Saturday 9

Without You (1972)

Unfamiliar with this week's song. Hear it here.

1) Nilsson sings that he can't forget this evening. Did anything happen this evening (or last night, if you're answering during the day) that you expect you'll recall for a long time? As I write this Friday evening, I just brought my Connie Cat home from the vet. She had a tooth pulled this morning. She's still all dopey and dilated. If her recovery from this routine procedure is successful, I'll likely never think of it again. But if it isn't? Oh, sometimes it's not fun being a fur mom.

2) In the 1960s, he worked in a very "un-rock-star" job: computer programmer in a bank. Looking over your career, have you more often worked in or out of an office setting? Always in an office.

 

3) He fibbed to get the job, telling the bank he'd graduated from high school when in reality, he was a drop out. Have you ever fudged a fact on your resume? No. I'd never do that. A job is like a relationship. The employer and employee have to be straight with one another.

4) The bank found out the truth but was so pleased with Nilsson's personality and performance they kept him on. Tell us about a friend or loved one's misbehavior that you have overlooked. My friend Mindy sees herself as the kindest, most empathetic person in the world. She really means to be. But she's not. She likes getting her way too-too much and is lazy about returning phone calls and honoring commitments. I don't bust her on this, though, because it would break her heart. She truly does believe she's the most sensitive person any of us knows.

5) Before finding success as a singer, Nilsson was a songwriter. He composed "Cuddly Toy," recorded by the Monkees. Do you have a favorite Monkees song? Not only one of my favorite Monkees songs, one of all my all-time favorite records.

 

 

 

6) In 1976 Nilsson married Una O'Keeffe. They met in a New York restaurant, where she was a waitress. He asked her about her accent -- she was from Dublin -- and a romance ensued. While the waitress and the rock star seemed like an unlikely couple, they remained together until his death in 1994 and had six children. Do you know how your parents (or grandparents) met? My dad was a mechanic, working on this lady's car and he completely charmed her. No easy feat, because the lady could be intimidating. Anyway, she asked the mechanic if he had a girlfriend, because her daughter had recently broken up with her boyfriend. My dad invited the lady's daughter to a party at his place that weekend. Unfortunately, he was picking up ice when she arrived and, in his absence, she took an immediate dislike to his drunk and rowdy friends. She ran out and was walking home when he caught up with her. And so it was on the street, with my dad calling to her from a rolled-down car window as she stormed down the sidewalk, that my parents first met.

 

7) Nilsson was a night owl and found he felt most creative late at night, right before he fell asleep. When are you at your best: morning, noon or night? Late afternoon or late night.

8) In 1972, the year "Without You" was a hit, Alice Clark Browne made history as the first African American aerialist to perform with Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus. Did you ever attend the circus? My parents took us to see the Shrine Circus a couple times. I liked it better in theory than practice. They had three rings and I didn't know what I should be looking at. I liked the horses but hated the clowns and the cotton candy left my hands all sticky.

 
9) Random question -- Think about last week. Would you prefer this week to be more exciting, or more boring? LESS! This week brought a great deal of stress.