popeye and the point
“the point” by harry nilsson was one of my favorite records to listen to as a kid. at the time i didn’t know that it was a cartoon as well. I thought it was just a musical story on a record. i remember how much some of the songs made me feel as a child, and how much i loved those songs. i feel very lucky that i was exposed to such great music as a kid. my parents would play the beatles, bob dylan, cat stevens, woody guthrie and so many more great artists for us and it really developed my knowledge and love of music. “the point” was definitely a stand out for me though and had the charm of a children’s record, with the songwriting of a great artist.
this past thanksgiving, we watched the film “popeye” starring robin williams and shelley duvall. i had never even heard of it, but it was a childhood favorite of john’s and i was excited to see it. it turned out that harry nilsson wrote all of the music for the movie and it just blew me away. the film is eccentric to say the least, but it has some really beautiful moments and the music is just amazing. my favorite is shelley duvall’s rendition of “he needs me”. it has such an innocent truth about it and the melodies are just beautiful. her voice has a frailty to it that matched the song perfectly.
it was fun to find a common thread between john’s childhood and my own when it comes to music. we both responded to harry nilsson’s songwriting in a very powerful way, and we still do as we are discovering the rest of his work.
