PAUL SIMON POLL RESULTS THREAD AND DISCUSSION

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i love "born at the right time." every time i get to it on rhythm i listen to it a couple of extra times.

horseshoe, Tuesday, 20 March 2012 16:09 (twelve years ago) link

very sing-along-able

horseshoe, Tuesday, 20 March 2012 16:10 (twelve years ago) link

they've got the Peeeeeenguins, the Moooooonglows, the Oooooorioles and the Fiiive Satins.

otm!

horseshoe, Tuesday, 20 March 2012 16:11 (twelve years ago) link

obvious child was actually a slow burner for me, i always thought rhythm was about the second side until people started banging on about the coast and obvious child on some thread.

judith, Tuesday, 20 March 2012 16:11 (twelve years ago) link

love "born at the right time." every time i get to it on rhythm i listen to it a couple of extra times.

this and "The Cool Cool River" are awesome back to back early morning listening.

Exile in lolville (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Tuesday, 20 March 2012 16:11 (twelve years ago) link

did gbx vote in this? i'm worried about h+b.

judith, Tuesday, 20 March 2012 16:12 (twelve years ago) link

i voted for some h&b songs! it was torture to cut some h&b songs.

horseshoe, Tuesday, 20 March 2012 16:13 (twelve years ago) link

like when i add up all the s&g that is gonna be in the top twenty and then all the solo stuff i think should be there i realise there just isn't room.

judith, Tuesday, 20 March 2012 16:13 (twelve years ago) link

i think estela didn't vote either :(

horseshoe, Tuesday, 20 March 2012 16:13 (twelve years ago) link

i gave h&b some quality points

lag∞n, Tuesday, 20 March 2012 16:14 (twelve years ago) link

h&b the song better be making it. it will, right?

ps. i didn't vote so i can only get so worried i suppose.

call all destroyer, Tuesday, 20 March 2012 16:15 (twelve years ago) link

i mean the song h+b specifically though

judith, Tuesday, 20 March 2012 16:15 (twelve years ago) link

i think h&b the song will be pretty high up, yeah

horseshoe, Tuesday, 20 March 2012 16:15 (twelve years ago) link

i assume it was plax's #1

horseshoe, Tuesday, 20 March 2012 16:15 (twelve years ago) link

maybe eazy's, alfred's #1, too

horseshoe, Tuesday, 20 March 2012 16:15 (twelve years ago) link

PSRT again: it's a seriously creepy song, even (almost) a scary one, not despite but because of its intense, frozen beauty. it fascinated me as a kid, in the same spooky way that "calfornia dreamin'" fascinated me. beautiful, yearning voices that seem to echo in a void. much darker and yet more glittering than "california dreamin'" though, which always seemed to evoke fog and bare branches, thin grey light.

Fozzy Osbourne (contenderizer), Tuesday, 20 March 2012 16:15 (twelve years ago) link

i gave h&b the song some quality points

lag∞n, Tuesday, 20 March 2012 16:16 (twelve years ago) link

lol its my ringtone

judith, Tuesday, 20 March 2012 16:16 (twelve years ago) link

lmao

lag∞n, Tuesday, 20 March 2012 16:16 (twelve years ago) link

cad you should have voted!

horseshoe, Tuesday, 20 March 2012 16:17 (twelve years ago) link

"hotel california" is probably another point of childhood comparison for PSR&T's lovely death vibe, that and "strawberry fields"

Fozzy Osbourne (contenderizer), Tuesday, 20 March 2012 16:17 (twelve years ago) link

i know!!! i've been working/getting ready to leave the country for 2 weeks and did not permit myself time to do remedial listening :(

call all destroyer, Tuesday, 20 March 2012 16:17 (twelve years ago) link

but i trust yall to do an excellent job

call all destroyer, Tuesday, 20 March 2012 16:18 (twelve years ago) link

don't lose hope people my ballot will deliver the goods: 5 S&G, 4 Graceland, 11 other solo paul songs

Doctor Casino, Tuesday, 20 March 2012 16:18 (twelve years ago) link

I didn't vote for Scarborough Fair but it's a gear-switching exercise within his discography and I am kind of kicking myself for not voting for it, tbh. Being an S&G stan and all.

It's not a "Paul Simon" song as we know it. It's just his voice. And that's IT. But you guys, his voice is so beautiful in these early S&G songs! It mightn't seem enough compared to his later songs, but I dunno, that he had that instrument at his disposal from the very beginning, to me that's a lot.

It's not uniquely Paul, but that's what I find beautiful about it. Like hiding in plain sight.

It's like spending all day reading, idk, Ulysses and then reading Enid Blyton or nursery rhymes. There's so much simplicity and not a whole ton of subtext that your'e just kind of left with, well, the song, and the sounds.

Peppermint Patty Hearst (VegemiteGrrl), Tuesday, 20 March 2012 16:20 (twelve years ago) link

12 simon & garfunkel songs
8 solo paul, including 2 from graceland

despite my promises to study up, i wound up putting my ballot together in a rush at the last minute, with little advance prep. if i had it to do over again, i'd switch out three of the songs i voted for, and the results would split evenly between S&G and solo paul.

Fozzy Osbourne (contenderizer), Tuesday, 20 March 2012 16:24 (twelve years ago) link

http://img141.imageshack.us/img141/8079/homewardbound.png

This is Ditton railway station, where Paul wrote Homeward Bound. It closed in 1994.

