MANY RIVERS TO CROSS
HARRY NILSSON
SONGWRITER: JIMMY CLIFF
COUNTRY: U. S. A.
ALBUM: PUSSY CATS
LABEL: UNIVERSAL MUSIC PUBLISHING GROUP
GENRE: ROCK
YEAR: 1974
Harry Edward Nilsson III (June 15, 1941 –
January 15, 1994), known professionally as Nilsson, was an American
singer-songwriter who achieved the peak of his commercial success in the early
1970s. His work is characterized by pioneering vocal overdub experiments,
returns to the Great American Songbook, and
fusions of Caribbean sounds. A tenor with a 3 1⁄2 octave range, Nilsson was
one of the few major pop-rock recording artists to achieve significant
commercial success without ever performing major public concerts or undertaking
regular tours. The craft of his songs and the defiant attitude he projected
remain touchstones for later generations of indie rock musicians.
Born in Brooklyn,
Nilsson moved to Los Angeles as a teenager to escape his family's poor
financial situation. While working as a computer programmer at a bank, he grew
interested in musical composition and close-harmony singing, and was successful in having some of his songs recorded by
various artists such as the Monkees.
In 1967, he debuted on RCA Victor with the
LP Pandemonium
Shadow Show, followed by a variety of
releases that include a collaboration with Randy Newman (Nilsson Sings
Newman, 1970) and the original children's story The Point! (1971).
His most commercially successful album, Nilsson Schmilsson (1971), produced the international top 10 singles "Without You"
and "Coconut".
His other top 10 hit, "Everybody's
Talkin'" (1968), was featured prominently in
the 1969 film Midnight Cowboy. A version of Nilsson's
"One",
released by Three Dog Night in 1969, also reached the U.S. top 10.
During a 1968 press conference, the Beatles were
asked what their favorite American group was and answered "Nilsson".
Sometimes called "the American Beatle",
he soon formed close friendships with John Lennon and Ringo Starr. In the
1970s, Nilsson, Lennon and Starr were members of the Hollywood
Vampires drinking club, embroiling themselves
in a number of widely publicized, alcohol-fueled incidents. They produced one collaborative
album, Pussy Cats
(1974). After 1977, Nilsson left RCA, and his record output diminished. In
response to Lennon's 1980
murder, he took a hiatus from the music industry to
campaign for gun control. For the rest of his life, he
recorded only sporadically. In 1994, Nilsson died of a heart
attack while in the midst of recording what became his last album, Losst and Founnd (2019).
Nilsson created the first remix album (Aerial
Pandemonium Ballet, 1971) and recorded the first mashup song ("You Can't Do That",
1967). He was voted No. 62 in Rolling Stone's
2015 list of the "100 Greatest Songwriters of All Time",
where he was described as "a pioneer of the Los Angeles studio sound, a
crucial bridge between the baroque psychedelic pop of the late Sixties and the more personal singer-songwriter era of
the Seventies". The RIAA certified Nilsson
Schmilsson and Son of Schmilsson (1972) as gold records,
indicating over 500,000 units sold each. He earned Grammy Awards for two of his recordings; Best Contemporary Vocal Performance, Male in 1970 for "Everybody's Talkin'" and Best Pop Vocal
Performance, Male in 1973 for "Without You".
"Many Rivers to Cross" is a song written and recorded in
1969 by Jimmy Cliff. It has
since been recorded by many musicians, including Harry Nilsson, John Lennon, Joe Cocker, Percy Sledge, Desmond Dekker, UB40, Cher, The Brand New
Heavies, Eric Burdon
& The Animals, The Walker
Brothers, Marcia Hines, Toni Childs, Oleta Adams, Linda Ronstadt, Annie Lennox, Bryan Adams, Arthur Lee and Jimmy Barnes. It was
also performed in the Caribbean by two female musicians, Alison Hinds of Barbados and Tessanne Chin of Jamaica.
Many rivers to cross
But I just can`t seem to find, my way over
Wandering, I am lost, as I travel along
The white cliffs of Dover
Many rivers to cross
And it`s only my will that keeps me alive
Well I`ve been licked, washed up for years
And I merely survived because of my pride
And this loneliness
won`t leave me alone
It`s such a drag to be on your own
My woman left me and she didn't say why
Well I guess I have to try
Sweet thing
Sweet thing
And this loneliness
just won`t leave me alone
You know it's such a drag to be on your own
My woman left me but she didn't say why
So I guess I have to try, try
Many (many), many
(many) rivers to cross
(Many rivers to cross) But just where to begin
I`m playing for time
There have been times I found myse-elf sitting in limbo
Alone, alone, for my lifetime
Many rivers to cross
But I just can`t seem to find, my way over
Wondering, I am lost as I travel along.
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