on the "jury of my peers" basis? never got that vibe
― satan club sandwich (Dr Morbius), Monday, 8 August 2011 17:08 (twelve years ago) link
he says, "i fear i'll do some damage one fine day," but there are so many ellipses in that song, like
I met my old loverOn the street last nightShe seemed so glad to see meI just smiledAnd we talked about some old timesAnd we drank ourselves some beersStill crazy after all these years
and it's like, what happened between the beers and the crazy?
― horseshoe, Sunday, August 7, 2011 4:34 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark
― horseshoe, Monday, 8 August 2011 17:09 (twelve years ago) link
It's ironic, thinking that drinking a few beers is "crazy" behavior?
― Scharlach Sometimes (James Redd and the Blecchs), Monday, 8 August 2011 17:11 (twelve years ago) link
there's clearly something left out between drinking the beers and the refrain. that whole song is so menacing. in a quiet way.
― horseshoe, Monday, 8 August 2011 17:13 (twelve years ago) link
yes I have always interpreted Still Crazy... to be about someone genuinely crazy/homicidal
― Richard Nixon's Field of Warmth (Shakey Mo Collier), Monday, 8 August 2011 17:13 (twelve years ago) link
Now I sit by my windowAnd I watch the carsI fear I'll do some damageOne fine dayBut I would not be convictedBy a jury of my peersStill crazy after all these years
― ℗⎣▲✘ (ico), Monday, 8 August 2011 17:13 (twelve years ago) link
"sit by my window and I watch the cars/fear I'll do some damage one fine day" = sniper talk
― Richard Nixon's Field of Warmth (Shakey Mo Collier), Monday, 8 August 2011 17:14 (twelve years ago) link
totally
― horseshoe, Monday, 8 August 2011 17:14 (twelve years ago) link
Again, you people are thinking of Jim Gordon
― Scharlach Sometimes (James Redd and the Blecchs), Monday, 8 August 2011 17:14 (twelve years ago) link
"he was a quiet sortof guy, kept to himself mostly"
― ℗⎣▲✘ (ico), Monday, 8 August 2011 17:16 (twelve years ago) link
i'm not the kind of man / who tends to socialize
― horseshoe, Monday, 8 August 2011 17:17 (twelve years ago) link
so at best, he's a potential murderer
― satan club sandwich (Dr Morbius), Monday, 8 August 2011 17:27 (twelve years ago) link
lol this chick on gone at last just comes out of nowhere!
― ℗⎣▲✘ (ico), Monday, 8 August 2011 17:27 (twelve years ago) link
but i think he killed his ex-girlfriend in the first verse
― horseshoe, Monday, 8 August 2011 17:28 (twelve years ago) link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jjtOa8d_BHU
― 5ish finkel (goole), Monday, 8 August 2011 17:29 (twelve years ago) link
i haven't made up my mind on paul simon and probably never will.
― 5ish finkel (goole), Monday, 8 August 2011 17:31 (twelve years ago) link
he's so good and a bunch of what he's written really moves me, but he's also (or even simultaneously) a perfect exemplar of things about that generation of people that drives me up a fucking wall
― 5ish finkel (goole), Monday, 8 August 2011 17:33 (twelve years ago) link
You guys are nuts, that song is the dream of a milquetoast who wishes he had the guts to really go off on the world but knows he never will.
― L.P. Hovercraft (WmC), Monday, 8 August 2011 17:34 (twelve years ago) link
i am just guessing at what those things are, but if i'm right i think they're inseparable from what's good about his songs.
― horseshoe, Monday, 8 August 2011 17:35 (twelve years ago) link
like "the mississippi delta was shining like a national guitar" is just... awful
yes a "national guitar", like, the blues, i get it. also you can't see the 'delta' as a thing, can you? it's about as big as connecticut. and the "cradle of the civil war"? that's... south carolina. virginia maybe, in another sense. every other thing he says i feel like saying, "well, maybe, but..."
he has a way of writing things that have the form of being moving and insightful but aren't
― 5ish finkel (goole), Monday, 8 August 2011 17:38 (twelve years ago) link
i really enjoy his first solo album from 1965. it gives you a good idea of what life without Art might have been like.
― scott seward, Monday, 8 August 2011 17:39 (twelve years ago) link
oh okay. aero agrees with you >:[
xp
― horseshoe, Monday, 8 August 2011 17:39 (twelve years ago) link
i dunno p sure you can see the delta as a thing
like from a plane
― a chaos of crevasses at cape crozier (gbx), Monday, 8 August 2011 17:40 (twelve years ago) link
You guys are nuts, that song is the dream of a milquetoast who wishes he had the guts to really go off on the world but knows he never will. --L.P. Hovercraft (WmC)
― Scharlach Sometimes (James Redd and the Blecchs), Monday, 8 August 2011 17:40 (twelve years ago) link
i buy that interp, too, it's just less fun
― horseshoe, Monday, 8 August 2011 17:41 (twelve years ago) link
yeah but evan hes driving in that song, remember, he keeps harassing people at gas stations
― max, Monday, 8 August 2011 17:41 (twelve years ago) link
fyi 2 50 ways/steve gadd fans:
btw i agree that "50 ways to leave yr lover" is really corny but if you ever wanted a version that just had that mellow-as-hell rainy-day opening and those sick steve gadd drums here it is:
http://soundcloud.com/aordisco/50-ways-to-leave-your-lover-pollyns-re-edit-remix-paul-simon
― max, Sunday, August 7, 2011 3:00 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink
― max, Monday, 8 August 2011 17:42 (twelve years ago) link
also you can't see the 'delta' as a thing, can you?
