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When Harry Met Johnny: The Pussycats Sessions · Jon's WTF Music Moments

• 0:14
  Speaker 1: Welcome back to John's WTF Music Moments, the show where
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: music history gets weird enough that you start asking, wait,
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: are we sure this actually happened? So listen, I think
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: we can all agree that popular music has been filled
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: with exciting and sometimes even electrifying collaborations over the years.
• 0:42
  Speaker 1: But occasionally, some of those collaborations can be a little
• 0:47
  Speaker 1: too electrifying and more than a wee bit excessive. So
• 0:51
  Speaker 1: this episode talks about one of those types of collaborations.
• 0:57
  Speaker 1: And this is largely because you have two musical creative
• 1:01
  Speaker 1: geniuses who also happen to be in the throes of
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  Speaker 1: a self-destructive bender. What possibly could go wrong? A lot.
• 1:13
  Speaker 1: So first, some context. It's the mid-1970s, and John Lennon
• 1:20
  Speaker 1: is in his infamous lost weekend period, which politely means
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  Speaker 1: John Lennon is temporarily living like a man testing the
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  Speaker 1: structural limits of reality. Yoko has given him an 18-month
• 1:36
  Speaker 1: hall pass, and he's out there raising hell, having the
• 1:41
  Speaker 1: time of his life, and occasionally boning May Pang, which
• 1:46
  Speaker 1: is a considerable step up from Yoko Ono. And then
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  Speaker 1: there's his buddy, Harry Nilsson. Harry is already known as
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  Speaker 1: an incredible songwriter, vocalist with an extraordinary range, someone who
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  Speaker 1: would find themselves on a bender more often than not,
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  Speaker 1: and someone who should never be left unsupervised in a
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  Speaker 1: recording studio. or anywhere near alcohol for extended periods of time.
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  Speaker 1: And somehow, somehow these two find each other, which in
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  Speaker 1: music history is rarely a good sign. Because when genius
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  Speaker 1: meets genius under loose or no supervision, you don't always
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  Speaker 1: get greatness. Sometimes you get momentum without breaks. Sometimes it's
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  Speaker 1: just an absolute shitshow. Hell, we've all heard the story
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  Speaker 1: about how Lennon and Nilsson got thrown out of a
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  Speaker 1: Smothers Brothers show at the Troubadour in LA after knocking
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  Speaker 1: back a shit ton of Brandy Alexanders. Just imagine those
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  Speaker 1: sort of antics within the confines of a recording studio. Yeah. Now,
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  Speaker 1: their friendship was intense. Not industry collaboration. Not polite creative exchange.
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  Speaker 1: More like Constant studio hanging out. Heavy, heavy drinking culture.
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  Speaker 1: Spontaneous recording decisions. Not always a good idea. Not often
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  Speaker 1: a good idea. In sessions that drift between work and
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  Speaker 1: why are we still here? It's the kind of friendship
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  Speaker 1: where nobody is technically in charge, but everybody is participating anyway.
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  Speaker 1: And so they decide to cut an album together because...
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  Speaker 1: Why not? It'll be a Nilsson solo album produced by Lennon.
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  Speaker 1: And the personnel list for this album, Pussycats, as it
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  Speaker 1: would eventually be called, is insane. You've got Ringo Starr
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  Speaker 1: on drums. Keith Moon also on drums, because one drummer
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  Speaker 1: wasn't enough. Jim Keltner on drums again, because fuck it.
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  Speaker 1: Let's go for a drummer trifecta. Bobby Keys on saxophone,
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  Speaker 1: Klaus Vorman on bass, just to name a few. So
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  Speaker 1: to be clear, this is more than a lineup of
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  Speaker 1: qualified session musicians. This is a hard drinking, heavy partying,
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  Speaker 1: not sleeping much super group. It's less recording session and more,
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  Speaker 1: let's see what happens if we just hit the record button. So,
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  Speaker 1: End result sounds like exactly what you'd expect from that setup.
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  Speaker 1: Brilliant musicians, undisputable legends, two Beatles involved in the making
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  Speaker 1: of the album. I mean, come on. But all of
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  Speaker 1: this is set in the not-quite-healthiest of environments. And one
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  Speaker 1: can sense that almost immediately by listening to this album.
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  Speaker 1: Critics at the time didn't know what to do with it.
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  Speaker 1: Reviews often landed in this zone. Uneven. Messy but interesting.
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  Speaker 1: Creatively compelling but structurally unstable. One critic later described it
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  Speaker 1: as a fascinating document of excess, but not always a
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  Speaker 1: satisfying listening experience. Which is critic language for, I understand this,
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  Speaker 1: But I don't want to experience this ever again. Now
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  Speaker 1: before we go any further, I think it's important that
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  Speaker 1: we talk about Harry Nilsson's voice. Nilsson had one of
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  Speaker 1: the most beautiful voices in rock music at the time.
