PAUL SIMON POLL RESULTS THREAD AND DISCUSSION

i am reconciled, ill be up for awhile so i may as well start rolling this bad boy out. the vitals: 33 ballots, 110 songs culminating in a TOP 40 with 10 results per day and then the remainder of the list and ballots/stats/marginalia on friday.

http://i1224.photobucket.com/albums/ee366/lamp11/40Fakin.jpg
#40 - FAKIN' IT
1967
104 points/5 votes/0 #1 votes
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IkFBOd4YN60

http://i1224.photobucket.com/albums/ee366/lamp11/39TheLate.jpg
#39 - THE LATE GREAT JOHNNY ACE
1983
107 points/5 votes/0 #1 votes
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BhBvh1cwA0w

http://i1224.photobucket.com/albums/ee366/lamp11/3859th.jpg
#38 THE 59th STREET BRIDGE SONG (FEELIN' GROOVY)
1966
115 points/5 votes/1 #1 vote
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mWBvcJAXwu4

http://i1224.photobucket.com/albums/ee366/lamp11/37AttheZoo.jpg
#37 AT THE ZOO
1967
116 points/5 votes/0 #1 votes
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6xKLBne1CoI

http://i1224.photobucket.com/albums/ee366/lamp11/36Keep.jpg
#36 KEEP THE CUSTOMER SATISFIED
1970
124 points/6 votes/0 #1 votes
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3YNsZLtzF18

http://i1224.photobucket.com/albums/ee366/lamp11/35MyLittleTown.jpg
#35 MY LITTLE TOWN
1975
133 points/7 votes/0 #1 votes
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1jg8jf9oTjw

http://i1224.photobucket.com/albums/ee366/lamp11/34Train2.jpg
#34 TRAIN IN THE DISTANCE
1983
140 points/7 votes/0 #1 votes
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gCFTHhcvRT0

http://i1224.photobucket.com/albums/ee366/lamp11/33StillCrazy.jpg
#33 STILL CRAZY AFTER ALL THESE YEARS
1975
141 points/6 votes/0 #1 votes
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ksa4VjKE3RY

http://i1224.photobucket.com/albums/ee366/lamp11/32SoLong.gif
#32 SO LONG, FRANK LLOYD WRIGHT
1970
142 points/6 votes/0 #1 votes
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cf0RrF6KsI8

http://i1224.photobucket.com/albums/ee366/lamp11/31Gumboots.jpg
#31 GUMBOOTS
1986
146 points/7 votes/0 #1 votes
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MsZQayJiOUw

Woah! Love Gumboots so much.

wow wow wow i was not prepared for this

my parents would play graceland all the time in the car when i was a kid and it's really weird actually seeing what all the songs are called

felt like a criminal for cutting "keep the customer satisfied" from my ballot

images accompanying "keep the customer satisfied" and "still crazy" are a++ btw

my parents would play graceland all the time in the car when i was a kid

30% of ilx Paul Simon posts contain this line

regarding "my little town": i'm kinda obsessed lately with the sneakily subversive fuck you that is paul simon's "my little town"

TWITCHING LIKE A FINGER
ON THE TRIGGER OF A GUN
LEAVING NOTHING BUT THE DEAD AND DYING BACK IN MY LITTLE TOWN

okay that makes me look like a psychopath

I was "Feelin' Groovy"'s #1 voter, so you can blame Canada for that one. I've loved it since I was a kid, though I probably only knew the Harpers Bizarre version until I was a teenager. Along with "Georgy Girl" and "Windy" and Petula Clark, I think of it as the beginning of Sunshine Pop...even though the term didn't exist till years later.

Doot'n-doo-doo, it made my top 20 too.

A little surprised "Train in the Distance" didn't rank higher.

nice start! It felt weird leaving "Keep The Customer Satisfied" and "My Little Town" off my ballot so I'm glad to see them place.

Spotify playlist

Hope that works. It should be collaborative, so get adding as lamp counts 'em down.

I thought my little town would be top ten for sure

Four songs from my ballot in that first batch. "My Little Town" was a late scratch, as I rate "Still Crazy" much higher among his mid 70s angst-classics. Re "Johnny Ace," I like to imagine that the song is actually haunted -- if a house or a painting can be haunted, why not a song? "Fakin' It" was another late cut.

man i have a lot of love for feelin groovy but i just couldnt bring myself to put it on my ballot

I'm happy it made it in, have a lot of nice childhood memories of that song

Just one of mine - Gumboots. Aiui it's reckoned as possibly the slightest cut on Graceland (though not by me), raising the possibility that all eleven could make the forty(!)

ahh jeez they've started and so MANY! Thanks again, Lamp.

I say this on every ballot poll results thread but is there any hope of slowing down the flow of results? It'd be nice to really digest a few songs at once. But I might be in the minority here and obviously it hangs on what your schedule really allows.

A little surprised "Train in the Distance" didn't rank higher.

― "marvellously inoffensive" (Eazy), Monday, March 19, 2012 8:19 AM (2 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

on the one hand, me too. on the other hand i can see how it would happen with this poll. i was amazed at how low some of the tracks on my ballot were, but there are too many good songs!

i think "train" is the only one so far that i voted for -- but some awesome songs so far. each one i saw, i thought, ooh should've voted for that!

I'm happy it made it in, have a lot of nice childhood memories of that song

― Peppermint Patty Hearst (VegemiteGrrl), Monday, March 19, 2012 10:19 AM (52 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

sang "feelin' groovy" as part of an s&g medley in middle school chorus. maybe that's the root of my not liking s&g that much?

"My Little Town" was also in my first-round ballot and eventually fell off somehow - - I love the intensity of it, the chorus is genius, and the heavy piano at the beginning is such a great intro. I think it does feel maybe a little more "stock" than some of his other lyrics - there are flashes of specificity but the ride past the gates of the factories is maybe a little too on-the-nose. I always picture the old movie version of Willy Wonka's chocolate factory and Paul Simon as Charlie. (Garfunkel as Grandpa Joe?)

"Late Great Johnny Ace" is brilliant, probably the only really good "tribute to John Lennon" because it's not really about John Lennon, it's about how strange it is when someone dies, and how it will land at odd, anticlimactic times. And then overlay that with this sense of common loss and bleakness that shows up when it is John Lennon, and Paul Simon, writing with as much autobiographical clarity as he's ever mustered, bumps into a complete stranger who goes, "hey, you're Paul Simon---" (or maybe, not recognizing him at all: "hey, stranger---") "--- did you hear?" And even though Simon's experience of the Beatles was in this completely different circumstance there's enough commonality in that loss that they can close a bar together. It's a really great piece of work.

As the architecture nerd in the room I should probably like "So Long, Frank Lloyd Wright" more than I do. As I said on one of the other threads, I think it just doesn't sit well in the context of the album. It remains a little obscure to me - what exactly are they trying to say about Wright? And if Wright is just a metaphor for some bigger concept, it seems kinda cheezy, like this way of adding coffee-table NPR-ness to the album.

i believe "So Long, Frank Lloyd Wright" doesn't have a whole lot to do w/ the actual architect -- it's more about garfunkel, who (i think?) studied to be an architect. i just love the melody, and that line "all of the nights, we'd harmonize til dawn". so gorgeous.

I think on vinyl "So Long" works better than cd. It closes side one, and gives the listener a breather (it's an intense side of vinyl - "Bridge", "El Condor Pasa", "Cecelia", "Keep the Customer" precede it).

It's not about Wright, but about Garfunkel the architecture student. Is it an inside joke, an appraisal of their deteriorating relationship Simon's point of view (I can't read this line as complimentary: "Architects may come and Architects may go and Never change your point of view" even if the next line is about Garfunkel as sometime muse), a reference to Simon's architecture indifference by naming one of the few figures to cross to popular culture? Maybe all, maybe none.

Now that I typed that, I see a whole wikipedia entry on it: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/So_Long,_Frank_Lloyd_Wright

It's een a favorite of mine since childhood. Bridge is easily my most played album of all time, if you count those years before I had my own collection.

Reading the wiki entry and it appears Garfunkel was very thick as he did not to realize it had anything to do with their relationship at the time.

#40 FAKIN' IT - felt like I had to be sorta choosy about what non-canon/single stuff from this album made it onto my ballot and this didn't make the cut. it is great though. noted this elsewhere, but the tailor-dialogue interlude is a really odd sonic collage/psych moment.
#39 THE LATE GREAT JOHNNY ACE - never heard (or even heard of) this song. what release is this from?
#38 THE 59th STREET BRIDGE SONG (FEELIN' GROOVY) - this is just too cloying/cheeseball for me, enjoyable singalong that it is I couldn't bring myself to vote for it.
#37 AT THE ZOO - this, on the other hand, I did vote for because a) the litany of animals is hilarious (and is echoed, in my mind anyway, with Dylan's similarly odd and funny "Man Gave Names to All the Animals"); also b) this song is really fun to play. It's a song that captures the small joys of urban living and that's something Simon does really well that I appreciate a great deal.
#36 KEEP THE CUSTOMER SATISFIED - this one didn't make my ballot either (see #40) but I consider it a worthy entry in Paul Simon's Great Songs About Weed.
#35 MY LITTLE TOWN - I get why people love this one, but I didn't vote for it.
#34 TRAIN IN THE DISTANCE - having just heard this last week for the first time, dunno if I've probably absorbed it enough to vote for it.
#33 STILL CRAZY AFTER ALL THESE YEARS - WTF ONLY 6 OF YOU VOTED FOR THIS! This is so wrong. This is the encapsulation of Simon's 70s persona/style imho. also: chicken suit.
#32 SO LONG, FRANK LLOYD WRIGHT - voted for this altho yeah I dunno what it really has to do with Wright. Like "At the Zoo" this is one of those songs that made living in a city seem romantic to me as a child. A city! With buildings that are not stripmalls! Where you can walk around the streets at night! Yes.
#31 GUMBOOTS - This song is too funny to not vote for it.

