i love "red rubber ball"
― 5ish finkel (goole), Monday, 8 August 2011 17:47 (thirteen years ago) link
that's a great edit too, max
like "the mississippi delta was shining like a national guitar" is just... awful
I have always loved this line, personally
― Richard Nixon's Field of Warmth (Shakey Mo Collier), Monday, 8 August 2011 17:48 (thirteen years ago) link
ok, my bad --
shit, now I'm going to try to imagine "Palisades Park" with this melody...what have I done?
― L.P. Hovercraft (WmC), Monday, 8 August 2011 17:48 (thirteen years ago) link
― 5ish finkel (goole), Monday, August 8, 2011 1:47 PM (2 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink
yeah i like the song way more without goofy ol rhymin simon
― max, Monday, 8 August 2011 17:50 (thirteen years ago) link
Rock HyraxHardy still on the money re: "Still Crazy."
― Scharlach Sometimes (James Redd and the Blecchs), Monday, 8 August 2011 17:55 (thirteen years ago) link
ok i've been googling for this for a bit and can't find anything -- does anyone remember this pbs special (series?) about two fortyish dudes who get in an old convertible and drive across america, maybe on rt 66?
― 5ish finkel (goole), Monday, 8 August 2011 17:55 (thirteen years ago) link
okay i always thought national guitar was an abstract image and not an actual thing. this changes things.
― ℗⎣▲✘ (ico), Monday, August 8, 2011 1:45 PM (24 minutes ago) Bookmark
hahaha i thought this for the longest time and still sometimes choose to just go w/it
― call all destroyer, Monday, 8 August 2011 18:12 (thirteen years ago) link
if I sang "The Paul Simon ILM thread is shining like national dog shit" would it still be an abtract image
― livin in my own private Biden hole (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Monday, 8 August 2011 18:17 (thirteen years ago) link
no because you've posted a lot of pics on WDYLL threads so I can visualize you singing
― L.P. Hovercraft (WmC), Monday, 8 August 2011 18:21 (thirteen years ago) link
He should have said "shining like a dobro"
― Scharlach Sometimes (James Redd and the Blecchs), Monday, 8 August 2011 18:26 (thirteen years ago) link
it's too late, I totally ruined the joke
― L.P. Hovercraft (WmC), Monday, 8 August 2011 18:27 (thirteen years ago) link
Still don't get hating on the words in "50 ways" that stuff is totally fun
― Gatsby was a success, in the end, wasn't he? (D-40), Monday, 8 August 2011 18:36 (thirteen years ago) link
Also really good drums on "oh marion"
― Gatsby was a success, in the end, wasn't he? (D-40), Monday, 8 August 2011 18:37 (thirteen years ago) link
deej otm
hop on the bus, gus you don't need to dicuss muuuuuuuuch
xp
― horseshoe, Monday, 8 August 2011 18:37 (thirteen years ago) link
people hate sounds i guess
― horseshoe, Monday, 8 August 2011 18:38 (thirteen years ago) link
May I just add a point of interest as the instigator of this thread?
Despite my repulsion with Paul Simon's solo career, "Still Crazy After All These Years" was the first album I ever owned. I was 12 and it was $9.99. I was lured to the purchase after wearing out my '45 of "Kodachrome." Little did I know what was to await me on that large piece of vinyl.
― Alamac, Monday, 8 August 2011 21:07 (thirteen years ago) link
for reasons i cannot explainwe all will obtainmuch hard one
― 5ish finkel (goole), Tuesday, 9 August 2011 01:46 (thirteen years ago) link
this thread is the reason why i'm getting into paul simon
― shannon goon (symsymsym), Tuesday, 9 August 2011 02:54 (thirteen years ago) link
Hope you're proud of yourself, Alamac.
― L.P. Hovercraft (WmC), Tuesday, 9 August 2011 02:58 (thirteen years ago) link
Neither proud nor disgusted. Just havin' a discussion, Hovercraft.
― Alamac, Tuesday, 9 August 2011 03:10 (thirteen years ago) link
I briefly considered buying a copy of Greatest Hits Etc today and thought of this thread, I passed though - already have two good LPs (the S/T and Still Crazy). He just seems more like an album artist to me.
― sleeve, Tuesday, 9 August 2011 03:58 (thirteen years ago) link
At the national ILX karaoke, I will perform "America"
― satan club sandwich (Dr Morbius), Tuesday, 9 August 2011 04:47 (thirteen years ago) link
The Mississippi Deltawas shining like a national ILX karaoke
― Doctor Casino, Tuesday, 9 August 2011 05:06 (thirteen years ago) link
"well, but cohen's stuff are lyrics. because poetry is actually just song lyrics written down - which cohen really seems to get, this seems like a big part of what he's doing. it's not just poetry set to music; it takes flight in music; but it survives better on paper than simon's imo"
?!?Everybody knows the plague is coming, but everybody knows the best lyric ever penned is "Everything you think and everything you feel is alright alright alright alright alright" or something similar, something that doesn't read well on the page but is completely The Best when sung. The music is the end, not the crib sheets. Have you ever heard Shakespeare set to song? Or Auden? Or Yeats? It is THE WORST. Leonard Cohen's greatest contribution to this world-- and it is substantial-- is his book of collected "lyrics", which read so well and fall so flat once sung.
