Arachnophonia: Nilsson

Editor’s note: Arachnophonia (“Arachno” = spider / “-phonia” = sound) is a regular feature on our blog where members of the UR community can share their thoughts about resources from the Parsons Music Library‘s collection.

All links included in these posts will take you to either the library catalog record for the item(s) in question or to additional relevant information from around the web.

Today’s installment of Arachnophonia is by student manager Eli (class of 2024) and features a couple of albums by and a biography of American singer-songwriter Harry Nilsson (1941-1994). Thanks, Eli!

Harry Nilsson

Harry Nilsson

This Arachnophonia post is centered around Harry Nilsson, an underrated and somewhat forgotten artist, at least by younger generations. Known for his “pioneering vocal overdub…, returns to the Great American Songbook, and fusions of Caribbean sounds,” Nilsson was an international phenomenon in the early 1970s. Sometimes referred to as the “American Beatle,” Nilsson is best known today for his songs “Without You” and “Everybody’s Talkin’,” both of which have over 100 million plays on Spotify.

Aerial Ballet
Nilsson - Aerial Ballet

I find Nilsson to be somewhat of an outlier in his stardom. He achieved great success, winning Grammy awards for Best Male Pop Vocal Performance & Best Male Contemporary Vocal Performance and produced three international top 10 singles. Yet, Nilsson rarely performed live and never took regular tours. He instead remained relevant through his consistent innovation and unique role within the music industry. Music historians credit Nilsson as the inventor of the “mashup,” thanks to his 1967 cover of the Beatles’ song “You Can’t Do That,” which Nilsson overlaid with vocals from over a dozen other Beatles songs.

Nilsson Schmilsson
Nilsson Schmilsson

Nilsson existed during a transient musical space, providing a smooth link between the psychedelic music of the 60s and the classic singer-songwriter era of the 70s. Rolling Stone lists Nilsson as number 62 on the “100 Greatest Songwriters of All Time,” and The Beatles themselves once revealed that Nilsson was their favorite American artist. In a musical world so dominated by The Beatles, Nilsson managed to differentiate his sound while collaborating with the superstars. He became friends with John Lennon and Ringo Starr and became a strong gun control advocate after Lennon was assassinated in 1980. Nilsson died in 1994 from a heart attack while recording his final album Lost and Founnd, which was posthumously released in 2019.

Nilsson: The Life of a Singer-Songwriter by Alyn Shipton
Nilsson Bio

My personal favorite Nilsson album is Aerial Ballet, released in 1968, while his most popular album is Nilsson Schmilsson, released in 1971. Both are available on CD at Parsons Music Library as is the leading biographical work on Nilsson, Nilsson: The Life of a Singer-Songwriter, by Alyn Shipton.

Arachnophonia: Mozart’s Letters, Mozart’s Life

Editor’s note: Arachnophonia (“Arachno” = spider / “-phonia” = sound) is a regular feature on our blog where members of the UR community can share their thoughts about resources from the Parsons Music Library‘s collection.

All links included in these posts will take you to either the library catalog record for the item in question or to additional relevant information from around the web.

Today’s installment of Arachnophonia is by student assistant Esther (class of 2025) and features a collection of Mozart’s letters. Thanks, Esther!

Mozart’s Letters, Mozart’s Life: Selected Letters
Edited and translated by Robert Spaethling

Portrait of a young Mozart

Portrait of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart at the age of 13 in Verona, 1770

When we first hear the term “classical music,” we often think of great composers like Beethoven and Mozart. Despite his relatively short life, Mozart is known and celebrated for his prodigious musicality and influential compositions even to this day. But what was Mozart like? You may know several of his pieces, but have you taken the time to consider the person behind these famous pieces?

There’s no better way of being first introduced to Mozart’s private life than Mozart’s Letters, Mozart’s Life by Robert Spaethling. Spaethling, a scholar of German literature of the 19th and 20th centuries and Mozart, has carefully chosen and depicted a compilation of Mozart’s letters spanning twenty-two years of the young composer’s life. Spaethling’s most recent edit of these letters provides us with the most accurate translation to appropriately convey Mozart’s nuanced personality.

Mozarts Letters Mozarts Life

Through Mozart’s Letters, Mozart’s Life, we are invited to explore Mozart’s innermost thoughts and raw perspective of life. In addition to the analysis of the different voices that shine through in Mozart’s candid letters, Spaethling includes information, such as various life events throughout the composer’s life, that encourages us to think deeply and have greater appreciation for the person behind these great works.

Arachnophonia: Why Karen Carpenter Matters

Editor’s note: Arachnophonia is a regular feature on our blog where members of the UR community can share their thoughts about resources from the Parsons Music Library‘s collection.

All links included in these posts will take you to either the library catalog record for the item in question or to additional relevant information from around the web.

Today’s installment of Arachnophonia is by student worker Cole (class of 2021) and features a hybrid biography/memoir about the life and legacy of 1970s pop star Karen Carpenter. Thanks, Cole!