Believing I had supernatural powers I slammed into a brick wall.

Johnny Ace is the last song on Hearts and Bones - definitely check it out!

"Feelin' Groovy" was reinvigorated for me by Mr. Burns singing it on the Simpsons, somehow.

"At the Zoo" - can't play anything well enough to play this but I can say it's fun to sing along to. Maybe suffers a bit from transparency of metaphor but agreed, the litany is entertaining at face value, seems like a good song for kids too.

"Keep the Customer Satisfied" - had never even occurred to me that this was a drug thing although now it just seems ridiculously obvious. One that I like because my mother liked it, especially the "words I never heard in the BYE-BUL!"

Reallllly surprised "Still Crazy" is so low. Seemed just obvious to me. I've also liked it to different degrees at different times, now that I actually am getting to "that age" and have more old lovers to be wistful about (and old battles that don't seem like that big of a deal anymore) I relate to it a lot more. And man, such a smooth sound, it's like this time portal to a pretty chill but sorta sad version of the mid-70s. What was that review/post/comment that said something like "the song for anyone who's ever owned a Volkswagen Rabbit"?

"Gumboots" always reminds me of being a kid and having this whole dialogue worked out with my best friend, where one would sing the line from the song and the other would comment back, chiefly - "Believing I had supernatural powers I slammed into a brick wall" -- "Well, you're pretty stupid!"

"johnny ace" barely missed being on my ballot. it's great, one of simon's more haunting numbers, while being pretty plainspoken at the same time.

voted Gumboots high I think, love the casualness of "you don't feel you could live me but I feel you could"' esp using FEEL there instead of think

wow this is happening! i voted for only one of those songs and it was gumboots, couple others barely missed

I still don't know what to think of the Glass outro in "Johnny Ace." I can understand how it belongs conceptually but...

What was that review/post/comment that said something like "the song for anyone who's ever owned a Volkswagen Rabbit"?

I'm pretty sure I've actually heard this song in a VW Rabbit. One of my dad's friends had a Rabbit and I was in it not infrequently as a kid (kids were pretty much the only people who could fit in the backseat), and he always had music on including a lot of Paul Simon.

Anyway, "Still Crazy" is the only thing so far that I voted for. As a grade-schooler in the '70s hearing my parents' records, I think I absorbed Simon as some kind of avatar of adulthood. His stuff from that period signified the mysteries of the grown-up world to me, songs that I couldn't quite tell what they were about but helped shape my ideas of what grown-up experience might feel like. And I wasn't wrong, either. "Four in the morning, crapped out, yawning." Yeah.

(Of the others, especially happy to see "Johnny Ace" and "Gumboots.")

btw lamp can i make a request that you roll out the rest of the results slower if possible during a time when we r awake so that we can comment on each result, namaste

img for "at the zoo" is giant lol

never knew abt "So Long, Frank Lloyd Wright" breakup content, but it seems retroactively obvious.

i went to the zoo the day after i voted for "at the zoo" :)

"late great johnny ace" is kind of a slow burner for me; it took a long time for me to absorb it. it's diffuse.

"still crazy" is a great song but i don't enjoy listening to it that much. so depressing.

iirc plax loves "gumboots" and is going to be mad at its low showing.

you should maybe stick to the chicken suit version

xp

iamgine how I'm going to feel about the absence of "Big Bright Green Pleasure Machine"

xp

I think it does feel maybe a little more "stock" than some of his other lyrics - there are flashes of specificity but the ride past the gates of the factories is maybe a little too on-the-nose.

always thought this was purposeful; the small-town stockness is exactly the target of the singer's vitriol. this song means a lot to me; i used to think it was too mean, but now that i'm living in the town i grew up in it seems exactly right.

did you vote, dr. morbs? yay if you did!

ones that i voted for so far are "train in the distance" + "my little town" fwiw

sorry to be this person, but just listened to "fakin' it" for the first time and it's super-annoying

!

also voted "My Little Town", love the piano (Art!) & really the whole arrangement is slamming, esp as it ends

i love how paul simon's face always looks sad even when he's smiling

^^^youtube still for "my little town" elicited this thought

:)/:(

sad eyed lady of the lowlands

sad as a lonely little wrinkled balloon

aw i love that line. there's another good song i failed to vote for.

#38 THE 59th STREET BRIDGE SONG (FEELIN' GROOVY) - like shakey, i rejected this early on for being too cornball, but not without a twinge of regret. remember singing it in 2nd grade music class, loving the weird, sighing syncopation of "dappled and drowsy and ready to sleep".
#37 AT THE ZOO - another childhood favorite that i cut too quickly, really regret this one. similar to "the 59th street bridge song", but less cloyingly fruity, delivered with an insinuating intimacy that keeps it from getting too cute. also similar in that my favorite thing about it is the syncopation of one line: "you can take-a-the crosstown bus". the "whoa-whoa-whoa, mmm-mmm-mmm" bit here reminds me strongly of the "lie-la-lie" melody from "the boxer", but better for the understatement. should have cut that one instead :/
#36 KEEP THE CUSTOMER SATISFIED - totally voted for all these weeds songs.
#33 STILL CRAZY AFTER ALL THESE YEARS - good, but not a personal favorite. cut it to make room for "rene & georgette magritte". so sue me.
#32 SO LONG, FRANK LLOYD WRIGHT - like still crazy, almost but not quite made the cut. strange tune, hits me strong some days, other days not.
#31 GUMBOOTS - love it. didn't vote for it.

Been saying for a while that I learned what cobblestones were by having a second-grade music teacher parse the sng line by line as our class learned to sing it--but today I'm also remebering that i also learned what "no deeds to do" and "dappled" meant, and what Simon meant by "Hello, Lamppost, whatcha knowin'?" It was like my first literature class in a way, for real.

"Gumboots" is a quintessential example of how solo Simon, in his lyrics, doesn't pretend to be any dumber or less rich or more of an everyman than he actually is.

The John Adams coda to Johnny Ace is an oddity; I wonder why it's there?

that's philip glass, right? i kinda like it, though it is a kind of odd touch.

Simon wrote the lyrics for this Glass piece (tho he didn't sing it)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1irfiYgf2pA

"'An Evening With Phillip Glass'--only an evening!"

little bit off topic, but someone just played this for me. the intro has been sampled to death.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P6NU1Ze5rHA
paul simon, the father of hip hop?

are there Spanish-lang covers of "Julio," btw?

O____O at the dude running onstage at the most key moment on the first performance of Johnny Ace
Kudos to PS for barely flinching, not missing a note, etc.

yeah apparently he never played it live again after that! little bit freaky.

dunno about spanish language versions of julio, but this is great if you haven't seen it

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G1dlWmrRstc

1) I was at that show

2) It wasn't me

xp

You're "Soy Bomb", right?

fwiw soy bomb has since become an established conceptual artist and surgeon

yeah a little sad that gumboots is off the table so quickly. my favourite song off graceland. i love that little tight kit, how everything chirps away, all so compact and tight, all the rhythms ticking along together. everything jammed together into that little taxicab. its a song that's made me feel really romantic about new york too. the specific cosmopolitanism: a little overheard dialoge, fibre optic virgin mary on the dashboard, just drop me off at the next block. it makes sense to me that this was the seed of the whole project. the big themes haven't really opened out yet, its not the expansiveness of african skies, the lights over broadway, the big swaying rhythms, angels in the architecture. its just this little moment, this little portrait of a moment. but still so heartfelt along with the slight defensiveness. all glib urbanity and then this flash of vulnerability. you don't feel you could love me but i feel you could. i guess it wouldn't work for me if it wasn't so specific, a vignette. the cabdriver minding his own business, humming along w/ a highlife compilation.

are there Spanish-lang covers of "Julio," btw?

― Literal Facepalms (Dr Morbius), Monday, March 19, 2012 5:41 PM (39 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

btw i was today on my million listen of the song for the first time appreciating his good pronunciation of julio

he always enunciates with perfect grace.

― estela, Thursday, August 19, 2010 10:18 PM (1 year ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

is "julio" and "schoolyard" internal rhyme or assonance and consonance at the same time or what? whatever it is, it is very pleasant. also i didn't vote for that song because i am a big liar.

