hurting OTM. that line has haunted me for much of my life. unfair that it's not only broken up but listed twice, ensuring a tragic split of the votes.
― all yoga attacks are fire based (rogermexico.), Thursday, 19 August 2010 18:51 (fourteen years ago) link
as if i'd never noticed the way she brushed her hair from her forehead
because I've noticed that too; or to put it a little differently, because the cadence of the last seven words brushes her hair, as though he is going through the motions of brushing her hair with his voice: air brushing, if you will.
― Euler, Thursday, 19 August 2010 18:52 (fourteen years ago) link
yes that's true!
― horseshoe, Thursday, 19 August 2010 18:53 (fourteen years ago) link
word painting
"Ghosts and empty sockets" would probably be my runner-up, from this song.
― kkvgz, Thursday, 19 August 2010 18:57 (fourteen years ago) link
One of the most perfectly crafted songs I know of. Just gorgeous. Gives me chills every time, even now.
― ImprovSpirit, Thursday, 19 August 2010 21:25 (fourteen years ago) link
"she said honey take me dancing/but they ended up by sleeping in a doorway/by the bodegas and the lights on upper Broadway"
yeah this for sure!! the way the syllables dance off each other is so flawless -- my favorite rappers work the same way
― NOT FUNNY NEEDS MORE GUCCI (deej), Thursday, 19 August 2010 21:45 (fourteen years ago) link
to join the chorus: one of my favorite, favorite songs. it was then, twenty-some years ago, and still is now. there isn't a bad line in it, and at least half are beautiful, so hard to choose over the rest. finally went with "as if i didn't know that..." because it's the point on which the song hinges, opening from the specifics of a moment onto a larger field of emotion and association. but it's one among many, and probably too safe a choice besides.
― a CRASBO is a "criminally related" ASBO (contenderizer), Thursday, 19 August 2010 21:49 (fourteen years ago) link
human trampoline. Just love that line. I bet it's a tough one to cover, he always makes his phrasing seem so natural but it's so tough to carry across convincingly. That whole record just fits so many syllables with such ease.
― owenf, Thursday, 19 August 2010 22:04 (fourteen years ago) link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VNIEtwZ1OYQ&feature=search
― Gucci Mane hermeneuticist (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Thursday, 19 August 2010 22:09 (fourteen years ago) link
aw paul simon is so small
― horseshoe, Thursday, 19 August 2010 22:14 (fourteen years ago) link
after that show Willie put Paul in his shirt pocket, then rolled him up and smoked him.
― Gucci Mane hermeneuticist (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Thursday, 19 August 2010 22:15 (fourteen years ago) link
did willie nelson feel like he could not sing with authority about a girl from new york city so he had to change it to austin, texas?
― horseshoe, Thursday, 19 August 2010 22:17 (fourteen years ago) link
he did a nice job with my favorite line
― horseshoe, Thursday, 19 August 2010 22:21 (fourteen years ago) link
An oozing glove is like a window in your arm
― Ground Zero Mostel (Hurting 2), Thursday, 19 August 2010 22:22 (fourteen years ago) link
"everybody sees you're blown apart" followed by "everybody feels the wind blow" is genius; i get chills every time. it's partly the music at that moment, but still.
got chills reading the poll option! backing vocals are incredible - that simple little frere jacques thing.
― Volvo Twilight (p-dog), Thursday, 19 August 2010 22:42 (fourteen years ago) link
My screen saver at work is the generic Windows bouncing 3D text which I have changed to read "Human Trampoline."
― Hideous Lump, Friday, 20 August 2010 00:41 (fourteen years ago) link
― ('_') (omar little), Friday, 20 August 2010 00:57 (fourteen years ago) link
there are a million songs where the same sentiment is delivered in such a clumsy way and this one is just right on
― ('_') (omar little), Friday, 20 August 2010 00:58 (fourteen years ago) link
he always enunciates with perfect grace.
― estela, Friday, 20 August 2010 02:18 (fourteen years ago) link
yes he is such an enunciator!
― horseshoe, Friday, 20 August 2010 02:24 (fourteen years ago) link
(I'm imagining horseshoe on her 14th consecutive hour of listening to this song.)
― Bag Smart, Street Stupid (Eazy), Friday, 20 August 2010 05:58 (fourteen years ago) link
i love the way he pronounces like everything ........ he never sounds like hes putting on an affect or accent, always paul simon
― NOT FUNNY NEEDS MORE GUCCI (deej), Friday, 20 August 2010 06:23 (fourteen years ago) link
i may be obliged to defend every love every ending, or maybe there's no obligations now
the way he sings this line, and the way it unfolds after that "may", is basically permanently stuck in my head. also how tentative the 2nd part is, as if it just occurred to him right then
― chill.wav (Lamp), Friday, 20 August 2010 06:33 (fourteen years ago) link
― Bag Smart, Street Stupid (Eazy), Friday, August 20, 2010 1:58 AM (36 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink
haha i don't even have to listen to it i just play it in my head!
