Bil Sabab Power Hour: Harry Nilsson - Coconut

I've decided to write about this song because i kept hearing snippets of it from various street musicians throughout the day: i was going to work - 1; going to lunch - 2; heard on the radio while sitting in the office - 3; heard once more while going home -4.

I thought i just needed to get it out of my system.

"Coconut" is a song by american singer-songwriter extraordinaire Harry Nilsson. It was released in 1972 on an album "Nilsson Schmilsson". It is notorious for being extremely popular and incredibly annoying - everybody knows this song because it is so stupid and funny and cute and it is was also featured seemingly everywhere (for example, rather non-sequitir appearance at end credits of "Reservoir Dogs"). Curiously it is almost completely misunderstood despite being outstandingly bafflingly straightforward. I think one of the reasons for it is that the surface is too attractive to get pass through it.

Harry Nilsson was one of the most inventive musician of his age. He could make a song out of anything. "Coconut" is fine example of his songwriting skills. It is a nothing song that is turned sublime but the sheer force of skill. 

Part of "Coconut" charm is deviously monotone musical structure. Its monotony is beyond reason. It consists solely of C7 guitar chord arpeggiated to eternity, beyond, oblivion and etcetera. It is maddening and the addition of other instruments only multiply the effect. By the time "whoo" part comes in - it seems to be perfectly logical.

The video for the song only makes it better. It was shot in late 1971 for BBC TV special. It features a couple of performers in a gorilla suits lip-syncing the song. Rumour has it that John Lennon is the one at the piano. It is a slight dig at Nilsson's relationship with The Monkees (for whom he wrote a couple of songs) and also a neat homage to Ernie Kovacs' "Nairobi Trio".

Lyrically "Coconut" is very simple comedic story about hapless folk who tend to irritate other people by their own inaness. There are only few elements of the story - setup, one-two action and the punchline. The story goes - brother bought a coconut and his sister bought a lime and then she mixed lime juice with coconut milk and drank it up. I guess it is delightful or something... The aftermath of this action was acute bellyache in the middle of the night. And so the sister called her doctor for help. The call woke him up. Obviously irritated he recommended her to drink a mix of coconut milk and lime juice and then call him in the morning to tell if everything is OK.

The story itself is stupid. Mind-numbingly stupid. It is a kind of a story you would like to hear after being torn apart. Soothing and all. And it works. It is a very short story that was stretched into a song with a little help of hypnotic looping. What makes it special is the delivery of lyrics. While the story is bafflingly simple - the way it is written is far from it. The lyrics are chopped and skrewed in an elaborate cut-up. Parts of different lines are smashed together seemingly at random, other parts are repurposed with slight changes (a lime, the lime). The lines bleed into each other - after a while you just to stop perceiving the words and just listen to the sounds. They go on and tangle with other into tightly knitted ball,  It is bizarre, disorienting and chaotic.

While listening to the song you can't really tell what it is going on. You get certain bits - hang on particular details - but the more you listen to it and try to dig - less sense it starts to make. And it is beautiful.