The Smiley Smile Message Board

i recently saw a preview for the 'who is harry and why is everyone talking about him' documentry put out by LSL productions and saw a picture of him and brian together in what looked like mid to late 70s...you can catch the trailer on: http://www.myspace.com/whoisharrynilsson    Anyone know when this comes to dvd? So what about Brian and Harry? How/where/when did they meet? i wish they would have wrote together ...a lot of Brian's early 70's stuff reminds me of Nilsson.  man, if only these to got together...though it may have not been a good combo...both looking for a good time....it might have ended up like john and harry's lost weekend

Oh, isn't it Van Dyke Parks there also on the same picture, to the left??

I'm sure Brian knew Harry through Van Dyke.  Van Dyke hung out a lot with both Harry and Brian in the '70s, probably more often separately than together.  Van was there when Harry and John Lennon got thrown out of the Troubador.

Back when Brian and Landy still had the "Brains and Genius" office on West Pico in LA, the wall of the big downstairs room/office was covered with celebrity shots-- photos of Brian (and/or Dr. Landy) with various famous people..... and the BIGGEST picture on that entire wall, almost poster-sized, was a nice photo of Brian and Harry together in the late 1980s.  I think it was taken at the release party for Van Dyke's "Tokyo Rose" album.

I always wished that Brian and Harry had done an album together.... they could've called it "Willy-Nilly."

Alan

that's awesome!

A Wilson/Nilsson album would've been awesome.  Just picture those two voices working together - and the songs they could've written?!  Wow!!

But....Willy-Nilly?  Sheesh, Boyd...
;-)

Brian recorded a Nilsson song for a Hary Nilsson tribute album.  I can't rmember the name off the top of me head; anyone else know the name of the tune to which I refer?

EDIT:

I'll answer my own question: "This Could Be The Night."

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000000FPE/ref=m_art_li_0/104-1383817-1145555?%5Fencoding=UTF8&v=glance&n=5174

Is there any news on this docu comming to dvd? I want to see it so badly!

Anyone have any contact with David Leaf? He's connected to this project, right?

good call


released in this country? where has it been released at?

i think it just did the rounds at film festivals. It definitely hasn't been released on this side of the pond...  :(

Carl has a track on there too.

really?

Yeah, track #7:

Carl Wilson - "Without Her"

Wanna fight??  :lol

another weird Wilson/Nilsson connection is they both blew their voices out at roughly the same time and the world hasn't been the same since.

Beckley-Lamm-Wilson, to be precise.

Depends — I've seen it listed both ways — some attribute it simply to "Carl Wilson."

Maybe on some dubious mp3 downloads.

And maybe on this obscure site called Wiki-somthin'  :lol

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harry_Nilsson

And that's why you can't trust Wikipedia...

It's Beckley-Lamm-Wilson. That's what it says on the disc, and Carl is hardly on the finished the track. He handles backing vocals mostly.... Probably cos one of the other fellas has a rather Nilsson-esque tone. Was this the last thing released by him before his death, or did Stars & Stripes come later?

The track is credited to "Beckley-Lamm-Wilson"; Carl himself is only singing back-up on the track.  Off the Like A Brother album of 2000.

Guess I should have read the whole thread before I had responded.  :-)

Stars & Stripes came out in 1996. 

Amazon.com AND Allmusic both list it as Beckley/Lamm/Wilson.

The CD I'm looking at in my hand right now also lists it as Beckley-Lamm-Wilson.  ::)

But guys, come on now. Wikipedia says Carl solo - and Wikipedia knows all!!

Just to clarify this..."Without Her" by Beckley-Lamm-Wilson first appeared on the Harry Nilsson tribute album "For The Love of Harry" which was released in 1995, the year before "Stars & Stripes". The same track reappeared on the Beckley-Lamm-Wilson album "Like A Brother" in 2000 released after Carl's passing in 1998.

Got an email from David Leaf yesterday:

----- Forwarded Message
From: David Leaf
Date: Sun, 8 Aug 2010 23:50:31 -0700
Subject: Harry Nilsson film "sneak peak" this Friday in New York...

Hello

Just wanted to let you know that there are still a few tickets left for "sneak peak" screening of "Who Is Harry Nilsson (and Why is 'Everybody Talkin' about him?)" at the Tribeca branch of the 92nd St. Y on Hudson Street.  
 
Hosted by Anthony DeCurtis, director John Scheinfeld and I will participate in a Q&A following the screening.  Information on that event can be found at the 92nd St. Y website (at the link below).  
 
1.   92YTribeca – New York, NY - 92YTribeca Homepage <http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&cd=4&ved=0CCIQFjAD&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.92y.org%2F92yTribeca%2F&ei=WxJXTPCaIpT4sAORoL3aAg&usg=AFQjCNF5aoKd4pGKCjq4Ntzk0F15uodYDg>
The 92nd Street Y's 92YTribeca brings downtown programs for lovers of new music, film, theater and art. Evening programs are geared toward young urbanites ...
www.92y.org/92yTribeca/ <http://www.92y.org/92yTribeca/> - Cached <http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:TfhrpzPBFpcJ:www.92y.org/92yTribeca/+92nd+st+y+tribeca&cd=4&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us> - Similar <http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=related:www.92y.org/92yTribeca/+92nd+st+y+tribeca&tbo=1&sa=X&ei=WxJXTPCaIpT4sAORoL3aAg&ved=0CCUQHzAD>

BTW…you can see the trailer for the film (and get more info about its release) at www.whoisharrynilsson.com <http://www.whoisharrynilsson.com>
 
Also, there are two mid-town media screenings scheduled (August 19th and August 31th), and you can get more information on those by writing directly to Jean Sievers--- jean@co5media.com.

