Harry Nilsson: Coconut

       Sometimes you have to just do something for fun and that's why I'm featuring Harry Nilsson's 1971 song Coconut.

      The song tells the story of a sister and brother who both have coconuts.  The sister trades hers for a lime then places the lime in the coconut and drinks them both up.  Sometime later that night she gets a belly ache so she calls and wakes the doctor wondering what to do.  After hearing her story the doctor, apparently needs time to ponder this medical conundrum so he stalls for time by repeating the entire story.  Eventually he arrives at the conclusion that the best thing for a lime & coconut bellyache is more lime & coconut.  Seriously, I'm not making this shit up.  You would think that would be the end of the story but at sometime in the near future, perhaps as early as the next morning, her brother retells the whole crazy story to another person. I'm not sure if this a dietary cautionary tale or if Nillson was just tripping but the song is great.

      I've searched high and low for other deeper meanings and the best one's I've found are (1) coconut & lime is apparently a Caribbean cure for belly aches.  I think I need a voodoo witch doctor to corroborate that and as soon as I find one I'll let you know.  Another explanation is (2) that, in Columbia, the growers of Coca  will chew the leaves because it feels pleasant and also makes your mouth go numb.  They chew the leaves with lime to encourage the leaves to release as much of the pleasant feeling numbing ingredient as possible.  The other explanation (3) is that Nillson was on a flight either to or from Hawaii got hammered and then wrote the song.   Reason one sounds to much like an old wives tale to be true.  Number two certainly has an interesting psychedelic thing working for it but you can't always believe everything you read on Wiki.  I feel like I'm on a game show.  Anyways I'll go with answer number three.  I'm sure it happened while Nillson was airborne however I'm not certain if an airplane was involved or not.
       The song is played entirely in C7 on an acoustic guitar with rhythm and some flourishes on a second guitar.  There is some really cool percussion and drum work as well as what sounds to me like a double bass.  The star of the song besides the trippy lyrics is Harry Nillson's voice.  He carefully overdubbed harmonies and countering vocals representing all three characters in the song spread over a 3 octave range that builds as the song moves towards it's climax.  I'm not certain what inspired Nillson to make this song but I am glad he did.  If you've never heard this song before then your in for a treat .  If you have then you know when I tell you it's sort of like Hendrix meeting the Beach Boys in Margaritaville I'm not kidding...
     
Harry Nillson's Lime in the Coconut