Haha! I've never noticed that until now, when I tried it in a New York accent.

it cracks me up so much how he cuts that kid off on sesame street.

haha i know i have always heard that he's kind of mean irl and that moment makes me believe it

nobody steals the spotlight from paul simon! not even some cute as a button kid!

lol totally ok kid make way for the pro now

O____O at the dude running onstage at the most key moment on the first performance of Johnny Ace
Kudos to PS for barely flinching, not missing a note, etc.

― mom in the woods (Ówen P.), Monday, March 19, 2012 5:42 PM (45 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

yah damn he is in THE MFN ZONE thats some srs intensity, its not that he doesnt react he gives the whole thing exactly the right space then slides back into the cut

Hahaha, thanks for getting me to watch that Sesame Street clip

i like this post about me and julio from the 70s simon singles thread:

I played a bunch of these for my son (aged 5) one evening when we were driving around. He usually ignores most music that I play for him, but when Julio came on he said he related to it because "I don't know where I'm going". Made me get a bit misty eyed.

― Moodles, Monday, February 16, 2009 1:20 PM (3 years ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I won't link to it and preempt the countdown, but Mickey Mantle's cameo in the late-'80s video for "Julio" is one of my favourite video moments ever. (Just re-watched it--John Madden's great too.)

Is anyone other than me puzzled by the very first image in this thread? Is that Peggy Lee? I don't get it. Sorry if this has already been answered.

(Way off-topic, but that reminds me of my friend's 6-year-old getting freaked out by the concept of "Time keeps on slipping, slipping, slipping into the future."

Sorry if this has already been answered.

nah I have no idea what the joke is either

always thought that 80s 'julio' was kinda corny, part of that whole 'look at the celebs we rounded up for this!' video trend that runs from i guess 'ghostbusters' (still the best imo) to 'liberian girl', eg to an extent - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JaGfW2Ifuts

True...but it's not just a celebrity--it's Mickey Mantle! And he's playing stickball in the streets of New York.

true! i think i'd rather just hear the damn song or failing that go the ghostbusters route and have various castmembers of taxi pop up to sing when the title pops up in the chorus

It's always been a dream of mine to play stickball with Marilu Henner, but enough about my bilious private life.

It's just now clicking for me that I was completely insane not to have "Crazy Love, Vol. II" anywhere on my ballot. Damn!

http://i1224.photobucket.com/albums/ee366/lamp11/30Scarbrough.jpg
#30 SCARBOROUGH FAIR/CANTICLE
1966/1968 (single)
168 points/7 votes/1 #1 vote
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BYQaD2CAi9A

i will just say: i don't really get this song

and if "peace like a river" doesn't make this poll i choose to blame "scarborough fair" voters

http://i1224.photobucket.com/albums/ee366/lamp11/29Homeward.jpg
#29 HOMEWARD BOUND
1966
170 points/8 votes/0 #1 votes
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RsTNxVtS4c8

now we're talking. my #10, though i owed it better.

gah, that was re: "scarborough fair"!

you move too fast, lamp...

http://i1224.photobucket.com/albums/ee366/lamp11/28BornAt.jpg
#29 BORN AT THE RIGHT TIME
1990
176 points/7 votes/0 #1 votes
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ymjuHYKh7d4

i will just say: i don't really get this song

― horseshoe, Monday, March 19, 2012 9:48 PM (2 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

and how how how could you say such a thing? one of the most effortlessly beautiful songs i've ever heard.

TOO LOW

xp i really think it's because my parents are immigrants

i myself voted "born at the right time" too low; so effortlessly beautiful

too many people on the bus from the airport
too many holes in the earth
the planet groans every time it registers another birth

holes in the crust of the earth, excuse me

while the results of this poll are racing by in a heedless blur, i'd like to say that "homeward bound" is yet another wonderful song that i didn't vote for. glad that others saw fit to rectify my helpless error.

http://i1224.photobucket.com/albums/ee366/lamp11/27AmericanTune.jpg
#27 AMERICAN TUNE
1973
189 points/9 votes/0 #1 votes
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h0wIbgDVp5c

"american tune" is nice; i didn't vote for it; apparently it was used in a commercial for barack obama?

^^morbz bair

bait. what is wrong with me

"scarborough fair" is a song that kids in middle school would always make a big deal of and i would be like, i literally have no idea what is happening right now.

i assumed it was a song their parents loved; maybe i am wrong

i know art garfunkel's voice is a beautiful instrument and all but also, maybe he is a robot?

I like Scarborough/Canticle, it's nice

And maybe Lamp only has a small window of time to provide us results? I dunno that it's really fair to give him too much heat for how the results roll out. Hard work being pollmaster iirc.

just a few things:

- i only have an hour or so tonight before i have to go to bed to post stuff and this week is shaping up to be p busy. its obv not the ideal roll-out schedule but its what ive got.

- the #1 vote for scarb fair is by far the most perplexing of the 33

ok so actually only two things

Lamp you're a hero

O
T
M

http://i1224.photobucket.com/albums/ee366/lamp11/26AHazy.jpg
#25 A HAZY SHADE OF WINTER
1966
217 points/10 votes/1 #1 vote
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bnZdlhUDEJo

damn people be lovin all this garfunkel

http://i1224.photobucket.com/albums/ee366/lamp11/25TheCool.jpg
#25 THE COOL, COOL RIVER
1990
219 points/9 votes/0 #1 votes
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sEQzaS4CnL8

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHH TOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOW

cool cool river was my #2. it has never not made me cry, any of the one million times i've listened to it.

http://i1224.photobucket.com/albums/ee366/lamp11/24PeaceLike.jpg
#24 PEACE LIKE A RIVER
1972
225 points/8 votes/1 #1 vote
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jAmPfEMI16g

paul simon songs that are about rivers/sonically reproduce the constant movement of a river are a-okay by me

xp okay i am dead. "peace like a river" was my #1.

damn people be lovin all this rivers

there are not 23 songs better than "peace like a river" ON THIS EARTH

damn horseshoe be lovin all this rivers

if by "people" you mean paul simon

lol xp

no really there is something smart plax said in one of the paul simes thread about the structure of "peace like a river" and i think it applies to "cool cool river" too i will try to find it

"peace like a river" is the best song, though, just fyi

lol morbz bair

http://i274.photobucket.com/albums/jj242/donaldparsley/bair.jpg

http://i1224.photobucket.com/albums/ee366/lamp11/23IKnow.jpg
#23 I KNOW WHAT I KNOW
1986
236 points/13 votes/0 #1 votes
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4w3CBdLfGqw

i think for somebody that started out with like straight acoustic guitar and voice songwriting, he has spent a lot of recording time like *loosening* up the structures of his songs, from his first solo album on you get the sense of him moving in different directions (the lush jazziness and disco flourishes on h+b, the jam band vibe on one trick pony) that open out the rigid structures of his songs (his s/t is so good because he does this more successfully inside the songs themselves than ever again, peace like a river is the best example of what i mean but i don't know if i'm explaining this in any intelligible way at all)

― ℗⎣▲✘ (ico), Sunday, August 7, 2011 1:24 PM (7 months ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

both those songs flow, like rivers

peace like a river! i am obsessed with that song!

― horseshoe, Sunday, August 7, 2011 1:25 PM (7 months ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

they do flow! otm!

'peace like a river' is a song i vastly underrated before i started working on this poll. it ended up really high on my ballot and i just find it incredibly moving, i think the way it shifts perspective multiple times throughout the song, going from sitting 'starry-eyed' in the midst of history to having nowhere to go but 'back to bed'. the obvious child does something kinda similar i think but in a more schematic way the false endings and shift in tempo lack the ambiguity and resignation that 'peace like a river' has, the way it sort of sputters into the second half of the song. it really is a deeply beautiful song, one of his best i think.

<3

"starry" is a word i always vibe to; it's in "take me to the mardi gras" too

in a way i think "peace like a river" is of a piece with simon's 60s political activist leanings but it's so humble and just beautiful about it. i just love it.

http://i1224.photobucket.com/albums/ee366/lamp11/22Slip.jpg
#22 SLIP SLIDIN' AWAY
1977
247 points/11 votes/1 #1 vote
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5_H-LY4Jb2M

These results are really interesting so far

you can beat us with wires
you can beat us with chains
you can run out your roles but you know you can't outrun the history train

i didn't vote for "slip slidin' away" but i love it; i think aero's hatred of it in the I'm sorry, but Paul Simon is so overrated thread affected me somewhat.

http://i1224.photobucket.com/albums/ee366/lamp11/21ReneGeorgette.jpg
#21 RENE & GEORGETTE MAGRITTE WITH THEIR DOG AFTER THE WAR
1983
249 points/12 votes/1 #1 vote
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BfBDDbE7lcQ

I love slip slidin away, it is another big nostalgia song for me that's hard to consider objectively.

i didn't vote for "peace like a river", which i now regret. "the cool, cool river" is nice, but just that, imo. "peace like a river" is amazing, and i only slight it cuz i didn't grow up with it. silly me.

and plax so, so otm about the "loosening up from within" (paraphrased) as it applies to "peace like a river". it's like a S&G song left to grow wild, so loose and lazy, in a weird way reminiscent of african blues a la ali farka toure in the guitar arrangement.

in a way i think "peace like a river" is of a piece with simon's 60s political activist leanings but it's so humble and just beautiful about it. i just love it.

