I'm sorry but Paul Simon is so overrated

i am just surprised that everyone took me so seriously. i guess this is the first ILM thread i have engaged with in a while. sorry guys, leonard cohen rules.

I was really hoping you were being serious!

Also, Simon is def. "exploring" African music on "Graceland." That he links zydeco back to African jive, let alone by way of Los Lobos' Mexico, or implicitly connects the Ladysmith a cappella stuff to the doo wop of his youth shows he's very aware of the ongoing African cultural diaspora and how far its music has reached. There's a quote from the Classic Albums series from guitarist Ray Phiri: "We were influenced by American music. American music was for us … it was like sharing information. So it was a two-way traffic. We used Paul as much as Paul used us.”

there was no mention of “joint writing”.

That's a helluva rationalization. "Hey, Los Lobos didn't tell me they wrote that music, so I just assumed I did!"

Also, that song has probably the worst drum sound of the 80s.

that said, i think simon was at his best when he had a great collaborative partner like art garfunkel or chevy chase

― om nom nom nnamdi asomugha (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Sunday, August 7, 2011 3:00 PM (59 minutes ago) Bookmark

lol

Don't forget Steve Martin

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O_002KDRoKM

lmao that video is incredible

I love Paul Simon and can't imagine wanting to put him down.

It's petty that people squabbled over some old song that was OK.

The only thing that does put me off PS is that he sings quite a lot about god and religiosity. These are not my kind of thing.

But I suppose or imagine that believing in those things makes PS feel happier.

I love 2004.

i like steve martin's punchy hand gesture to accompany "proust"

do you like "the obvious child," pf?

obviously

that song is pretty jesusy!

The only thing that does put me off PS is that he sings quite a lot about god and religiosity. These are not my kind of thing.

i can guess which you'd prefer between paul simon and leonard cohen then

pinefox, do you like R&B or gospel?

i can guess which you'd prefer between paul simon and leonard cohen then

haha i was thinking!!!

do you guys think the speaker of "still crazy after all these years" killed his ex-girlfriend? i sort of do.

Horseshoe, I love 'the obvious child'.

I don't listen to Leonard Cohen. I've never owned any of his work.

I like R&B in a general way, as on the Paul Jones radio programme. I don't really know gospel except in the distant way that anyone does, and on RATTLE & HUM.

Horsehoe, I don't know 'still crazy' well enough to say.

I don't really know gospel except in the distant way that anyone does, and on RATTLE & HUM.

haha good answer

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 lover
On the street last night
She seemed so glad to see me
I just smiled
And we talked about some old times
And we drank ourselves some beers
Still crazy after all these years

and it's like, what happened between the beers and the crazy?

i love the god bothering stuff

hat happened between the beers and the crazy?

^^^^ good lyric

* what

i love the god bothering stuff

― ℗⎣▲✘ (ico), Sunday, August 7, 2011 4:34 PM (1 minute ago) Bookmark

yeah it's there from the beginning, that yearning for transcendental experience or whatever

angels in the architecture, spinning in infinity, sweet angels sing "hallelujah"

And I will lay my burden down
Rest my head upon that shore
And when I wear that starry crown
I won't be wanting anymore

starry is such a pretty word

I believe
I BELIEVE
in the Kingdom Come
IN THE KINGDOM COME
Then all the colours
ALLLL THE COLOURS
will bleed into one
BLEEEEED INTO O--O-OONE

You broke the bonds
BROKE THE BONDS
And you loosed the chains
LOOSED THE CHAINS
Carried the cross
CARRIED THE CROSS
of my shame
OF MY SHAME
you know I believe it.

I BELIEVE IT!

You know, I do

The god talk gets annoying on the new one.

ok Bono lyrics do not even belong on the same board as paul simon lyrics

like there should be a separate board for bono lyrics and the board should be called "i love sucking ass"

one time i read a bono quote where he said it was a pleasure to listen to michael jackson as long as you ignored the lyrics, and i was like, that's pretty rich coming from you, bono.

I mainly just posted that last one to tempt DJP

Wtf you atheists and "god talk" as if mentions of god make someone jerry falwell

^^

i will take all of your silence as confirmation of my theory that "still crazy after all these years" is about a murderer.

No one but pinefox said that.

I wrote in my review a couple of months ago that Simon doesn't really illuminate some tired religious tropes. I wish he'd gone Al Green in his old age.

still crazy after all these years is abt how garfunkel reads so many books and murdering him

people caring about lyrics too much itt

what are the names of the songs in Paul Simon's album Graceland?

― anne alison, Monday, February 16, 2004

You gotta fill out a form first.

and stick it up your ass

still crazy after all these years is abt how garfunkel reads so many books and murdering him
--ice cr?m

I don't believe Alamac is actually sorry.

in answer to the thread title in particular, i generally don't feel like paul simon is overrated - it seems to me that people have a very mixed reception of him

i think what i love best about paul simon is his phrasing, how he works his voice, lyrics and guitar together so niftily and so beautifully, i adore the sweetness of it. every element is elevated.

and he enunciates like nobody's business.

otm he is tremendous at delivering complex lines

tbh i just think "graceland" is maybe the best song anyone's ever written

i love the way the steady beat of the bass and drums sound like car wheels on the highway and the way all the lyrics sound like the kind of things you say when you are being overfriendly to people you meet at gas stations at convenience stores

the sort of cheerfully mournful "she comes back to tell me shes gone" and the over-indignant "as if i didnt know that/as if i didnt know my own bed" and then that gorgeous pause that drifts off into the heartbreaking "as if id never noticed the way she brushed her hair from her forehead"