Best Line in "Graceland"

NYC human trampoline, because it sounds like it's come in out of a Lou Reed song.

Although "shining like a National guitar" is second choice, because a) it's an awesome image, and b) it's followed by a guitar line, which might sound like a cheesy obvious thing to do, but PS makes it work.

as if i didn't know that, as if i didn't know my own bed

i was listening to this minutes ago. minutes! think i'm voting "sometimes when i'm falling, flying, tumbling in turmoil, i say oh so this is what she means" i love the way he delivers "oh" it's more like "whoa" and he speakss it instead of singing it. would like to include "she means we're bouncing into graceland," too. first time the "losing love is like a window in your heart" refrain comes around is beautiful as well.

too hard

so so hard.

i have been listening to so much paul simon in the past year i think it's because i'm old now

also that's a great point by hs--simon is such an amazing vocalist

i may be obliged to defend every love every ending, or maybe there's no obligations now

Do Call Me Al! I want to vote for the roly poly little bat-faced girl.

(this really is his best song, isn't it? wow.)

i may be obliged to defend every love every ending, or maybe there's no obligations now

― tylerw, Thursday, August 19, 2010 1:19 PM (43 seconds ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

good one

how can you possibly pick a best song there's like eight million of them and so many great ones

i have been listening to so much paul simon in the past year i think it's because i'm old now

― horseshoe, Thursday, August 19, 2010 1:18 PM (1 minute ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

no its just cause you have good taste

For this probably ghosts and empties or tumbling in turmoil

The Sweet 16 brackets of Paul Simon songs might end in Bridge Over Troubled Water versus this one.

Besides the beautiful, buoyant, rippling arrangement, the lyrics are outstanding, yet even if you were feeling sinister and accusing him of writing what looks on paper like a florid phrase ("my travelling companion is nine years old, the child of my first marriage") his singing is so masterful: he mediates between serenity and a kind of wistfulness.

has anyone ever covered this song? seems like it would be hard to sing, tho simon makes it sound easy.

as if i didn't know that, as if i didn't know my own bed

vs

my travelling companions are ghosts and empty sockets, looking at ghosts and empties

vs

i may be obliged to defend every love every ending, or maybe there's no obligations now

i also love the effortlessness of this line:

i am following the river down the highway through the cradle of the civil war

ugh, poetry

has anyone ever covered this song? seems like it would be hard to sing, tho simon makes it sound easy.

Willie Nelson, who handled the conversational cadences well but the arrangement is meh.

casiotone for the painfully alone did a cover iirc

yeah the following the river line is amazing and he has a way with simple declarations like that--see verse 1 of hearts and bones as well

as if i didn't know that, as if i didn't know my own bed

is what I picked too. Can't talk about this record enough imo

Grace Jones needs to make this the title cut of her comeback, Graceland.

love this song so much

voted for the first line

you know what is a great line from this album is "Sad as a lonely little wrinkled balloon" from "Crazy Love." also all the other lines in that song

She said, "Don't I know you from the cinematographer's party?"

^^^
I was going to mention that one.

love the youtube comments for this - I like Ladysmith Black Mambazo. But whenever I see them I think it takes ten men to take the place on one Art Garfunkel. Art is God.

you are the burden of my generation / i sure do love you, let's get that straight

^^another great half-spoken delivery

It's like it's written from the POV of his Annie Hall character, doing just fine in the mid eighties, attending a party at Sydney Pollack's.

"I Know What I Know," that is.

"lasers in the jungle somewhere" pops into my head all the time

a loose affiliation of millionaires and billionaires and baaaby

sorry i'll stop this is what the inside of my head is like

that whole verse:

And I believe these are the days of lasers in the jungle,
Lasers in the jungle somewhere,
Staccato signals of constant information,
A loose affiliation of millionaires
And billionaires and baby,
These are the days of miracle and wonder,

xp!!

xxxxp ^^^ also "the bomb in the baby carriage was wired to the radio"

she said losing love is like a window in your heart
and everybody sees you're blown apart, everybody feels the wind blow

Separating these two seems wrong (also I don't remember that "and" being there)

<3

i know this album so well its scary, like the back of my hand

there's no "and"

And don't cry baby, don't cry, don't cry, don't cry

the bomb in the baby carriage line is great because that whole verse is setting this scene and that line is like boom it's over here's the chorus.