― horseshoe, Tuesday, March 20, 2012 1:15 AM (1 minute ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

what makes it for me is how the activist thing serves the narrative rather than being the thing the song is abt, like its abt the people not w/e beliefs theyre into, not really into message songs tho, I think it captures the good solidarity qualities of some olde timey protest songs w/o the polemic aspects, voted #11, tho honestly I couldve totally been intending to go for the other river song, I'm not the best w/titles, it's a good one 4 sure

yes, that is nicely put though i also like polemics tbf

anyway you're on the good list bc you voted for it

listening to "rene and georgette magritte" right now. i have never been more otm than when i voted for this, "apres la guerre" and all.

yeah that's a good song. i can never get enough of him cataloguing the doo-wop groups. didn't vote for it, though. this accursed poll :(

it's funny cuz it's so the opposite of the opened out approach of "peace like a river" - tight and precise, but no less beautiful for that

just to recap the first half:

#40 FAKIN' IT
#39 THE LATE GREAT JOHNNY ACE
#38 THE 59th STREET BRIDGE SONG (FEELIN' GROOVY)
#37 AT THE ZOO
#36 KEEP THE CUSTOMER SATISFIED

#35 MY LITTLE TOWN
#34 TRAIN IN THE DISTANCE
#33 STILL CRAZY AFTER ALL THESE YEARS
#32 SO LONG, FRANK LLOYD WRIGHT
#31 GUMBOOTS

#30 SCARBOROUGH FAIR/CANTICLE
#29 HOMEWARD BOUND
#28 BORN AT THE RIGHT TIME
#27 AMERICAN TUNE
#26 A HAZY SHADE OF WINTER

#25 THE COOL, COOL RIVER
#24 PEACE LIKE A RIVER
#23 I KNOW WHAT I KNOW
#22 SLIP SLIDIN' AWAY
#21 RENE & GEORGETTE MAGRITTE WITH THEIR DOG AFTER THE WAR

psyched to make a playlist of all the winners when it's done, tho I'm sure I'll get kind pissed and impatient wading through the s&g

also thank you so much for doing this, lamp, and sorry for grousing abt the rollout speed. i get excited and want to conversate with others about!

oh np i mean id like to do a more leisurely reveal too esp when im not exhausted and prone to fuck up the numbering, oh well, lyfe

see u all tomorrow morning

thank you again for doing this, Lamp! these images have been fantastic. guys, "born at the right time" is not really about ronald reagan, right? o_O

re: "rene and georgette", love the image of 50s doo-wop as this small and treasured object, a folded thing (like memory) that can be opened up and which when opened swallows the world. love, too, the way the music echoes this, the static drift the verses swelling into this romantic, nostalgic, gently swaying doo-wop chorus. so nice.

Three more of mine today but this really isn't shaping up like my list at all - too much Garfunkel, too much niceness. Not that he's ever not nice, but ILM adds a little more sugar than maybe I'm used to.

Anyway I voted for American Tune, Hazy Shade of Winter, and I Know What I Know. I had reservations about American Tune because the production is a touch syrupy, which is a thing with that whole album for me. I agonised over I Know What I Know because what I'm really loving is the incredible backing vocals, which obviously aren't Simon at all; I can't hardly see past them to the song itself. That's why I had trouble assessing the Graceland cuts in general for this poll.

horseshoe i think we are voting p similarly, peace like a river and born at the right time were my #3 and #4 and my highest placed songs so far and the top pick from their respective albums. lamp so otm about peace like a river. the ambiguity of time in that song is so interesting. all these messianisms, morning-time coming, the glorious day. I guess that's a standard trope of protest songs, but this isn't we shall overcome, nobody knew from time to time if the plans had changed. and the way this bleeds into the construction, carried along on that bassline. it occurred to me that the bass on this song is the secret weapon, the thing it rides along as the guitar spills off in all these counter-flows and eddies. but yeah so many things going on just structurally, the little key change into the "beat us with wires" section. that thing about history and about rivers, not the source or the mouth but the momentum. the milieu. the coming together. how it seemes to just coalesce for a moment before drifting on again.

yeah, i never noticed how much he uses the river/time metaphor before.

so annoying to think how much garfunkel there's gonna be in the top 20 though. who let all these s&g fans in. diminishing my goodwill towards BOTW somewhat.

this latest bunch has 3 of my top 5.

i forgot peace like a river, this is what happens when you are rushed

i put scarborough fair as my no. 2 i think because i wanted to rep for s&g, but then i put a fair amount of other s&g on my ballot so i dunno

"American Tune" behind "Magritte," wha?

That's a point. Someone explain the appeal of Rene & Georgette, please. I find it almost absent in its slightness, but I also get the impression there's probably a couple of layers of meaning there that aren't reaching me.

I voted American Tune higher than Rene and Georgette, but love both. In re the "appeal" of the latter, besides the really lovely chorus there's the notion of Doo-wop (and by extension music) as a redeeming force. Sort of a Simon thesis statement, but in a gentle, un-didactic way.

Can we guess top 5, or does that spoil things for people?

"american tune" is nice; i didn't vote for it; apparently it was used in a commercial for barack obama?

I don't know a dream that's not been shattered

I love "American Tune" (it was my #4), but my favorite version is Willie Nelson's not Paul's.

This performance from the two of them in '93 is great:

http://youtu.be/q_12lzRizYw

#22 SLIP SLIDIN' AWAY
#21 RENE & GEORGETTE MAGRITTE WITH THEIR DOG AFTER THE WAR

my 1/2

The "he kissed his boy as he lay sleeping" line in Slip Slidin' has been a guaranteed tear-up moment for me ever since I had kids.

Have you heard the acoustic Slip Slidin demo? I like it better than the original

me too

me three.

yeah, me too

Someone explain the appeal of Rene & Georgette
i'll try, i put it pretty high on my ballot. i think i like this one not only because of the lovely melody, but because it is a simon song that i find kind of mysterious? i'm not really sure what the song is *about* and that is actually a little rare for simon? he's a very purposeful writer, and it's unusual that a song of his feels so beguilingly strange. maybe? i don't know.

I like "Rene" more now than I did in the mid nineties when I bought Negotiations that's for sure.

the appeal of rene and georgette is all in the sort of yearning way he sings the names of all the doo-wop groups. any paul simon songs about music i automatically love, i think. but also i didn't vote for it.

rene is super ridiculously evocative. love the imagery in that song so much i don't really care what it's about.

I like the key change in "Siiiide by siiiddde...."

so annoying to think how much garfunkel there's gonna be in the top 20 though. who let all these s&g fans in. diminishing my goodwill towards BOTW somewhat.

― judith, Tuesday, March 20, 2012 5:19 AM (5 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

lol otm

I'll count it a victory if Julio tops BOTW.

my ballot was like 80% S&G or Graceland, hate all you want but a) diehard-only polls are lame and b) i promise i will someday be better acquainted with PS's catalog

My ballot was 15% S&G.

idk its a song about memories, about before and after. there's artifacts and traces of past lives that become fossilised in those artifacts. how things were before. its like when sonny takes a look back on his yearbook photos in obvious child or the child of his first marriage. a kind of density of association, overstuffed with memory. here crystallised, here forgotten. but also like the mannequins of christopher street. its almost benjaminean: the trace the archive. an old photograph of them when they were younger. before and after. and how in that instant dancing alone in their room, the distinctions seem to fall away. i mean melodically it doesn't do much for me and i find the language a little clunky in places like someone said. a little heavy handed compared to the subtle allusions he works on other parts of that album.

al, i agree that diehard only polls are lame, i was just grumbling. also i guess someday i should become better acquainted with s&g's catalog. grumble grumble.

my ballot was 5% S&G

my ballot was like 80% S&G or Graceland, hate all you want but a) diehard-only polls are lame and b) i promise i will someday be better acquainted with PS's catalog

― some dude, Tuesday, March 20, 2012 3:07 PM (4 minutes ago)

i think its just that paul simon threads can count on the same reliable posters and you get used to a certain consensus and its a little disorienting to be reminded that there are people out there that have some notion that hazy shade of winter is a better song than gumboots for eg.

my ballot was 5% s&g

its weird i didnt know they were so popular relative to solo simon

^^^

i don't have any problem with people voting for a lot of graceland btw; it compensates for me brutally slashing graceland from my ballot, about which i still feel guilty

xp because of people's parents! and how they're in all the movies!

i actually had more s&g than graceland

more psyched than usual to see everyone's ballots

my ballot was 40% graceland B-)

Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and Thyme is a good album dudes

okay but someone explain "scarborough fair" to me

In my anecdotal observation of a very small sample group, solo Simon resonates more with Gen X demographic than with millenials (who are more likely to have the S&G best-of or even Concert in Central Park than Negotiations, eg).

are plax + Lamp millenials?

i didn't vote for "scarborough fair" but i don't think i can explain even the S&G songs i like

his s/t is 25% of my ballot when i thought that would be rhythm of the saints. i guess i always forget how much ground he covers w/ it because its his most pared back instrumentally, but on graceland its like a couple of tracks will do in terms of standing in for the whole project, same with rhythm of the saints. whereas Paul Simon and Hearts and Bones subtly move out of these different moods and sounds in a way that's crucial to understanding what the project is about.

i really did want to vote for most of the s/t but i restrained myself

honestly i think my inability to grok 'scarborough fair" is same as the rest of s&g. garfunkel's voice freezes everything in amber or something; it gives it this museum-like quality that makes me care less about it.

i just voted for what i was most into

i'm not into the whole "sound of silence"/"scarborough fair" vibe in general

the s&g earnest dork vibe is tough to take

it's hilarious imo

it is, in theory

im sort of a sucker for the sentimental.

i find the world weary sentimentality of his solo works so much more affecting

im not so discerning

wait r u switching to the s&g camp what happening here noooooooooo

i can totally understand not liking scarborough fair; between its englishness and its old-ness its not very simony at all

garfunkel's voice freezes everything in amber or something; it gives it this museum-like quality that makes me care less about it.

