youre boring drivel for the most part
― judith, Friday, 6 January 2012 23:21 (1 year ago) Permalink
i kindof actually hadn't realised how fantastically produced their albums were although i guess this is like the high water mark.
I think this almost always gets overlooked. seems like a lot of attention has been historically focused on Simon's lyrics and the prettiness/fragility of their harmonies and not, say, the Bob Moog-programmed synth bass on "Save the Life of My Child"
― The Silent Extreme (Shakey Mo Collier), Friday, 6 January 2012 23:22 (1 year ago) Permalink
my housemate declared this the best produced album of all time
― judith, Friday, 6 January 2012 23:27 (1 year ago) Permalink
best: only living boy in new yorkworst: there are no bad songssleeper: keep the customer happy
― deleverage of the soil (Lamp), Friday, 6 January 2012 23:29 (1 year ago) Permalink
went and listened to Cecelia, I've heard that chorus before but never the whole track
when I was in high school the vibe I got from Simon & Garfunkel was deeply "this is the kind of music people you hate really ride hard for" so I avoided the shit out of it
― unlistenable in philly (underrated aerosmith bootlegs I have owned), Friday, 6 January 2012 23:29 (1 year ago) Permalink
then after high school finding out whether s&g were actually ok didn't seem like a big priority
what kind of people were really into s&g when you went to high school???
― judith, Friday, 6 January 2012 23:31 (1 year ago) Permalink
professor's kids
― unlistenable in philly (underrated aerosmith bootlegs I have owned), Friday, 6 January 2012 23:32 (1 year ago) Permalink
ok i had to open itunes and put this on
love just how big and yet delicate these songs are
― deleverage of the soil (Lamp), Friday, 6 January 2012 23:32 (1 year ago) Permalink
:(
― gord downer (Ówen P.), Friday, 6 January 2012 23:46 (1 year ago) Permalink
I get why people like them even if I can't really go there myself. Like Shakey mentions, 'Save The Life Of My Child' is a good example of them going for weird and not making it, but 'Cecelia' is the one mp3 by them on my hard drive & it's because of the drums & the gated flute break.
― Milton Parker, Friday, 6 January 2012 23:49 (1 year ago) Permalink
the bit on the boxer where it goes "cut him til he cried out" and on the "cut him" there's this perfect shift where he strums real heavy on the guitar and their voices get real emphatic and the whole dynamic sets itself around this sharp fulcrum
― judith, Friday, 6 January 2012 23:56 (1 year ago) Permalink
there are so many fantastic small details here
― deleverage of the soil (Lamp), Saturday, 7 January 2012 00:02 (1 year ago) Permalink
that Simon thought no one knew he was the songwriter/main genius behind the act. which seemed odd
I wouldn't be surprised if this was specifically in relation to the title track - which Simon doesn't sing on - and was there biggest hit.
― The Silent Extreme (Shakey Mo Collier), Saturday, 7 January 2012 00:04 (1 year ago) Permalink
which was their
argh
hmm wait Simon does sing on BOTW he just doesn't sing the lead, right?
― The Silent Extreme (Shakey Mo Collier), Saturday, 7 January 2012 00:06 (1 year ago) Permalink
Ówen a lotta my weirdo class rage has to do with my biological dad being a professor and my stepdad being a really smart psychopath from a really poor Indiana town with a chip on his shoulder about the intellectual class so the professor-kids of my town were objects of really profound envy to me, and there were tons of them (five colleges in my town) & they were all in my peer group & they all had money & they were all gonna go to Yale or Columbia or NYU & it looked from the outside like their lives kinda fuckin' ruled and they all loved Simon & Garfunkel a lot, mind you I didn't like run around raging against these ppl they were my peer group I just harbored "secret" (i.e. probably not secret) grudges against them
thanks for the free therapy y'all it's actually quite helpful
― unlistenable in philly (underrated aerosmith bootlegs I have owned), Saturday, 7 January 2012 00:08 (1 year ago) Permalink
tell me about your mother
― The Silent Extreme (Shakey Mo Collier), Saturday, 7 January 2012 00:09 (1 year ago) Permalink
also its so balanced, the way somthing like cecilia cuts into the creaminess of that frank lloyd wright song, or how even the huge echo-voices on the only living boy in new york aren't like EPIC but gaseous and diaphanous. the hugeness of that snare crack but at the same time its just this rudimentary whack, a guy with his arms raised over its head.
― judith, Saturday, 7 January 2012 00:16 (1 year ago) Permalink
gotta go with the boxer for inspiring this story of plagiarism in a queens english class...
― Thus Sang Freud, Saturday, 7 January 2012 00:20 (1 year ago) Permalink
Dude invented the phrase "bridge over troubled water." Made the damn thin up, and now it's as permanent as Shakespeare.