'everybody sees youre blown apart'

staccato signals a pulse of information

(am i remembering right??)

i thought it was constant

love the sounds of the lines & twists & turns in meaning they make vs your expectations of how a lyric 'should' resolve

I see losing this album is like a window in your heart

ha i just realized i always heard that line as "oozing love"

that's crazy max

also gross

mixed metaphors are beneath Simon.

(yeah, lyrics are a smidge off -- I googled, copied, cut some line breaks; ah well)

she said losing love is like a window in your heart
and everybody sees you're blown apart, everybody feels the wind blow

Separating these two seems wrong (also I don't remember that "and" being there)

― Ground Zero Mostel (Hurting 2), Thursday, August 19, 2010 1:31 PM Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

<3

― horseshoe, Thursday, August 19, 2010 1:31 PM Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

there's no "and"

― horseshoe, Thursday, August 19, 2010 1:32 PM Bookmark

Exactly, and that's the point of the line -- the window in your heart is what allows everyone to see that you're blown apart and feel the wind blow.

And that's probably my favorite line in the song.

on the 2002 tour the t shirts had

It's a turn-around jump shot
It's everybody jump start
It's every generation throws a hero up the pop charts

on them. but that's not from this song.

"everybody sees you're blown apart" followed by "everybody feels the wind blow" is genius; i get chills every time. it's partly the music at that moment, but still.

Only just realized the double meaning of "national guitar" in the first line

what's the double meaning?

i thought it was a straight ref to resonator guitars

1) Reference to National brand guitars
2) the delta as a blues capital is kind of like a 'national' guitar of the united states -- sort of loose and abstract I guess but it occurred to me

ok that's funny, i think i heard it that way when i was a kid before i knew what a reso guitar was--glad it has occurred to others!

My misheard Paul Simon line from childhood is "You don't have to be cordouroy."

Agree about the "double meaning" of National guitar. Don't see how you could possibly read it as just one thing or the other at all.

"as if i didn't know that, etc." is a pretty powerful turnaround and gets my vote

Favorite lines from the whole record are the

Staccato signals of constant information,
A loose affiliation of millionaires
And billionaires and baby,

He is surrounded by the sound
The sound
Cattle in the marketplace
Scatterlings and orphanages
He looks around, around
He sees angels in the architecture
Spinning in infinity
He says Amen! and Hallelujah!

despite not being very religious myself : )

Don't see how you could possibly read it as just one thing or the other at all.

you could not know what a National guitar is

ha i just realized i always heard that line as "oozing love"

― max, Thursday, 19 August 2010 17:36 (49 minutes ago) Permalink

looool me too

xp: okay, good point.

Well that's one way to lose these walking blues: diamond on the soles of your shoes.

diamondS! (sorry)

best line(s) in that song is "she said honey take me dancing/but they ended up by sleeping in a doorway/by the bodegas and the lights on upper Broadway"

hurting OTM. that line has haunted me for much of my life. unfair that it's not only broken up but listed twice, ensuring a tragic split of the votes.

as if i'd never noticed the way she brushed her hair from her forehead

because I've noticed that too; or to put it a little differently, because the cadence of the last seven words brushes her hair, as though he is going through the motions of brushing her hair with his voice: air brushing, if you will.

yes that's true!

word painting

"Ghosts and empty sockets" would probably be my runner-up, from this song.

One of the most perfectly crafted songs I know of. Just gorgeous. Gives me chills every time, even now.