Why Karen Carpenter Matters by Karen Tongson

Why Karen Carpenter Matters

“Why Karen Carpenter Matters” book cover
(image: University of Texas Press)

2019 marks fifty years since the release of the Carpenters’ debut album Ticket to Ride (1969; originally released as Offering). Over a fourteen-year career, the Downey, California based brother-sister duo of Karen and Richard released ten albums and were best known for their runaway hits “(They Long to Be) Close to You” (1970), “We’ve Only Just Begun” (1970), and “Top of The World” (1973). Richard handled much of the writing and all of the arranging of their songs, blending easy listening, adult contemporary, and classical stylings together, despite the popularity of hard rock at the time. Richard crafted their songs to bolster the uniquely low and rich voice of his sister. The Carpenters’ signature sound was characterized by the use of multi-tracking to back Karen’s voice with itself to provide harmonies, a technique known as overdubbing. Indeed, it was Karen who was eventually forced out from behind her drum set to become the reluctant star of the group.

The story of the Carpenters is ultimately one of tragedy. As their fame grew, so did the demands of a near-constant touring schedule. This, coupled with increased scrutiny from the media, is speculated to be the cause of Karen’s development of anorexia nervosa. Around the same time, Richard developed an addiction to Quaaludes, a sleeping pill. Although Richard cured his addiction through rehab, little was known about eating disorders at the time that any treatment Karen underwent was dubious at best. She died from complications from anorexia in 1983 at the age of thirty-two.

Carpenters_1974

The Carpenters, 1974
By A&M Records – Billboard Magazine, page 2, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=75866990

In the decades since Karen’s death, the Carpenters’ catalog has been critically re-evaluated several times over, amassing further acclaim alongside greater examination into the Carpenters’ personal lives and a paradigmatic shift in understanding of anorexia nervosa. One such re-evaluation comes in the form of Karen Tongson’s Why Karen Carpenter Matters, released earlier this year. Part-biography, part-autobiography, and part-musicography, it charts not only the life of Karen Carpenter, but Karen Tongson (the author — named for Carpenter) and her lifelong relationship to the music of the Carpenters. A Filipino-American immigrant, Tongson draws inspiration from her own life to examine why the music of the Carpenters endures for people of color, the LGBTQ+ community, and anyone else who has craved the “white normalcy” that middle class suburbanites Richard and Karen seemed to embody. Tongson emphasizes Karen’s well-documented tomboyishness as a form of queer identity, and highlights how Karen, like so many minorities, obsessed over achieving a “white picket fence lifestyle” as a form of validation. Tongson’s writing put to words an understanding I first suspected while watching Fresh Off The Boat with my Japanese-American mother: though their children may only want to escape it, for many immigrants, white suburbia is the dream.

If it wasn’t already obvious, I’m a fan of the Carpenters. Their arrangements were superb and Karen was a generational talent. But even for those who find their music ‘too soft and too white,’ I recommend this book. At 138 pages, Why Karen Carpenter Matters is a brief and pleasant read that challenges some of the predominant assumptions we hold about why we love the music we love.

The Carpenters’ fifth studio album, Now & Then (1973) is also available for check out from the Parsons Music Library.

The Carpenters - Then And Now

Arachnophonia: “The Ballad of Bob Dylan: A Portrait”

Editor’s note: Arachnophonia is a regular feature on our blog where members of the UR community can share their thoughts about items in the Parsons Music Library‘s collection. All links included in these posts will take you to either the library catalog record for the item in question or to additional relevant information from around the web.

Today’s installment of Arachnophonia is by Music Library student library worker, Eve (class of 2020) and features a 2012 Bob Dylan biography. Thanks, Eve!

The Ballad of Bob Dylan: A Portrait by Daniel Mark Epstein

The Ballad of Bob Dylan

I associate Bob Dylan with family; I grew up hearing my Dad play Dylan recordings and listening to my older brother singing classics such as “Blowin’ in the Wind“. This summer, my love of Bob Dylan was rekindled when I lived in Utah, as songs such as “Tangled up in Blue” and “Shelter from the Storm” were the perfect soundtrack for road trips with friends. In addition to loving Dylan’s music, I am interested in him as a counterculture icon, political figure and individual, and particularly want to learn more about his role in the Civil Rights movement and Vietnam War.

Bob Dylan goes electric at the Newport Folk Festival 1965

Bob Dylan “goes electric” and inspires controversy at the Newport Folk Festival 1965

As such, I am excited to explore The Ballad of Bob Dylan, a biography written by Daniel Mark Epstein. The book uses four formative concerts to examine Dylan’s rise to fame, his shift from folk to rock music, and more personal aspects of his life and character. It includes interviews with those close to the singer-songwriter such as Nora Guthrie and Ramblin’ Jack Elliot, as well as lyrics from Dylan songs and poems. While there are many biographies about this “voice of a generation”, The Ballad of Bob Dylan is accessible and comprehensive, allowing it to be the perfect read for a budding Dylan fan.