Word: nilsson
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...write their own stuff and occasionally deliver it in person. The handy and somewhat disparaging label for this new style of defused, intimate and literate pop is "salon rock." No one in the business, however, puts down the genuine talents of two of its finest practitioners: Composer-Singers Harry Nilsson, 29, and Randy Newman...
...Nilsson's pale blond hair and even paler complexion have earned him the nickname of the White Rabbit. From a musical viewpoint, he is really Tweedledum to Newman's Tweedledee. Both men are married and live in Los Angeles; both are basically recluses whose principal social activity, until recently, was playing pingpong together. They are also equally red-hot songwriters who have turned out hits for such diverse talents as Peggy Lee, Judy Collins, Ella Fitzgerald and the West Coast rock group called Three Dog Night (which moves up to No. 1 on the Billboard chart this week...
Painful Accuracy. Nilsson himself speaks of a "certain indefinable something" that he and Newman have in common. But it is really where they differ that tells the most. One of the many ironies about Newman is that, although he sings in a raspy, soul-based blues style, his chief concern as a lyricist is Middle America. In Love Story, which he sang on NBC's Liza Minnelli Special last week, Newman sums up middle-age with painful accuracy: "Some nights we'll go out dancin'/ If I am not too tired/ And some nights...
There is a sadness in Nilsson's work too, but, like the great tragic clowns, he feels that he may as well put on a cheerful front until proved wrong. His specialty is the melancholy ballad delivered with an upbeat melody. Mr. Tinker, for example, is about a tailor whose life has passed him by. "It isn't easy for a tailor/When there's nothing left to sew" goes one of its lines. The lyrics may be sorrowful, but the music is pure devil-may-care...
Once in a generation there appears an artist who by virtue of voice and temperament seems to symbolize an entire school of singing. Today, Birgit Nilsson is the archetypal Wagnerian Soprano, just as Jussi Bjoerling was the ultimate Italian Tenor during the 1940s and '50s. Both are Swedish, proving that national style has nothing to do with nationality. Since the death of Leonard Warren in 1960, no one man has been acknowledged by critics and conductors as the quintessential Italian Baritone. Now, though, there may be a legitimate claimant to the title. Like Warren and Lawrence Tibbett before...