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
for reasons i cannot explainwe all will obtainmuch hard one
― 5ish finkel (goole), Tuesday, 9 August 2011 01:46 (twelve years ago) link
this thread is the reason why i'm getting into paul simon
― shannon goon (symsymsym), Tuesday, 9 August 2011 02:54 (twelve years ago) link
Hope you're proud of yourself, Alamac.
― L.P. Hovercraft (WmC), Tuesday, 9 August 2011 02:58 (twelve years ago) link