Album: Nilsson Schmilsson
Year: 1971
Despite being both insanely talented and Beatle-approved, Harry Nilsson also a little bit too off to have a sustained career in the public eye. So while he had a couple-three of Top Ten hits — the Midnight Cowboy-powered “Everybody’s Talking,” the transcendently schlocky “Without You” and the just plain weird “Coconut” — that was pretty much it for him, singles-wise.
Those last two, of course, were from his one big album, 1971’s Nilsson Schmilsson, and while other Nilsson fans love records like Aerial Ballet or Son of Schmilsson or even the utterly chaotic Pussy Cats, I’m going to side with the general public.
Those hit singles were also part of what made him so interesting: his ability to make someone else’s song his own. And out of all of the covers he did, my favorite was this haunted Louis Jordan cover.
Snuck in the middle of the good-time rockers that mostly defined Nilsson Schmilsson, “Early in The Morning” is as much of a subtle showcase for his singing as “Without You” is a over-the-top showcase.
Whereas Jordan’s version is swamped in Cuban rhythms, and allows plenty of room for him to kick out a killer sax solo, Nilsson’s is completely different, right down to how he sings the melody.
Backed completely by a spooky, sleepy electric organ fading in from the night, Nilsson sounds like he woke up hungover and just started to sing:
Early in the morning and I can’t do right
Had a little fight with my baby last night
And it’s early in the morning
Don’chu know it’s early in the morning
Early in the morning
I ain’t got nothing,
No nothing but the blues
And like so many early morning hangovers, it only gets worse as the day progresses.
I went to Dooby Chase
To get somethin’ to eat
Waitress looked at me said,
“Harry, you sure look beat”
The way Nilsson sings that last line is utterly sublime, elongating each word in “surrrrrrrrreeeee looooooooooook beeeeeeeeeeeeeeat” and breaking into a falsetto moan after beat. You can just see him sitting there in the restaurant, cigarette resting on the saucer holding his half-finished coffee as all he can think is that it’s early in the morning over and over and over and over again.
And, of course, not only is it early in the morning.
And I ain’t got nuthin’ but the
Ain’t got nuthin’ but the
Ain’t got nuthin’ but the
Ain’t got nuthin’ but the
Ain’t got nuthin’ but the
Ain’t got nuthin’ but the
Blues
After that just sits there, sipping his coffee, staring into space, and at the fade he starts singing the first verse over again, but he knows we already understand . . .
Fan-made video for “Early in the Morning”
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