as if i didn't know that, as if i didn't know my own bed
vs
my travelling companions are ghosts and empty sockets, looking at ghosts and empties
i may be obliged to defend every love every ending, or maybe there's no obligations now
i also love the effortlessness of this line:
i am following the river down the highway through the cradle of the civil war
― max, Thursday, 19 August 2010 17:22 (thirteen years ago) link
ugh, poetry
― goole, Thursday, 19 August 2010 17:23 (thirteen years ago) link
has anyone ever covered this song? seems like it would be hard to sing, tho simon makes it sound easy.
Willie Nelson, who handled the conversational cadences well but the arrangement is meh.
― Gucci Mane hermeneuticist (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Thursday, 19 August 2010 17:24 (thirteen years ago) link
casiotone for the painfully alone did a cover iirc
― just sayin, Thursday, 19 August 2010 17:24 (thirteen years ago) link
yeah the following the river line is amazing and he has a way with simple declarations like that--see verse 1 of hearts and bones as well
― call all destroyer, Thursday, 19 August 2010 17:25 (thirteen years ago) link
is what I picked too. Can't talk about this record enough imo
― Ismael Klata, Thursday, 19 August 2010 17:25 (thirteen years ago) link
Grace Jones needs to make this the title cut of her comeback, Graceland.
― Bag Smart, Street Stupid (Eazy), Thursday, 19 August 2010 17:26 (thirteen years ago) link
love this song so much
voted for the first line
― iatee, Thursday, 19 August 2010 17:26 (thirteen years ago) link
you know what is a great line from this album is "Sad as a lonely little wrinkled balloon" from "Crazy Love." also all the other lines in that song
― horseshoe, Thursday, 19 August 2010 17:26 (thirteen years ago) link
She said, "Don't I know you from the cinematographer's party?"
― Gucci Mane hermeneuticist (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Thursday, 19 August 2010 17:27 (thirteen years ago) link
^^^I was going to mention that one.
― rhythm fixated member (chap), Thursday, 19 August 2010 17:28 (thirteen years ago) link
love the youtube comments for this - I like Ladysmith Black Mambazo. But whenever I see them I think it takes ten men to take the place on one Art Garfunkel. Art is God.
― just sayin, Thursday, 19 August 2010 17:29 (thirteen years ago) link
you are the burden of my generation / i sure do love you, let's get that straight
^^another great half-spoken delivery
― horseshoe, Thursday, 19 August 2010 17:29 (thirteen years ago) link
It's like it's written from the POV of his Annie Hall character, doing just fine in the mid eighties, attending a party at Sydney Pollack's.
― Gucci Mane hermeneuticist (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Thursday, 19 August 2010 17:29 (thirteen years ago) link
"I Know What I Know," that is.
"lasers in the jungle somewhere" pops into my head all the time
― max, Thursday, 19 August 2010 17:30 (thirteen years ago) link
a loose affiliation of millionaires and billionaires and baaaby
― horseshoe, Thursday, 19 August 2010 17:30 (thirteen years ago) link
sorry i'll stop this is what the inside of my head is like
that whole verse:
And I believe these are the days of lasers in the jungle,Lasers in the jungle somewhere,Staccato signals of constant information,A loose affiliation of millionairesAnd billionaires and baby,These are the days of miracle and wonder,
― max, Thursday, 19 August 2010 17:31 (thirteen years ago) link
xp!!
xxxxp ^^^ also "the bomb in the baby carriage was wired to the radio"
― Les centimètres énigmatiques (snoball), Thursday, 19 August 2010 17:31 (thirteen years ago) link
she said losing love is like a window in your heartand everybody sees you're blown apart, everybody feels the wind blow
Separating these two seems wrong (also I don't remember that "and" being there)
― Ground Zero Mostel (Hurting 2), Thursday, 19 August 2010 17:31 (thirteen years ago) link
<3
― horseshoe, Thursday, 19 August 2010 17:31 (thirteen years ago) link
i know this album so well its scary, like the back of my hand
there's no "and"
― horseshoe, Thursday, 19 August 2010 17:32 (thirteen years ago) link
And don't cry baby, don't cry, don't cry, don't cry
― Les centimètres énigmatiques (snoball), Thursday, 19 August 2010 17:32 (thirteen years ago) link
the bomb in the baby carriage line is great because that whole verse is setting this scene and that line is like boom it's over here's the chorus.
― call all destroyer, Thursday, 19 August 2010 17:32 (thirteen years ago) link
'everybody sees youre blown apart'
― NOT FUNNY NEEDS MORE GUCCI (deej), Thursday, 19 August 2010 17:32 (thirteen years ago) link
staccato signals a pulse of information
(am i remembering right??)
