This came out in 2003 – or at least that’s when I got it. Here’s what I said about it back then (with some minor editing):
Much of ’70s singer-songwriter Harry Nilsson’s fame seemed to come secondhand. As a singer, the golden-voiced New Yorker is perhaps best known for the Midnight Cowboy theme Everybody’s Talkin’ — which he didn’t write — and the novelty number Coconut. As a composer, his most enduring song might be One — though Three Dog Night had a bigger hit with the tune. And as a pop culture icon, he’s known mainly as John Lennon’s sidekick during the Beatle’s 1974 ‘lost weekend’ in L.A. Still, Nilsson’s influence on contemporary music — particularly the quirky, literate pop of artists like Ben Folds, XTC, Rufus Wainwright and Hawksley Workman — is undeniable. To give credit where it’s due, BMG has reissued virtually the entire Nilsson catalog, some 15 albums spread across 10 CDs. I sifted through them all so you don’t have to.
Harry Nilsson
The Point!
FIRST RELEASED: 1971.
HIGHLIGHTS: Anticipating The Rheostatics’ Harmelodia by decades, Harry offers up a delightful (and metaphorically autobiographical) fairy-tale concept album for kids of all ages, starring a roundheaded boy named Oblio who lives in a pointy world. The jaunty Me And My Arrow became a minor hit (and a car jingle), but superbly sweet ’n’ silly Everything’s Got ’Em and P.O.V. Waltz are just as enjoyable.
EXTRAS! EXTRAS! Three alternate takes and a delightful book of cartoon art — but where’s the TV cartoon that aired at the time?
