Documentary: Who Is Harry Nilsson (And Why Is Everybody Talkin' About Him)?*

Screen shot from the movie. Can't wait to see it!

 

Wow, Harry got to hang out with Lennon and Frank Zappa, too!

 

Is that a still in the documentary or does the Lennon/McCartney reunion exist on film?

 

Not sure. I captured it from a new version of the trailer. I've never heard of a film existing of this meeting though so I'm betting it's just a still.

 

I had the great pleasure (or should I say, "displeasure") to conduct the last known interview with Harry before his untimely death.

There was no publicist, as is the norm in these situations, but rather a mutual acquaintance, Andy Cahan, approached me to do an interview with Harry as a way to let industry folks that Harry was still around and recording new material....It was a great chat with a very warm human being and I was greatly saddened to hear about his death a few months later. I was looking forward to Nilsson releasing a new album and having a last go-round in music. A true loss to all us music fans.


Dug through my archives and here's the brief article that resulted:

Profile: Harry Nilsson
By Steven P. Wheeler
Music Connection Magazine

Admittedly, 51-year-old singer-songwriter Harry Nilsson has lived hard and fast, but nothing could have prepared him for the physical, financial and emotional tidal wave that has swept into his life over the past couple of years.

After semi-retiring from the music business in 1980, Nilsson started a movie production company he called Hawkeye which released a controversial and universally panned Whoopi Goldberg film, The Telephone, and various music specials with groups like the Doobie Brothers. However, the company never really took off and like many businesses in America’s struggling economy, Hawkeye eventually folded a few years ago.

Nilsson was then diagnosed with diabetes, which led to a painful foot disease. Under the advisement of doctors to lose weight, Nilsson quit drinking, smoking, and drugs, and lost 50 pounds. However, his problems only worsened.

First, Nilsson discovered that his accountant of fifteen years had been stealing from him. The good news is the accountant is currently serving a four-year sentence. The bad news? The damage had already been done and Nilsson was forced to file for bankruptcy.

Still, the worst was yet to come, as it did in the form of a major heart attack this past Valentine’s Day. But, despite the hardships, the husband and father of six still has his well-known sense of humor firmly in place.

A computer specialist for Security First National Bank in Van Nuys, California during the late Sixties, Nilsson was also a part-time songwriter who finally garnered industry attention when the Monkees recorded his song, “Cuddly Toy,” in 1967. With interest in his material now running high, RCA Records signed him as an up-and-coming singer-songwriter. His debut album, Pandemonium Shadow Show, became a favorite of many other musicians, such as Beatle John Lennon, who proclaimed Nilsson to be his favorite singer.

The relationship between Nilsson and the Beatles would solidify the following year when Nilsson was scoring legendary film director Otto Preminger’s celluloid flop, Skidoo. “I got a call from Derek Taylor [the Fab Four’s publicist], who said that the boys wanted to know if I’d like to come down and see their sessions for what became the 'White Album'. So I asked Otto for a week off and he agreed saying, “Yes, go see dem and ask dem to zing in my moo-vie.”

Accordingly, Nilsson talked Preminger into paying for his flight to London, where he met Taylor at the Apple offices. “Later that same afternoon, Paul McCartney called the office to say he was looking for songs for Mary Hopkins’ album, so I wrote a song for her and Paul produced it.”

Later that evening a lifelong friendship with John Lennon would begin. “I went to John’s house and it was the same day that Cynthia moved out and Yoko moved in. John and I stayed up all night and into the next day, just talking about life and philosophies and wives and divorce.”

Through the years, their friendship remained. Lennon went on to produce Nilsson’s 1974 album, Pussycats, and they also wrote together on Nilsson’s final album, Flash Harry, in 1980, shortly before Lennon’s untimely death.

In a career that flew in the face of accepted norms and strategies, and despite winning two Grammy Awards for “Best Vocal Performance” (“Everybody’s Talkin’” in 1970 and “Without You” in 1973), it’s still shocking to discover that Nilsson the artist had never performed before an audience throughout his entire recording career. “I never did a tour nor a concert, and I think I may be the first singer to do that….or not to do that as it were,” he says with a laugh, although he did join Ringo Starr’s recent tour for one night. “It’s funny because Ringo and I met in our twenties, and in our thirties we talked about performing in our forties, but we didn’t actually get around to doing it until our fifties. Go figure.”

As for the future, Nilsson has been writing and recording and pursuing a new record deal with the help of Andy Cahan and Mark Hudson. “I have enough demos for an entire album, and Mark is currently in New York talking to BMG about it. Since they have my catalog, it would be really nice to renew that marriage.”

While his writing in recent years has had more to do with writing poetry, short stories, children’s stories, as well as a possible autobiography, after hearing the title of one of his recent compositions, it becomes clear that despite the recent health and legal problems his off-center humor and lyrical style is still very much intact. He calls the country-flavored tune, “What’s A 245-Pound Man Like Me (Doin’ On A Woman Like You).”

