Nilsson Tribute:
Andras Jones
&
Zak Nilsson
From ANDRAS JONES: HARRY NILSSON is so beloved and misunderstood. A songwriter who is best known for songs he didn’t write (“Everybody’s Talkin'”, “Without You”), whose most commercially successful songs are more deeply associated with other artists (The Monkees, Three Dog Night). A notoriously gregarious man who never performed live. A lyricist whose songs are filled with fucks and crap, and whose tabloid claim to fame is public drunkenness with John Lennon, yet whose greatest overall work may be an existential kid’s album for outcasts. The inspiration his music has given me is as great as anyone’s so, to get to spend 4 hours in the studio playing his songs and exploring his life with Zak and Kiefo Nilsson was a delicious and daunting honor.
The night before most of us attended the Harry Nilsson sing-a-long at Molly Malone’s in Hollywood. The highlight of the show was Zak’s unveiling a new song he’d written about his father. The room went from tears to laughter in a way I have to imagine would have made his father proud, and I strongly urged Zak to add his song to our list of 8. He was reluctant. I was insistent. Only in having to go back and listen to it does the thoughtful editor in me recognize the demanding producer in me’s insensitivity to what having to do so might cost. I don’t regret it. We got gold, and I think Zak survived, in fact he’s been recording the song with Fernando Perdomo, so that’s all to the good, but would Harry have been happy with me, being all pushy to get Zak to play his song for us? Now that’s a question I could have asked The Pop Oracle if I’d been in my right mind instead of all hopped up on synchronicity, anticipation, and thoughts of my own dead father.
Special thanks must be given to Marshall Thompson for laying down the piano bed for me to sing the Nilsson style Radio8Ball theme to this week, Skyler Blake for recording it, and Scott Taylor for producing the vocal session and making lots of funny mouth noises.
