The Point by Harry Nilsson part 1

Harry Nilsson, protege of Los Beatles and John Lennon's carousing partner while in LA, was a little bit of an acid tripping crazy pants. But, hey, who gives a care right?

The Point! was a record that he created in 1971 and later a movie narrated by Dustin Hoffman for ABC. Interesting though, later on the recorded version something legal happened and Ringo Starr added his voice as the narrator instead.

"I was on acid and I looked at the trees and I realized that they all came to points, and the little branches came to points, and the houses came to point. I thought, 'Oh! Everything has a point, and if it doesn't, then there's a point to it.'" -- Harry Nilsson

I mean, this quote pretty much explains the album as well as the movie. Trippy, awesome and out of it's mind. Of course everyone remembers the song "Me and My Arrow" if not directly then from Blackalicious' sampling of it in their song Blazing Arrow.

I'm amazed because nobody seems to have ever heard this album, and thats a crime, I love this album. Particularly because the movie was such a huge part of my childhood (I don't understand why, it must have been the closest thing to acid one could ever give to one's kids)

The songs are all fantastic, unfortunately the narrative of the album kind of gets annoying after a while. I can't imagine that I'd have the patience to listen to this on record when it first came out, which is most likely why this album wasn't very popular. But good god, its such a damn good album! The arrangements for a full string section, the beautiful arrangements for vocals surpass everything I've heard from Nilsson frankly and the songwriting doesn't really involve in a dialog with the plot at all and are simply love songs or break up songs ("and if we wake up just to break up/I'll carry on, oh yes I will" about his dog? I think not.)