One of the myths is that Harry had lost his voice completely and that he was incapable of producing an album. Nothing could be further from the truth.

He finally gave in, and performed -- for charity, and did pretty well at the age of 53! What rock musicians do you know at that age, still performing, other than the living dead bands: "Who", "Rolling Stones" and Carlos Santana, my 60's friend Melanie, who performed the other day for the Libertarian Party, Reshad Feild, bass player for Dusty Springfield just gave a Sufi workshop on Rumi, and Donovan who was just in town -- this town is so small there are no sidewalks to roll up at five PM -- but that's them pre-booked tours for ya, you can end up behind a cage with beer bottles breakin' all around your head in the middle of an Alaskan winter, stranded because your partner sold your electric piano and split town without saying a word -- believe me, I know. And so does anyone who's ever been "on tour".

So what about that "Last Album"???

The speculation ends here; I have in my hot sweaty little hands -- a very precious little DAT -- containing Harry's "Last" album.

He'd intended to bring it for me, but left it in LA -- but it was sent FedEx and arrived in time for us to work with it! Another (signed) tape of his three-disk compilation choices, plus some tapes of him and John in studio, and an old recording that I'd done years ago of him telling some stories...

Another tape was a compilation of four bars of every hook in every song he'd ever recorded; it was another Christmas present he'd had sent up -- it also had been left on the kitchen table in the mad rush to get to the airport!

I've had those DAT and CD masters and videos and other stuff tucked away safely in my vault since 1993. Other than the few times I play them for my own enjoyment and for friends such as Curtis who might drop by now and again, nobody else will ever hear or see them, and it's a shame.

Stuff like that is safe with me; I had in my hands a gamewriting computer with ALL the source code for Quake and Quake II on it at my workstation for over a week, totally safely.

I also have George Shearing unreleased masters and a lot more; they're safe in my hands, and so are Harry's Last Masters.

We re-did 9 basics for this album, including "Snow", "Try, Try, Try," "It's All In The Mind", "Lullaby", and "Lay Down Your Arms" -- here's a still from the video of Harry and me belting out the chorus of "Lay Down Your Arms" -- a video was produced for the Coalition, but Harry passed away before it could be given to them, and now it's too late, of course.

Oz and Jimmi did a quick transfer, and Harry left with our DAT on which were all the mixed-for-CD tracks plus one mixed variation of the basic of "Georgia", over which he planned to do the vocals in LA.

...But there's more. Much more. On Christmas Eve, we recorded a full album of r&b, including a rock-out version of "Iko-Iko" mixed with the Coconut Song.

On the session were:

• Harry Nilsson, Vocals
• Jimmi Accardi, Guitar (formerly with the Monkees, Laughing Dogs)
• Bob Bachtold, Drums (yes, the jazz drummer!)
• Menlo Macfarlane, Percussion
• Vocals, Keyboards & Keyboard Bass, E.J. Gold
• Vocals, Della Heywood (Doug & the Slugs)
• Vocals, Cynthia Henderson (Broadway Star)
• Engineering, Oz Fritz & Marvette Kort
• Filming, Tim Elston (Plasmadyne -- CG Movie Dinosaurs)

Some of the Nilsson kids were there, too, during the earlier part of the session. Harry was just recovering from a vicious flu, and at the beginning, his voice was a little throaty, but within minutes, he was belting out shit like the Old Days!

Included on the album is a version of "Kansas City", several blues that Harry made up as we played, which I sent to Una (no, I do NOT show any of the hundreds of family photos in my possession) for copyrighting and protection, etc. -- and a fascinating essay into music with Harry and Jimmi singing "Georgia" and "Yesterday" as a duet -- Harry had long maintained that they are exactly the same song with the exception of a single note, and he proves it!

Naturally, I can't play any of his voice and I wouldn't release this disk without the full permission of all concerned, but I did do something just because it's the HarryFest; I had Oz strip out Harry's vocal -- it's sorta like hearing the Supremes without Diana Ross -- so you can at least hear the quality of the space we were in...it's the very best I can do with my limited resources.

I hope you enjoy the soundbyte, even though it's sans Harry's voice; the music is our arrangement -- it's a standard blues run with the usual riffs and turnarounds...

So I'll shut up, already...

HERE'S THE SOUNDBYTE OF THE CHRISTMAS (REMEMBER) SESSION 1993!