― NOT FUNNY NEEDS MORE GUCCI (deej), Thursday, 19 August 2010 17:33 (thirteen years ago) link
i thought it was constant
― horseshoe, Thursday, 19 August 2010 17:34 (thirteen years ago) link
love the sounds of the lines & twists & turns in meaning they make vs your expectations of how a lyric 'should' resolve
― NOT FUNNY NEEDS MORE GUCCI (deej), Thursday, 19 August 2010 17:34 (thirteen years ago) link
I see losing this album is like a window in your heart
― Gucci Mane hermeneuticist (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Thursday, 19 August 2010 17:35 (thirteen years ago) link
ha i just realized i always heard that line as "oozing love"
― max, Thursday, 19 August 2010 17:36 (thirteen years ago) link
that's crazy max
― horseshoe, Thursday, 19 August 2010 17:37 (thirteen years ago) link
also gross
mixed metaphors are beneath Simon.
― Gucci Mane hermeneuticist (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Thursday, 19 August 2010 17:37 (thirteen years ago) link
(yeah, lyrics are a smidge off -- I googled, copied, cut some line breaks; ah well)
― Bag Smart, Street Stupid (Eazy), Thursday, 19 August 2010 17:38 (thirteen years ago) link
― Ground Zero Mostel (Hurting 2), Thursday, August 19, 2010 1:31 PM Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink
― horseshoe, Thursday, August 19, 2010 1:31 PM Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink
― horseshoe, Thursday, August 19, 2010 1:32 PM Bookmark
Exactly, and that's the point of the line -- the window in your heart is what allows everyone to see that you're blown apart and feel the wind blow.
And that's probably my favorite line in the song.
― Ground Zero Mostel (Hurting 2), Thursday, 19 August 2010 17:40 (thirteen years ago) link
on the 2002 tour the t shirts had
It's a turn-around jump shotIt's everybody jump startIt's every generation throws a hero up the pop charts
on them. but that's not from this song.
― piscesx, Thursday, 19 August 2010 17:40 (thirteen 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.
― horseshoe, Thursday, 19 August 2010 17:41 (thirteen years ago) link
Only just realized the double meaning of "national guitar" in the first line
― Ground Zero Mostel (Hurting 2), Thursday, 19 August 2010 17:45 (thirteen years ago) link
what's the double meaning?
― call all destroyer, Thursday, 19 August 2010 17:48 (thirteen years ago) link
i thought it was a straight ref to resonator guitars
1) Reference to National brand guitars2) the delta as a blues capital is kind of like a 'national' guitar of the united states -- sort of loose and abstract I guess but it occurred to me
― Ground Zero Mostel (Hurting 2), Thursday, 19 August 2010 17:53 (thirteen years ago) link
ok that's funny, i think i heard it that way when i was a kid before i knew what a reso guitar was--glad it has occurred to others!
― call all destroyer, Thursday, 19 August 2010 17:56 (thirteen years ago) link
My misheard Paul Simon line from childhood is "You don't have to be cordouroy."
― Bag Smart, Street Stupid (Eazy), Thursday, 19 August 2010 18:03 (thirteen years ago) link
Agree about the "double meaning" of National guitar. Don't see how you could possibly read it as just one thing or the other at all.
"as if i didn't know that, etc." is a pretty powerful turnaround and gets my vote
Favorite lines from the whole record are the
Staccato signals of constant information,A loose affiliation of millionairesAnd billionaires and baby,
He is surrounded by the sound The soundCattle in the marketplace Scatterlings and orphanages He looks around, aroundHe sees angels in the architecture Spinning in infinity He says Amen! and Hallelujah!
despite not being very religious myself : )
― kkvgz, Thursday, 19 August 2010 18:20 (thirteen years ago) link
Don't see how you could possibly read it as just one thing or the other at all.
you could not know what a National guitar is
― congratulations (n/a), Thursday, 19 August 2010 18:23 (thirteen years ago) link
― max, Thursday, 19 August 2010 17:36 (49 minutes ago) Permalink
looool me too
― NOT FUNNY NEEDS MORE GUCCI (deej), Thursday, 19 August 2010 18:26 (thirteen years ago) link
xp: okay, good point.
― kkvgz, Thursday, 19 August 2010 18:31 (thirteen years ago) link
i mean you dont really need a graceland when you have the ny times in 2010:
http://celebraterickysargulesh.tumblr.com/post/418545344/brooklyn-2010
― max, Sunday, 22 August 2010 21:24 (thirteen years ago) link
yeah i still think he did take a while to "mature" as a songwriter. the s+gf stuff is only intermittently good lyrically
― plax (ico), Sunday, 22 August 2010 21:25 (thirteen years ago) link
Come Anticipate Norah Jones's NYC Zingers.
I do think Craig Finn works at combining stuff that's never been in a song with specific snapshots of times and spaces with stream-of-consciousness, but it's not NYC.
― Bag Smart, Street Stupid (Eazy), Sunday, 22 August 2010 21:25 (thirteen years ago) link
the s+gf stuff is only intermittently good lyrically
― plax (ico), Sunday, August 22, 2010 5:25 PM (43 seconds ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink
it's true; i don't really like simon and garfunkel that much at all
― horseshoe, Sunday, 22 August 2010 21:26 (thirteen years ago) link
yeah finns a good lyricist, but hes not as funny as simon i dont think, or as self aware, and, crucially, from britain or alaska or somewhere
― max, Sunday, 22 August 2010 21:26 (thirteen years ago) link
^^^ my next point, actually. To be fair to both Koenig and Simon, the latter didn't stumble into his lyrical genius. S&G is often painfully, clumsily erudite.
