$2.99 Wax Necessities
A Column By Tim Midgett

HARRY NILSSON
NILSSON SCHMILSSON
RCA 1971

I recommend this record unreservedly to you, even if you still hate "Coconut" as much as I used to. Here it is in its rightful place: not bookended by "The Joker" and "Witchy Woman" in some nightmare version of a rock block, but snugly fit between a stunning remake of Badfinger's "Without You" (Nilsson's other big hit) and the hooting, hollering, and abjectly bad harmonica playing of "Let the Good Times Roll."

Tin Pan Alley songsketching is a form of music that is sometimes delightful when done well but is often worse than any other music on the planet when done badly. That anachronistic discipline was Harry Nilsson's bag. He rarely missed and he never missed badly. He was an engaging, goofy songwriter whenever he put his mind to it. Perhaps he just knew his limits as well as his strengths, for his main talent was as a marvelous interpretive singer. Very few people could put over songs about: not getting enough sleep driving down the street ("you can see all the people / who seem to have nothing / to say to each other") not getting enough sleep (and having the blues) and moonbeams / "windbeams" in rapid succession.

"Jump in the Fire" is another matter and an anomaly. It is raw, desperate, and patently rock, sans the "roll" that came to Nilsson easily. Nilsson may have indulged in this display just to show Warren Zevon he could do it, but he's not phoning it in. "We can make each other happy," he implores over a bone-simple, classic riff that echoes those on his friend John Lennon's first solo album. As much as I am tickled by the rest of this record (yes, even "Co-o--t"), "Jump in the Fire" is just Nilsson talking, and I think he probably meant it.

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