Monday, December 02, 2002

The Point


"Then, I must have one, too."

Every once in a while, childhood just reaches up and smacks you. I didn't have much of a childhood. By that, I mean, I remember very little. The reasons are various. Many of the things I do remember are intimately tied to music.

Rehearsing for a recital with the choir director.
Singing in a parade in Waikiki. Yes, Hawaii.
Us running the light board for a rehearsal of La Boheme.
Struggling to pick out the melody to "Time In A Bottle" on the piano in the basement.
Jerry on the bass guitar.
Mannheim Steamroller, Fresh Aire I-IV.
Susan and Scotty, flute and strings, respectively, in the same basement, years before.
Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young. The quintessential music of my childhood.
Singing Neil Diamond's "African Trilogy". Elementary, junior and high school choirs, all the matching bands, and 3 different languages. Hot damn.

Not last, and definitely not least, Harry Nilsson's The Point. A cross between animated musical, fairy tale, and something else, I am amazed to find it again, in the La Jolla Tower Records, just lying in wait for me, 3000 miles and many years from that initial joy of singing about "a whale who grew so old, he decomposed..."

Age has not withered my affection. My love for "Think About Your Troubles", "Me and My Arrow", and all the wonderful tracks on this album, will never fade.

How often do you get to sing about whales decomposing?

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