Now let me get this straight…<\/p>\n
You put the lime in the coconut and drink ’em both together?<\/p>\n
You put the lime in the coconut and then you feel better?<\/p>\n
I saw in the "Vail Daily" that the Yale Alley Cats were performing at the Four Seasons.<\/p>\n
For free.<\/p>\n
You see MP3s are not the only thing given away.\u00c2\u00a0 Then again, something called the Vail Symposium sponsored the gig, there’s always money underneath, just like you may be stealing music, but you’re paying for bandwidth…<\/p>\n
I felt like my mother, a culture vulture.\u00c2\u00a0 Everywhere she goes she’s combing the paper, looking for some highfalutin’ event.\u00c2\u00a0 Which, of course, leads her to many losers, especially when they’re free.\u00c2\u00a0 You see you get what you pay for.<\/p>\n
But I love a cappella.<\/p>\n
And I don’t think everybody else in attendance was a fan, but they liked the free entertainment.\u00c2\u00a0 So the lobby was packed.\u00c2\u00a0 To the point where they had to move the second set to the ballroom.<\/p>\n
Highlight of the first set?<\/p>\n
"Norwegian Wood".<\/p>\n
Famous for the sitar, all these years later it’s the lyrics that resonate.\u00c2\u00a0 Not only because they encapsulate the sixties sexual revolution, but because they’re the opposite of today’s musical media circus.\u00c2\u00a0 Today you kick ’em to the curb.\u00c2\u00a0 You get the party started with Pink, puke with Ke$ha and then laugh as you continue to live your meaningless life.\u00c2\u00a0 But in "Norwegian Wood", it’s John Lennon who’s left behind, who’s been used.\u00c2\u00a0 Great art is about vulnerability.\u00c2\u00a0 See any vulnerability in the Top Forty?\u00c2\u00a0 I rest my case.<\/p>\n
Anyway, I’d love to tell you the Alley Cats kicked ass.\u00c2\u00a0 But Straight No Chaser is a whole level of professionalism above.\u00c2\u00a0 Still, it’s fun to revel in the magic of music, when it’s not about the money, but the pure sound.\u00c2\u00a0 In this case, of fourteen voices.\u00c2\u00a0 Singing their piece de resistance, Harry Nilsson’s "Coconut".<\/p>\n
He was famous for singing someone else’s song.\u00c2\u00a0 Harry Nilsson sang Fred Neil’s "Everybody’s Talkin", the theme to "Midnight Cowboy", after his original composition, "I Guess The Lord Must Be In New York City", was rejected.<\/p>\n
That established a trend.\u00c2\u00a0 Nilsson’s biggest hit was written by Badfinger.\u00c2\u00a0 Not that anybody heard it, it was off the second Badfinger album, "No Dice", most people believed it was a Nilsson original.\u00c2\u00a0 Now most people believe Mariah Carey wrote it.\u00c2\u00a0 But that’s ridiculous.\u00c2\u00a0 Mariah Carey can sing, at least she used to be able to, but she can’t write a decent song.\u00c2\u00a0 Argue with me all you want.\u00c2\u00a0 I wish her luck with her twins, but she’s almost already been forgotten, because she stands for nothing more than melisma and excessive boob jobs.\u00c2\u00a0 Ooh, let the hate mail begin!<\/p>\n
So, Nilsson was in the wilderness both before and after his "Midnight Cowboy" hit.\u00c2\u00a0 Didn’t matter that he wrote "The Point" and covered Randy Newman, only hard core fans were buying.\u00c2\u00a0 Until…<\/p>\n
"Without You".<\/p>\n
This was 1971.\u00c2\u00a0 When you assumed the album would be a good companion to the single.\u00c2\u00a0 Unlike today, when the album is seen as a bloated statement made to make money.<\/p>\n
And when people played "Nilsson Schmilsson" they were exposed to a three dimensional personality.\u00c2\u00a0 Unlike today’s Top Forty beat-infused music, which all sounds the same, because it’s made by the same people, the cuts on "Nilsson Schmilsson" were wildly different.\u00c2\u00a0 In some cases outrageous, always engaging.<\/p>\n
"Gotta Get Up" was not a single, but is one of the greatest album openers ever.\u00c2\u00a0 Imagine an artist taking your hand, imploring you to jump from your perch and go for an exquisite adventure, a veritable magical mystery tour.\u00c2\u00a0 Some people turn on the TV and watch the "Today Show" when they wake up…try dropping the needle on "Gotta Get Up", it’ll wake you up, it’ll give you a peek into an era when we pooh-poohed TV and lived for music.<\/p>\n
