We continue our look back at the music of 50 years ago…..
When you just had a smash album with hits….and youre hanging out with John Lennon & Ringo Starr…and you can indulge all of you bad habits…what do you do for an encore?
Well, if you are Harry Nillson you release “Son of Schmilson” in 1972. How weird is this record? Well, I’ll let critic Stephen Erlewine from AllMusic.com tell you…
“Emboldened by a huge hit and hanging with Lennon and Ringo, Harry Nilsson was ready to let it all go when it came time to record a follow-up to Nilsson Schmilsson. The very title of Son of Schmilsson implies that it’s a de facto sequel to its smash predecessor but, as always with Nilsson, don’t take everything at face value. Yes, he’s back with producer Richard Perry and he’s working from the same gleefully melodic, polished pop/rock territory as before, but this is an incredibly schizoid record, an album by an enormously gifted musician deciding that, since he’s already going unhinged, he might as well indulge himself while he’s at it. And, wow, are the results ever worth it. Opening with a song to a groupie — he sang his balls off, baby, he nearly broke the microphone — and ending with an ode to “The Most Beautiful World in the World,” this record careens all over the place, bouncing from one idea to another, punctuated with B-horror movie sound effects, bizarre humor, profanity, and belches. There are song parodies, seemingly straight piano ballads, vulgar hard rock, lovely love songs, and a cheerful singalong with retirees at an old folks home who all proclaim, “I’d rather be dead than wet my bed.” The sheer perversity of it all would be fascinating, yet if that’s all it had to offer, it’d merely be a curiosity, the way his post-Pussy Cats records are. Instead, this is all married to a fantastic set of songs that illustrate what a skilled, versatile songsmith Nilsson was. No, it may not be the easiest album to warm to — and it’s just about the weirdest record to reach number 12 and go gold — but if you appreciate Nilsson’s musicality and weirdo humor, he never got any better.”
I am not as forgiving. The ability to indulge your every whim might be fun but as an artist there is a difference between pushing the envelope and lighting it on fire. Even Zappa, who took outrageousness to new levels, could get juvenile as hell at times.
There is some decent stuff here…but most of what you remember is going to be the crap. The line in that review that sums this up is “an album by an enormously gifted musician deciding, since he’s already going unhinged, he might as well as indulge himself while he’s at it.”
There is a good documentary on Nillson which deals with his slow descent to alcoholic misery and the loss of his musical abilities. It isn’t a pretty story…..
I’m going to be on vacation for awhile…the blogs will return July 13th.
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