That's part of my issue with BOTW. It's gorgeous and all, but inert.

i can totally understand not liking scarborough fair; between its englishness and its old-ness its not very simony at all

― max, Tuesday, March 20, 2012 11:45 AM (46 seconds ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

yes i want my simon frontloaded. all simon all the time! sad eyes happy face! shouldering little kids out of the way when they step on his spotlight!

its a little disorienting to be reminded that there are people out there that have some notion that hazy shade of winter is a better song than gumboots for eg.

o but it is

lol have you ever seen that video of him playing anji w his brother on some show?

i mean scarborough fair is one of not many songs from simon that has a sense of history beyond the beginning of the 20th cent. i voted high partly because i am a sucker for that oldness tho

u like museums

the s&g earnest dork vibe is tough to take

i find it endearing, actually. and the solo simon diffident hipster vibe can be similarly grating.

i think its kind of cool/amazing that s&g were able to take this centuries-old song and make it into a fairly big hit, and even somewhat 'relevant' w/ the addition of 'canticle' (which is a little on-the-nose). also its gorgeous! i mean its so beautiful! its dorky but

haha i LOVE museums. i wish i had been a history major.

diffident hipster 4 lyfe

s&g can feel so academic whereas simon solo has a cheeky passion for gaudiness. his solo work often has this weirdly subtle approach to garish sound palettes.

some very strange #1 choices so far imho

i really wish 'u like museums' had been intended as a diss

it was more of a connection between art garfunkel's museumy voice and max

now i am regretting voting for it just because ive convinced myself that its not really paul simon-like at all, so ancient and oblique

i never know what to do with myself in museums tbrr. i like history, though! i'm a fan. history's cool.

lol i figured 'u like museums' was indeed a diss but its a diss im willing to embrace

it wouldve made a wonderful zing

hey horseshoe i think in museums you walk around and look at things but idk its been a while

s&g sold a lotta records for feelin' so academic

i don't think s&g feels academic; those songs feel like they're remote.

neway in retrospect i shdve made cool cool river my #2, or possibly even my #1

except i'm lying because i like a lot of them and also don't know most of them

cool cool river was my #2. you're a good kid, max.

"the pressure of language" -- what a phrase!

oh hmm lyrics sites are telling me its "the crusher of language"

i am going to ignore jho's impugning of my museum etiquette; it's not like i go to museums and get up on tables and yell or touch all the artifacts with my greasy living fingers or anything

no it's definitely "the pressure of language" lyrics sites are so dumm

the whole folk music revival bleeker st w/e scene birthed some of the most disingenuous vibes in all history is basically what it comes down to

those vibes should be put in a museum

i mean academic like "this is how you write a good harmony" and "this is a metaphor" there's a dryness in the approach, musty and academic. bridge over troubled water is great bc of how often it seems so frayed and frazzled but PSRT canticle my ass iirc.

HS you should check out the met when you visit next week

plenty to gawk at there

i also love scarborough fair because the refrain is so funny, just reciting herbs i mean

"Rene & Georgette" was my #1.

wikipedia: "One common theory is that they are the ingredients for stuffing used in many baked poultry dishes.[3]"

interesting theory, wikipedia

listened some more to the Late Great Johnny Ace... the lyric is pretty good but man I don't get the appeal of this song, really. the melody is a bit of a mess, slides around all these awkward chord changes, there's no hook, etc.

i think it's the reciting of herbs thing that always got me. we had to sing "scarborough fair" in the s&g medley in middle school and i was like, really?

xp haha i saw that wikipedia "theory"

every S&G song features reciting herbs iirc

aaaaahhhhh more songs!!!

#30 SCARBOROUGH FAIR/CANTICLE - I don't have any emotional relationship with this at all, but it's really prettily arranged and sung and they pretty much turned this from an old folk song to a standard that millions of people could recite to you so that's kinda cool.

#29 HOMEWARD BOUND - Great song. Tainted for me by the annoying live version on that old S&G greatest hits (the one where Paul looks like Gallagher) - - "...reminds me that I long-to-be-HOME-ward-bound..." Didn't vote for it, but thought about it for a while.

#28 BORN AT THE RIGHT TIME - I do like this, never really been sure what it's about exactly: some kind of optimistic sense of the future or a dig at someone born into too-comfortable circumstances? It all seems so mellow and smooth it's hard to detect the latter if so.

#27 AMERICAN TUNE - The parts of this are really strong, "dreamed I was flying" is beautiful - has never hung together for me for some reason, I couldn't really tell you what point he's trying to make but boy does it seem like he's trying to make a point. Agreed that the string section doesn't do this any favors, they brush weirdly up against the intimate acoustic performance. Don't mind the gloss on the Still Crazy tracks but here it feels like they handed off something from the s/t to the studio to fancy it up.

#26 A HAZY SHADE OF WINTER - Decent song but would never have put it this high. Its intensity feels a little forced but that may be the production/drumming more than anything. Also, "a hazy shade of winter" veers close to the older wannabe-poet style Simon.

#25 THE COOL, COOL RIVER: Great - can't add anything to this.

#24 PEACE LIKE A RIVER: I need to give this more spins or something - I've never had any problem with it but its greatness doesn't jump out at me either. You've all given me things to listen for though!

#23 I KNOW WHAT I KNOW - As I've said elsewhere, first song for which I ever rewound the tape to play again and again. I remember my mom telling me Paul Simon's backing band were called "the Screaming Mimis" based on this. So it's actually sort of hard to come to it with fresh ears. It's tremendous fun. Would love to hear this on a dance floor someday, somehow.

#22 SLIP SLIDIN' AWAY

#21 RENE & GEORGETTE MAGRITTE WITH THEIR DOG AFTER THE WAR - This made my top ten. Beautiful, beautiful melody and agreed with the other posters here that this captures the capacity of music to step across time. I also don't know anything about the lifestyle of the Magrittes - I think when I first heard this I didn't even realize it was that Magritte! - so I've always actually heard this as more of a generic immigrant couple, on hard times, window-"shopping" past stores they would be thrown out of in a second, feeling bleak and alone - - - but they've got the Peeeeeenguins, the Moooooonglows, the Oooooorioles and the Fiiive Satins. And then years later when they're rich and successful and throwing fancy parties, it's actually still those same old records that make life really special. And there are some wonderful turns of phrase along the way...I particularly love easily losing their evening clothes."

This is totally OTM: a folded thing (like memory) that can be opened up and which when opened swallows the world. love, too(...) I mean, aren't most of our Paul Simon threads full of exactly this kind of reminisce: this song brings me back to this time. And yeah, clearly this is a theme of his - "Late in the Evening" certainly - but there is something just wonderfully gentle and sympathetic about this narrative.

PS thanks to Ismael Klata for making the Spotify playlist!

every S&G song features reciting herbs iirc

― some dude, Tuesday, March 20, 2012 12:05 PM (45 seconds ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

S&G catalog is like an ancient herb museum, tru

Bangles cover of "Hazy Shade of Winter" is one of the best ever.

btw I have always heard it as "the crusher of language," this little stab of resentment from the narrator with a poet's soul, towards his boss speaking in business-mag gibberish and probably mangling his subject/verb agreement in memos and so on.

SCARBOROUGH FAIR/CANTICLE - I don't have any emotional relationship with this at all,

that's basically the thing for me about this song

i always thought born at the right time was a sort of sequel to 'boy in the bubble,' kind of amazed wondering at the future, paul simon does koyanisqatsi

btw I have always heard it as "the crusher of language," this little stab of resentment from the narrator with a poet's soul, towards his boss speaking in business-mag gibberish and probably mangling his subject/verb agreement in memos and so on.

― Doctor Casino, Tuesday, March 20, 2012 12:07 PM (31 seconds ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

okay fine that makes sense. i like "pressure of language" better though

honestly i think my inability to grok 'scarborough fair" is same as the rest of s&g. garfunkel's voice freezes everything in amber or something; it gives it this museum-like quality that makes me care less about it.

