PAUL SIMON POLL RESULTS THREAD AND DISCUSSION

bait. what is wrong with me

"scarborough fair" is a song that kids in middle school would always make a big deal of and i would be like, i literally have no idea what is happening right now.

i assumed it was a song their parents loved; maybe i am wrong

i know art garfunkel's voice is a beautiful instrument and all but also, maybe he is a robot?

I like Scarborough/Canticle, it's nice

And maybe Lamp only has a small window of time to provide us results? I dunno that it's really fair to give him too much heat for how the results roll out. Hard work being pollmaster iirc.

just a few things:

- i only have an hour or so tonight before i have to go to bed to post stuff and this week is shaping up to be p busy. its obv not the ideal roll-out schedule but its what ive got.

- the #1 vote for scarb fair is by far the most perplexing of the 33

ok so actually only two things

Lamp you're a hero

O
T
M

http://i1224.photobucket.com/albums/ee366/lamp11/26AHazy.jpg
#25 A HAZY SHADE OF WINTER
1966
217 points/10 votes/1 #1 vote
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bnZdlhUDEJo

damn people be lovin all this garfunkel

http://i1224.photobucket.com/albums/ee366/lamp11/25TheCool.jpg
#25 THE COOL, COOL RIVER
1990
219 points/9 votes/0 #1 votes
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sEQzaS4CnL8

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHH TOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOW

cool cool river was my #2. it has never not made me cry, any of the one million times i've listened to it.

http://i1224.photobucket.com/albums/ee366/lamp11/24PeaceLike.jpg
#24 PEACE LIKE A RIVER
1972
225 points/8 votes/1 #1 vote
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jAmPfEMI16g

paul simon songs that are about rivers/sonically reproduce the constant movement of a river are a-okay by me

xp okay i am dead. "peace like a river" was my #1.

damn people be lovin all this rivers

there are not 23 songs better than "peace like a river" ON THIS EARTH

damn horseshoe be lovin all this rivers

if by "people" you mean paul simon

lol xp

no really there is something smart plax said in one of the paul simes thread about the structure of "peace like a river" and i think it applies to "cool cool river" too i will try to find it

"peace like a river" is the best song, though, just fyi

lol morbz bair

http://i274.photobucket.com/albums/jj242/donaldparsley/bair.jpg

http://i1224.photobucket.com/albums/ee366/lamp11/23IKnow.jpg
#23 I KNOW WHAT I KNOW
1986
236 points/13 votes/0 #1 votes
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4w3CBdLfGqw

i think for somebody that started out with like straight acoustic guitar and voice songwriting, he has spent a lot of recording time like *loosening* up the structures of his songs, from his first solo album on you get the sense of him moving in different directions (the lush jazziness and disco flourishes on h+b, the jam band vibe on one trick pony) that open out the rigid structures of his songs (his s/t is so good because he does this more successfully inside the songs themselves than ever again, peace like a river is the best example of what i mean but i don't know if i'm explaining this in any intelligible way at all)

― ℗⎣▲✘ (ico), Sunday, August 7, 2011 1:24 PM (7 months ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

both those songs flow, like rivers

peace like a river! i am obsessed with that song!

― horseshoe, Sunday, August 7, 2011 1:25 PM (7 months ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

they do flow! otm!

'peace like a river' is a song i vastly underrated before i started working on this poll. it ended up really high on my ballot and i just find it incredibly moving, i think the way it shifts perspective multiple times throughout the song, going from sitting 'starry-eyed' in the midst of history to having nowhere to go but 'back to bed'. the obvious child does something kinda similar i think but in a more schematic way the false endings and shift in tempo lack the ambiguity and resignation that 'peace like a river' has, the way it sort of sputters into the second half of the song. it really is a deeply beautiful song, one of his best i think.

<3

"starry" is a word i always vibe to; it's in "take me to the mardi gras" too

in a way i think "peace like a river" is of a piece with simon's 60s political activist leanings but it's so humble and just beautiful about it. i just love it.

http://i1224.photobucket.com/albums/ee366/lamp11/22Slip.jpg
#22 SLIP SLIDIN' AWAY
1977
247 points/11 votes/1 #1 vote
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5_H-LY4Jb2M

These results are really interesting so far

you can beat us with wires
you can beat us with chains
you can run out your roles but you know you can't outrun the history train

i didn't vote for "slip slidin' away" but i love it; i think aero's hatred of it in the I'm sorry, but Paul Simon is so overrated thread affected me somewhat.

http://i1224.photobucket.com/albums/ee366/lamp11/21ReneGeorgette.jpg
#21 RENE & GEORGETTE MAGRITTE WITH THEIR DOG AFTER THE WAR
1983
249 points/12 votes/1 #1 vote
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BfBDDbE7lcQ

I love slip slidin away, it is another big nostalgia song for me that's hard to consider objectively.

i didn't vote for "peace like a river", which i now regret. "the cool, cool river" is nice, but just that, imo. "peace like a river" is amazing, and i only slight it cuz i didn't grow up with it. silly me.

and plax so, so otm about the "loosening up from within" (paraphrased) as it applies to "peace like a river". it's like a S&G song left to grow wild, so loose and lazy, in a weird way reminiscent of african blues a la ali farka toure in the guitar arrangement.

in a way i think "peace like a river" is of a piece with simon's 60s political activist leanings but it's so humble and just beautiful about it. i just love it.

― horseshoe, Tuesday, March 20, 2012 1:15 AM (1 minute ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

what makes it for me is how the activist thing serves the narrative rather than being the thing the song is abt, like its abt the people not w/e beliefs theyre into, not really into message songs tho, I think it captures the good solidarity qualities of some olde timey protest songs w/o the polemic aspects, voted #11, tho honestly I couldve totally been intending to go for the other river song, I'm not the best w/titles, it's a good one 4 sure

yes, that is nicely put though i also like polemics tbf

anyway you're on the good list bc you voted for it

listening to "rene and georgette magritte" right now. i have never been more otm than when i voted for this, "apres la guerre" and all.

yeah that's a good song. i can never get enough of him cataloguing the doo-wop groups. didn't vote for it, though. this accursed poll :(

it's funny cuz it's so the opposite of the opened out approach of "peace like a river" - tight and precise, but no less beautiful for that

just to recap the first half:

#40 FAKIN' IT
#39 THE LATE GREAT JOHNNY ACE
#38 THE 59th STREET BRIDGE SONG (FEELIN' GROOVY)
#37 AT THE ZOO
#36 KEEP THE CUSTOMER SATISFIED

#35 MY LITTLE TOWN
#34 TRAIN IN THE DISTANCE
#33 STILL CRAZY AFTER ALL THESE YEARS
#32 SO LONG, FRANK LLOYD WRIGHT
#31 GUMBOOTS

#30 SCARBOROUGH FAIR/CANTICLE
#29 HOMEWARD BOUND
#28 BORN AT THE RIGHT TIME
#27 AMERICAN TUNE
#26 A HAZY SHADE OF WINTER

#25 THE COOL, COOL RIVER
#24 PEACE LIKE A RIVER
#23 I KNOW WHAT I KNOW
#22 SLIP SLIDIN' AWAY
#21 RENE & GEORGETTE MAGRITTE WITH THEIR DOG AFTER THE WAR

psyched to make a playlist of all the winners when it's done, tho I'm sure I'll get kind pissed and impatient wading through the s&g

also thank you so much for doing this, lamp, and sorry for grousing abt the rollout speed. i get excited and want to conversate with others about!

oh np i mean id like to do a more leisurely reveal too esp when im not exhausted and prone to fuck up the numbering, oh well, lyfe

see u all tomorrow morning