It’s not surprising that it’s music that’s keeping him happy amidst all the turmoil, or as Nilsson says himself, “I need things to make me laugh these days.”

Harry Nilsson succumbed to heart failure and died on January 15, 1994, less than six months after this interview took place.

 

Thanks for sharing that interview, Steven. It sounds like Harry was in a good space emotionally, and like you wrote, with much of his sense of humor intact. I loved the bruted title for the album he was working on, "Papa's Got A Brand New Bathrobe"!

Any thoughts you can offer regarding his state of health at the time? Did you get to conduct the interview by phone, or in person? If he gave you enough time, did you sense he was at all winded?

Sorry to come off morbid, but I wonder if he was pushing himself to get what he could from his frail condition, or whether he was stronger at that point than perhaps I thought he was.

 

That's not Frank Zappa. look closer.

 

We did a "phoner" since we were just going to chat for maybe an hour and we both had other things going on and it was just much easier for both of us to get on the phone put our collective feet up and just talk about whatever came.

Obviously having no idea that he would pass away so relatively soon after our conversation, I certainly wasn't remotely paying attention to anything but what he was saying--and bouncing from topic to topic as unplanned things were brought up. We were just sticking with our plan of "let's just talk".

With that said, and looking back on it after his death, I can honestly say that there was absolutely nothing to give ANY indication that he was frail or even in immediate ill health (no heavy breathing, as you say). He was very candid, very easy to talk to, VERY humorous. There were no airs about him. It was just talking with someone who had a very interesting--sometimes troubled--life, who didn't seem to carry around a chip on his shoulder and there was positively no trace of bitterness to be found.

Again, this was an hour or maybe a bit longer and it was a very enjoyable conversation for me (and I think he enjoyed himself as well....I like to think so anyway).....We didn't rush through the conversation and we just gradually agreed that we had enough for the little piece I was going to do. Remember this was nothing more than something I wanted to do to help Harry, Andy and Mark Hudson get the word out to the industry.

So I'm definitely not the person to say what was going on with him in terms of any physical ailments at that particular time. I can just say that it never once occurred to me during the conversation that this was some fragile human being who probably didn't have long to live.

Sorry to not be of any help in terms of your question(s), but I really have no inside knowledge that could help.

 

That was actually very helpful. Thanks for sharing!

 

rokritr
That's a really nice piece, very enjoyable.
Many thanks

 

Thank you for digging that out. I enjoyed reading it.

 

What show is this from? (seen in the movie preview)

 

Thanks for the interview. He did still have his sense of humor.

I've been listening to a couple albums by him for the past few days. I do miss him. I bought my first album by him sometime in 1969 and kept up with his releases until he retired in 1980. After that I bought his CD reissues and all the stray records I ran across. Many of his songs take me back to a specific time and can occasionally cause me to tear up because of things and people long gone. He was so unique . Think of the music he could have created in the past 16 years if he'd had a bit more luck on his side.

Does anyone know or even suspect if we will ever get to hear the last things he was working on? It sounds as if they were finished enough that they could be released with some finishing touches. I hope his family has been ok since his death and hope that his legacy has and will provide some comfort to them. He was a character.

 

I have often wondered why no one has released the material he had supposedly stockpiled since his "retirement" in the early '80s, including the album he was attempting to complete at the time of his death.

It's possible that the material is just not good enough to merit a release. That's the only reason I can imagine.

But again, Flash Harry has NEVER been given a CD release, or ANY release in the US. It may not be great (and no one would accuse it of being great), but it's a head scratcher as to why it didn't even get a short run reissue.

 

I guess you could be right and the material wasn't good enough for release but it's hard for me to believe that. I've always thought it was that the music was probably out of style. It didn't fit into the current idea of what would sale. Does RCA or whatever they are called today have the final say or does his family have control?

 

That's from the March of Dimes benefit in NYC Central Park, April 28, 1974.

Complete video here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0lzJF819KZU

 

I'd like to see this doc.
Should be interesting.

 

I'll be attending the 5pm screening of the documentary 'Who Is Harry Nilsson, And Why Is Everybody Talking About Him?', at the Cinema Village in NYC. There'll be a Q & A with the director and May Pang after the screening of the film. I'll give a report after I see the film.

Click the links for more details.

http://www.authorizedpix.com/wihn_home.html

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tmmwMx06Pg8

 

There's a thread on this subject going here:

http://www.stevehoffman.tv/forums/showthread.php?t=223973&highlight=harry+nilsson

 

Detroit area screening

I just found out that this film will be showing at the Detroit Film Theatre on Saturday, October 2nd at 4pm.

