I'm sorry but Paul Simon is so overrated

I don't care for solo Paul Simon either. Graceland was boring.

f a h8r, paul 4 lyfe

Is he really that highly rated though?

no idea what this means.

so many SBs to give out in this thread

also simon is a better lyricist than stupid ol leonard cohen--there are very few people who can write words to music (and perform them) better than paul simon can--also graceland is really amazing

its funny that you should mention writing words to music and graceland in the same breath because its my understanding that it was his first album using that method, before that it was always music to words, and das why graceland feels so free

and fwiw cohen owns, lets all be cool

If "consensus" matters, then the consensus about Simon's eponymous debut, Still Crazy..., and Graceland still holds. Matos said in a recent column that So Beautiful or So What was so far his favorite album of the year.

I like Cohen too! I don't have a problem with someone preferring Cohen to Simon; I just don't get this "highly rated" stuff. We're not talking about James Taylor or Al Stewart here.

great thread

This man is so overrated it's pathetic!!

generally speaking when someone drags "it's pathetic!!" or some variation thereof into their criticism it's because they are---or have the critical faculties of---a fourteen year old venting on facebook

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

ITT: You can't say "___ sucks" anymore, it's a weird internet rule.

I will say, having seen both Cohen and Simon live in recent years, that Cohen may be the only great living singer/songwriter who may be less of a singer than Simon. Not that it matters, in either case. I'll happily accept Cohen's monotone rumble and Simon's limited but nimble sing-song.

maybe I'm way off base but I do feel like there's this certain quality about Simon where he knows he never really reached the level he wanted to attain

I remember reading in that David Browne book "Fire & Rain" that Simon didn't feel like he got his due as a songwriter and was always chasing the kind of respect that Dylan got. Also it pissed him off that people gave Garfunkel most of credit for BOTW even though Simon wrote it. And when he wanted to go solo Clive Davis basically told him that he wasn't well known enough to be a success on his own.

yeah PS does not seem very humble or earnest. not that it detracts from his music.

feel like simon never quite got the props of those other dudes cause hes not you know cool

legendarily one of the nastiest sob's as a person in music. that said, i like not love s&g, love the early solo records, and hate graceland with the passion of a billion white hot suns

really? Post some nasty SOB stories!

Has he done anything to top this?

there's always that Los Lobos story

I'm not sure I believe Los Lobos, or rather, I'm not sure they understood the danger of working with a singer-songwriter.

I assume every famous person is a bit of an SOB, but Simon doesn't seem any worse than most.

Certainly do not understand comparisons to Leonard Cohen who in my view is legend. I guess I am rather bewildered at how someone behind classics like Bridge Over Troubled Water could sink to the lows that he has over the years. I disagree that he seems to know he hasn't reached the level of his contemporaries. From what I can tell he seems to believe in his own pretension.

"believing in your own pretensions" is tautological, isn't it?

I hate BOTW tbh.

I've increasingly come to believe the Los Lobos story is bullshit at worst, a misunderstanding at best. Lot least because Simon made a concerted effort to actual credit many of his African collaborators on that album:

"The Boy in the Bubble" (Forere Motloheloa/Paul Simon) - 3:59
"I Know What I Know" (General MD Shirinda/Simon) - 3:13
"Gumboots" (Lulu Masilela/Jonhjon Mkhalali/Simon) - 2:44
"Diamonds on the Soles of Her Shoes" (Joseph Shabalala/Simon) - 5:45
"Homeless" (Shabalala/Simon) - 3:48

If he wasn't going to fuck the Africans, why would he fuck Los Lobos?

was last night the first time you've ever seen a gray-haired old music icon playing lesser new material on TV? xpost

Yes, probably tautological. Can someone please tell the Los Lobos story.

los lobos always sounded like a bunch of whiners and their music is sort of bad.

http://www.jambase.com/Articles/9391/LONE-WOLF-HANGIN%27-WITH-STEVE-BERLIN/0

Retroactively, he had to give songwriting credit to all the African guys he stole from that were working on it and everyone seemed to forget.

uh he gave them songwriting credit on the original album!

