Don't know if it's mentioned upthread, but it's BS that Simon "just discovered" any sort of global music pre-Graceland. I mean, the very first song on his very first album was a reggae song recorded in Jamaica with Jimmy Cliff's band. That's pre-Catch a Fire, for sure, and about as early as non-Jamaican reggae gets. And plenty of his other records are peppered with various Latin and nu-Yorican rhythms. He found inspiration where he found it.
― Josh in Chicago, Sunday, 7 August 2011 19:15 (twelve years ago) link
yep
― livin in my own private Biden hole (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Sunday, 7 August 2011 19:16 (twelve years ago) link
i am just surprised that everyone took me so seriously. i guess this is the first ILM thread i have engaged with in a while. sorry guys, leonard cohen rules.
I was really hoping you were being serious!
― EveningStar (Sund4r), Sunday, 7 August 2011 19:38 (twelve years ago) link
Also, Simon is def. "exploring" African music on "Graceland." That he links zydeco back to African jive, let alone by way of Los Lobos' Mexico, or implicitly connects the Ladysmith a cappella stuff to the doo wop of his youth shows he's very aware of the ongoing African cultural diaspora and how far its music has reached. There's a quote from the Classic Albums series from guitarist Ray Phiri: "We were influenced by American music. American music was for us … it was like sharing information. So it was a two-way traffic. We used Paul as much as Paul used us.”
― Josh in Chicago, Sunday, 7 August 2011 19:39 (twelve years ago) link
there was no mention of “joint writing”.
That's a helluva rationalization. "Hey, Los Lobos didn't tell me they wrote that music, so I just assumed I did!"
Also, that song has probably the worst drum sound of the 80s.
― shake it, shake it, sugary pee (Tarfumes The Escape Goat), Sunday, 7 August 2011 19:58 (twelve years ago) link
that said, i think simon was at his best when he had a great collaborative partner like art garfunkel or chevy chase
― om nom nom nnamdi asomugha (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Sunday, August 7, 2011 3:00 PM (59 minutes ago) Bookmark
lol
― horseshoe, Sunday, 7 August 2011 20:01 (twelve years ago) link
Don't forget Steve Martin
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O_002KDRoKM
― livin in my own private Biden hole (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Sunday, 7 August 2011 20:04 (twelve years ago) link
lmao that video is incredible
― ice cr?m, Sunday, 7 August 2011 20:15 (twelve years ago) link
I love Paul Simon and can't imagine wanting to put him down.
It's petty that people squabbled over some old song that was OK.
The only thing that does put me off PS is that he sings quite a lot about god and religiosity. These are not my kind of thing.
But I suppose or imagine that believing in those things makes PS feel happier.
I love 2004.
― the pinefox, Sunday, 7 August 2011 20:16 (twelve years ago) link
i like steve martin's punchy hand gesture to accompany "proust"
― horseshoe, Sunday, 7 August 2011 20:17 (twelve years ago) link
do you like "the obvious child," pf?
― horseshoe, Sunday, 7 August 2011 20:19 (twelve years ago) link
obviously
― ice cr?m, Sunday, 7 August 2011 20:20 (twelve years ago) link
that song is pretty jesusy!
― horseshoe, Sunday, 7 August 2011 20:21 (twelve years ago) link
i can guess which you'd prefer between paul simon and leonard cohen then
― max, Sunday, 7 August 2011 20:21 (twelve years ago) link
pinefox, do you like R&B or gospel?
― livin in my own private Biden hole (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Sunday, 7 August 2011 20:22 (twelve years ago) link
haha i was thinking!!!
― Lamp, Sunday, 7 August 2011 20:25 (twelve years ago) link
do you guys think the speaker of "still crazy after all these years" killed his ex-girlfriend? i sort of do.
― horseshoe, Sunday, 7 August 2011 20:26 (twelve years ago) link
Horseshoe, I love 'the obvious child'.
I don't listen to Leonard Cohen. I've never owned any of his work.
I like R&B in a general way, as on the Paul Jones radio programme. I don't really know gospel except in the distant way that anyone does, and on RATTLE & HUM.
Horsehoe, I don't know 'still crazy' well enough to say.
― the pinefox, Sunday, 7 August 2011 20:30 (twelve years ago) link
I don't really know gospel except in the distant way that anyone does, and on RATTLE & HUM.
haha good answer
― livin in my own private Biden hole (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Sunday, 7 August 2011 20:31 (twelve years ago) link
he says, "i fear i'll do some damage one fine day," but there are so many ellipses in that song, like
I met my old loverOn the street last nightShe seemed so glad to see meI just smiledAnd we talked about some old timesAnd we drank ourselves some beersStill crazy after all these years
and it's like, what happened between the beers and the crazy?
― horseshoe, Sunday, 7 August 2011 20:34 (twelve years ago) link
i love the god bothering stuff
― ℗⎣▲✘ (ico), Sunday, 7 August 2011 20:34 (twelve years ago) link
hat happened between the beers and the crazy?
