Nilsson wrote this track as part of his whimsical fable The Point!, the story of a unique boy named Oblio, who is the only person with a round head in his Pointed Village, and his trusty dog, Arrow. The singer could certainly relate to being the odd man out. Part lovable drunk, part mad musical genius, no one knew what to expect from Nilsson, who's arrow often pointed him in different directions, resulting in an eclectic mix of work that would include Beatles-inspired rock songs, heartwrenching ballads, goofy novelty tunes and - before anyone else was doing it - an album of standards.
In a period of drug-fueled creativity, Nilsson came up with the idea while exploring the woods near his Laurel Canyon home. "I was on acid and I looked at the trees and I realized that they all came to points, and the little branches came to points, and the houses came to point. I thought, 'Oh! Everything has a point, and if it doesn't, then there's a point to it,'" he explained. (Laurel Canyon is also famous as the birth place of Crosby, Stills & Nash, who first sang together at Joni Mitchell's house in the Los Angeles neighborhood, where Graham Nash penned the hit song "Our House.")
The Point! was made into a TV movie in 1971. In the original telecast, Dustin Hoffman voiced the part of the narrator/father (the home video release features Ringo Starr in the role). Just a couple years earlier, Hoffman starred in the acclaimed film Midnight Cowboy, which featured Nilsson's "Everybody's Talkin'." Mike Lookinland, better known as Bobby Brady from The Brady Bunch, voiced Oblio.
The film was also adapted for the stage as a musical play. The 1977 London version starred ex-Monkees Davy Jones (as Oblio) and Micky Dolenz (as the evil count's son and The Leaf Man).
In making the video version of The Point!, animator Fred Wolf worked with Nilsson to bring his vision to life, but often when it came to work, the singer wanted to play. "I had to work seven days a week, 10 hours a day. The only times I didn't was because of Harry. It's hard to push Harry away. He'd say, we're just going out for a couple of drinks. I'd say, 'Harry, the last time I did that I got home at six in the morning. It takes me too long to recover from these things.' Harry was an incredible man when it comes to partying," Wolf recalled.
Imagine Dragons singer Dan Reynolds named his daughter Arrow after the song.
Barry from Sauquoit, NyOn February 2 1971, the Harry Nilsson's movie 'The Point!' debut on 'ABC's Movie of the Week'... Two months later his song "Me and My Arrow", which was featured in the movie, entered Billboard's Hot Top 100 chart on March 14th at position #100; ten weeks later on May 23rd it would peak at #34 {for 1 week} and it stayed on the chart for 15 weeks... It reached #17 on the Canadian RPM Singles chart... Between 1969 and 1974 he had ten Top 100 records; three made the Top 10 with one reaching #1, "Without You" for 4 weeks on February 13th, 1975, it would also peak at #1 in Canada, Australia, Ireland, and the United Kingdom... Harry Edward Nilsson III passed away on January 15th, 1994 at the young age of 52... May he R.I.P.