― horseshoe, Tuesday, March 20, 2012 8:29 AM (20 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

i mean scarborough fair is one of not many songs from simon that has a sense of history beyond the beginning of the 20th cent. i voted high partly because i am a sucker for that oldness tho

― max, Tuesday, March 20, 2012 8:48 AM (1 minute ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

both of these assessments otm, i think. "scarborough fair/canticle" does have a weird, luminous, trapped-in-amber quality. this quality serves the song well, imo. like a lot of the midcentury pop i love best ("i only have eyes for you", "sleepwalk"), simon and garfunkel give it a gloss of beauty and stillness that has a somewhat creepy, funeral parlor quality, everything so hushed, earnest and precise. and it it was a haunted song to begin with, mournful and deathly, coming to us from across centuries. i think simon overstates the ballad's intrinsic ghostliness by attempting to press it into service as a fairly direct war protest song, but what comes through most clearly are the original lyrics, with their vaguer intimations of mortality, abandonment and loss. the museum/mortuary vibe really amplifies this.

i love "born at the right time." every time i get to it on rhythm i listen to it a couple of extra times.

very sing-along-able

they've got the Peeeeeenguins, the Moooooonglows, the Oooooorioles and the Fiiive Satins.

otm!

obvious child was actually a slow burner for me, i always thought rhythm was about the second side until people started banging on about the coast and obvious child on some thread.

love "born at the right time." every time i get to it on rhythm i listen to it a couple of extra times.

this and "The Cool Cool River" are awesome back to back early morning listening.

did gbx vote in this? i'm worried about h+b.

i voted for some h&b songs! it was torture to cut some h&b songs.

like when i add up all the s&g that is gonna be in the top twenty and then all the solo stuff i think should be there i realise there just isn't room.

i think estela didn't vote either :(

i gave h&b some quality points

h&b the song better be making it. it will, right?

ps. i didn't vote so i can only get so worried i suppose.

i mean the song h+b specifically though

i think h&b the song will be pretty high up, yeah

i assume it was plax's #1

maybe eazy's, alfred's #1, too

PSRT again: it's a seriously creepy song, even (almost) a scary one, not despite but because of its intense, frozen beauty. it fascinated me as a kid, in the same spooky way that "calfornia dreamin'" fascinated me. beautiful, yearning voices that seem to echo in a void. much darker and yet more glittering than "california dreamin'" though, which always seemed to evoke fog and bare branches, thin grey light.

i gave h&b the song some quality points

lol its my ringtone

lmao

cad you should have voted!

"hotel california" is probably another point of childhood comparison for PSR&T's lovely death vibe, that and "strawberry fields"

i know!!! i've been working/getting ready to leave the country for 2 weeks and did not permit myself time to do remedial listening :(

but i trust yall to do an excellent job

don't lose hope people my ballot will deliver the goods: 5 S&G, 4 Graceland, 11 other solo paul songs

I didn't vote for Scarborough Fair but it's a gear-switching exercise within his discography and I am kind of kicking myself for not voting for it, tbh. Being an S&G stan and all.

It's not a "Paul Simon" song as we know it. It's just his voice. And that's IT. But you guys, his voice is so beautiful in these early S&G songs! It mightn't seem enough compared to his later songs, but I dunno, that he had that instrument at his disposal from the very beginning, to me that's a lot.

It's not uniquely Paul, but that's what I find beautiful about it. Like hiding in plain sight.

It's like spending all day reading, idk, Ulysses and then reading Enid Blyton or nursery rhymes. There's so much simplicity and not a whole ton of subtext that your'e just kind of left with, well, the song, and the sounds.

12 simon & garfunkel songs
8 solo paul, including 2 from graceland

despite my promises to study up, i wound up putting my ballot together in a rush at the last minute, with little advance prep. if i had it to do over again, i'd switch out three of the songs i voted for, and the results would split evenly between S&G and solo paul.

http://img141.imageshack.us/img141/8079/homewardbound.png

This is Ditton railway station, where Paul wrote Homeward Bound. It closed in 1994.

S: Bill Murray SNL lounge singer

"remember me to the guy or chick who lives there
he or she once was a true love of mine"

Who else besides me placed NO S&G songs on a ballot? Since my parents weren't fans I never heard them growing up beyond the obvious, child. What I have boils down to what detractors have always accused Simon of being.

I'm glad you didn't. I placed 7, because I like them and wanted them represented, but they could've taken care of themselves.

It's interesting, they weren't really a "parent" thing to me - my mom knew all the songs by heart (and told me once that she'd used some S&G lyrics for an English class she was teaching at some vague point in time!) but we didn't actually have any of the records. I discovered the hits through oldies radio and got the Gallagher & Garfunkel greatest hits from one of those ten-CDs-for-one-dollar kind of deals, if I remember right. The albums I didn't get until I was out of college probably. There's a lot to like there, especially on the last two.

i only have three S&G songs on my ballot (frank lloyd wright, homeward bound and only living boy). but i coulda voted for more probably. even though I can understand the criticisms, a lot of it is great 60s folk pop.
oh and i think i prefer the live homeward bound on the greatest hits, but that might just be cuz i heard that version first.

what do detractors accuse Simon of being? i'll kill them!

i'm glad for this poll, PS is a big blind spot for me as i appear to be the only person who posts here whose parents didn't listen to paul simon (i only really know the big S&G/PS solo songs, never heard an album he's been involved in all the way through) (yes, even graceland)

i will grant that "homeward bound" seems like a pretty good song; never knowingly heard it before this poll.

i appear to be the only person who posts here whose parents didn't listen to paul simon

mine don't either! i always thought this was because they were indian but apparently mindy kaling's parents played graceland on her childhood car trips like everyone else's so she got the cool indian parents

i got billy joel instead :/

My (slightly) younger sister became a Simon maniac around the age of 8 (!) so I heard all the S&G catalog when she bought it, the the solo stuff as it was released, up through Rhythm of the Saints at least. She also went to the Central Park and Graceland shows with me.

aw.

My parents actually chortled when I bought a tape of Graceland on my own in summer '90, shortly before TROTS – they thought he was too precious beyond words and doubted his sexuality.

well, I've heard rumors about that

billy joel is the other great music I got out of my childhood! The pleasures are VERY different than with Simon but the man has tons and tons of great songs.

on the way out of the S&G CP show I remember we saw one of the Plasmatics.

Mum was a big S&G fan, the Live In Central Park album got a lot of spins when I was little -- I used to sit on the floor in front of the stereo and stare at all the people in the gatefold photo while I listened to them all cheering and applauding.
My next door neighbor's Mum and older brother were huge S&G fans too, so whatever I didn't hear at home I would hear when I visited at their house, which was nearly every day for a lot of years - that's where I first heard 59th St Bridge Song.

Mum was also a big Billy Joel person too. I got all the stereotypical "parent" music, but I was on my own as far as anything cool/remotely rock, like Hendrix or The Who went.

(i wonder if ILM could sustain a billy joel ballot poll - - seems like there's a lot less in the way of goodwill and closet fans)

my parents have basically no interest in music, graceland and rumours were the only exposure i got from them.

i realise i could have done worse

i don't think my mom listens to any music. wait, she likes nat king cole because he enunciates so clearly that she can understand what he's saying.

speaking of the Live in Central Park thing, this has always bugged me: how could the city possibly have openly accepted money from drug dealers (per Simon's line from the stage re: "the guys passing around loose joints are donating half of their money to the city tonight")? isn't that, like, blatantly illegal? or is it just lol 70s NY

xp

(i wonder if ILM could sustain a billy joel ballot poll

You could probably poll the 2-disc comp from '85 that "everyone" owns.

Dr Casino I would happily and unabashedly vote in a Billy Joel poll if one were to be offered.

ugh can we keep the piano man away from this thread plz

xpost Yeah Greatest Hits 1 & 11 is the most pollworthy.

sorry Shakey

2-9 suck though.

2-10! Damnit.

speaking of the Live in Central Park thing, this has always bugged me: how could the city possibly have openly accepted money from drug dealers (per Simon's line from the stage re: "the guys passing around loose joints are donating half of their money to the city tonight")? isn't that, like, blatantly illegal? or is it just lol 70s NY

xp

― the sir edmund hillary of sitting through pauly shore films (Shakey Mo Collier), Tuesday, March 20, 2012 12:47 PM (3 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

shakey

Yeah, I kinda wanna do it as full-steam-ahead ballot poll, but I already have one spoken for in the queue and not sure the numbers are there to make it worthwhile. Hmm. Anyway, back to Simon!

a radio-button poll might be a good indicator

if not, it'll just be a party of two poll again, Doc <3

speaking of the Live in Central Park thing, this has always bugged me: how could the city possibly have openly accepted money from drug dealers (per Simon's line from the stage re: "the guys passing around loose joints are donating half of their money to the city tonight")? isn't that, like, blatantly illegal? or is it just lol 70s NY

um, lol joek?

is it? Simon appears to be serious, he prefaces it with that "people who don't get recognition for doing good deeds" iirc

shakey

shakey

it's just such a weird thing to say - it goes beyond "lol weed! we all love weed right?" (which would not be an unusual sentiment for a performer to express from the stage) to this awkward "drug dealers are people too!"/civic minded thing. it's always stuck out to me as odd.

paul simon has what some might call a dry wit, Shakey.

