page_title: Gotta Get Up
section_title: Overview
hierarchical_section_title: Gotta Get Up / Overview
caption_attribution_description: Trade ad for Harry Nilsson's single "Many Rivers To Cross". To better adapt it to his respective Wikipedia article, the ad was cropped and cleaned in a graphics editing program. The original can be viewed at the source below.
context_page_description: "Gotta Get Up" is a song written by American singer-songwriter Harry Nilsson and the opening track from his 1971 album Nilsson Schmilsson. It was first released as the B-side to his single "Without You". "Gotta Get Up" is an upbeat pop song with a music hall feeling and lyrics about transitioning from carefree youth to adult responsibility. Nilsson based the lyrics on his experiences working at a bank and on his parents.
context_section_description: "Gotta Get Up" is about the transition from carefree youth to adult responsibility. The song was originally attempted in March 1968 as a potential track for Nilsson's Aerial Ballet (1968) or Harry (1969). This earlier version of the song is cheerier and more uptempo than the recording that was released on Nilsson Schmilsson. The remake takes on a more serious tone and features an aleatoric crescendo at the end. Producer Richard Perry said that the addition was inspired by the number of takes devoted to the song: "We had to do so many takes that we got cabin fever and started messing around, and Harry decided to incorporate the craziness in the song."
  Nilsson biographer Alyn Shipton suggests that portions of the song are based on Nilsson's former dayjob as a computer programmer at a bank, while other portions are written from the point of view of his parents. Part of the lyrics mention a woman who knew a military sailor that "would pound her for a couple of days, and then he'd sail across the bubbly waves, and those were happier days." According to Pitchfork writer Mike Powell, the lyric demonstrate Nilsson's "intelligence as a writer ... The Nilsson-ness is in the phrase pound her-- a contrast between sweet nostalgia and unsentimental truth."
  AllMusic reviewer Matthew Greenwalk said that the lyrics illustrate a "dread of aging and facing responsibility" as Nilsson describes waking up after a wild party and "having to get on with reality – grudgingly." Aisha Harris of The New York Times wrote that the song's "bright, infectious instrumentation belies melancholy, wistful lyrics about growing older."
caption: Nilsson, 1974
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