"she said honey take me dancing/but they ended up by sleeping in a doorway/by the bodegas and the lights on upper Broadway"

yeah this for sure!! the way the syllables dance off each other is so flawless -- my favorite rappers work the same way

to join the chorus: one of my favorite, favorite songs. it was then, twenty-some years ago, and still is now. there isn't a bad line in it, and at least half are beautiful, so hard to choose over the rest. finally went with "as if i didn't know that..." because it's the point on which the song hinges, opening from the specifics of a moment onto a larger field of emotion and association. but it's one among many, and probably too safe a choice besides.

human trampoline. Just love that line. I bet it's a tough one to cover, he always makes his phrasing seem so natural but it's so tough to carry across convincingly. That whole record just fits so many syllables with such ease.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VNIEtwZ1OYQ&feature=search

aw paul simon is so small

after that show Willie put Paul in his shirt pocket, then rolled him up and smoked him.

did willie nelson feel like he could not sing with authority about a girl from new york city so he had to change it to austin, texas?

he did a nice job with my favorite line

An oozing glove is like a window in your arm

"everybody sees you're blown apart" followed by "everybody feels the wind blow" is genius; i get chills every time. it's partly the music at that moment, but still.

got chills reading the poll option! backing vocals are incredible - that simple little frere jacques thing.

My screen saver at work is the generic Windows bouncing 3D text which I have changed to read "Human Trampoline."

as if i'd never noticed the way she brushed her hair from her forehead

there are a million songs where the same sentiment is delivered in such a clumsy way and this one is just right on

he always enunciates with perfect grace.

yes he is such an enunciator!

(I'm imagining horseshoe on her 14th consecutive hour of listening to this song.)

i love the way he pronounces like everything ........ he never sounds like hes putting on an affect or accent, always paul simon

i may be obliged to defend every love every ending, or maybe there's no obligations now

the way he sings this line, and the way it unfolds after that "may", is basically permanently stuck in my head. also how tentative the 2nd part is, as if it just occurred to him right then

(I'm imagining horseshoe on her 14th consecutive hour of listening to this song.)

― Bag Smart, Street Stupid (Eazy), Friday, August 20, 2010 1:58 AM (36 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

haha i don't even have to listen to it i just play it in my head!

i like how the song turns totally haunting right after "i've reason to believe we both will be received in graceland", like taking it up a notch to this incredible sense of existential loss that totally hit me even when i was like 10 years old or w/e i was when it came out

the first "i've reason to believe we both will be received in graceland" that is

<3 this album basically

my dad used to play this, taj mahal's 'the real thing' & neville bros 'yellow moon' more than any other cds

maybe tom waits 'heart of saturday night' & the james taylor album w/ 'copperline' too. & some van morrison

so many good paul simon albums really we should poll them all song by song

or i should go to sleep

lol @ 'cds.' i meant cassettes obv. oh yeah he also liked 'rum sodomy and the lash'

this combined with starting to watch SNL back in the mid-'80s was like opening up this crazy world of adult stuff that was kind of an endlessly unspooling mystery for me to solve.

so many good paul simon albums really we should poll them all song by song

if you include the jerry landis stuff then there is like ∞ good songs & i wld die of old age b4 i could choose

You're The One is way ignored.

I always really liked "my traveling companion is nine years old, he is the child of my first marriage" - it's such a distant way to say "my son"; he's more (or less) than a son: he's a reminder of a painful relationship. Sorry son.

I think part of the reason the "window in your heart" line works so well is the context - the rest of the song isn't quite as exposed and tender and the rest of the album is even less so. I could almost see it being cringe-worthy if it were in the middle of a weepy Jewel-esque ballad.

Well, I mean other lines are tender but maybe in a less direct way.

human trampoline

so so many good lines in this, but 'human trampoline' always just feels like a blown/tossed off dylan line or something to me. it's the only one that actually takes me out of the song.

also, i don't much believe anyone wld call themselves that

I just listened to it and the 'no obligations' line was the one I most compelled to sing along to.

so so many good lines in this, but 'human trampoline' always just feels like a blown/tossed off dylan line or something to me. it's the only one that actually takes me out of the song.

also, i don't much believe anyone wld call themselves that

this. thought the same thing even as a kid. it's a striking line and he delivers it very well (esp the "oh, so this is what she means" part), but it doesn't ring true. "a human trampoline," maybe.

