Harry Nilsson - The Point!

“Dr. Penfold I just can’t take it anymore.  I think I’m really at the breaking point.”

“Calm down Mr. Noname,” I say in a slow, pacifying manner.  “There’s no benefit to getting this worked up after we have been talking through your issues for at least twenty five minutes.  If you really were this upset, you should have expressed your discontent at the very beginning of your session.  We’ve had this discussion before…many times.  It’s alright.  Just take some deep breaths.  That’s it, there you go.  Now, why don’t you tell me what is really troubling you.”

“Well Dr. Penfold, the whole world hates me.  I literally feel the weight of the world bearing down on my shoulders all the time.  Sometimes it literally slows me down to where I’m moving at half my normal speed or less, and…”

Okay, here we go again.  At this point I pretty much tune out.  I realize that it is my duty as a psychiatrist to pay close attention and make note of any new information that my patient wishes to provide, but frankly after treating this particular gentleman for the past several years – Mr. Noname (pronounced no-nah-mi) – the hackneyed nature of our discussions has worn me down.  Honestly, I’ve compared notes and voice recordings from randomly chosen sessions spread over several years and the overlap is unreal.  An outsider would definitely be forgiven if they assumed I had multiple mislabeled copies of the same session.

Recently I have been racking my brain trying to come up with something, anything really, that would help Mr. Noname out of his oh so common bouts of depression.  Nothing from any medical journal or publication has proven to have any kind of lasting impact.  Sure the techniques provided might ‘cure’ my patient for about a day, maybe a week, but the next session would reveal that we were right back to square one.  Aggravating?  You bet.

“…and I always hit red lights, never green.  It is always storming all day long on my birthday.  The grocery store never has my favorite cereal in stock, even though when I ask them about it they say they will get more in soon.  Every Christmas, Mother Nature gives me the gift of a flu bug.  If I become a fan of a sports team, they immediately start losing and quickly go bankrupt.  When I…”

“Mr. Noname, I’m going to stop you there.  What you are describing to me are circumstances that you can’t expect to have any control…you know what, I have an idea.”  My idea would end this drivel for the next few minutes and give me some peace in which to try to come up with a new ‘cure’.  “I want to play some music for you Mr. Noname.  Whenever I am sad or upset I always put this album on and my day turns around 180 degrees.”

“What album is it Doctor?”

“The album is called The Point! by a man named Harry Nilsson.”  I found my office copy on a shelf and put the CD into the stereo system.

“Huh, I’ve never heard of it before Doctor.”

“That’s okay Mr. Noname.  Strangely enough, not very many people nowadays have.”  Although I maintained my calming speech and demeanor, I could not press play soon enough.

The Point! was originally released in 1971.  The album is the soundtrack for an animated movie of the same name.  Both endeavors were the result of Harry Nilsson’s bountiful imagination.  They tell the story of Oblio, a unique young man living in a society dominated by omnipresent points.  Every individual person has a head that literally comes to a point.  These people live in the Land of Point where everything is produced with at least one point in its design.  Oblio upsets the balance of this society by being born without a point on the top of his head.  The story follows Oblio as a young boy when he is singled out for his pointless condition, his subsequent banishment to a place known as the Pointless Forest, and finally his heroic return to the Land of Point with important life lessons in tow.  The story is a wonderful morality tale that will appeal to kids and adults in equal measure, but enough about that.  What about the music?

As stated earlier I listen to this album often when I am feeling down.  Why would I do that you ask?  Simple.  This music has healing powers.  It is actually impossible for anyone listening to this album not to be happy and content.  Not the superficial happiness that people often experience with some new material possession or fake accomplishment.  No, no, no.  The happiness produced by this album is far more powerful and all-encompassing.  While the music plays, and for at least a short time thereafter, everything seems right with the world.

All seven songs comprising the album qualify as pop music marvels.  In all my years of music listening, I have yet to come across songs that are as instantly memorable as these.  Once, I tried to break the songs down to their respective elements to try to understand the formula garnering such perfection.  The music itself is provided by a multi piece band and is often very orchestral in nature.  On top of the standard drums, bass, guitar, and piano of modern pop music Nilsson often includes strings, wind instruments such as flutes, horns, and also extra percussion in the mix.  With all of these incorporated elements each song is very playful and engaging.  The real star of the show however is the sublime vocal performance provided by Nilsson himself.

Harry Nilsson is hands down one of the best vocalists I have ever had the pleasure of hearing.  He had absolute control of his three and a half octave vocal range, and he used it to great effect.  Unlike some of today’s singers who show off their range seemingly in an attempt to shatter glass, Nilsson went about things entirely differently.  He would record differing takes of a song in the studio to successfully harmonize with himself or add additional vocal flair to a passage.  The end results are stunning.  These harmonies radiate warmth like a high dollar furnace along with an overwhelming sense of compassion, and all of the individual layers give listeners the opportunity to continuously pick out nuances they did not notice before.  The descriptor that automatically comes to mind is spellbinding.

Due to the top to bottom quality of this album, it is impossible for me to select an overall favorite track.  On the other hand, I can tell you which of these songs pop into my mind with more frequency than the others.  “Me and My Arrow” is intoxicatingly sweet with an ever-present playful organ line running behind some of the best sing along vocals in existence.  The last song on the album, entitled “Are You Sleeping?”, is absolutely phenomenal.  It opens a direct line to your soul, formally introduces itself, and proceeds to whirl your soul away in a dance of joy (it’s always a waltz for me) for a little over two minutes.  Truly, not enough positive exclamations exist to adequately convey my feelings about this magnificent music.

Getting back to the present, the album was ending and I had not yet come up with a new ‘cure’ for my patient.  “Alright Mr. Noname, this week why don’t we try…”

“Actually Doctor, I feel fine.”

“Really?”  I admit it, I was dumbstruck.  I couldn’t really believe it, but this manic depressive actually looked happy.  Was that a smile on his face?  It couldn’t be.

“Yeah, I can’t even remember what I was complaining about earlier.  Do you mind if I take a copy of this music.  I would really like to listen to it some more.”

“Of course, of course.  Are you sure you are all right?”

“Yes Doctor Penfold.  This music has made me feel like a new man.  Thank you so much for playing it for me.”

“Your welcome Mr. Noname.”

I wrote a special note in my journal, and made sure it was underlined.  Order More Copies of The Point!  It Works!

-- Penfold


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