Nilsson's PussyCats album *

Discussion in 'Music Corner' started by Greg Smith, Jan 10, 2016.

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  1. BlueJay

    BlueJay Forum Resident

    Good to see this album is getting a vinyl reissue for RSD in April. But it looks quite limited - no UK or Canada listing. Hopefully it will find its way onto the general market later. It's not Nilsson's best album by any means but it's an important historical time piece, the results of Nilsson's somewhat chaotic recording sessions with John Lennon in LA during the 'Lost Weekend'.
     
  2. Lemon Curry

    Lemon Curry (A) Face In The Crowd

    Location:
    Mahwah, NJ
    There is a wistful melancholy on ***** Cats that is unique in Nilsson's catalog. Lennon was still in a similar vein on Walls & Bridges. I see them both as a kind of double album that has a particular mood I really enjoy.

    Harry's vocal chord disaster is really sad. But when I hear Old Forgotten Soldier, I don't want it any other way than how he delivered it.
     
  3. Mt.Elga

    Mt.Elga Forum Resident

    Location:
    GA
    Yes.. Wistful indeed...released in August 74....sounds so much like a late summer lp...Mucho Mungo reminds me of looking up at the sun blurred through multicolored dying leaves...
     
    Last edited: Aug 20, 2018
  4. Chippoh

    Chippoh Senior Member

    Location:
    Chicago
    ...Wow!...Now that was poetic...Nicely done!
     
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  5. Culpa

    Culpa Forum Resident

    Location:
    Philadelphia, PA
    I would include Ringo's Goodnight Vienna LP for a 1974 wistful melancholy trilogy. At least two tracks with Lennon, two tracks with Harry, plus the definitive version of Harry's Easy For Me.
     
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  6. Mike Visco

    Mike Visco Forum Resident

    Location:
    Newark, NJ
    During this period we came within a few hours and a missing left handed bass of a potential Lennon McCartney Starr and Harry??? session.
     
  7. RoryMcBride

    RoryMcBride Forum Resident

    Location:
    London
    I love this record. It sounds so sad and desperate at times.
     
  8. Skokiaan

    Skokiaan Forum Resident

    Location:
    New Jersey
    Keith Moon's assistant Dougal Butler wrote that Moon bought a new drum kit for these sessions. At the end of "Rock Around The Clock," which featured Moon, Ringo and Jim Keltner on drums, Moon smashed all three drum kits. It is not audible on the record.
     
  9. Peace N. Love

    Peace N. Love Forum Resident

    Didn't Harry supposedly re-do some of his vocals for the quad mix? I think I've heard the quad but don't remember noticing a huge difference on the vocals.
     
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  10. revolution_vanderbilt

    revolution_vanderbilt Forum Resident

    Location:
    New York
    I don't know if he re-did any vocals, but there certainly are different vocals between the quad and the stereo.
     
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  11. GoodKitty

    GoodKitty FloydM

    Location:
    Pacific
  12. GoodKitty

    GoodKitty FloydM

    Location:
    Pacific
    PussyCats is covered starting at an hour seventeen minutes in .....
     
  13. kollektionist

    kollektionist Forum Resident

    Location:
    EU
    My favorite Nilsson album ! Absolutely fabulous ! Great bonus tracks on the CD as well.
     
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  14. classicrockguy

    classicrockguy Forum Resident

    Location:
    Livingston NJ
    Nilsson is one of my favorite singers, and has been for over 20 years. Love everything from "Pandemonium Shadow Show" up to "Nilsson Schmilsson", and the next 2 are not bad either. Having said that, "Pussycats" is one of the most painful albums I can remember listening to. All that throat-ripping is extremely difficult to listen to, you're basically hearing him self destruct on record. I have never heard anything like this before. Usually, when a singer is drugged or drunk, they can still perform reasonably well (otherwise, there wouldn't be much music from the 70's left I'd imagine).
    I just can't listen to it. Could barely make it to the end of "Many Rivers to Cross". I Will stick with his earlier albums, almost all of which are my favorite albums
     
  15. jconsolmagno

    jconsolmagno Forum Resident

    I tried tonight to listen to the original pressing of this album. For maybe the third or fourth time since I paid a nice premium price for a sealed original.