^

I couldn't even imagine Rhymin' Simon being all like "HELLLO Manhattan! lol weed! We all love weed, right?"

a radio-button poll might be a good indicator

if not, it'll just be a party of two poll again, Doc <3

― Peppermint Patty Hearst (VegemiteGrrl), Tuesday, March 20, 2012 12:52 PM Bookmark

hahahah sad but true

There was this one I guess Billy Joel: The Complete Hits Collection, disc 1

very surprised by the extent of preference for the solo paul simon vs. S&G from some of the most ardent posters itt. have always loved both, though my preference does tilt towards the latter due to childhood indoctrination. is this an age-related thing? do you have to be over 40 to have strong feelings abt S&G?

well, some dude put lots of S&G on his ballot.

paul simon has what some might call a dry wit, Shakey.

― Peppermint Patty Hearst (VegemiteGrrl), Tuesday, March 20, 2012 12:56 PM (43 seconds ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

yes for example how he's all seriousface in the "you can call me al" video

under 40 here

I couldn't even imagine Rhymin' Simon being all like "HELLLO Manhattan! lol weed! We all love weed, right?"

okay irl lol

I admit my confusion may have been compounded as a child by asking my (very straightedge) parents what it meant and them giving me a very literal, face-value interpretation.

xp

i think that video was my first encounter with paul simon and i was enchanted. i thought he was the funniest ever.

xxp

aww Shakey
that's pretty cute

i would probably participate in a joel poll, but i don't know that he's got more than 5 songs i'd be super excited to vote for, if that

I mean, I own every Simon album except the One Trick Pony soundtrack and YTO but have zero curiosity about the S&G catalog.

btw I'm surprised by the popularity of that Central Park record. Was it a big deal growing up? I know PBS played that thing for the next twenty years.

the thing is that solo paul simon is better than simon & garfunkel.

fiddlesticks

To me, "Born at the Right Time" is about having a conscience bringing a baby into the world ("The planet groans/Every time it registers another birth") balanced out by the actual beauty and miracle of an actual baby. There's never a right time to add another person to an overpopulated world, and never a wrong time, either. Plus, that great chorus and those descriptions like "I see them in the airport lounges upon their mother's breast/They follow me with open eyes, their uninvited guest"). Favorite version is the 1991Live in Central Park jam.

"Rene and Georgette" (big fan, but not on my ballot) works kinda like Randy Newman's "In Germany Before The War" (or Van Sant's Elephant as far as making tiny details resonate in the context of unspoken big historic events.

H&B the song will make the top 20 (not my #1), and I was surprised at "Train" placing low because to me that's the clear No. 2 on that album (but Rene trumped!).

my S&G bias is about being a casual fan more than anything else. i didn't know much beyond "Mrs. Robinson" and "You Can Call Me Al" until around college age probably and don't a ton beyond best-of stuff even know.

To me, "Born at the Right Time" is about having a conscience bringing a baby into the world ("The planet groans/Every time it registers another birth") balanced out by the actual beauty and miracle of an actual baby. There's never a right time to add another person to an overpopulated world, and never a wrong time, either. Plus, that great chorus and those descriptions like "I see them in the airport lounges upon their mother's breast/They follow me with open eyes, their uninvited guest").

otm otm otm

paul simon writes all the best songs about kids

^^^ yes

On another note I'm listening to the latest album again and am struck by how wondrous and surprising his guitar playing continues to be.

yeah so beautiful or so what is a gem. i perfunctorily threw a couple songs on my ballot low down but all of it sounds great to me.

S&G is 25% of my ballot. Not by design -- I don't make much differentiation in my mind between S&G and solo Simon.

I voted my ringtone #1 in this poll. I think it will place, haha.

I voted for 3 S&G songs, but this poll would be more informative to me if there were fewer S&G songs placing, b/c those are songs that everybody knows & it doesn't seem there's lots more to be said about them, & anyway they're music for squares which kept me for years from listening to solo Simon too, & I've gotten over those dumb feelings now but I dunno, "Feeling Groovy" still makes me feel lame.

Yeah S&G were about 25% of my ballot

The S&G hate here is making me wish I didn't vote. Some serious bullshit being slung all over the place.

omg i am kind of kidding! i don't know the s&g catalog very well; it is not as appealing to me as paul simon's solo catalog (almost nothing is); some s&g songs are wack.

LOTSA HARMONIES UP IN THIS THING, HUH GUYS? *grin*

I wouldn't take it too hard.

horseshoe's just kicking dirt <3

VG i very much appreciate your take on "Scarborough Fair" btw

aw yay! thanks!

Hey! S&G hate needs to be balanced against the doe-eyed love that's causing them to pack these results.

is the S&G hate just garfunk hate?! we should poll art after paul. dude has got some jams.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sb4acvJpktc

"Rene and Georgette" (big fan, but not on my ballot) works kinda like Randy Newman's "In Germany Before The War" (or Van Sant's Elephant as far as making tiny details resonate in the context of unspoken big historic events.

that makes sense, but i've always taken the title as a red herring. the song seems to have nothing directly to do with the artist, his wife or the war. in my mind, it's about a network of things: the mid-20th century immigrant experience in new york, city life itself, the beauty of ordinary things when you are young and they are new - and also age, nostalgia, remembrance, the way a past hidden away inside you can suddenly swell out unexpectedly to carry you away. to some extent, i think of it as paul simon's saccharine-free take on "when i'm 64": a sentimental but understated song about the shared things that sustain us as we age.

i like to think it's about a different rene and georgette magritte. people who happen to share only a name with that famous couple. and who have a dog named "after the war".

nah for me it's S&G Simon frowns, shit like "Dangling Conversation", his precious enunciation, the earnestness of "Silent Night", the fact that an hs english teacher played "Richard Cory" for us in class.

xp

the only solo Garfunkel I know is 'Bright Eyes'

we should poll art after paul. dude has got some jams.

lol Art's solo work is pretty dire imho. His album cover makes a great tryptich with similar covers for Leonard Cohen and Pete Townsend tho. The "sad balding men of the 70s" motif

can't even deal with bright eyes, too intense. that whole "Breakaway" album is pretty sweet imo. worth it if you find it for 75 cents in the used bin.

Bright Eyes makes me sad for all the bunny rabbits

paul simon's saccharine-free take on "when i'm 64": a sentimental but understated song about the shared things that sustain us as we age.

Totally - - - and thus a kind of bracket piece for "Old Friends," which was by a young guy imagining oldness, and here's a guy getting into middle age and working out what musical memory and nostalgia can actually mean to somebody who's stacked up some experiences.

like to think it's about a different rene and georgette magritte. people who happen to share only a name with that famous couple.

yup.

and who have a dog named "after the war".

lol!

COFFEE BREAK

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yrl3T8MaX8E

cover connections!
http://www.shugarecords.com/images/records/b0cf0838-fcb4-45ec-b70d-adba339fceb9-0.JPGhttp://images.junostatic.com/full/CS437504-01A-BIG.jpghttp://www.musicko.com/wp-content/uploads/Pete-Townshend-Empty-Glass.jpg

*poor bunnies*
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2wrV870TiF0&

But Art was in this movie:

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-OvpzV6fF1Mw/TwhFDzEH-9I/AAAAAAAACXk/Mi9s4TC0ejk/s1600/short1.jpg

Which has amazing Go-Go performances from Trouble Funk and Chuck Brown.

Makes up for a myriad of sins.

i'm sorry is this the ART GARFUNKEL POLL RESULTS AND DISCUSSION thread

xp whoa that movie looks amazing. we should poll garfunkel's movies too.
paul really blew it by not using this as a cover photo
http://www.paul-simon.info/PHP/pictures/upload/gallery/484_pssdcf.jpg

I am NOT watching that video tyler, until I am home and have a box of kleenex at my disposal

Garfunkel's peak postbreak moment is his performance in Nic Roeg's Bad Timing, no contest

That 'Breakaway' cover...like, does anyone HONESTLY believe that Garfunkel has any game at all, let alone enough to pull that off convincingly?

have you seen Carnal Knowledge

no

Paul Simon will play 'Graceland' in its entirety at this year's Hard Rock Calling in Hyde Park on July 15

I dunno if I'd recommend it (haven't seen it since I was a teenager and it was rather inexplicably on TV), but it's pretty much all about Jack Nicholson and Art Garfunkel fighting over women

(primarily Sybil Sheppard and Ann Margaret, iirc)

I can't take Garfunkel's hair seriously, is my problem I think

tsk tsk Shakey, Candice Bergen

also Garfunkel disappears for a good chunk of the film

ah right. sorry

garfunkel rocks a sweet 'stache at the end, iirc. the guy has crazy game are you kidding me?
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/1/1d/Watermark_%28Art_Garfunkel_album%29.jpg

THIS IS A PAUL SIMON POLL YOU CRAZY STAN

I want to push him in the water

and I don't even hate him, why does Garfunkel bring up these terrible feelings in me

lol sorry, i'll save it for my blog http://artgarfunkelisneat.wordpress.com

he sings like a museum iirc

lol

I wouldn't hate on Watermark too hard -- it's all Jimmy Webb songs.