So we go back in the second day wondering why we're there. It was ridiculous. I think David starts playing "The Myth of the Fingerprints," or whatever he ended up calling it. That was one of our songs. That year, that was a song we started working on By Light of the Moon. So that was like an existing Lobos sketch of an idea that we had already started doing. I don't think there were any recordings of it, but we had messed around with it. We knew we were gonna do it. It was gonna turn into a song. Paul goes, "Hey, what's that?" We start playing what we have of it, and it is exactly what you hear on the record. So we're like, "Oh, ok. We'll share this song."

This may be true but I blame the band's naivete.

lol i dont really care if paul simon is an awful human being but the way lobos bro tells that story it makes no sense at all

I think David starts playing "The Myth of the Fingerprints," or whatever he ended up calling it. That was one of our songs.

aggrieved studio musicians are the art of pretend forgetfulness

I just find it difficult to believe that a band whose reputation was already as high as Los Lobos would walk into a Lenny Waronker-arranged studio collaboration with Paul fucking Simon and not understand the consequences.

if it's any consolation, Lobos bro, "The Myth of Fingerprints" is one of the album's weaker songs.

this is my fav part:

We go into the studio, and he had quite literally nothing. I mean, he had no ideas, no concepts, and said, "Well, let's just jam." We said, "We don't really do that." When we jam, we'll switch instruments. Dave will play drums, I'll play something. We don't really jam. Especially in that era. Louie will be the first to tell you this – he was made to play drums. They forced him to play drums. He's not really a drummer by trade. He's never practiced a moment in his life. Not once in his life did he sit down at the drums because of his love for drumming. The other three guys made him play drums in the early days, so he sort of became drummer by default. He hates playing the instrument, I think.

wahhhh they FORCED him to play drums!

if it's any consolation, Lobos bro, "The Myth of Fingerprints" is one of the album's weaker songs.

― livin in my own private Biden hole (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Sunday, August 7, 2011 10:08 AM (11 seconds ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

ehh it's obviously tossed off but the chorus lyrics slay me

I mean there's no doubt about it
It was the myth of pretend forgetfulness

we jammed, which was a horrible idea that produced a classic album, he stole our songs that sound nothing like los lobos but a lot like paul simon, gave credit to everyone else he worked with, made a dude play drums, we couldve sued him but still havent

I like the way he keeps saying "favor to the family"

also the little detail about paul simon mispronouncing 'zydeco' (even tho he gets it right... ON THE ALBUM)

cause lobos told him is why

lowblows

Fusion.
The intermingling of two musics.
I say it's the music of the future
And, hey, I oughta know.
Have you heard my latest album?
It's a masterpiece of fusion,
Just a masterpiece of fusion
If I do say so myself.
A true collaboration of the heaviest musicians on the planet.

That's Sakimoto playing the bamboo flute.
He's a monster.
And Big Joseph Nabuma on mbira.
Check it out.
And over on cabasa...who is that on cabasa?
Oh yeah, that's the guy who drove me in from the airport.
I forget his name, but he's a monster, too.
We're all just monsters of--

Fusion.
We're intermingling our musics
In a welter of ethnic confusion.
(Zimbabwe, Zimbabwe.
Anh anh.
Zimbabwe, zimbabwe.
Anh anh.
Savuca! Loodloodloodloodloodloodloodloo!)

This pretty tune was written by Hans Leo Hassler
In 1599.
I wrote some words and changed about three notes.
Now ASCAP says it's mine.
I love constructing albums
From objects that I find,

From all kinds of folk riffs
That are just sort of out there.
Nobody owns them. They're in public domain.
And the foreign musicians
Who play those folk riffs,
Well, they're just grist for my fevered brain.

