Pun Salad

For a few years in the 1970s, I was a fan of Harry Nilsson. And then my interest faded. This movie explains why.

Nilsson, it turns out, was almost a parody of pop star biography clichés: humble beginnings in a dysfunctional family; inexplicable talent and creative genius eventually bringing him wide attention; a breakthrough performance provides him awards and vast riches; concurrent substance abuse wrecks his career and shortens his life. (He died in 1994 at age 52.) Oh, I almost forgot: dishonest business manager absconds with piles of his money.

However, this documentary deftly fleshes out those bare-bones facts with sensitivity and skill, and illuminates the human being behind the parody. Everyone agrees: Harry was a pretty good guy. Although his career hit the self-destructive skids in the mid-1970s, he went on to have a successful (albeit third-try) marriage, fathered six kids, and seemingly never lost the ability to smile. Although he also apparently never lost his prodigous appetites for tobacco, alcohol, and less legal substances.

The documentary is filled with interviews from his colleagues, family, and friends, some famous, others not so. As the movie cruises along, listening to their tales of chemical-fueled havoc, it's difficult not to think of them as "survivors". A sampling: Yoko Ono, Eric Idle, Jimmy Webb, Micky Dolenz, Randy Newman, the Smothers Brothers, Robin Williams, Brian Wilson. Most of whom no doubt look at Harry's life and think: There but for the grace of God…

But somehow the documentarians left out a fascinating bit of ghoulish trivia: Nilsson's London flat was where both Cass Elliot and Keith Moon breathed their last. The heartbroken (and probably spooked) Nilsson sold it to Pete Townshend, who is still alive, as far as anyone knows.