PAUL SIMON POLL RESULTS THREAD AND DISCUSSION

man, i love Bookends the way it is, but "Save the Life of My Child" sets the bar SO high in this psych freak-out way. never really sat down with this album turned up loud enough to really enjoy the curtain-raising track (ahh, it's like i'm right there in the coffeeshop with the other beatniks...), which in turn means being absolutely bombarded by that first Moog blast in "Save." and then there are all these almost-dissonant shrieks during the breaks, like a succession of wispy, screaming Garfunkel heads dissolving into frame one after another. "America" then comes in to weld the same sonic fullness to something entirely more anthemic and harmonious. that suite right there could make an incredible first side of a double 10" or something.

imagine if the whole album were all AS insane as that. eat your heart out, Smile! but then again it's a great album as is. feels like one of the best things to come out of that period of people being rocked by Sgt. Pepper and expanding their ambitions and all that (is that still considered more or less accurate or is it Beatle propaganda?). i get the sense it was received as a Major Album at the time, but i don't remember ever really seeing it namechecked when i was learning the musical metanarrative of "The Sixties." is it effectively S&G's Revolver?

clemenza otm upthread about how jaw-dropping "America" is when i let myself listen with fresh ears. i know it was when i first got into them at like age 17. but damn!

it’s a heavy album. “old friends” is especially intense. really love that weird little mini detour with the piccolo or whatever and the typewriter is very British-y to me and makes me think of that era of McCartney kinda

I mean the detour in “fakin it”, accidentally clipped a sentence about how much I dig that one

"Fakin' It" also has the crazy opening, with the Mellotron (?) and stomping, Cecilia-esque percussion bursting in while already fading out... anticipating by decades the sound of an album with continuous transitions getting chopped up by skipping to an individual track on CD or MP3. so yeah side 2 is a little trippier than I remembered last night while only on side 1!

hello i am having a paul simon day today & remembering how great this poll was <3

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

Life, I love you.

Liberace was the last-minute fill-in for that number when Stravinsky was unavailable.

And the Young Folks were subbing for the Fugs.