    I hate it, other than the first track this is very very very much a throwaway album.

    I like everything Nilsson did up to this and I love Lennon's career, but this album is just a pure miss...
     
  16. Guy Smiley

    Guy Smiley America’s Favorite Game Show Host

    Location:
    Sesame Street
    Liked for both your post (Immature me always sings the next part as p**** p**** because that’s how it sounds) and your avatar.

    We reach!
     
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  17. Guy Smiley

    Guy Smiley America’s Favorite Game Show Host

    Location:
    Sesame Street
    I love Harry’s “Subterranean Homesick Blues” too.
     
  18. jwoverho

    jwoverho Licensed Drug Dealer

    Location:
    Mobile, AL USA
    It’s one of those Dark Night Of The Soul Albums in the same company as Neil Young’s TONIGHT’S THE NIGHT, Big Star’s THIRD, Leonard Cohen’s SONGS OF LOVE AND HATE and Nick Drake’s PINK MOON.

    Harry’s is just disguised as a drunken party in the studio.
     
  19. beatleroadie

    beatleroadie Forum Resident

    I love this album because it doesn't take itself too seriously. The darker tunes are balanced perfectly by sillyness and boys just having fun with music.

    Nilsson's throaty vocals never bothered me either. I think he sounds good. Just different. Tons of emotion in his voice. The grit helps that.

    All the Nilsson originals are killer here, and sure the covers are hit-or-miss but "Many Rivers to Cross" makes up for the lot of them because it's a masterpiece.
     
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  20. Listened to this album via HDtracks purchase for the first time over a month ago and it's all 'Save The Last Dance' and 'Don't Forget Me", for me.

    As a lifelong non-smoker surrounded by smokers, I'm glad there's 50 years and a couple continents between me and this recording studio.
     
    johnny moondog 909 likes this.
  21. the pope ondine

    the pope ondine Forum Resident

    Location:
    Virginia

    was gonna post the same thing, i think he recovered his voice by sandman....I think if you compare the schmillson voice and post pussycats voice its not that different
     
    Tord likes this.
  22. DTK

    DTK Forum Resident

    Location:
    Europe
    It's the only Nilson I own and have listened to. Love the raw vocals and the original songs and Rivers.
     
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  23. jwoverho

    jwoverho Licensed Drug Dealer

    Location:
    Mobile, AL USA
    Harry’s doing his best Lennon impression at the end of Many Rivers To Cross. Even the way he pronounces “I am” as “ I yam” and the POB “Mother”-like primal scream “losssst”.
     
  24. FredV

    FredV Senior Member

    Just post the cover and we’re okay!

    [​IMG]
     
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  25. johnny moondog 909

    johnny moondog 909 Beatles-Lennon & Classic rock fan

    I adored Harry, from fairly early on, thanks largely to the Beatles promoting him, saying they dug his stuff...& a few radio hits in the 70s.. I think Pussycats is decent but suffers from drunkenness & his ripped damaged vocal chords..kind of sad...

    But what I really wanna hear, if they exist are Lennon scratch vocals on Mucho Mungo & or Many Rivers to cross....Lennon demoed both after the Pussycats album....so maybe for whatever reason, he sang a pass or two....supposedly Lennon tried an earlier version of Mucho Mungo, with Spector, maybe during sessions for Here We Go Again, or that period. Possibly just a home demo...it's not clear.

    Love Nilsson I dig Pussycats,, but by any measure it's a partial failure, he literally crippled his vocal chords..damaging them severely...permanently....Harry liked a drink..not sure if he ever took a hiatus to regain his health.
     
    Guy Smiley likes this.
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