son Schmilsson" (1971) and "Son of Schmilsson" with, and maybe even a band you've never played (1972) to raise him to the loftiest levels of commer- with before." cial clout. "Nilsson Schmilsson" has now sold al- For Nilsson, the recording studio provides a to- most one million records, and "Son of Schmilsson" tal, virtually self-contained environment, a combi- over half a million. "Son" might possibly have fared nation home, workshop, and office. "I actually do a better, but the muscular arm of unofficial censorship lot of my writing in the studio," he says. "At home came down on it because of the song You're Break- you're conditioned not to play loud, but in a big stu- in' My Heart. Whole chains of stores across the dio you've got all the tools to do whatever you country refused to stock the album because the lyr- ics of the song concluded with the line "Fuck you." "I never thought there would be anything wrong or objectionable because of that word," maintains Harry. "I said to Rocco Laginestra [President of RCA Records] when we were discussing it, 'What do you say after "You're breakin' my heart"? Darn "I'm a perfectionist it?' The word fits. And if a song is done correctly, in in some areas of good humor and honesty, and if it's taken that way, life-even if I do then it's all right. You can't say moon, June, spoon leave and socks on for everything." the floor." But apparently quite a lot of people in these United States are just not ready for Nilsson's can- dor. A man in California spent a night in jail be- cause he played You're Breakin' My Heart over a want-and when you are inhibited by an engineer or shopping center loudspeaker and someone com- somebody looking at you, you can go to another plained to the police. studio where there's no one around. It's usually dark, and there's a piano or drums lying around, and IT is perhaps inevitable that a discussion with Har- there's no way you can walk over to a set of drums ry Nilsson will sooner or later arrive at the question without doing something. I wrote the lyrics for of why he has avoided a career as a concert artist. Maybe in a studio and also Think About Your Trou- Since he is a gifted singer, it is surely not because he bles, which took less time to write than it takes to lacks the talent. But despite enormous pressure and sing. sizable financial inducements to end his holdout "Songs come differently each time," Nilsson con- from the concert world, Nilsson remains true to his tinued. "Each album is unique. In Africa, the year convictions and his privacy. "It's another occupa- before last,Iwrote the Schmilsson album in a tion," he declares. "Anyway, I get the same feeling month and a half. I was never that prolific before of excitement in a studio that many people get on and probably never will be again. I was with this stage. Concerts and recordings - although they do beautiful woman, Kathy. We were sitting there overlap-are different ways of making a living. reading Time and Newsweek. There was no tele- When you do a concert, you know that once you do phone going off. There were elephants outside.I something the moment's gone. You can't stop the took out a notebook and a pen and wow! all of a tape. You can't change anything. And I'm a perfec- sudden I started writing lyrics and melodies without tionist in some areas of my life-even if I do leave being near a piano or guitar or anything. my socks on the floor." "I see myself as a craftsman, a computer of sorts, Interestingly,Nilsson'sexperiencewiththe compiling bits and pieces, phrases-you might say computer facilities at the bank has proved invalu- producing a song rather than creating it. But I think able in the recording studio. "The equipment is sim- that the paradox of productivity versus creativity ilar, very similar," Nilsson explains, "so I found it assumes a total separation of art and science. That's easy to adjust to the recording studio. I was used to something I don't accept. They overlap. handling tape and seeing things go around - buttons "My own criteria for songs are public accep- and lights and that sort of thing. It's a controlled en- tance, longevity, the degree of challenge-in addi- vironment too, always seventy degrees and 52 per tion, of course, to the quality of the work itself. The cent humidity - perfect temperature and climate. Beatles would be the contemporary group whose You don't have that control in front of a live audi- songs best fulfill these criteria. ence, where there are too many variables: people "My own songs have become more sophisticated, you've never seen, equipment you're unfamiliar I think, with time and as I have mastered the craft. I SEPTEMBER 1973 65.