― Cheap desert locations (Eazy), Saturday, 7 January 2012 00:25 (1 year ago) Permalink
I don't think of myself as liking this album all that much, but I'm finding it hard to pick one song because I like so many.
I remember my mother asking my brother if "Keep the Customer Satisfied" was about selling drugs and he insisted it wasn't. Then when she was out of the room he turned to me and said: it probably is. And I was shocked he would lie to her like that. (I was in elementary school and he would probably have been in high school at the time.) My mom played the heck out of that album.
― _Rudipherous_, Saturday, 7 January 2012 00:31 (1 year ago) Permalink
;_;
― emil.y, Saturday, 7 January 2012 00:31 (1 year ago) Permalink
I've never owned it, so I just know (and like) all the hits. Definitely "Cecilia."
― clemenza, Saturday, 7 January 2012 00:34 (1 year ago) Permalink
If you haven't heard, worth a listen:
― Cheap desert locations (Eazy), Saturday, 7 January 2012 00:47 (1 year ago) Permalink
Listening now, this album is kind of amazing, mostly for the inner songs. Also, it's funny to listen now and make all these musical connections I would have been in no position to make when I was much younger. (I don't think I've ever consciously realized "So Long Frank Lloyd Wright" had a bossa feel to it, but it may be a really long time since I've heard it.)
― _Rudipherous_, Saturday, 7 January 2012 00:58 (1 year ago) Permalink
have never heard someone use this phrase outside of paul simon talk
― Bruce K. Tedesco (zachlyon), Saturday, 7 January 2012 01:42 (1 year ago) Permalink
voted el condor pasa but it could be a bunch of these. i prefer any version on live rhymin which i guess is challops? i love that thing.
― Bruce K. Tedesco (zachlyon), Saturday, 7 January 2012 01:45 (1 year ago) Permalink
"Only Living Boy in New York" but it hurts to split it up like this
― the white plies (Noodle Vague), Saturday, 7 January 2012 01:47 (1 year ago) Permalink
his image/metaphors are his best trick as a lyricist. "everybody loves the sound of a train in the distance/ everybody thinks its true" like how the metaphor relies one that specificity of the image.
― judith, Saturday, 7 January 2012 01:53 (1 year ago) Permalink
No sweat Aero I just got both parents and step-parents as professors and it didn't get me anything but an intimate knowledge of insect taxonomy. Plus I'm feeling the American culture war a little more sensitively with Election 2012 in my Paul Simon-loving face
I only thought you were trolling cause if I launched into a "L Cohen sucks dog dick" argument then later confessed I'd only heard "Bird on a Wire" you'd probably say nuts to me too
― gord downer (Ówen P.), Saturday, 7 January 2012 03:40 (1 year ago) Permalink
had no idea El Condor Pasa was already a pre-exisitng tune until that BBC doc a few weeks back. the story of how they made that rhythm track on Cecilia was amazing too.
― piscesx, Saturday, 7 January 2012 10:11 (1 year ago) Permalink
What documentary was that piscesx, would like to hear that story myself
― I certainly wouldn't have, but hey. (Le Bateau Ivre), Saturday, 7 January 2012 12:00 (1 year ago) Permalink
this is such an outstanding album for all the reasons outlined above. the sound of it, the textures, are extraordinary. Simon's songwriting is really inventive here too, the title track and "New York" and "Frank Lloyd Wright" all have clever, unexpected swerves.
i guess "Keep the Customer Satisfied" is "about" dealing weed but really he just uses it as another extended metaphor for the touring musician. it's ridiculously joyous in the context of the dreamy introspective stuff, either way.
― the white plies (Noodle Vague), Saturday, 7 January 2012 12:00 (1 year ago) Permalink
This is between Cecelia and Only Boy for me, but really it's a very good record all round. It's the one record my parents had on vinyl, then bought on cassette when it came out, bought it on cd when that came out, and I think they have it as mp3's too.
The title song stood for that Sunday afternoon feeling of my parents getting out the sherry and playing this album. Not cool when you're a 14 year old, but it stuck with me and I now am grateful for them playing it so often I think.
― I certainly wouldn't have, but hey. (Le Bateau Ivre), Saturday, 7 January 2012 12:03 (1 year ago) Permalink
xp The Harmony Game; it's also on the 40th anniversary edition of the CD+DVD package, no throwaway thing either it was 70 minutes long. it was amazing; told you all about how 'anti' the sponsors were of their 1969 TV film 'songs of america'. the 'Bell' telephone company had a big row with them. i literally had no idea they were so political, and had never heard of the 'songs of america' tv show.
