Skidoo / The Point [Extra tracks, Import, Original recording remastered]

Harry Nilsson | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (August 21, 2000)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Format: Extra tracks, Import, Original recording remastered
• Label: Camden International
• ASIN: B00004VXG9
• Also Available in: Audio CD
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #217,404 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Track Listings

1. Cast and Crew

2. I Will Take You There

3. Skidoo/Commercials

4. Goodnight Mr. Banks/Let's Get the Hardware/Murder in the Car Wash

5. Angie's Suite

6. The Tree

7. Garbage Can Ballet

8. Tony's Trip

9. Escape: Impossible/Green Bay Packers March

10. Man Wasn't Meant to Fly

11. Escape: Possible

12. Skidoo/Goodnight Mr. Banks

13. Everything's Got 'Em (Narration)

14. The Town

15. Me and My Arrow

16. The Game (Narration)

17. Poli High

18. The Trial & Banishment (Narration)

19. Think About Your Troubles

20. The Pointed Man (Narration)

See all 30 tracks on this disc

Editorial Reviews

Two albums on one CD. Featuring the soundtracks to, 'Skidoo' (first ever reissue) (1968) and 'The Point' (1970). Bonus tracks, 'I Will Take You There', 'Girlfriend', 'Down To The Valley' and 'Buy My Album'. Standard jewelcase with slipcase.20+ years before his 1994 death from a heart attack, American singer/ songwriter Harry Nilsson released several albums that did well in the charts, spawned some hit singles, got lots of critical acclaim and won the respect of his peers (including The Beatles, who were huge fans). However, Nilsson's back catalogue has never gotten the same just reward ...until now! BMG's Camden subsidiary in England has reissued all of Nilsson's best records for RCA, all digitally remastered with bonus tracks, the original cover art and specially packaged in standard jewelcases within full color slipcase covers.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Interesting 2fer has some fine moments..., November 2, 2000

By 

WTDK "If at first the idea is not absurd, the... (My Little Blue Window, USA) - See all my reviews
(TOP 50 REVIEWER)    (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Skidoo / The Point (Audio CD)

Skidoo, with the exception of a handful of tracks, is probably Harry's weakest release. It really doesn't function outside the confines of a soundtrack album although the bits included here are, at turns, ok and amusing to listen to for fans. The real gems are the credits performed by Harry. With tounge firmly in cheek Harry manages to send up the Hollywood credits game (the ultimate one up manship in Hollywood. It's not who you know but where your billed that matters).

The Point! on the other hand is one of Harry's most charming, witty and funny albums to listen to. There is a secret bonus track (although it's mentioned in the book notes)(Spoiler alert!).

OK, for those of you still with me the b side Buy My Record is included with this edition (just like it is on the DCC edition made in the US). So to paraphrase Harry, Buy this Compact Disc!

Two 1/2 stars for Skidoo and Five for The Point!

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Point is a wondreful story!, April 4, 2002

By 

Howdy (Denver, CO United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Skidoo / The Point (Audio CD)

Back in the old days before there were entire TV networks devoted to cartoons, kids had to occasionally listen to a story, rather than watch the video! The Point was the story I grew up on! I recently re-discovered it and have now bought copies for all of my friends and family members with young children! This is a wonderful story that is entertaining and fun. And Nilsson even sneaks a little moral lesson in about acceptance and difference -- a lesson that is just as relevant today as it was when he created this wonderful story! And, since Nilsson is actually a songwriter, it has some excellent music to back up the whole story! Catchy tunes that you'll find yourself humming along to. If you have kids, do them a favor and get them this CD! They'll remember it 30 years later as a really great childhood memory...like I do!

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Harry At The Movies, September 3, 2002

By 

Tom (London) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Skidoo / The Point (Audio CD)

An oddball coupling of two of Harry Nilsson's stranger excursions. "Skidoo" is the soundtrack to Otto Preminger's famously misguided attempt at a "psychedelic comedy" - I think I saw it once when I was about 7 but it doesn't seem to exist in any of my local video stores. Much of the soundtrack is fairly straight-ahead soundtrack music - difficult to know how much is Harry's work and how much is arranger George Tipton's. The most famous aspect of the album (and film probably!) is that the credits are sung by Nilsson! This credit track is a brilliant display of Harry's marvellous vocal inventiveness - you often hear people say of a great singer that they could "sing the phone book and make it interesting", well Harry not only makes the credits interesting but amusing too! Also amusing is "Garbage Can Ballet" an entertaining little bagatelle with sweetly silly and inventive lyrics. "I Will Take You There" is a simply exquisite pop ballad, released as a single it inexplicably bombed, both versions are included on this CD and, for the record, I favour the album version. The only other "song" on the album is the silly title song, sung unfortunately by Carol Channing (but then it's unfortunate when Carol Channing sings ANY song). (By the way, Harry's in the film too, he plays a "tower guard", as he is at pains to point out in "The Cast and Crew"!)

"The Point" was Harry's animated parable about Oblio, his dog Arrow and the Land of Point. Like "Skidoo", I saw this once when I was about 7, I think it probably made more sense to me than "Skidoo"! The album consists of Harry narrating the story (Dustin Hoffman narrated the film), punctuated by the odd cartoon-like song. At first hearing, the songs seem slight: the lyrics simplistic, the music even simpler but then you realise that this is an album for CHILDREN and that Harry and his arranger George Tipton get it EXACTLY right. Tipton's arrangements are beautiful little miniatures with a twinkly, almost electronic, feel - Brian Wilson claimed that his inspiration for his mostly execrable "fairytale" on the Beach Boys' "Holland" album had been "drinking cider and listening to Randy Newman's "Sail Away"", the cider bit I can believe but don't try to tell me that Brian hadn't been very closely listening to "The Point" and Tipton's arrangements! Nilsson's lyrics have a sing-song nursery rhyme quality in "Everybody's Got 'Em" and "Poli High". If Brian Wilson ripped Harry for "Mt. Vernon and Parkway" then Harry cops a major Beach Boys influence on "Poli High", just listened to that backing vocal of massed Harry's! There are good songs in amongst the fun - "Think About Your Troubles" has a marvellous intricate Zen-like lyric which demonstrates two of Harry's greatest qualities as a songwriter: his intelligence and his lack of pretension. "Lifeline" is a just wonderful ballad - generous of Harry to give this song to a cartoon about a boy and his dog! How often you would want to listen to the narration is debatable but you can certainly spend many hours listening to the songs.

Once again in this excellent series of re-issues from RCA there are good bonus tracks to savour. The single version of "I Will Take You There" I've mentioned but the 1969 single "Down to the Valley" is worthy of further comment. A breezy, brassy foot-stomper of a song, it's interesting in that lyrically and musically it prefigures "The Point!" by about two years - did Harry already have "The Point" under his (pointed) hat in 1969? Anyway, the song fits the concept of the movie much more closely than say the love song "Are You Sleeping?" "Dear Friend" was the theme tune of an American TV show, "Eddie's Father", which I don't recall ever having seen. Being a TV theme tune, it says all it's going to say within the first minute the other minute is largely superfluous.

All in all not the most essential CD in any Harry Nilsson collection - Nilsson nuts like myself will want it and over-worked mums with recalcitrant toddlers might want "The Point" to slip on and calm the little monsters down but the world at large can probably live without this CD, fascinating though it is.