^^^^ good lyric
― livin in my own private Biden hole (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Sunday, 7 August 2011 20:35 (twelve years ago) link
* what
― ℗⎣▲✘ (ico), Sunday, August 7, 2011 4:34 PM (1 minute ago) Bookmark
yeah it's there from the beginning, that yearning for transcendental experience or whatever
― horseshoe, Sunday, 7 August 2011 20:36 (twelve years ago) link
angels in the architecture, spinning in infinity, sweet angels sing "hallelujah"
― ℗⎣▲✘ (ico), Sunday, 7 August 2011 20:39 (twelve years ago) link
And I will lay my burden downRest my head upon that shoreAnd when I wear that starry crownI won't be wanting anymore
― horseshoe, Sunday, 7 August 2011 20:40 (twelve years ago) link
starry is such a pretty word
― ℗⎣▲✘ (ico), Sunday, 7 August 2011 20:40 (twelve years ago) link
I believe I BELIEVEin the Kingdom ComeIN THE KINGDOM COMEThen all the coloursALLLL THE COLOURS will bleed into oneBLEEEEED INTO O--O-OONE
You broke the bondsBROKE THE BONDSAnd you loosed the chainsLOOSED THE CHAINSCarried the crossCARRIED THE CROSS of my shameOF MY SHAMEyou know I believe it.
I BELIEVE IT!
You know, I do
― the pinefox, Sunday, 7 August 2011 21:08 (twelve years ago) link
The god talk gets annoying on the new one.
― livin in my own private Biden hole (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Sunday, 7 August 2011 21:09 (twelve years ago) link
ok Bono lyrics do not even belong on the same board as paul simon lyrics
― pathos of the unwarranted encore (underrated aerosmith bootlegs I have owned), Sunday, 7 August 2011 21:14 (twelve years ago) link
like there should be a separate board for bono lyrics and the board should be called "i love sucking ass"
one time i read a bono quote where he said it was a pleasure to listen to michael jackson as long as you ignored the lyrics, and i was like, that's pretty rich coming from you, bono.
― horseshoe, Sunday, 7 August 2011 21:15 (twelve years ago) link
I mainly just posted that last one to tempt DJP
― pathos of the unwarranted encore (underrated aerosmith bootlegs I have owned), Sunday, 7 August 2011 21:15 (twelve years ago) link
Wtf you atheists and "god talk" as if mentions of god make someone jerry falwell
― Gatsby was a success, in the end, wasn't he? (D-40), Sunday, 7 August 2011 21:16 (twelve years ago) link
^^
― Autism Alamac (some dude), Sunday, 7 August 2011 21:17 (twelve years ago) link
i will take all of your silence as confirmation of my theory that "still crazy after all these years" is about a murderer.
― horseshoe, Sunday, 7 August 2011 21:17 (twelve years ago) link
No one but pinefox said that.
― livin in my own private Biden hole (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Sunday, 7 August 2011 21:17 (twelve years ago) link
I wrote in my review a couple of months ago that Simon doesn't really illuminate some tired religious tropes. I wish he'd gone Al Green in his old age.
― livin in my own private Biden hole (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Sunday, 7 August 2011 21:18 (twelve years ago) link
still crazy after all these years is abt how garfunkel reads so many books and murdering him
― ice cr?m, Sunday, 7 August 2011 21:19 (twelve years ago) link
people caring about lyrics too much itt
― stop listening to the lyrics so much. you're ruining music (CaptainLorax), Sunday, 7 August 2011 21:20 (twelve years ago) link
what are the names of the songs in Paul Simon's album Graceland?
― anne alison, Monday, February 16, 2004
― buzza, Sunday, 7 August 2011 21:20 (twelve years ago) link
You gotta fill out a form first.
― livin in my own private Biden hole (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Sunday, 7 August 2011 21:22 (twelve years ago) link
and stick it up your ass
― stop listening to the lyrics so much. you're ruining music (CaptainLorax), Sunday, 7 August 2011 21:22 (twelve years ago) link
still crazy after all these years is abt how garfunkel reads so many books and murdering him --ice cr?m
― Scharlach Sometimes (James Redd and the Blecchs), Sunday, 7 August 2011 21:26 (twelve years ago) link
I don't believe Alamac is actually sorry.
― L.P. Hovercraft (WmC), Sunday, 7 August 2011 21:27 (twelve years ago) link
in answer to the thread title in particular, i generally don't feel like paul simon is overrated - it seems to me that people have a very mixed reception of him
― surm, Sunday, 7 August 2011 22:07 (twelve years ago) link
i think what i love best about paul simon is his phrasing, how he works his voice, lyrics and guitar together so niftily and so beautifully, i adore the sweetness of it. every element is elevated.
― estela, Sunday, 7 August 2011 22:52 (twelve years ago) link
and he enunciates like nobody's business.
― estela, Sunday, 7 August 2011 22:54 (twelve years ago) link
otm he is tremendous at delivering complex lines
― call all destroyer, Monday, 8 August 2011 00:18 (twelve years ago) link
tbh i just think "graceland" is maybe the best song anyone's ever written
― max, Monday, 8 August 2011 00:26 (twelve years ago) link