Quad LP/Tape Poll Nilsson, Harry & John Lennon: Pussy Cats [CD-4/Q8]

[sjcorne]

Pussy Cats was Harry Nilsson's tenth album and second quad release, issued on CD-4 LP and quad 8-track by RCA in 1974. Produced by John Lennon during his "Lost Weekend" period, the album features contributions from other well-known musicians such as Ringo Starr, Keith Moon, and Klaus Voormann.

RCA APD1-0570 [CD-4 LP] APT1-0570 [Q8]
Discogs links: Q8 / LP
Wiki for the album: Pussy Cats

Side 1

1. Many Rivers To Cross
2. Subterranean Homesick Blues
3. Don't Forget Me
4. All My Life
5. Old Forgotten Soldier

Side 2

1. Save The Last Dance For Me
2. Mucho Mungo/Mt. Ekga
3. Loop De Loop
4. Black Sails
5. Rock Around The Clock

 

[Quad Linda]

A Turd
4 - possibly generous on my part

Quad mix is decent
Fidelity isn't bad WHEN the vocals aren't overmodulated
Can I rate the music as a negative #? Perhaps an unfair quip, since I bought 3 Lennon LP's that were tantamount to noise. Rebought them on CD.

First, I'm a Nilsson, Lennon and Beatles completist.
Bought this turd 4 times: CD-4, cutout 2ch LP, UK CD and in 15 CD Nilsson RCA Albums (99 rarities!) I'd be surprised if I've heard Pussy Cats over 10 times total.

From the first time the Shibata tip hit the vinyl, I realized this may not be an easy listen. Harry ripped up his voice on these sessions. Album begins with one of many lowlights, cover of Cliff's classic Many Rivers. Tom Waits is more melodic and more in tune. Complete on him, too. Dylan's Subterranean had much promise, that is, until I heard it, Not quite as bad as Many Rivers.

The promise of this album was buried alive as part of the lost weekend sjcorne mentioned.
Nilsson's Mom was quoted as saying, "Harry, I can hear the ice clink." HN & JL were tossed out at a Smothers Bros. gig. As you can imagine, it had to get pretty bad for Lennon and Nilsson to be ejected.

Lennon discussed this album in an interview, "Harry ran off with the master tapes. No one could find him or the tapes." JL was its' producer! That scenario is as accurate a review as anyone could provide, including me. Harry's own review of sorts.

Nearly unlistenable, despite a decent Quad mix.

 

[Doug G.]

Linda Schminda, I feel it is time for you to tell us what you really think about this album.



Doug

 

[humprof]

I first heard this in the late Captain Beyond's Q8 conversion, and I figured the awful sound just had to be a function of a crappy source: all the mud and hiss and high-frequency dropout of a 4th-generation cassette dub, with all the wow and flutter and oversaturation of a badly duplicated eight-track. But now I've heard the album both in remastered stereo (on the RCA Albums Collection box) and in Sony 360 (which is probably as good as the quad is gonna get) and I'm convinced the sound is just...bad. Maybe deliberately bad. Or at least inevitably so. I mean, it's fitting, since everything else about the album is so shambolic. I love Harry Nilsson, and although--unlike Linda--I don't find this album "unlistenable," I still find it painful to listen to. (In more ways than one: Nilsson really did blow out his voice on Jimmy Cliff's "Many Rivers.") A document of Nilsson at the deepest depths of dissolution. The songs are tossed off, the production is derelict, the quad mix is meh. At least there was still Duit On Mon Dei and Sandman to come. If Dutton does a box set--or even four single albums--I'll still buy them all, including this one!

 

[scooob]

Just obtained a conversion of the Q8, supposedly from Captain Beyond. I've only sampled it so far, so I wouldn't presume to vote on it yet, but it sounds even muddier than the stereo CD does. But then I have yet to hear a Q8 that I would consider anywhere close to high fidelity. Still, this one disappoints, even by those standards.

However, I have to disagree with the assessment that there's nothing of musical value on this album. Knowing it only by reputation before I first heard it years ago, I was pleasantly surprised that I didn't find it nearly as bad as expected. I consider Don't Forget Me to be a Nilsson classic. The rough shape of his voice and the unpolished production and performance only add to its poignancy for me. Perhaps I over-romanticize Lennon's lost weekend period (and even his whole life in general), but I think some of the music that came out of that period has an emotional depth, borne of pain, that I find compelling, at least in spots. Don't Forget me is one of those, big time... you can hear Harry's anguish all through it. And I like Many Rivers To Cross too, not nearly as much, but for the same reasons. The rest of the album is rough sailing for sure, but I still listen to the whole thing once in a blue moon, for the historical resonance, if nothing else.