Quad LP/Tape Poll Nilsson - Sandman [CD4/Q8]

[EMB]

Please post your thoughts and comments on this RCA release from 1976, Harry Nilsson's "Sandman" album

Originally available on a CD-4 Quadradisc and Q8 tape

Side 1:

I'll Take a Tango
Something True
Pretty Soon There'll Be Nothing Left for Everybody
The Ivy Covered Walls
Thursday Or, This Is Why I Did Not Go to Work Today

Side 2:

The Flying Saucer Song
How to Write a Song
Jesus Christ You're Tall
Will She Miss Me

On the Q8, "Pretty Soon" and "Jesus Christ" are reversed to even out the side timings of the tape.

ED

 

[humprof]

What--no reviews? (And no polls for Pussy Cats or Duit on Mon Dei?) In my dreams, Michael Dutton releases all four Nilsson quads on a pair of two-fers. Love the mix or leave it (I love it), at least Schmilsson got a QR release. But I've yet to hear a transfer of any of the other three from a really clean Q8 or CD4 source. Anyway, I'm basing the following on a just-okay CD4 decode.

Sandman is one of those underrated "bathrobe period" Nilsson albums. I actually like it a lot, and I don't find anything tossed-off or dissipated about it. Sure, a good portion of the songs are jokey--notably the shaggy-dog "Flying Saucer Song"--but they're Harry Nilsson's jokes, so what's the problem? And the closer I get to retirement, the more I understand that "This Is Why I Did Not Go to Work Today" is gimlet-eyed, not facetious. The lounge-lizardy "Will She Miss Me" makes a great closer and companion piece. (I'll find one fault: I prefer the head-shaking demo of "Jesus Christ You're Tall" on Duit to the swinging gospel do-over here.)

Lots of Nilsson regulars being total pros: Danny Kortchmar, Van Dyke Parks, Jim Keltner, the immortal Klaus Voorman.. The repertoire and the arrangements--some with strings and/or horns and/or Robert Greenidge's steel pan, some not--are pleasantly varied, as are the anonymous mixes.

7 for the sound (which I'm sure Dutton could improve significantly), 8 for the mixes, 8.5 for the content. I've average that to an "8."

 

[JonUrban]

Here's another poll that was "lost" due to an improper title, so it did not show up in the polls. Hopefully I fixed that!

 

[aludra]

Will she miss me is a killer track