Harry Nilsson Lives on Court Street

I wonder how many Carroll Gardeners, having passed by the Court Street Chinese take-out joint Me & My Egg Roll, know the name is inspired by a (by now obscure) Harry Nilsson song from 1971.

At least, that's my take. There's no other explanation for the oddball moniker. Nilsson's song was "Me & My Arrow," and it was a mild Top 40 hit. It was written for a hour-long animated special called "The Point," conceived of and scored by Nilsson. The story concerned a boy, Oblio, with a round head born into a town where everyone had a pointed skull. He is ostracized to The Pointless Forest where he meets a lot of strange folks and learns some lessons about uniqueness and the evils of conformity. It was originally narrated by Dustin Hoffman, though Ringo Starr performed that service in the video release.

Nilsson is a favorite artist of mine. He was a kind of whimsical wunderkind from Brooklyn, with a honeyed multi-octave voice and great talent for breezy, yet substantial songwriting ("One," "Coconut," "Jump In the Fire"), though he's best known today for singing songs he didn't write ("Without You," "Everybody's Talkin'"). The Beatles once called him their favorite American singer AND group, and he was friends with John Lennon and Ringo Starr. He died in 1994.

Every time I pass by Me & My Egg Roll, I started humming Nilsson. There are worse things.