Mama, don't take my copyright.
Gimme that folk riff copyright.
Mama, don't take my copyright from me.
There've been slurs and innuendoes.
There've been nasty little comments.
I don't bother to respond to them.
They roll right off my back.
I'm well aware that there's an element
You could call "exploitation"
In the way that I appropriate the cultures of these peoples
For my own commercial purposes.

But everyone who works for me gets
Credit.
And royalties
And Grammys
And a chance to ride to stardom on my coattails, lay lay lay.
But, hey, let's just remember who's the genius here,
Who is the Master of--

Fusion?
Fusion.
It's a matter of "Finders Keepers."
Cause there ain't no copyrights in
Fusion.
Fusion.
We're all just ripping off each other
In a jungle of ethical con-Fusion.
And having a hell of a lot of fun.
I'm having a hell of a lot of
Ballpark.
I'm thinking this song is in the
Ballpark... (fade)

That was ripped off from an idea I had but never wrote down.

I could never figure out what Los Lobos was doing on that album, anyway.

ILM is feeling like ILM circa 2004, lately.

frankly i just dont get people who dont like graceland.

xpost cool I love c.2004 ILM

maybe start a new board, "ILM Classic"

Solo careers are so underrated
Keep your Garfunkel and Simon completely separated

gatorade is tasty it's tru

― lag∞n, Sunday, February 5, 2012 10:15 PM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

orange gatorade especially.

art garfunkel's jimmy webb covers album is fantastic.

It is!

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/reliable-source/post/hey-isnt-that-paul-simon-and-thomas-friedman-at-the-bombay-club/2012/02/07/gIQAuvGCxQ_blog.html

Singer Paul Simon and New York Times columnist Tom Friedman dining together at the Bombay Club Monday night with two others. Shrimp, kebab, veggies among their shared dishes. What’s the occasion? Nothing special, the columnist’s office told us, “just a dinner with friends.”

Bombay Club in Washington D.C. I think

o jesus dont tell me these things

srsly :(

five or six D.C.-looking types.

hahaha

jews

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/21/arts/music/paul-simon-with-the-jazz-at-lincoln-center-orchestra.html?_r=1

This sounds like it was an interesting gig

excerpt:

By JON PARELES
Published: April 20, 2012

Transformations, extrapolations and a few collisions were on the program when Paul Simon performed with the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra on Thursday night at the Rose Theater, part of a three-night fund-raising series. (With tickets costing hundreds of dollars, perhaps it was no coincidence that the first words Mr. Simon sang were “She’s a rich girl,” from “Diamonds on the Soles of Her Shoes.”)

Mr. Simon and Wynton Marsalis performed and brought their bands together for a concert of Simon songs at Jazz at Lincoln Center.
Mr. Simon, not usually one to cede control of his music, brought his own band to perform side by side with the Lincoln Center big band led by Wynton Marsalis. Mr. Marsalis noted that Mr. Simon was playing (and paying his band for) “three concerts for absolutely no money.”

It was all about arrangements, old and new: easing in and out of Mr. Simon’s usual band versions or completely revamping the songs. In the course of the night, the Lincoln Center band became a tag team, a beefed-up horn section, a new perspective and, now and then, a fifth wheel. As Mr. Simon sang, he breezed through the alterations to songs he has been singing for decades, toying with the timing of familiar lines to keep them conversational and immediate.

The program didn’t focus on the Simon songs closest to jazz; it didn’t include, for instance, the chromatic labyrinth of “Still Crazy After All These Years.” Instead it favored his folky and rock-tinged repertory, his three-chord marvels. Nearly all of the new arrangements were by the orchestra members, and they had a hard act to follow: Mr. Simon’s meticulous originals, with their ingenious cultural hybrids and ever nimble rhythms. His music is tightly wound, and within it are hints and implications that the big-band arrangements could pick up, and did.

Guessing this event was too pricey for most NY ilmers (or they think Paul Simon is so overrated)

i'm sorry but wynton marsalis is so overrated

agree

i watced the bbc under african skies docu and it was dope as hell

Thread of missing Alamac