You can. I can, at least. I don't like the simile in that line, but don't have a problem with the subject.
― L.P. Hovercraft (WmC), Monday, 8 August 2011 17:42 (twelve years ago) link
and yeah delta/nat'l guitar = the blues is kinda facile but....nat'l guitars are shiny and so is water. if anything, i'd say he has a talent (if you want to call it that) for taking not-very-deep lyrics and sublimating them with melody
i mean i love cortez the killer but it is possibly the most embarrassing song every written if you take even a second to actually pay close attention to the words
― a chaos of crevasses at cape crozier (gbx), Monday, 8 August 2011 17:43 (twelve years ago) link
and i agree with wmc---i actually do conceive of the delta as a thing as much as a region or w/e
― a chaos of crevasses at cape crozier (gbx), Monday, 8 August 2011 17:44 (twelve years ago) link
― horseshoe, Monday, August 8, 2011 12:41 PM (1 minute ago)
I don't want the song to be fun, it's a total life-wasted tragedy! If you stripped out the lyrics and just listened to the music, would you think "I wonder how the lyrics of 'Palisades Park' would fit here..." It's a huge bummer!
― L.P. Hovercraft (WmC), Monday, 8 August 2011 17:45 (twelve years ago) link
okay i always thought national guitar was an abstract image and not an actual thing. this changes things.
― ℗⎣▲✘ (ico), Monday, 8 August 2011 17:45 (twelve years ago) link
― L.P. Hovercraft (WmC), Monday, August 8, 2011 1:45 PM (25 seconds ago) Bookmark
omg i didn't mean the song was fun i meant imagining what's happening in the ellipses is fun.
― horseshoe, Monday, 8 August 2011 17:46 (twelve years ago) link
i love "red rubber ball"
― 5ish finkel (goole), Monday, 8 August 2011 17:47 (twelve years ago) link
that's a great edit too, max
I have always loved this line, personally
― Richard Nixon's Field of Warmth (Shakey Mo Collier), Monday, 8 August 2011 17:48 (twelve years ago) link
ok, my bad --
shit, now I'm going to try to imagine "Palisades Park" with this melody...what have I done?
― L.P. Hovercraft (WmC), Monday, 8 August 2011 17:48 (twelve years ago) link
― 5ish finkel (goole), Monday, August 8, 2011 1:47 PM (2 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink
yeah i like the song way more without goofy ol rhymin simon
― max, Monday, 8 August 2011 17:50 (twelve years ago) link
Rock HyraxHardy still on the money re: "Still Crazy."
― Scharlach Sometimes (James Redd and the Blecchs), Monday, 8 August 2011 17:55 (twelve years ago) link
ok i've been googling for this for a bit and can't find anything -- does anyone remember this pbs special (series?) about two fortyish dudes who get in an old convertible and drive across america, maybe on rt 66?
― 5ish finkel (goole), Monday, 8 August 2011 17:55 (twelve years ago) link
― ℗⎣▲✘ (ico), Monday, August 8, 2011 1:45 PM (24 minutes ago) Bookmark
hahaha i thought this for the longest time and still sometimes choose to just go w/it
― call all destroyer, Monday, 8 August 2011 18:12 (twelve years ago) link
if I sang "The Paul Simon ILM thread is shining like national dog shit" would it still be an abtract image
― livin in my own private Biden hole (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Monday, 8 August 2011 18:17 (twelve years ago) link
no because you've posted a lot of pics on WDYLL threads so I can visualize you singing
― L.P. Hovercraft (WmC), Monday, 8 August 2011 18:21 (twelve years ago) link
He should have said "shining like a dobro"
― Scharlach Sometimes (James Redd and the Blecchs), Monday, 8 August 2011 18:26 (twelve years ago) link
it's too late, I totally ruined the joke
― L.P. Hovercraft (WmC), Monday, 8 August 2011 18:27 (twelve years ago) link
Still don't get hating on the words in "50 ways" that stuff is totally fun
― Gatsby was a success, in the end, wasn't he? (D-40), Monday, 8 August 2011 18:36 (twelve years ago) link
Also really good drums on "oh marion"
― Gatsby was a success, in the end, wasn't he? (D-40), Monday, 8 August 2011 18:37 (twelve years ago) link
deej otm
hop on the bus, gus you don't need to dicuss muuuuuuuuch
― horseshoe, Monday, 8 August 2011 18:37 (twelve years ago) link
people hate sounds i guess
― horseshoe, Monday, 8 August 2011 18:38 (twelve years ago) link
May I just add a point of interest as the instigator of this thread?
Despite my repulsion with Paul Simon's solo career, "Still Crazy After All These Years" was the first album I ever owned. I was 12 and it was $9.99. I was lured to the purchase after wearing out my '45 of "Kodachrome." Little did I know what was to await me on that large piece of vinyl.
― Alamac, Monday, 8 August 2011 21:07 (twelve years ago) link