Best Line in "Graceland"

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.

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!