I mean, I can sorta picture somebody loudly explaining "You know I am like a human trampoline, people just keep jumping on me!!!" and thinking they were really clever but actually being annoying and lame.... I just think this song sort of deserves better acquaintances than that, especially since she's introduced as "there is a girl in New York City," somehow the equivalent of the former talk show host that you can only find by traveling over the mountains and down to the valley. You want these mythical characters to have something better to say for themselves.

i h8 all u guys who are h8ing on human trampoline tbh

whenever people call something dylanesque all that means is it's awesome afaic

also the function of "there's a girl in new york city" is key to simon's whole slice of new york hipster community thing

in conclusion, i'm mad

i'm not voting for "there's a girl in new york city who calls herself the human trampoline" as it is isolated in this poll but that section of the song, from "there's a girl" to "she means we're bouncing into graceland" is my favorite part, like something catches in my throat at "bouncing into graceland" half the time.

Maybe her name is Maybelline or something else that rhymes with trampoline.

i like gumboots more than this, and esp in terms of NYC hipster types portraiture

MAYBE WHO CARES IF ITS IMPLAUSIBLE

gumboots is gr8

horseshoe r u actually shouting all this out loud as u type srs q.

best line(s) in that one either "I said hey you know breakdowns come and breakdowns go / so what are you going to do about it, that's what I'd like to know" largely bc of delivery or "believing i had supernatural powers i slammed into a brick wall"

haha plax i am seething with rage and spoiling for a fight

u r rong it is "hey! ain't we walking down the same street, together, on the very same day"

that is a v v nice delivery, also

so conversational!

just listened to the youtube of this as ive lost the album. do all youtube comments have to have some bit of masochistic nostalgia going on? makes me despair for humantity. i went for 'everybody sees your blown apart, everybody feels the wind blow'.

i like how the words play off each other there

window
heart
blown
apart
wind
blow

otm

great album. great song.

best album of whatever year it was released

Alright in a kind of a limited way for an off-night.

Really can't listen to this album anymore having heard it at so many cinematographers' parties.

If you listen to Live in Central Park, each NYC reference in the Simon oeuvre is met with extended whooping.

"There is a girl in New York City...."

WHOOWOOOWHOOWHWOHWOHOOOWHOOO

Haha, yeah. 'Counting the cars on the New Jersey turnpike' etc.

Has anyone seen One Trick Pony? Is it any good?

its ... entertaining

Yeah, xps, 'Gumboots' is the best

i voted "for reasons i cannot explain some part of me wants to see graceland" -- b/c that's what I feel about graceland (and any number of other tourist traps).

Some One Trick Pony discussion here:

Paul Simon - One Trick Pony, C or D

and maybe here:

http://www.ilxor.com/ILX/ThreadSelectedControllerServlet?boardid=41&threadid=31830

(that's "Do you believe Paul Simon when, in "Late in the Evening", he describes how he returns to the club after smoking a "J" and proceeds to turn up his amp and "(blow) that room away"?")

classic alex in nyc on that thread:

I believe the bit about smokin' the "j", but not about the room-blowin' (like he suddenly morphed into a diminutive clone of Yngwie Malmsteen).
― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Thursday, July 22, 2004 8:59 PM (6 years ago) Bookmark

is there anyone right now writing lyrics this good and self-aware about the nyc hip-art-music-whatever scene? vampire weekend is the only band thats even attempting this i think and--i think theyre good lyricists--but theyre not paul simon

tbf they've had two albums, what album was graceland for him.

all his albums have v good lyrics post-simon and garfunkel it's kind of his "thing"

the 70s solo simon albums are so new york-y

like woody allen movies they have had a debilitating effect on my adult life

im not saying vampire weekend "should" be the new paul simon of lyrics, im just wondering if there is a 2000s paul simon

like if there was ever a 'scene' that could use a self aware lyricist with a good sense of humor about 'the scene'... its brooklyn ca 2010

and the thing is vw are UWS brats not brooklyn brats

i think it's clear what you have to do, max

zinging is my art

not lyrics

it's a fine line!!!!!

too true, too true

in a lot of ways my tumblr is my graceland

i mean you dont really need a graceland when you have the ny times in 2010:

http://celebraterickysargulesh.tumblr.com/post/418545344/brooklyn-2010

yeah i still think he did take a while to "mature" as a songwriter. the s+gf stuff is only intermittently good lyrically

Come Anticipate Norah Jones's NYC Zingers.

