Harry and Friends
3 Things I Learned From Watching
Who Is Harry Nilsson (And Why Is Everybody Talkin' About Him?)*
- Mickey Dolenz once got a late night call from Harry,who wanted to go out and party. Mickey didn't remember much; "I woke up three days later in a massage parlor in Phoenix!"
- Harry recorded an entire album of Randy Newman songs to showcase his friend's songwriting talent.
- Harry's funeral was on the day of the Northridge Earthquake. In between the aftershocks, George Harrison led the mourners in a graveside rendition of "You're Breaking My Heart".
4 comments:
Sounds like must-watch viewing, TSG. Thanks for the heads up.
Harry, being a big Beatles fan, used to always come to the Chicago Beatlesfest happening (not the other cities, I guess; just Chicago).
And he cut quite a swath and left quite a wake. To this day, when you talk to a Beatlesfest fan who remembers the days of Harry they get all misty eyed and have all kinds of endearing tales of Harry doing this and Harry doing that.
In Micky's bio, he mentioned Harry and John used to bang on the door in the middle of the night to use Micky's recording studio. Lots of late-night debauchery indeed.
Looks like I'll be hunting for that DVD.
The rest of the story:
Our library system is acquiring this DVD and I have a "hold" entered for it. I will be the first in the system to view it. Yay.
When you get the DVD, make sure to check out the bonus materials. There's a clip called "Family" that makes watching the DVD a really emotional experience.
One thing that's frustrating about the DVD is that there is so little insight from the man himself. There is some voiceover from tapes he made--some sort of oral autobiography--but other than that, nothing. In the end, we only see him through the lens of everyone else's memories, but we're left with almost nothing from Harry himself. After seeing the film and the extra interviews and hearing all that great music, what he thought about his life, his friends and family and his music is still a mystery.
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