― horseshoe, Friday, 20 August 2010 06:35 (fourteen years ago) link
i like how the song turns totally haunting right after "i've reason to believe we both will be received in graceland", like taking it up a notch to this incredible sense of existential loss that totally hit me even when i was like 10 years old or w/e i was when it came out
― ('_') (omar little), Friday, 20 August 2010 06:41 (fourteen years ago) link
the first "i've reason to believe we both will be received in graceland" that is
― ('_') (omar little), Friday, 20 August 2010 06:42 (fourteen years ago) link
<3 this album basically
― NOT FUNNY NEEDS MORE GUCCI (deej), Friday, 20 August 2010 06:42 (fourteen years ago) link
my dad used to play this, taj mahal's 'the real thing' & neville bros 'yellow moon' more than any other cds
maybe tom waits 'heart of saturday night' & the james taylor album w/ 'copperline' too. & some van morrison
― NOT FUNNY NEEDS MORE GUCCI (deej), Friday, 20 August 2010 06:43 (fourteen years ago) link
so many good paul simon albums really we should poll them all song by song
― horseshoe, Friday, 20 August 2010 06:43 (fourteen years ago) link
or i should go to sleep
lol @ 'cds.' i meant cassettes obv. oh yeah he also liked 'rum sodomy and the lash'
― NOT FUNNY NEEDS MORE GUCCI (deej), Friday, 20 August 2010 06:44 (fourteen years ago) link
this combined with starting to watch SNL back in the mid-'80s was like opening up this crazy world of adult stuff that was kind of an endlessly unspooling mystery for me to solve.
― ('_') (omar little), Friday, 20 August 2010 06:45 (fourteen years ago) link
if you include the jerry landis stuff then there is like ∞ good songs & i wld die of old age b4 i could choose
― chill.wav (Lamp), Friday, 20 August 2010 06:45 (fourteen years ago) link
You're The One is way ignored.
― Bag Smart, Street Stupid (Eazy), Friday, 20 August 2010 06:47 (fourteen years ago) link
I always really liked "my traveling companion is nine years old, he is the child of my first marriage" - it's such a distant way to say "my son"; he's more (or less) than a son: he's a reminder of a painful relationship. Sorry son.
― scott pgwp (pgwp), Friday, 20 August 2010 09:30 (fourteen years ago) link
I think part of the reason the "window in your heart" line works so well is the context - the rest of the song isn't quite as exposed and tender and the rest of the album is even less so. I could almost see it being cringe-worthy if it were in the middle of a weepy Jewel-esque ballad.
― Ground Zero Mostel (Hurting 2), Friday, 20 August 2010 15:31 (fourteen years ago) link
Well, I mean other lines are tender but maybe in a less direct way.
― Ground Zero Mostel (Hurting 2), Friday, 20 August 2010 15:32 (fourteen years ago) link
human trampoline
― teledyldonix, Friday, 20 August 2010 22:56 (fourteen years ago) link
so so many good lines in this, but 'human trampoline' always just feels like a blown/tossed off dylan line or something to me. it's the only one that actually takes me out of the song.
― bear, bear, bear, Saturday, 21 August 2010 03:21 (fourteen years ago) link
also, i don't much believe anyone wld call themselves that
I just listened to it and the 'no obligations' line was the one I most compelled to sing along to.
― rhythm fixated member (chap), Saturday, 21 August 2010 17:54 (fourteen years ago) link
this. thought the same thing even as a kid. it's a striking line and he delivers it very well (esp the "oh, so this is what she means" part), but it doesn't ring true. "a human trampoline," maybe.
― a CRASBO is a "criminally related" ASBO (contenderizer), Saturday, 21 August 2010 18:58 (fourteen years ago) link
I mean, I can sorta picture somebody loudly explaining "You know I am like a human trampoline, people just keep jumping on me!!!" and thinking they were really clever but actually being annoying and lame.... I just think this song sort of deserves better acquaintances than that, especially since she's introduced as "there is a girl in New York City," somehow the equivalent of the former talk show host that you can only find by traveling over the mountains and down to the valley. You want these mythical characters to have something better to say for themselves.
― Doctor Casino, Saturday, 21 August 2010 22:36 (fourteen years ago) link
i h8 all u guys who are h8ing on human trampoline tbh
― horseshoe, Saturday, 21 August 2010 22:46 (fourteen years ago) link
whenever people call something dylanesque all that means is it's awesome afaic
also the function of "there's a girl in new york city" is key to simon's whole slice of new york hipster community thing
― horseshoe, Saturday, 21 August 2010 22:49 (fourteen years ago) link
in conclusion, i'm mad
i'm not voting for "there's a girl in new york city who calls herself the human trampoline" as it is isolated in this poll but that section of the song, from "there's a girl" to "she means we're bouncing into graceland" is my favorite part, like something catches in my throat at "bouncing into graceland" half the time.
― horseshoe, Saturday, 21 August 2010 22:54 (fourteen years ago) link
Maybe her name is Maybelline or something else that rhymes with trampoline.
― Hideous Lump, Saturday, 21 August 2010 22:58 (fourteen years ago) link