I'm not even sure if my poll made it in on time, but when I first saw this, I just assumed it was a Paul Simon solo poll and figured I didn't know enough beyond the hits, Graceland and TRotS, both of which my parents had on cassette (interesting how many people seem to have gotten into this through their parents). And for S&G, all I really know is the hits + the BoTW album, which I taped off a friend when I was 14.

At any rate, as a result, my ballot is this odd combination of hits and a handful of obscure album tracks that only obsessives of the records themselves would know.

I just want Garfunkel to not be looking at me with his weird hair all the time, imo

Ach, everyone's ballot always looks like that unless they're trying to be too clever xp

oh yeah i didn't vote in this poll because all i know is graceland and rhythm of the saints, but they're two of my favorite records ever ever

and the thing is i feel like i would've put "graceland" at no. 1, which no one needs

can't deny songs that unfailingly start me crying

nothing wrong with "graceland" at no.1 imo; what a great song! paul simon is a wizard and making people cry afaic.

a wizard at

paul simon is a wizard, making people cry

getting a mental image of the strangest possible version of 'the sorcerer's apprentice' right now

listening to "love is eternal sacred light" off of so beautiful or so what; kind of thinking i should have voted for this but it would have been mathematically impossible

xp the tears multiply and drown everyone in the room

paul simon bully wizard

Paul Simon is a wizard
Art Garfunkel is a museum

themoreyouknow.jpg

xxpost some dude: Paul Simon's shorter than Mickey Mouse, iirc

he's shorter than Woody Allen!

you can fit Paul Simon into a shoebox iirc

Is he < 5'2"?

When S&G were on the road Art Garfunkel carried Paul Simon in a teacup iirc

one inch (not) rock

lol

lol 1980

http://paulsimonweb.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/01/19801103-750-0.jpg

poll thread should've been titled "still creative after all these years"

better than his druglord look i guess

http://images.wolfgangsvault.com/images/catalog/detail/RS216-RS.jpg

omg paul why

this is why i can't shake my serial killer interp of "still crazy"

drug lord look sooooooo much better than polo + tie

http://www.bradpriddy.com/paul_simon/paul6.jpg

And the 90s. Put him on Whose Line Is It Anyway? now.

drug lord look sooooooo much better than polo + tie

tie is actually a shoelace iirc

why are his bangs so stringy

i am okay with the 90s starting to look like an egg phase

drug lord giving shel silverstein a run for his sex gnome money

i kind of like the current "minor outer-borough state senator" look

seen here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3np0DMxXKzM

me too. he has aged gracefully imo.

http://www.thedreamerofmusic.org/DISCO/PS/PS-S/PSS/image072.jpg

more like something so wrong

simon comes off pretty well here next to "wacky" garfunkel and david bowie as nosferatu

http://29.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_letw7kh5O61qfi21mo1_500.jpg

first image i found of that was like 1700x1700 pixels, almost thought about posting it just so its overpowering terror would really come through

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51nYY%2B9aU1L._SL500_AA300_.jpg

PAUL SIMON PEAKS: Conversations With A Crazy Man

GARFUNKEL YOUR TSHIRT IS NOT FUNNY

Paul Simon with a mustache...gettting a hardcore Mr Potatohead vibe

Alarming Movie Haircuts #3

Paul Simon with a mustache...gettting a hardcore Mr Potatohead vibe

I'd buy a Mr. Paulsimonhead

garfunkel chia sold separately

hahaha

Haven't had a chance to catch up with this thread today, but the cover for that Art Garfunkel LP above looks just like Neil's On the Beach--minus the umbrella, minus the car, and minus the newspaper with the Nixon headline. And minus Neil. The beach and the water are there.

oookay

Paul Simon is a wizard
Art Garfunkel is a museum

themoreyouknow.jpg

― Peppermint Patty Hearst (VegemiteGrrl), Tuesday, March 20, 2012 2:21 PM (52 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

glad we covered this

simon comes off pretty well here next to "wacky" garfunkel and david bowie as nosferatu

actually, i think garfunkel comes of pretty well between rupert pupkin and a corpse

drug lord ps looking like hes dipping into his supply up there

wasn't this paul simon's party in Annie Hall?
http://26.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lnwasnHPBR1qmr448o1_500.png

Was wondering if anybody had mentioned Annie Hall--he's so definitively late-'70s West Coast creepy in that. He's like a walking, talking Pablo Cruise.

wasn't this paul simon's party in Annie Hall?

no

PS's scenes in Annie Hall are high points of the movie for me tho, so perfect

"we're gonna go back to Jack and Anjelica's place, nothing serious, very casual"

"very mellow"

HAVE YOU EVER SEEN GRAND ILLUSION STONED

I think it's funny that Laurie Bird played PS's girlfirend in Annie Hall and was w/G-Funk irl. Adds extra weirdness to the performance.

btw 1980 Paul Simon was workin' those biceps!

the g-funk era, funked out with a simon twist

well, Alfred, he had to get in a hot tub w/ Mare Winningham in OTP.

how IS that movie?

it's great

I haven't seen it since '80, thought it was OK at the time, esp Lou Reed as villain.

r u guys counting "Kodachrome" as a 'weed song'?

I've posted this scene before but what the hell

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RyRunLCpoT4

I have never been able to fathom what Kodachrome is about

G-Funk!

off the top of my head, Simon songs that mention/are about drugs, specifically weed:

Punky's Dilemma
Late in the Evening
Me & Julio Down By the Schoolyard
Keep the Customer Satisfied
that S&G song where he mentions "smoking" tea

xp

what about "Still Crazy"? Alcohol is a drug.

'troubled water' is obv absinthe you squares

"having this discussion in a taxi headed downtown" to pick up some COKE.

thisll sort you right out

YOU GUYS

Parsley Sage Rosemary and Thyme = herbs = weeeeeeeeeeed

I Am A Rock (of crack)

Jehrico and bouganvilla = hash

All Tom Ford ever needed to know he learned from Smon's Rolling Stone cover.

Also, 90s Simon looks like a kinder, gentler Steve Albini.

If he had a beard he'd kinda look like Marty Scorsese in that drug lord outfit.

http://static.nme.com/images/gallery/proud11_Paul%20Simon.jpg

"We're going back to the Pierre. We're staying at the Pierre. We're gonna meet Jack and Anjelica and have a drink. If you'd like to come, we'd love to have you. We can just sit and talk. Not a big deal. It's just relaxed. It would just be very mellow."

w/ Skip Spence(!) and Mike Bloomfield

http://28.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_ln7oo6Xlha1qhsatdo1_500.jpg

Getting a weird Rick Moranis/Ghost Busters vibe from Paul in that pic
"You guys wanna come in and have a mineral water or something?"

Popping the collar on your corduroy jacket c/d

The Spence/Bloomfield pic, could that have been at Monterey Pop?

yes

can we be shown paul simon + weirdos
http://www.paul-simon.info/PHP/pictures/thumb2/343_lionelrichie-steviewonder-quincyjones.jpg

Darryl Hall thinkin baout things

not weirdos

http://a2.ec-images.myspacecdn.com/images01/84/4b99de66c2b9e5a1e377ac472e051a41/l.jpg

so not gonna happen

Was that photo taken after he blessed them for improving "Hazy Shade of Winter"?

boy did they

Are they planning anything for the 10th anniversary of the Slanted & Enchanted 10th anniversary reissue?

hoffs looks more baked than blessed

http://i1224.photobucket.com/albums/ee366/lamp11/20Sounds.jpg
#20 THE SOUND OF SILENCE
1964/1965 (single)
255 points/11 votes/0 #1 votes
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6YSh1-XuUKE

http://i1224.photobucket.com/albums/ee366/lamp11/19IAmARock.jpg
#19 I AM A ROCK
1965 (simon solo)/1966 (simon & garfunkel)
257 points/13 votes/0 #1 votes
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PKY-smJ6aBQ

http://i1224.photobucket.com/albums/ee366/lamp11/18YouCanCall.jpg
#18 YOU CAN CALL ME AL
1986
260 points/11 votes/3 #1 votes
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uq-gYOrU8bA&ob=av2e

#20 THE SOUND OF SILENCE

woo! and we're back. fickin' love this song. sounds like a museum. (my highest vote yet to place: in @ #8)

also voted for "i am a rock", but seriously regret it in light of "peace like a river"

kind of hate "you can call me al", despite the angels in the architecture, angels, hallelujah!

must specify here that i voted "i am a rock" solo version

http://i1224.photobucket.com/albums/ee366/lamp11/17BridgeOver.jpg
#17 BRIDGE OVER TROUBLED WATER
1970
265 points/10 votes/1 #1 vote
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H_a46WJ1viA

I have a love hate relationship with You Can Call Me AL

<3 Bridge over Troubled Water though and goddamn I wish it was higher