I do think Craig Finn works at combining stuff that's never been in a song with specific snapshots of times and spaces with stream-of-consciousness, but it's not NYC.

the s+gf stuff is only intermittently good lyrically

― plax (ico), Sunday, August 22, 2010 5:25 PM (43 seconds ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

it's true; i don't really like simon and garfunkel that much at all

yeah finns a good lyricist, but hes not as funny as simon i dont think, or as self aware, and, crucially, from britain or alaska or somewhere

yeah i still think he did take a while to "mature" as a songwriter. the s+gf stuff is only intermittently good lyrically

^^^ my next point, actually. To be fair to both Koenig and Simon, the latter didn't stumble into his lyrical genius. S&G is often painfully, clumsily erudite.

Neil Tennant and Robert Forster wrote really good songs about scenes, but their time has passed, I guess.

yeah, thats fine. i didnt really mean to rag on VW, im just wondering if there IS a 2000s-paul-simon-of-new-york, besides me and my tumblr

btw i have never seen this:

In 1988, Simon released a video for the song to promote his greatest hits compilation, Negotiations and Love Songs. The video features an introduction by rappers Big Daddy Kane and Biz Markie. The video depicts adults interacting with the youth of an inner city schoolyard where they dealt drugs. It shows Simon playing basketball and baseball with the children, and it also features basketball player Spud Webb, baseball legend Mickey Mantle, and football coach/commentator John Madden giving tips to young athletes.[1]

(thats re: me and julio)

S+G was writing genre songs in the same way that Simon always does, but he was getting Elizabethan and Hymnal Music out of the way early, saving zydeco and (on the great "Adios Hermanos") doo-wop for later.

there's a making the album documentary where simon talks u through writing graceland line by line and it seems like anyone could have written that song, its kindof awesome.

idk i think his skill is in managing to be really evocative w/ the smallest parts "the child of my first marriage" is such a banal line but it also paints a massive backstory and dovetails so well w/ the forehead hair brusher l8r

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

the last line in this song always kills me. i'm not sure why.

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

poor boys, pilgrims with families and we are going to graceland 0

^^ i dont know that this line got "robbed" buts another one where he has perfect delivery

maybe he should have worked new york city into the line somehow.

she comes back to tell me she's gone 0

The declarative sentence loses.

i'd just like to point out that there is a tie for first place here

Reading these lyrics out, they read like Dan Bejar lyrics.

The declarative sentence loses.

Which is unfortunate, because I love that line.

This thread has sparked a total renewed interest in this album, appreciating the lyrics like never before. Thinking I might go through some of them with my advanced TELF students next week.

I remember my mom asking me to explain the lyrics to the Myth of Fingerprints to her when I was 13

Something I wrote about this song last year.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JPFESqwh0ks

omg

btw i have never seen this:

In 1988, Simon released a video for the song to promote his greatest hits compilation, Negotiations and Love Songs. The video features an introduction by rappers Big Daddy Kane and Biz Markie. The video depicts adults interacting with the youth of an inner city schoolyard where they dealt drugs. It shows Simon playing basketball and baseball with the children, and it also features basketball player Spud Webb, baseball legend Mickey Mantle, and football coach/commentator John Madden giving tips to young athletes.[1]

― max, Sunday, August 22, 2010 5:29 PM (1 year ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

(thats re: me and julio)

― max, Sunday, August 22, 2010 5:29 PM (1 year ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O859wd7H6h8

like i said before this was sort of the first "adult" album i started to kind of understand, it made me almost feel older, like some weird vicarious sense of 'mono no aware' when i was 11. and an epic song.

Me and Julio video is hilarious.

Graceland doc looks a little too polite, but in any case this is my all-time favorite album so I'll watch.

wow cool!