― piscesx, Saturday, 7 January 2012 12:43 (1 year ago) Permalink
Thanks!
― I certainly wouldn't have, but hey. (Le Bateau Ivre), Saturday, 7 January 2012 13:01 (1 year ago) Permalink
I only knew this from living near some Peruvian buskers who played it. (I just lucked out and found video of the actual same buskers, below.) So the song is actually an early version of what Simon did decades later, writing pop songs in obscure genres.
― Cheap desert locations (Eazy), Saturday, 7 January 2012 14:55 (1 year ago) Permalink
Probably 'Only Living Boy', that's a transcendent piece of music.
I've thinking about 'Keep the Customer' quite a lot lately, mainly to try and work out whether it's 'heard' or 'read' (in the Bible), and how perceptive heard would be, in describing the experience of a former? churchgoer.
Some good thoughts here about the meaning of the lyric
http://www.songmeanings.net/songs/view/7342/
Vietnam vet? Black salesman?
I always assumed travelling salesman from the bible belt myself.
― glumdalclitch, Saturday, 7 January 2012 15:24 (1 year ago) Permalink
This was my favourite record between the ages of 6 and 10. It was the only LP my parents played that wasn't Jim Reeves. I remember loving the jauntiness in Keep the Customer Satisfied, and thinking that Only Living Boy was a bit weird and I didn't like it too much. Now listening to it, outside the title track (overplayed) there's not much I'd like to skip. Oh, apart from the Everly Brothers cover, that song's pretty lumpen imo.
Just watched the doc talked about upthread. It's def. worth checking out. I lolled at Paul Simon calling Cecelia "pretty hooky" like he was surprised by it or something.
― get ready for the banter (NotEnough), Saturday, 7 January 2012 15:28 (1 year ago) Permalink
voted "Only Living Boy", & yeah it's the production: I read or heard that those aaahs in the "chorus" were S&G singing at the top of their lungs, shouting really, voices breaking, but that they'd mixed it to sound like they were just singing backing vocals: so that's what gives those aaahs such intensity. Maybe that's a common trick in production, I dunno, not a gamer: but it's thoroughly moving.
it took me a while to come around to S&G (& to PS also) b/c it was square music to me, but then I grew up & cast aside childish ways
― Euler, Saturday, 7 January 2012 16:36 (1 year ago) Permalink
I don't know... I like most of the songs on this album, but to me "The Boxer" is classic and timeless and perfect in a way "Cecillia" or "Only Boy" just don't approach. Its interesting that everyone seems to have a lot of real serious S&G opinions and knowledge to drop.
― Frobisher (Viceroy), Saturday, 7 January 2012 17:05 (1 year ago) Permalink
It has to be 'The Only Living Boy In New York', without a second thought or any doubt. Absolutely wonderful harmonies, and such a beautiful tune. Possibly my favourite Simon & Garfunkel song overall as well.
― Turrican, Saturday, 7 January 2012 21:43 (1 year ago) Permalink
i was really hoping horseshoe was gonna show up on this at some point.
― judith, Sunday, 8 January 2012 01:48 (1 year ago) Permalink
It was the only LP my parents played that wasn't Jim Reeves.
― Fanfare for the History Mayne (James Redd and the Blecchs), Sunday, 8 January 2012 18:11 (1 year ago) Permalink
Tell a lie, it was Jim Reeves and Charley Pride in my house, wall to wall. I had to scrape by with S&G and Buddy Holly's Greatest Hits.
― get ready for the banter (NotEnough), Monday, 9 January 2012 10:38 (1 year ago) Permalink
I keep forgetting that "The Boxer" is the lie-luhlie song
― Bam! Orgasm explosion in your facehole. (DJP), Monday, 9 January 2012 15:23 (1 year ago) Permalink
"Cecilia" is probably my favorite S&G song though, I just adore the percussion to bits
these guys are fucking amazing tho, I don't listen to them nearly enough
― Bam! Orgasm explosion in your facehole. (DJP), Monday, 9 January 2012 15:24 (1 year ago) Permalink
when Cleveland Jr started singing his personalized love song to his g/f Cecilia on the latest Cleveland Show, I was hoping he was about to launch into a flamenco version of the S&G tune.
alas, it didn't happen
― unattractive on the inside (Neanderthal), Monday, 9 January 2012 15:25 (1 year ago) Permalink
(granted those lyrics wouldn't have been very romantic but go with me on this)
― unattractive on the inside (Neanderthal), Monday, 9 January 2012 15:26 (1 year ago) Permalink
I ordered the trade paperback, so I guess that's what comes out in the summer. Dumb--the hardcover wasn't all that much more.