― Gucci Mane hermeneuticist (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Sunday, 22 August 2010 21:27 (thirteen years ago) link
Neil Tennant and Robert Forster wrote really good songs about scenes, but their time has passed, I guess.
― Gucci Mane hermeneuticist (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Sunday, 22 August 2010 21:28 (thirteen years ago) link
yeah, thats fine. i didnt really mean to rag on VW, im just wondering if there IS a 2000s-paul-simon-of-new-york, besides me and my tumblr
― max, Sunday, 22 August 2010 21:28 (thirteen years ago) link
btw i have never seen this:
In 1988, Simon released a video for the song to promote his greatest hits compilation, Negotiations and Love Songs. The video features an introduction by rappers Big Daddy Kane and Biz Markie. The video depicts adults interacting with the youth of an inner city schoolyard where they dealt drugs. It shows Simon playing basketball and baseball with the children, and it also features basketball player Spud Webb, baseball legend Mickey Mantle, and football coach/commentator John Madden giving tips to young athletes.[1]
― max, Sunday, 22 August 2010 21:29 (thirteen years ago) link
(thats re: me and julio)
S+G was writing genre songs in the same way that Simon always does, but he was getting Elizabethan and Hymnal Music out of the way early, saving zydeco and (on the great "Adios Hermanos") doo-wop for later.
― Bag Smart, Street Stupid (Eazy), Sunday, 22 August 2010 21:30 (thirteen years ago) link
there's a making the album documentary where simon talks u through writing graceland line by line and it seems like anyone could have written that song, its kindof awesome.
― plax (ico), Sunday, 22 August 2010 21:39 (thirteen years ago) link
idk i think his skill is in managing to be really evocative w/ the smallest parts "the child of my first marriage" is such a banal line but it also paints a massive backstory and dovetails so well w/ the forehead hair brusher l8r
― plax (ico), Sunday, 22 August 2010 21:41 (thirteen years ago) link
Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.
― System, Tuesday, 24 August 2010 23:01 (thirteen years ago) link
the last line in this song always kills me. i'm not sure why.
― we wanted lime (mike a), Wednesday, 25 August 2010 04:42 (thirteen years ago) link
Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.
― System, Wednesday, 25 August 2010 23:01 (thirteen years ago) link
poor boys, pilgrims with families and we are going to graceland 0
^^ i dont know that this line got "robbed" buts another one where he has perfect delivery
― max, Wednesday, 25 August 2010 23:02 (thirteen years ago) link
maybe he should have worked new york city into the line somehow.
― got electrolytes (The Cursed Return of the Dastardly Thermo Thinwall), Wednesday, 25 August 2010 23:05 (thirteen years ago) link
she comes back to tell me she's gone 0
The declarative sentence loses.
― Gucci Mane hermeneuticist (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Wednesday, 25 August 2010 23:11 (thirteen years ago) link
i'd just like to point out that there is a tie for first place here
― all yoga attacks are fire based (rogermexico.), Wednesday, 25 August 2010 23:54 (thirteen years ago) link
Reading these lyrics out, they read like Dan Bejar lyrics.
― altered boners (rennavate), Thursday, 26 August 2010 07:05 (thirteen years ago) link
Which is unfortunate, because I love that line.
― Brad Nelson (BradNelson), Thursday, 26 August 2010 07:16 (thirteen years ago) link
This thread has sparked a total renewed interest in this album, appreciating the lyrics like never before. Thinking I might go through some of them with my advanced TELF students next week.
― rhythm fixated member (chap), Friday, 27 August 2010 23:16 (thirteen years ago) link
I remember my mom asking me to explain the lyrics to the Myth of Fingerprints to her when I was 13
― I drink your milksteak (Shakey Mo Collier), Friday, 27 August 2010 23:47 (thirteen years ago) link
Something I wrote about this song last year.
― scott pgwp (pgwp), Saturday, 28 August 2010 16:01 (thirteen years ago) link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JPFESqwh0ks
― max, Tuesday, 7 February 2012 17:33 (twelve years ago) link
omg
― horseshoe, Tuesday, 7 February 2012 17:39 (twelve years ago) link
― max, Sunday, August 22, 2010 5:29 PM (1 year ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O859wd7H6h8
― horseshoe, Tuesday, 7 February 2012 17:45 (twelve years ago) link
like i said before this was sort of the first "adult" album i started to kind of understand, it made me almost feel older, like some weird vicarious sense of 'mono no aware' when i was 11. and an epic song.
― omar little, Tuesday, 7 February 2012 19:58 (twelve years ago) link
Me and Julio video is hilarious.
Graceland doc looks a little too polite, but in any case this is my all-time favorite album so I'll watch.
― scott pgwp (pgwp), Wednesday, 8 February 2012 00:43 (twelve years ago) link
wow cool!
― Exile in lolville (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Wednesday, 8 February 2012 00:47 (twelve years ago) link