“Don’t Forget Me” — Harry Nilsson
I’ve noticed that Harry Nilsson is admired by some musicians I like. Though I’ve briefly tried in the past, I haven’t yet been able to really get into his music. Maybe that’s because, stylistically, he can be all over the place, and I’m still trying to get my bearings.
But Neko Case has an excellent cover of “Don’t Forget Me” on her new album, “Middle Cyclone,” and it’s convinced me to give Nilsson’s music another shot to discover what I’m missing.
“Don’t Forget Me” is a track off Nilsson’s “Pussy Cats” album, the making of which is apparently something of a legend.
Nilsson’s first breakout public endorsement was from Paul McCartney and John Lennon, who considered Nilsson the “American Beatle.”
What’s more, Nilsson became Lennon’s drinking buddy, and the two apparently spent a lot of time getting wasted and causing trouble during Lennon’s year-long “lost weekend” of 1974, when Lennon was living in Los Angeles during a separation from Yoko Ono. It was during this time that Nilsson’s “Pussy Cats” was recorded — and produced by Lennon.
As for photo evidence, here’s a crazy picture of Nilsson and Lennon apparently wrestling:
AMG: Much of Nilsson’s notoriety stems from a period in the mid-’70s when he was a drinking buddy of John Lennon in Los Angeles. The drunken pair were thrown out of L.A.’s Troubadour club in a well-publicized incident, following which Lennon offered to produce Nilsson’s next album. The timing was not opportune; Nilsson lost his voice during the sessions, rupturing one of his vocal cords, keeping it a secret out of fear that Lennon would abandon the project. Released as Pussy Cats, it was his last album to make the Top 100.
Anyway, a few years ago, I can only imagine that the Walkmen had their own lost weekend, during which it must have seemed like a good idea to record and release a track-by-track cover album of “Pussy Cats,” which they did.
Posts on Neko Case and the Walkmen re: Nilsson coming soon.