― clemenza, Saturday, 11 February 2012 15:56 (1 year ago) Permalink
Heard the best version ever of "El Condor Pasa" tonight.
I GET SLANDERED, LIIIIBELED, I HEAR WORDS I NEVER HEARD IN THE BIBLE― flopson, Saturday, February 11, 2012 1:32 AM (Yesterday)
― flopson, Saturday, February 11, 2012 1:32 AM (Yesterday)
― Only the RONG Survive (James Redd and the Blecchs), Sunday, 12 February 2012 06:28 (1 year ago) Permalink
Wow I might need to read the 1970 book
― black Emanuelle did costume design for Troll 2 (Drugs A. Money), Sunday, 19 February 2012 03:04 (1 year ago) Permalink
The thing about this record is that "The Only Living Boy In New York" is SUCH a "last song" that everything after that feels like a bonus track, and ALSO feels like a "last song." It makes the album simultaneously seem way too short and way too long, for me anyway.
― Doctor Casino, Tuesday, 3 April 2012 18:02 (1 year ago) Permalink
Wasn't feeling well today and decided to watch "The Harmony Game" which turned out to be what the doctor ordered
― Ian Hunter Is Learning the Game (James Redd and the Blecchs), Tuesday, 22 May 2012 23:50 (1 year ago) Permalink
yeah amazing innit.
― piscesx, Wednesday, 23 May 2012 00:32 (1 year ago) Permalink
El condor pasa is from 1910 or so and is inspired by Andean (Peruvian) music. I don't know if it became even more popular in latin grounds after Paul Simon's version but it is quite surely the second most overplayed Andean-style song after 'Huamaqueño' (aka carnavalito)'. There's too many versions of the later in youtube (even a King Africa one which I find hilarious and that predates reggaeton)... I kind of hate the ones I've found so I'll post a random live version because it captures better how I often hear the song anyways.
― Moka, Wednesday, 23 May 2012 07:18 (1 year ago) Permalink
Funny thing about those two songs is that they're the ones that define Andean music for pretty much all the world and 'Huamahuaqueña' is actually from Argentina, not Peru and I believe most people think 'el condor pasa' is originally by Paul Simon.
― Moka, Wednesday, 23 May 2012 07:24 (1 year ago) Permalink
this is the only version of "el condor pasa" that truly matters
― cock chirea, Wednesday, 23 May 2012 08:20 (1 year ago) Permalink
btw these are the guys who played with simon & garfunkel (as 'los incas' at the time) for their rendition of "el condor pasa". they renamed themselves URUBAMBA and made an album produced by PS at the early 70s.
super cool groovy andean music, anyone knows this particular record?
― cock chirea, Wednesday, 23 May 2012 08:35 (1 year ago) Permalink
i feel like even as a kid i knew "El Condor Pasa" was a trad arr tune
― melodic yew (Noodle Vague), Wednesday, 23 May 2012 08:37 (1 year ago) Permalink
a robbie basho el condor pasa wld be such an obviously splendid fit it must surely exist already, on another plane if not this one
― ogmor, Friday, 25 May 2012 16:28 (1 year ago) Permalink
I groaned when I was at the Valley of the Moon, just outside La Paz, Bolivia in the midst of the Andes, & a guy on a pan flute showed up & played "El Condor Pasa". like, we're tourists, but pretty hardcore ones given where we're at: surely you can appease us with something that we haven't heard before?
― Euler, Friday, 25 May 2012 17:44 (1 year ago) Permalink
How did I miss this poll? Would've voted for Customer, which is fucking raucous, on the assumption that TOLBINY would win anyway.
― Sick Mouthy (Scik Mouthy), Friday, 25 May 2012 18:01 (1 year ago) Permalink
I don't know where to post this unusual detail in a Wikipedia article so I am posting it here:
Halee grew up on Long Island, New York. His father, also named Roy Halee, provided the singing voice for Mighty Mouse in late 1940s Terrytoons cartoons, as well as the voices of Heckle and Jeckle from 1951 through 1961.
― Ian Hunter Is Learning the Game (James Redd and the Blecchs), Saturday, 26 May 2012 22:12 (1 year ago) Permalink
And a link to an interesting interview with Roy: http://www.mixonline.com/mag/audio_roy_halee/
― Ian Hunter Is Learning the Game (James Redd and the Blecchs), Saturday, 26 May 2012 22:22 (1 year ago) Permalink
The revive inspired my choice at last night's Devon Record Club. http://devonrecordclub.wordpress.com/2012/06/07/simon-and-garfunkel-bridge-over-troubled-water-round-29-nicks-choice/
― Sick Mouthy (Scik Mouthy), Thursday, 7 June 2012 08:49 (1 year ago) Permalink