Rock around the clock (Nilsson) (LP 3356)

Harry Nilsson  Pussy Cats (Vinyl, RCA Records, 1974) ***  

Genre: Pop rock 

Places I remember: Real Groovy Records (my first copy was lost in a house move that also claimed my Yoko collection, Lennon's Roots, and many others. A sad, mad day! Nevermind, this is a U.S. pressing with better packaging).

Fab, and all the other pimply hyperboles: Mucho Mungo/Mt. Elga

Gear costume: Rock Around The Clock 

They loom large in his legend (The Album Collection playlists): Part 1; Part 2; Part 3; Part 4; Part 5

Active compensatory factors: John Lennon gets a kind of quasi co-billing on the cover of Nilsson's tenth studio album - both a 'Produced by John Lennon' credit and a picture.

This collaboration came about during the time John was with May Pang (I don't like his trivial reference to a 'lost weekend').

Her book (Loving John) paints a different picture to the sensational headline version much loved by the press, but this album is still a pretty shambolic fifty-fifty collection of cover songs and Nilsson originals (one of which - Mucho Mungo/Mt Elga is a co-write with JL). With drugs*, booze and Keith Moon on board it must have been hard to focus on actual music.

* The cover also includes a 'joke' reference to drugs under the table with children's letter blocks "D" and "S" on either side of a rug under a table.

Nilsson damaged his vocal cords during the sessions and neglected to mention it, so the resulting album is largely about hearing his voice getting progressively rougher. The AllMusic critic says, 'the backing remains appealingly professional and slick. It doesn't quite jibe, and it's certainly incoherent, but that's its charm'. And that about sums it up.

Where do they all belong? Without John Lennon and Ringo's involvement I wouldn't have bothered to buy this, and it's the only Nilsson album in my collection apart from a Ringo/ Nilsson film soundtrack collaboration.

Another footnote: from Wikipedia - 'After the first night of recording, March 28, Paul McCartney and Stevie Wonder popped into the studio unexpectedly. Bootleg recordings from the session were later released as the album A Toot and a Snore in '74. It is the only known instance of Lennon and McCartney recording together since the break-up of the Beatles'. It's pretty hard to listen to, but of historic value.