this is a poll to decide which is the best track on bridge over troubled water by simon and garfunkel

Absolutely no surprises for me there with the top spot, 'The Only Living Boy In New York' is sublime. I'm very surprised that 'El Condor Pasa' didn't come higher, though.

me too!

"El Condor Pasa" is my least favorite song on the record.

boo

the lyrics are like a holdover from a more cloying, less-self assured earlier period of Simon's songwriting imho

you only say that because you would rather be a snail

well I do leave a trail of slime wherever I go

^^^(obscure Bloom County joke/ref that probably only Ned will get)

plax i just want you to know that i am going to compile all your paul simon/simon and garfunkel-related posts and craft them into a book and read it while i listen to this album and all the paul simon albums. which is all i'm going to ever do for the rest of my life.

have always wondered what the story was behind the sampled dialogue in the middle of Fakin' It, anyone know the background on that...?

― locally sourced stabbage (Shakey Mo Collier), Thursday, January 12, 2012 6:59 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

Well, I know that it's not sampled, and was in fact voiced in the studio by Beverley Martyn (later to marry John Martyn). She's saying 'Good morning, Mr. Leitch' because they wanted to come up with a 'character' for this 'shop scene' in the middle of the song, and Beverley Martyn suggested using Donovan's surname.

That lyric is just basically Paul Simon saying if he'd existed a century ago, he wouldn't be earning money writing songs, he'd be a tailor instead.

haha waht that is so random

love whatever that clinking-glasses sound is in the guitar breakdown of Cecilia

― The Silent Extreme (Shakey Mo Collier), Friday, January 6, 2012 11:19 PM (1 week ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

Are you talking about the instrumental part? That's a heavily limited xylophone, played by Paul.

Only Boy in New York is the 'best', but my favourite is narrowly 'Song for the Asking'. That cello counterpoint! So beautiful. Especially given how it fades in from the audience applause at the end of Bye Bye Love.

I'm in two minds about the length of 'Song For The Asking'... some days I wish it was longer, but on others I think the length of it is just perfect.

wow what a great song "keep the customer satisfied" is!

yeah it is, love that final orchestra hit

baby driver rightfully marginalized as the james taylor cover it is

its also like magnificently sequenced the songs i already knew seemed so much punchier in this context.

this is so true! i finally get "the boxer."

everywhere i go
i get slandered
LIIIIIIIIIIBELED
i hear words i never heard in the bible

but the best part of breaking up
is when you're making up with me

the 75 minute doc i was burbling about upthread starts on BBC4 UK in about 25 minutes and will then be available to watch for about a week afterwards.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0171r6x

I just want to throw this on here:

http://lightbulbhead.tumblr.com/post/16178795155/b-b-s-g

aw the BBC doc is UK only...

top two are abt right

i don't think i ended up voting, but it would have been "only living boy," though "keep the customer satisfied" was a delightful discovery i might never have made if not for this thread! i was seriously wrong about simon & garfunkel.

i know! how embarrassing. im saving bookends. dont anyone try to poll this without me or ill find out where you live

listening to this LP back to back with solo simon stuff just reminds me how much he needed to cut artie out.

sorry artie.

not that there isn't really good stuff on this LP, but that overall it feels kind of watery, and even the best songs are a bit hampered by the vocal arrangements.

So Long FLW is the best wreckognize

I don't know David Browne's writing at all, but I'm really looking forward to this:

http://assets.rollingstone.com/assets/images/story/crosby-stills-nash-young-enchant-london-audience-in-1970-20110601/1000x306/main.jpg

I ordered it the minute I saw it, not realizing it wouldn't be out for months.

and even the best songs are a bit hampered by the vocal arrangements.

― flesh, the devil, and a wolf (wolf) (amateurist), Friday, 10 February 2012 22:26 (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

http://i946.photobucket.com/albums/ad303/menageabro/picardfacepalm.gif

I GET SLANDERED, LIIIIBELED, I HEAR WORDS I NEVER HEARD IN THE BIBLE

UPGRADE TO PRO TODAY!

UPGRADE YR OPINIONS TODAY!

it was picardfacepalm.gif ftr

What, clemenza, that book came out last year.

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.

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)

Wow I might need to read the 1970 book

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.

Wasn't feeling well today and decided to watch "The Harmony Game" which turned out to be what the doctor ordered

yeah amazing innit.

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.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZDUL3w7zFD4

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.

this is the only version of "el condor pasa" that truly matters

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QAeV2PTIofA

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.

http://i.imgur.com/PcTRl.jpg

super cool groovy andean music, anyone knows this particular record?

i feel like even as a kid i knew "El Condor Pasa" was a trad arr tune

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

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?

How did I miss this poll? Would've voted for Customer, which is fucking raucous, on the assumption that TOLBINY would win anyway.