FYI, the film will have its theatrical premiere in New York when it begins an exclusive engagement on September 10th at the Cinema Village.

I hope to see you at the movies.
 
Best,
 
David

theatrical release?

like nation wide?

"This Could Be the Night" by the Modern Folk Quartet is possibly the greatest record of all time... that wasn't a hit!

"exclusive engagement" suggests not.

that's what i thought   :3d

oh well, still hope for that dvd release   ;)

It will be released on October 26, 2010

http://www.amazon.com/Harry-Nilsson-Everybody-Talkin-About/dp/B003VZNAUS/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=dvd&qid=1281417882&sr=8-1

At last...

 :o

Looking forward to this  ;D

Any Nilsson-maniacs like myself might be very interested in this blog... http://fortheloveofharry.blogspot.com/

From amazon:

"The DVD also contains 93 minutes of Bonus Material Deleted Scenes, Extended Sequences, an Alternate Ending and more."

An alternate ending ?  Like, he doesn't die ?

I'll second that - would've loved to have heard a BB cover of this. I'm surprised they didn't have a stab at it.

God, I love you, Andrew.

Maybe they reach a different conclusion about his work in the alternate ending  - like "In conclusion, Nilsson's music is garbage and should never have been made" instead of the effusive praise we are likely to hear in the actual ending.

That would be incredible. 'And so, 15 years after his death, we still think Harry Nilsson was just a bit crap, to be honest with you. That Coconut song was alright, but he sure as hell wasn't The Beatles'  :lol

Who was?


@buddhahat...

Brian DID cover that This Could Be The Night, on that Nilsson tribute album.
There's a great post about it at that For The Love Of HArry site called "The Peculiarly Incestuous 30 Year Journey of Harry Nilsson's "This Could Be The Night" (1965-1995)" and has downloads of numerous versions of the tune, including Brian's.

Buddahat- I think Brian wanted to record "This Could Be the Night" with Spring but he couldn't get permission or couldn't find the lyrics or something like that... or maybe I'm just mis-remembering...

I REALLY shouldn't have laughed at that.  :lol I'm probably going to go to hell for it.









































































I'll save you a seat.  ;D

1973 Melody Maker interview - Brian says he keeps asking Spector for a tape of the song but Phil never replies. It's also the first known, albeit indirect, evidence of his association with the infamous "Shortenin' Bread".

Harry's A Little Touch of Schmilsson in the Night is similar to Brian's new album, incredibly good, covers of standards... one of my favorite albums of all-time...

So allow me to resuscitate this thread and ask a question that I wonder if anyone has brought up before.

Does anyone think that "Mount Vernon and Fairway" is totally inspired by "The Point"? I just picked up the latter a week or so ago and realized it came out two years before Holland. And there are a lot of similarities in terms of production and delivery in the story telling bits.

Also, the fact that Brian told the story of listening to Randy Newman while writing it -- seems like an artful dodge. I mean, Nilsson recorded an album of Newman songs, and Nilsson was definitely on the periphery of the BB scene, what with Van Dyke Parks and Dean Torrence doing "The Point" cover art ...

Just a thought.

Like "The Point," how?  Is the Magical Transistor Radio meant to be Arrow the dog?

I know this doesn't make sense, but when I hear "Ding Dang" or "Rollin' Up To Heaven", I always think that this could have been Brian's weak attempt to do something like "Poli High" from The Point.

Har.

No, I mean in terms of format. The person telling the story in a kind of rambling way, with some sound effects and occasional vocal processing, interspersed with songs. Obviously Brian's piece is more fragmentary than Harry's, but I was just struck by how similar that storytelling delivery was.

It just makes me wonder if Brian had heard the Point, filed it away under "That's an interesting idea," and decided to act on it when he was shipped off to Holland and didn't have anything else to do.

My larger point, I suppose, is that we so often look at and think of Brian as acting in some splendid isolation. But the fact is, he's always been very influenced by other musicians and records. And just because Mount Vernon is idiosyncratic doesn't mean it exists on its own.

Okay, I see what you're saying.  Brian may have watched the animated movie on TV as well as heard the album.  So, Jack Riley is standing in for Dustin Hoffman as the narrator.  I actually haven't listened to Mt. Vernon and Fairway in a very long time.  I'm not sure I've ever listened to it all the way through.  It's not comfortable listening.

This anecdote makes me happy.

I think if Harry had come to prominence a year or so earlier, Brian would have had his 'Rubber Soul moment' with Pandemonium Shadow Show. As it is, BW doesn't seem to say much about him, but The Point!/Mt. Vernon & Fairway comparison is a very astute one and makes a hell of a lot of sense. The instrumental textures of both records are very similar, which might say more about Harry than BW in some respects - the way Harry stacks and layers harmonies on something like Nilsson Sings Newman shows he HAD to be aware of Brian's work, so say nothing of the dense keyboards/Wrecking Crew arrangements. But the two passed each other by...

Ah, Harry.

Very interesting "point!," Wirestone. I never put it together, but now that you mention it, "The Point!" must have influenced Mount Vernon and Fairway.