• 6:01
  Speaker 1: Just listen to his Grammy Award winning 1971 ballad, Without You,
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  Speaker 1: actually written by the fellas from Badfinger. Harry Nilsson's soaring
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  Speaker 1: tenor is nothing short of breathtaking here. Not surprisingly, you
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  Speaker 1: couldn't escape hearing Without You anywhere in 1971 or 1972,
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  Speaker 1: even in Siberian gulags. But eventually, Nilsson's vocal prime and
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  Speaker 1: fame is short-lived. And everything started to change for Nilsson
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  Speaker 1: right around the time of the recording of Pussycats, and
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  Speaker 1: not for the better. During these sessions, Nilsson starts pushing
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  Speaker 1: his vocals constantly. Long takes, high-intensity singing, repeated strain over
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  Speaker 1: extended nights in the studio, lots of cigarettes, lots of scotch,
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  Speaker 1: lots of God knows what else. Insanely loud screaming just
• 7:02
  Speaker 1: for the hell of it. According to urban legend, so
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  Speaker 1: intense and loud was the screaming that blood, was seen
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  Speaker 1: on the microphone in the recording studio, the result of
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  Speaker 1: a ruptured vocal cord. Sure, Harry was known for having
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  Speaker 1: a powerful voice with this incredible range, but here the
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  Speaker 1: intensity begins to take a toll. After this period, Nilsen's
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  Speaker 1: voice is never quite the same again. The range is
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  Speaker 1: still there in memory, in reputation. But the instrument itself
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  Speaker 1: has changed. Less effortless. Less limitless. More constrained. Raspier. Like
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  Speaker 1: something incredibly rare that has been played just a little
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  Speaker 1: too hard. And the man with the front row seat
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  Speaker 1: to this destruction, the man who could have stopped it,
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  Speaker 1: but some say encouraged it, is the album's producer, John Lennon.
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  Speaker 1: He's participating in the crazy antics, aiding and abetting Nilsson
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  Speaker 1: all throughout. Lennon's lost weekend atmosphere seeps into everything surrounding Pussycats.
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  Speaker 1: Late night sessions, blurred boundaries, ideas arriving faster than decisions,
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  Speaker 1: structure dissolving into vibe, oh, And don't forget excessive drinking
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  Speaker 1: and partying. Even Lennon, who had seen his fair share
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  Speaker 1: of studio chaos, is not fully outside it here. He's
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  Speaker 1: a big part of the problem. And the finished product
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  Speaker 1: was by most accounts a disappointment. A what could have been.
• 9:00
  Speaker 1: And yet, despite everything, there are in fact moments of
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  Speaker 1: real beauty on Pussycats. Songs like Don't Forget Me stand
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  Speaker 1: out because they almost feel startlingly clear in contrast to
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  Speaker 1: everything around them. Even the insanely overproduced cover of Jimmy
• 9:19
  Speaker 1: Cliff's Many Rivers to Cross is strangely enjoyable at times.
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  Speaker 1: But these are brief moments of calm that appear in
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  Speaker 1: the middle of a real shitstorm. Over time, some have
• 9:34
  Speaker 1: come to regard Pussycat's as a bit of a misunderstood classic.
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  Speaker 1: It's the product of an uneasy and unhealthy creative environment,
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  Speaker 1: but also a fascinating and at times disturbing snapshot of
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  Speaker 1: a wild era for rock and roll excess. There's high talent,
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  Speaker 1: low restraint, and nobody there to say, hey guys, we
• 9:57
  Speaker 1: might want to consider doing that differently after Pussycats Harry
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  Speaker 1: Nilsson tries to continue his career but it's never the
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  Speaker 1: same and he never even comes close to equaling his
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  Speaker 1: early 70s brief heyday his voice never fully returns to
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  Speaker 1: what it was By the mid-1980s, he's all but given
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  Speaker 1: up on recording new music. And though he attempts a
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  Speaker 1: brief comeback in the early 1990s, he would die of
• 10:29
  Speaker 1: a heart attack in 1994 at the age of 54
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  Speaker 1: years old. Pussycats even helped push John Lennon over the edge.
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  Speaker 1: The Lost Weekend gets the best of him. and Lennon
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  Speaker 1: all but drops out of the music scene for the
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  Speaker 1: rest of the 1970s. Which is why Pussycats feels, in hindsight,
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  Speaker 1: like a turning point, an oddly symbolic moment in music history.
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  Speaker 1: So what you end up with is not just a
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  Speaker 1: Lennon-Nilson record. It's a snapshot of what happens when friendship,
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  Speaker 1: excess talent, and lack of boundaries change. all show up
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  Speaker 1: in the same room at the same time. How about
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  Speaker 1: some suggested listening? Well, if you're patient and perhaps a
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  Speaker 1: bit of a masochist, give Pussycats a listen. While you
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  Speaker 1: might not love it, you certainly won't be bored. And
• 11:32
  Speaker 1: I strongly encourage watching the 2010 documentary, Who is Harry
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  Speaker 1: Nilsson and Why is Everybody Talking About Him? This great
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  Speaker 1: rock doc goes into vivid detail about Harry and John's friendship,
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  Speaker 1: the lost weekend, and the recording of Pussycats. I'm John,
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  Speaker 1: and I'll be back soon enough with another WTF Music Moment.
• 11:57
  Speaker 1: WTF Music Moment