she got it. She got who Harry Nilsson was, what he stood for and what he was all about. We were talking about the fact that it is going to be coming out, more or less, in time with the 50th anniversary of Harry’s most commercially successful album Nilsson Schmilsson, which came out on the first of November 1971. Roberts: [The record cover is] a black and white picture of Nilsson in a bathrobe standing in front of his fridge. Well, we call it fridge. I think you call it refrigerator. Watson: Alison said, ‘How about if we get a ‘fridge and use that as a sort of centerpiece for the front cover?’ The next problem was, how do we get one that looks similar to the one that Harry used on the album? But we did find one for sale in a town about 50 miles from where I live. I think the guy wanted 30 or 40 pounds for it. On the day I was due to go pick it up, he’d obviously checked it out to make sure it worked. He phoned me up, just as I was leaving to get it. ‘I’m really sorry. I’ve just checked it out and it doesn’t work.’ I said, ‘It doesn’t matter. I still want it!’ So he was probably thinking it’s his lucky day because he’s selling a ‘fridge that doesn’t even work, right? I turned up at his house, picked it up and put it in the back of my car. I took it to Alison’s house where she’s got a garage that she’d turned into a makeshift studio. As I took it out of my car, I must’ve taken it out the wrong way and it fell. The door fell backwards and it broke off. So I ended up with this ‘fridge with a door that had fallen off. All the pieces that were inside had fallen out onto
the pavement on the street. There was an old couple walking by just at the moment when I said a few expletives as the door had broken off. This poor couple, they were sort of feeling sorry for me, picking up all these pieces off the street and carrying them ‘round to the garage studio. We set it back up but we weren’t able to fix the door back on. So in the picture, actually photographed OUR EXPECTATIONS by Alison’s husband - you can’t see it, thank goodness - but
WERE THAT IT I’m actually crouched down WOULD BE A FUN THING TO WORK ON, BUT IT EXCEEDED behind the door with my fingers underneath it, holding it in place. That became the photograph that was used for
EVERYTHING the cover. Then Allison cut out
BECAUSE THE FAN BASE OF HARRY loads of little tiny pictures of things that related to Harry or the songs. So you have
NILSSON IS JUST Laurel and Hardy and the lime THE MOST AMAZING BUNCH OF PEOPLE. in the coconut. The rug is an homage to his Pussycats album. All these tiny little clues that Allison picked up on, from what we had told her about Harry. I’m delighted with it. For me, it is a real piece of art. So what became of the ‘fridge? Obviously you preserved it in some sort of shrine to Harry, right? Watson: Well, we didn’t have the proper space for it, so I’m afraid I had to take it to the rubbish dump. It’s gone to ‘fridge heaven. But now it’s immortal. Watson: Yeah it lived to tell another tale, didn’t it? If we hadn’t bought it, I suppose the guy who used to own it would’ve just plugged it in one day, realized it didn’t work and taken it to the dump as well. But we got some mileage out of it, that’s for sure. Harry & Me: Memories of Harry Nilsson - by the fans and musicians that loved him the most is available for pre-order from most major retailers and via This Day In Music Books, thisdayinmusicbooks.com. Note: the first 1,000 copies include Harry On Harry, a limited-edition CD featuring rare Harry Nilsson interview recordings from the ‘60s, ‘70s and ‘80s.
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