Harry Nilsson: The Unpublished Interview (April 10, 1978)
U.K. freelance music journalist Colin Richardson first met Harry Nilsson at a bar inside the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles. The two sat down for a proposed print piece about Harry's current state of affairs, circa 1978. We first learned of the existence of this interview via Colin's blog, where you can read interviews with, and insights about, the likes of Paul McCartney, Jack Bruce, Genesis, Monty Python, and others. This recorded, hour-long interview with Nilsson, however, never made it to print. It was never even transcribed, as the tapes sat in storage - unheard - for 32 years. At our request, Colin kindly invested a great deal of time and effort to exhume this long lost interview, clean up the tapes and edit the transcriptions... solely for your pleasure. It's not often one gets to read the raw transcripts of an unpublished interview, with all the sidetracks, off-mic asides, conversational tics - and ellipses - that are typically excised before reaching print. Here, you'll get the first person experience of what it's like to sit down and have a drink, or three, with Harry Nilsson. Among the stories that didn't make it to tape during their hour and a half together, was Harry's opening salvo... that he'd "gotten laid on the roof of the hotel some years earlier." As well as their farewell, when Harry wrote a personal check to Colin, as a tongue-in-cheek bribe to ensure a positive slant to the article (see below). In between, came a steady stream of stories - some old, some new - about Harry's record company battles, adventures with Keith Moon, what it took to get The Point! made, the death of Mama Cass Elliot at his London flat (where Keith Moon would also die, 5 months after this interview), and much, much more. The interview is broken into three parts, just follow the links to read it all. Thanks also go to Trev Teasdel, who greatly improved the listenability of the ancient cassettes. We hope you enjoy this previously unheard, unseen conversation with Harry Nilsson, from April 10th, 1978. Below, listen to Harry talking about his favorite high... then follow the Parts 1-3 links to read and hear each segment. Thanks for sharing, Colin.
Part 1
Where Harry discusses Knnillssonn, how he got The Point! made, his infamous Mayfair flat and the aftermath of Cass Elliot's death, and the day he and Keith Moon got sober... nearly got killed... then got drunk again.
Part 2
Where Harry discusses his early days, the birth of the non-performing myth, his performance plans to promote Duit On Mon Dei, hanging with The Beatles, recording in London, meeting the very strange Graham Bond, and idle, unsubstantiated gossip about Dustin Hoffman.
Part 3Where Harry discusses making it in the record business, humor in rock and roll, the future of music, the different highs of different albums, and his highest feeling in the world.
all via...
http://fortheloveofharry.blogspot.com/2010/04/harry-nilsson-unpublished-interview.html
