Harry Nilsson - 1941 Lyrics

"When he looked around he saw a clown, and the clown seemed very gay
And he said, I'd like to join that circus clown and run away"

The phases of life before Tame Impala came around

0:41 and the clown seemed very gay
I know i know it means happy but still **giggle**

It's almost criminal that Harry never truly received public acclaim as many others with far less talent did. Harry was one of those 'Musician's musician'. He influenced even the greatest in the world of music (Beatles for example idolized him). His range of ironic to the humorous & romance to the iconic was beyond the reaches of many who 'achieved' public notoriety.

Great Song ???

Good ol' music!

Masterpiece.

Is he dead?

ferociousgumby Yes

It was REALLY hard to track this down. I only remembered "Mom and son were still alive" and "what will happen to the boy when the circus comes to town", and neither of those has anything to do with the title! Did someone else do a cover of this?

I tried tracking this down the same way! I remember it from Top 40 back in the 1960s. I've looked for it for years and just found it in the Harry Nilsson bio video.

All you need do is google "song lyrics what will happen to the boy when the circus comes to town" and you will find it right away. Usually works for any line which is not too common.

very fucked up song

WOW amazing song!!!! Listen also to : EARLY IN THE MORNING......

Very Beatle-esque. No wonder the actual Beatles took to him, and worked with him.

Yes, all the lyricism and melodic & harmonic spirit of Sgt Pepper is right here in this song...

the Beatles were Nilsson-esque too.

oooh i love this song. 😄. its my favorite one by Harry Nilson.

Nilsson. Two 's'es.'

Wow. Someone with a single favorite. try 'mr. Richards favorite song', or 'who done it', 'laughin man'. wow, so many to choose, so little time.

The Acoustic version is way better..... Incredible

They're both great. This one has incredible scat singing, specially that ending, but the live version (the BBC one) seems more introspective.

Tony, Harry wrote 'I Guess the Lord....'. 

I love that song so much!!!

0:41 and the clown seemed very gay
I know i know it means happy but still *giggle*

Are you in 7th grade?

I just saw your comment. I did not say his best songs were written by others, only that the songs which performed better on the charts. Personally I love Pandemonium Shadow Show, it is of a piece with Sgt. Pepper.

I agree. I feel that the stark beauty of Nilsson's voice, with just guitar accompaniment, gives his songs more gravity than larger scale productions with lots of bells and whistles overshadowing the lyrics.

Yes, seriously. No less than the Beatles' manager, Derek Taylor, requested more than 1000 copies of Pandemonium Shadow Show to give out to friends. John and Paul loved the album and briefly considered having Harry join the Beatles. As for his covering of others' songs, consider the version of One on this album was a big hit for Three Dog Night.

That's a matter of opinion and most of us don't agree.

Seriously?

This song was the "A"-side of a 45 - recorded by Canadian Tom Northcott.

Harry was a remarkable songwriter and singer, yet his biggest hits were actually written by other people (Pete Ham of Badfinger, Fred Neil who wrote "Everybody's Talkin' At Me," Randy Newman and "I Guess The Lord Must Be In New York City."

Probably the single greatest clone of Sgt. Pepper, which is probably why the Beatles loved Harry. He "got" them, and they him.

Epic..

Check out the killer doco, who is harry nilsson ?

Live versions better,

I love that one too.

I like the live version he did on The Smothers Brothers show (I think)better, Just him and his guitar.

Did you not listen to the song? In the song he repeats exactly what happened in 1941!

no ofence
but i'm not impressed
i'll listen to it more...sometimes does work.

Mika told me to watch this and I don't regret it!

not to offend anyone but in my opinion Nilsson was way better that the beatles

well written song. love it

Sad and great.

@SonofMrPeanut I am watching it now!!! I never heard the 1941 song before, so I came on youtube to look it up. I became a fan of Nilsson after hearing a song he did with John Lennon "Mucho Mungo"/Mt. Elga

@howlinman801 For anybody who has a Netflix subscription, it's available to view on Instant Queue. There's really no excuse.

Nilsson's voice is so soothing to me ears. If you haven't already you should really watch the documentary "Who is Harry Nilsson and Why is Everyone Talking About Him?" It's quite touching :)

@Dominogray The circus bit could've used elements of Mr. Kite.

I could certainly imagine the words being written by Lennon.

Man, it is amazing how many songs that Nilsson made that I've really enjoyed, and yet never knew who he was til now....just watched the doc, "Who is Harry Nilsson?"...awesome, eccentric artist....

thanks!

so great