You like "Story Of Isaac"? So do I; but it is the rarest example of Cohen bending a lyric to a melody, something he's failed to do on, say, "Hey, that's no way..." "Susanne" "So Long Marianne" "The Future" "Tower of song" "Everybody Knows" "Bird on a wire" "Ain't no cure for love" "Don't go home with..." "Sisters of mercy" "Coming back to you" "Famous blue raincoat" and seriously the man is, to me, just a trumped up Robert Ashley, and I love him, and I love Robert Ashley, but you cannot talk criticize a magician/dope like Paul Simon because his lyrics don't stack up to Cohen's poetry.
If we're talking about music, and I think we are, I'd say without hesitation that there are 10+ Paul Simon songs that *murder* the best L. Cohen song in its bed, without a fight; my champion is "I know what I know", fwiw.
― classic albums live! (Ówen P.), Tuesday, 9 August 2011 05:54 (thirteen years ago) link
I usually come in second to (to Dylan), and I don't like coming in second. ...One of my deficiencies is my voice sounds sincere. I've tried to sound ironic. I don't. I can't. Dylan, everything he sings has two meanings. He's telling you the truth and making fun of you at the same time. I sound sincere every time.
I like Simon, but this a dickish comment and I kind of disagree with it. I think his voice is pretty detached.
― Inevitable stupid samba mix (chap), Tuesday, 9 August 2011 06:49 (thirteen years ago) link
True!
― the pinefox, Tuesday, 9 August 2011 08:00 (thirteen years ago) link
simon is deeply ironic
― ℗⎣▲✘ (ico), Tuesday, 9 August 2011 08:10 (thirteen years ago) link
yeah, it's not Dylan's irony that he can't match, it's Dylan's venom/anger
― Richard Nixon's Field of Warmth (Shakey Mo Collier), Tuesday, 9 August 2011 13:20 (thirteen years ago) link
should he try?
― livin in my own private Biden hole (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Tuesday, 9 August 2011 13:23 (thirteen years ago) link
No
― Scharlach Sometimes (James Redd and the Blecchs), Tuesday, 9 August 2011 13:37 (thirteen years ago) link
Simon listens to himself and hears James Taylor
― President Keyes, Tuesday, 9 August 2011 14:30 (thirteen years ago) link
paul simon performed where i work a couple of years ago. i remember he was ultra-sensitive about a times piece that had been written about him at the time.
― surm, Tuesday, 9 August 2011 15:02 (thirteen years ago) link
not really? on h&b and esp in the talking to strangers bit of graceland that max ref'd it's the emotional range of his voice that's so affecting. he's pretty good at "acting" in a way that Dylan isn't imo. he can muster anger and venom sure, but he can't match Simon for tenderness (for lack of a better word)
― a chaos of crevasses at cape crozier (gbx), Tuesday, 9 August 2011 15:05 (thirteen years ago) link
he is way too tender for me
― surm, Tuesday, 9 August 2011 15:08 (thirteen years ago) link
most often i am moved by something that does not try too hard to be particularly tender
― surm, Tuesday, 9 August 2011 15:09 (thirteen years ago) link
really? He's tender occasionally.
― livin in my own private Biden hole (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Tuesday, 9 August 2011 15:09 (thirteen years ago) link
no tenderness beneath surm's honesty
― Richard Nixon's Field of Warmth (Shakey Mo Collier), Tuesday, 9 August 2011 15:17 (thirteen years ago) link
nah
this thread has made me love paul simon even more than i previously did btw
― ℗⎣▲✘ (ico), Tuesday, 9 August 2011 18:49 (thirteen years ago) link
such a fan
compare Springsteen slap at home in "Born to Run" vs "My Little Town" (leavin' nothin' but the dead and dyin')
― satan club sandwich (Dr Morbius), Tuesday, 9 August 2011 18:54 (thirteen years ago) link
plax otm
― horseshoe, Tuesday, 9 August 2011 19:10 (thirteen years ago) link
NOTHIN' BUT THE DEAD AND DYIN' BACK IN MY LITTLE TOWN
― horseshoe, Tuesday, 9 August 2011 19:11 (thirteen years ago) link
that song hits a little close to home these days
Similar degrees of authorial distance there, right? I don't think either Simon or Springsteen actually hated their hometown.
― L.P. Hovercraft (WmC), Tuesday, 9 August 2011 19:13 (thirteen years ago) link
My Little Town OK haven't heard that in 35 years. Awesome song. What the hell happened to him?
― Alamac, Tuesday, 9 August 2011 19:55 (thirteen years ago) link
Still making good music?
― livin in my own private Biden hole (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Tuesday, 9 August 2011 21:12 (thirteen years ago) link
I read some Playboy interview with Simon from the 1970s where he was asked who he most admired of current songwriters, and (as Bob Dylan and Randy Newman do) took a long, uncomfortable pause trying to some up with someone, and finally he says that likes Bob Seger. Which made me realize that "Little too call, could've used a few pounds" is a total Paul Simon song-opener, height aside.
― saint dominic's p4k review (Eazy), Tuesday, 9 August 2011 21:15 (thirteen years ago) link
(Jesus, I'm full of typos today.)
― saint dominic's p4k review (Eazy), Tuesday, 9 August 2011 21:16 (thirteen years ago) link