 

I saw the documentary 'Who Is Harry Nilsson and Why Is Everybody Talkin' About Him?' tonight. It's a wonderful informative film on the life of Nilsson which reveals what an amazingly talented artist he was and the inner demons that tore him down in the end. The movie tracks Harry's career with his first success writing 'Cuddly Toy' for the Monkees, his friendship with the Beatles, his incredible albums like 'Nilsson Schmilsson', 'Nilsson Sings Newman', 'The Point', the hit singles 'Everybody's Talking' and 'Without You', and Harry's downward spiral due to his excessive lifestyle. There are interviews with Micky Dolenz, Brian Wilson, Eric Idle, Terry Gilliam, Robin Williams, May Pang, Paul Williams, Yoko Ono and others who were in Harry's orbit. Lots of funny and sad stories, and many, many incredible photos and rare footage and performances that will make Nilsson and Beatles afficionados drool.

There was a Q&A after the screening with director John Scheinfeld who also directed 'The U.S.A. vs John Lennon', Rock Historian David Leaf and May Pang. I know May through a mutual friend who passed away this summer and it was nice to see May again who signed my copy of her book 'Instamatic Karma' with a very lovely inscription. Director Scheinfeld revealed that the upcoming DVD release of the Nilsson documentary will include lots of rare bonus footage that was not used in the movie.

If you're a Nilsson fan, you will absolutely love this movie. This movie will also please fans of the Beatles, the Monkees, The Who, Brian Wilson, heck, anybody who ever crossed Harry's path. The movie is traveling throughout the country, so catch the screenings when they come to your area, and definitely get the DVD when it's released, it's a keeper. Recommend it to everyone you know. If enough people see it, they'll stop asking 'Who is Harry Nilsson?'. After seeing this movie, they'll know.




Historian David Leaf, May Pang and Director John Scheinfeld.


With May Pang at Nilsson Screening.

 

Thanks!

 

When the original was screened in Los Angeles about 4 years ago, I didn't get a chance to see it. This time however, it was coming back for another screening due to it being released on DVD next month. Harry's son from his first marriage, who I'm friends with on Facebook and who is also in the documentary, also came to the screening. So it was a nice bonus to see and talk to him in person. I arrived at the theater and found out on the spot that the writer/director John Scheinfeld was also in attendance, along with biographer David Leaf and a few of Harry's friends and partners that were also in the documentary.



As for the documentary, it was one of the most finest and heartfelt music documentaries I have ever seen and I'm not saying it because I'm heavily biased. A whopping 61 of Harry's tunes were used throughout the whole thing, with some of them specially remixed without vocals for background music or for a specific scene. Harry himself narrates a good chunk of the film due to his family giving Scheinfeld access to Harry's audio diaries that Harry made before his death. The story itself was very informative about Harry's life and career, revealing a lot about the man that would equally entertain a diehard fan or someone who only knew Harry as that guy who did "Without You" or "Coconut". The movie shows a lot of pictures and footage that have never been seen in the public eye.



The film pulls no punches. Quite a few people that Harry knew personally and/or professionally go into detail about the dark side of his life and how his behavior affected the people around him, with some painfully recollecting their story. But it also shows the very same people cheerfully talking about what a great man and friend he was. The hardest part of the whole documentary for me to watch was when they used Harry's "Don't Forget Me" as the background music during the story of John Lennon's assassination and Harry's reaction to the incident. Given that the 30th anniversary of John's death was coming up, it was an emotional gut punch.



The movie ends with Harry's wife Una talking about his last night alive and family and friends talking about his death and funeral, followed by producer Mark Hudson talking about a certain famous entertainer who requested to other friends at the funeral to sing along with him his favorite song of Harry's. If you want to know who and what the song was, you really should honestly find out for yourself because it is a documentary that is very satisfying from a fan's point of view to discover and enjoy many of the backstories that have never really until now come to light.



When it was over, Scheinfeld and Leaf came up to the front and introduced Harry's wife and most of their children, who also attended the screening. Then the two of them did a 30-minute Q & A session. I got the chance to ask a question and mine was about Harry's final album; whatever happened to it and would it ever see the light of day because they never talked about it in the movie but had to know some additional knowledge about it. Scheinfeld responded that very few songs for the album were fully completed and the rest obviously were never finished or were just demos. He said that someday it should be out in some form or another. One other question worth mentioning from the Q & A is that somebody asked Scheinfeld why no one interviewed Ringo for the documentary. He replied that Ringo would not go publicly on record to talk about Harry because it was too painful now with him gone and the filmmakers respected his decision.



Anybody who hasn't seen the documentary and loves music needs to see this because it goes a long way toward showing how great Harry's work is and how much he's missed.

 

Sounds like a good thing for me to see as I know *of* Harry Nilsson but not that much *about* him.

-s1m0n-

 

"You're Breakin My Heart" is a fantastic song, love the lyrics