Ismael Klata, Tuesday, 20 March 2012 16:26 (twelve years ago) link

S: Bill Murray SNL lounge singer

"remember me to the guy or chick who lives there
he or she once was a true love of mine"

Literal Facepalms (Dr Morbius), Tuesday, 20 March 2012 16:27 (twelve years ago) link

Who else besides me placed NO S&G songs on a ballot? Since my parents weren't fans I never heard them growing up beyond the obvious, child. What I have boils down to what detractors have always accused Simon of being.

Exile in lolville (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Tuesday, 20 March 2012 16:28 (twelve years ago) link

I'm glad you didn't. I placed 7, because I like them and wanted them represented, but they could've taken care of themselves.

Ismael Klata, Tuesday, 20 March 2012 16:30 (twelve years ago) link

It's interesting, they weren't really a "parent" thing to me - my mom knew all the songs by heart (and told me once that she'd used some S&G lyrics for an English class she was teaching at some vague point in time!) but we didn't actually have any of the records. I discovered the hits through oldies radio and got the Gallagher & Garfunkel greatest hits from one of those ten-CDs-for-one-dollar kind of deals, if I remember right. The albums I didn't get until I was out of college probably. There's a lot to like there, especially on the last two.

Doctor Casino, Tuesday, 20 March 2012 16:31 (twelve years ago) link

i only have three S&G songs on my ballot (frank lloyd wright, homeward bound and only living boy). but i coulda voted for more probably. even though I can understand the criticisms, a lot of it is great 60s folk pop.
oh and i think i prefer the live homeward bound on the greatest hits, but that might just be cuz i heard that version first.

tylerw, Tuesday, 20 March 2012 16:32 (twelve years ago) link

what do detractors accuse Simon of being? i'll kill them!

horseshoe, Tuesday, 20 March 2012 16:33 (twelve years ago) link

i'm glad for this poll, PS is a big blind spot for me as i appear to be the only person who posts here whose parents didn't listen to paul simon (i only really know the big S&G/PS solo songs, never heard an album he's been involved in all the way through) (yes, even graceland)

althea and (donna rouge), Tuesday, 20 March 2012 16:34 (twelve years ago) link

i will grant that "homeward bound" seems like a pretty good song; never knowingly heard it before this poll.

horseshoe, Tuesday, 20 March 2012 16:34 (twelve years ago) link

i appear to be the only person who posts here whose parents didn't listen to paul simon

mine don't either! i always thought this was because they were indian but apparently mindy kaling's parents played graceland on her childhood car trips like everyone else's so she got the cool indian parents

horseshoe, Tuesday, 20 March 2012 16:35 (twelve years ago) link

i got billy joel instead :/

althea and (donna rouge), Tuesday, 20 March 2012 16:35 (twelve years ago) link

My (slightly) younger sister became a Simon maniac around the age of 8 (!) so I heard all the S&G catalog when she bought it, the the solo stuff as it was released, up through Rhythm of the Saints at least. She also went to the Central Park and Graceland shows with me.

Literal Facepalms (Dr Morbius), Tuesday, 20 March 2012 16:38 (twelve years ago) link

aw.

horseshoe, Tuesday, 20 March 2012 16:39 (twelve years ago) link

My parents actually chortled when I bought a tape of Graceland on my own in summer '90, shortly before TROTS – they thought he was too precious beyond words and doubted his sexuality.

Exile in lolville (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Tuesday, 20 March 2012 16:40 (twelve years ago) link

well, I've heard rumors about that

Literal Facepalms (Dr Morbius), Tuesday, 20 March 2012 16:41 (twelve years ago) link

billy joel is the other great music I got out of my childhood! The pleasures are VERY different than with Simon but the man has tons and tons of great songs.

Doctor Casino, Tuesday, 20 March 2012 16:42 (twelve years ago) link

on the way out of the S&G CP show I remember we saw one of the Plasmatics.

Literal Facepalms (Dr Morbius), Tuesday, 20 March 2012 16:44 (twelve years ago) link

Mum was a big S&G fan, the Live In Central Park album got a lot of spins when I was little -- I used to sit on the floor in front of the stereo and stare at all the people in the gatefold photo while I listened to them all cheering and applauding.
My next door neighbor's Mum and older brother were huge S&G fans too, so whatever I didn't hear at home I would hear when I visited at their house, which was nearly every day for a lot of years - that's where I first heard 59th St Bridge Song.

Mum was also a big Billy Joel person too. I got all the stereotypical "parent" music, but I was on my own as far as anything cool/remotely rock, like Hendrix or The Who went.

Peppermint Patty Hearst (VegemiteGrrl), Tuesday, 20 March 2012 16:45 (twelve years ago) link

(i wonder if ILM could sustain a billy joel ballot poll - - seems like there's a lot less in the way of goodwill and closet fans)

Doctor Casino, Tuesday, 20 March 2012 16:45 (twelve years ago) link

my parents have basically no interest in music, graceland and rumours were the only exposure i got from them.

judith, Tuesday, 20 March 2012 16:46 (twelve years ago) link

i realise i could have done worse

judith, Tuesday, 20 March 2012 16:46 (twelve years ago) link

i don't think my mom listens to any music. wait, she likes nat king cole because he enunciates so clearly that she can understand what he's saying.

horseshoe, Tuesday, 20 March 2012 16:47 (twelve years ago) link

speaking of the Live in Central Park thing, this has always bugged me: how could the city possibly have openly accepted money from drug dealers (per Simon's line from the stage re: "the guys passing around loose joints are donating half of their money to the city tonight")? isn't that, like, blatantly illegal? or is it just lol 70s NY

xp

(i wonder if ILM could sustain a billy joel ballot poll

You could probably poll the 2-disc comp from '85 that "everyone" owns.

Exile in lolville (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Tuesday, 20 March 2012 16:47 (twelve years ago) link


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