And the follow-up, "Driving Along", with its acoustic guitar and engine starting…<\/p>\n
How do I explain this?\u00c2\u00a0 That this former bank teller could not only write but sing in a multi-dimensional voice that exhibited a three-dimensional personality.\u00c2\u00a0 Lock "American Idol" contestants up with "Nilsson Schmilsson", erase the one-dimensional Mariah Carey from their memories.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s not about showing us your c.v., it’s about what you do with it!\u00c2\u00a0 In other words, Bob Dylan may have a fraction of the voice of Ms. Carey, but he does a whole hell of a lot more with it.<\/p>\n
Then there’s "Early In The Morning"…<\/p>\n
I hate the dawn.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s the beginning of a new day.\u00c2\u00a0 When I haven’t quite escaped the last one.\u00c2\u00a0 You’re thinking about the evening that’s past, the alcohol consumed, the things that were said.\u00c2\u00a0 You know how the light enters behind the curtains, that’s what this track SOUNDS LIKE!<\/p>\n
Now I’m not gonna delineate every single track, I’m not gonna beat you over the head.\u00c2\u00a0 I’m just gonna say "Nilsson Schmilsson" was an album when people didn’t only consume from one trough, when you could love Zeppelin and this singer\/songwriter\/crooner too.\u00c2\u00a0 When people lament the loss of the album they’re reminiscing about shit like this, not the bloated seventy minute CDs compressed to the point they sound like space artifacts, electronic detritus that makes you cover your ears.<\/p>\n
But, of course, "Nilsson Schmilsson" contains "Coconut".\u00c2\u00a0 The song the Alley Cats performed last night.<\/p>\n
It’s one of those songs you hate the first couple times through.\u00c2\u00a0 Then you can’t get it out of your brain.\u00c2\u00a0 At random moments someone in your party quotes a lyric.\u00c2\u00a0 Then you realize you love it, it bonds you with your buddies, it makes you feel good, it makes you feel fully alive.<\/p>\n
"Coconut" sounds like nothing else on "Nilsson Schmilsson".\u00c2\u00a0 Can you take that risk?<\/p>\n
OF COURSE NOT!<\/p>\n
Do it the way they tell you to, don’t break any rules.<\/p>\n
Or else you’re doing it your own way and you suck.<\/p>\n
Harry Nilsson did not suck.\u00c2\u00a0 He put in his 10,000 hours.\u00c2\u00a0 You’ve got to have all that experience in order to throw off excellence.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s when you’re totally skilled, when your confidence is wailing instead of waning, that you can come up with gems.<\/p>\n
Once upon a time our musical stars were artists.<\/p>\n
Artists are those people you stayed away from in high school.\u00c2\u00a0 They were not captain of the football team.\u00c2\u00a0 They were not class president.\u00c2\u00a0 They were brooding loners, or they ran in alienated packs.\u00c2\u00a0 And they never complained about their outcast status, they just laughed at you grade-grubbing, playing the popularity game.<\/p>\n
And after graduation, the cheerleaders had babies and got fat.\u00c2\u00a0 The athletes got middle-aged spread and boring jobs.\u00c2\u00a0 The smart people worked themselves to death making money, raping and pillaging our society, trying to erase the abuse they got in high school.\u00c2\u00a0 And the artists?<\/p>\n
The artists flowered.<\/p>\n
We were only interested in their work.\u00c2\u00a0 We wanted to see the movies and plays and hear the music of those who were just slightly skewed, who didn’t play the game, who truly thought about life.<\/p>\n
Today an artist is a loser.\u00c2\u00a0 Because he’s POOR!\u00c2\u00a0 And our country is solely about money and…<\/p>\n
Put the lime in the coconut and drink ’em both together…<\/span><\/p>\n Life is about the simple moments.\u00c2\u00a0 The euphoria of beautiful weather.\u00c2\u00a0 The sensation of eating chocolate.\u00c2\u00a0 Hearing the creation of a great artist.<\/p>\n How did Harry Nilsson come up with this?<\/p>\n I’d love to tell you I know.<\/p>\n But I don’t.<\/p>\n That’s the power of artists. \u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n And frequently they can’t even explain it themselves.<\/p>\n But when we hear their work, we swoon.<\/p>\n\n