Harry Nilsson - Good Old Desk

[grgbnntt11]

so obviously about god..

[markerfkd]

my old desk  was.. mom over dad and good old desk like erveryone knows is .. GOD...

[Anden1333]

It's not about God- that was a joke Nilsson played on Hefner. It's about a desk.

I still love this song!

[cooperjacob22]

@Anden1333 Watch any documentary on him it says it is a way to say god because he was afraid to rub certian people the wrong way

[55graz]

Harry put a lot of double entendres into his songs. He liked to mess around like that. He may be referring to God; certainly Harry's producers knew him better than any of us. But the song is also a clear reference to his desk as a work space, of which he had one at RCA, and even before RCA. The only thing he can count on is the rush of creating a perfect pop song, and his desk is waiting there as would a studio for an artist.

[RhCpStUd]

@55graz ........watch his documentary.....its' about god.

[55graz]

@RhCpStUd

I know, one person, one producer said that, on the basis of Harry telling him that. I'm saying it's Harry fucking with his producer.

[RhCpStUd]

@55graz hahah yeah i didn't even consider that. The greatest voice in american history had to screw with some people just for fun..

[otochari]

@55graz Actually Perry Botkin says Harry told him early on the song was in fact a reference to God.

[Greggo2]

Is it really a song about God? I always got the sense that Nilsson was messing with Hef when Hef asked him what the song was about. You have to admit, not really giving a crap about anything other than his art was pretty much a standard throughout Nilsson's career. I love him for that.

[Notled2]

lol this is actually a song about God, but he used a desk as a refference to him. People need to do their research.

[RSG2006]

Okay, I did my research, and here's Harry, from one of his last interviews, 1994, from 'Goldmine' magazine, regarding his claim to Hef that the song was about God....

"I bullshitted him. I thought it was funny. Nobody else thought it was funny!"

In the same interview Harry says he didn't notice the initials of his song until after he wrote it.

[iameklasar]

@RSG2006 Truthfully, we don't know for certain whether he was lying on Playboy After Dark or in the subsequent interview. This will have to remain unsettled, like so many things in life. Of course the line about reaching into a drawer and pulling out a picture doesn't sound like God, but hey, who knows.

[sfwaller]

Good Old Desk is GOD

[lmattiso]

@sfwaller Absolutely right. Listen to it with that in mind and it makes much more sense.

[mystered]

Sampled by The Move for "Blackberry Way" a year or two later.

[buckdowner]

My 1968 roommate at Sacramento State College had a dorm room that overlooked the levy of the American River. None of the rest of us knew what the future would hold. After all, we were in school because of the draft and Viet Nam. I have since become a moderately successful writer. I often discard the existing/current for those good old days when sitting at my desk meant one hell of a lot more than studying French LIt. or Ethnic Studies....

[gusthepugisownt]

@buckdowner I wish i could learn more from average individuals that lived in the 60s like yourself instead of the medias standard view of the 60s which is just psychedelic music and the Vietnam war (theres nothing wrong with that I just think there is more to it). You are very fortunate to live in such a beautiful and truly unique generation.

[buckdowner]

@gusthepugisownt Thanks for the feedback. We were (60s) a generation that landed in the middle of more intersecting crossroads than any other.

Few of us because of our brains, looks, wit, charm and overall ability to bullshit everyone including ourselves; kept something in RESERVE. And that was our ability to pray. Regardless of how stoned/ sexually satisfied, the risks taken were excessive. Alone, after a shower and sobriety, another day would come. In there, somewhere had to be hope.

[themdg]

Been searching for years for the desk I think of when I hear this song. Finally found it this week. A huge success. My good old desk.

A genius indeed.

[cosmicrider287]

he s now on my desk top,that is.

[HgNi2006]

THE most beautiful song ever written. Nilsson was a genius.

[laejnaek]

Hugh Hefner got a "special kick" out of this song.

[apeshitdig]

He only completed the 9th grade.

[OneStarRatingLTD]

I wish my desk kept my hopes alive.

[johnnymoondog]

I always loved Harry's perspective on life !

[astanjay]

his old desk never needs a rest