The artist Roger Daltrey called “one of the best songwriters”
The golden age of rock and roll always came back to serving the song. Even though many artists wanted to make the most obnoxious music they could to their parents’ annoyance, the central theme behind every classic track was the knowledge of crafting melodies that made people want to dance, love, cry and everything in between. Although Roger Daltrey was never the central songwriter in The Who, he could recognise a fantastic rock and roll poet when he saw one.
Then again, The Who certainly weren’t slouches when it came time to make phenomenal songs. Throughout the band’s early years in the Mod scene, Pete Townshend was known for making expansive rock songs that cut to the bone whenever they came on, like ‘My Generation’. As the band started to reach beyond the parameters of traditional rock and R&B, Townshend thought that the group should make lofty concepts, creating rock operas like Tommy and Quadrophenia, each of which told a story from front to end.
Although Daltrey was more than willing to give a voice to Townshend’s melodies, he was more focused on interpreting a song rather than telling a story. When talking about the band’s discography, the singer would eventually say that Who’s Next was the best record they ever made despite being a part of the scrapped project, Lifehouse.
At the same time, many of the most prominent singer-songwriters in rock were making waves as the band told their musical stories. Outside of the British rock scene, artists like James Taylor and Joni Mitchell were staking their claims as rockstars by creating the most emotionally naked records of the time, each tune telling gripping tales about the outcasts of society.
Out of all the artists to come out of the singer-songwriter tradition, Daltrey always had an affinity for Harry Nilsson’s work. Known for his work on iconic tracks like ‘Without You’, the singer’s signature rusty voice would become one of the trademark sounds of 1970s pop, creating songs that were equally strong and heartbreaking.
When discussing his personal favourites, Daltrey would consider Nilsson one of the best he had ever seen, telling BBC Radio 2, “Harry Nilsson was such a great talent, and I knew Harry, a very funny guy. He’s got something going on in his voice that really gets me. A beautiful voice and he was a very funny man. Harry was one of the best songwriters out there”.
Outside of high praise from rock’s premiere frontmen, Nilsson would also become infamous in the LA rock scene, becoming a fixture of the famous drinking club the Hollywood Vampires among The Who’s Keith Moon and Ringo Starr. Nilsson would even find himself behind the glass on some of the biggest albums of the time, being heard in the background of Starr’s solo material and working on John Lennon on various songs on his album Walls and Bridges.
Even though Nilsson was never interested in making the same conceptual masterpieces as The Who, it didn’t seem to matter. He knew he had a certain magic in writing his songs, and he would use everything in his power to ensure some emotion came across in every record he made.
