PAUL SIMON POLL RESULTS THREAD AND DISCUSSION

xpost Ditto, I have cracked myself up to that whole sequence so many times.

lol yes, that post has given me a deep deep new appreciation of "still crazy."

had no idea everyone hated the 50 ways chorus so much.

50 ways chorus prob most epitomizes the aspect of ps that i cant really deal with

For me it's like the opposite. The aspects I have most reaction against is the po-faced stuff that's most prevalent in S&G but resurfaces here and there through the solo career. Loose, jazzy Paul >>>>>>>> English-major Paul.

i like all the pauls.

lyrics to s&g songs can be really annoying, though, tru

Rubbing those two aspects of Simon up against each other in one song is what makes it classic. It was high on my ballot.

i don't dislike the 50 ways chorus specifically. the whole song just feels very slight and unmemorable to me in ways that seem surprisingly opposite to public opinion of it.

re: 50 ways, that is

btw, I heard it on the radio yesterday and thought "yep, high placement totally justified"

xp to self

I love the chorus of "50 Ways" & agree with tipsy re. the Simons.

50 ways was my #3

this is where i get to play "comedy films poll" by saying i love the 50 ways chorus bcz i loved it when i was 13.

guessing "For Emily Wherever I May Find Her" is not showin up

If that misses the top 10 that's a shame.

I didn't vote for it specifically for the slightness issue, but I do love the song. I think if Paul Simon were a one-hit wonder and this was his only thing, it'd do really really well in like the 70s songs poll, you know, this fondly-remembered bit of AM good times. As a "Paul Simon song" it doesn't quite fit somehow.

er, that's in ref to "50 Ways," not "Emily!"

For me it's like the opposite. The aspects I have most reaction against is the po-faced stuff that's most prevalent in S&G but resurfaces here and there through the solo career. Loose, jazzy Paul >>>>>>>> English-major Paul.

― something of an astrological coup (tipsy mothra), Wednesday, March 21, 2012 11:02 AM (17 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

these are i guess the two aspects of ps that i cant really deal with, and its not that hes loose and jazzy its that hes trying to be loose and jazz when its not really in his nature, he is not a chill dude

PS feels like a dude that only really relaxed and came into himself when he had kids

i mean just judging by his songwriting/lyrics and stuff

anyway i voted 50 ways high up even though the chorus is goofy

I know "Mrs. Robinson" belongs to that category of oppressively overplayed radio songs, but the Joe Dimaggio verse will never not amaze me.

yeah I feel the same way. other people have expressed incredulity at my admiration for the Dimaggio verse but it's such a perfect image, the vanished, defeated folk hero. And I don't even like baseball.

I have always thought of solo-era Simon as a pretty chill dude. It's the evolution from earnest nerd to laid-back hipster that I think most separates S&G from the later stuff.

Hard to imagine the Simon of S&G working a line like, "When I think back on all the crap I learned in high school..."

Yeah, and with that going, it seems like Simon really speaks to people like me who WERE earnest nerds and possibly English majors etc., went to a lot of museums, and just get a little further on and go "okay, chilling is cool too."

had no idea everyone hated the 50 ways chorus so much.

― horseshoe, Wednesday, March 21, 2012 8:01 AM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

yeah, a bit shocked by and disappointed in this thread. 50 ways chorus is so wonderful, esp in the way the song suddenly becomes propulsive, suggesting the actual act of leaving, after the static intimacy of the verses, which only contemplate it. and i'm also w horseshoe in liking all the pauls, the laid-back hipster of the 70s no more and no less than the earnest undergrad of the 60s.

"50 Ways" is literally the first pop song I remember listening to and having stuck ion my head, chorus only. The verses in between made it like a peek-a-boo game.

And as I've said elsewhere, the line that I loved most then was "You don't have to be courdoroy."

The thing about the 50 Ways chorus, for the stans who love it and don't get why anyone would hate it...much as I love it and I *did* vote highly for it, the chorus and the verses are almost two separate songs. The chorus is the novelty/corny Simon, where it's so close to an advertising jingle that it could easiily be the only thing a person hears when they think of the song.

If you don't love that song a LOT, you may not even be able to remember the quieter, more pleasant/writerly verses.

And honestly it would be the most boring poll in the world if the results exactly matched your ballot.

The verses in between made it like a peek-a-boo game.

lol, yeah, i remember having something like this sense of the song at first. not as an infant, so probably not as literally, but as a kid who loved the chorus.

And honestly it would be the most boring poll in the world if the results exactly matched your ballot.

oh, of course. i just like to fulminate.

So, the top ten at this point is looking fairly predictable, not that that's a bad thing - it should be pretty much wall to wall classics, although my hopes for "Oh Marion" are dashed and "Papa Hobo" along with them. But for once I have no sense at all of what will swing #1 - seeems like there's a few strong contenders although I expect "Diamonds on the Soles of Her Shoes," "Julio," or "Only Living Boy In New York."

Generally don't have too much to say about this last batch of ten - they're all pretty great and I've posted about them before I'm sure. The only ones I voted for were "Late in the Evening," "Bridge," and "You Can Call Me Al," which I voted #1... though I can't really explain or articulate why. Not in the sense of it being this really strong emotion that resists verbalization...it was more just the ballot-making process, each song I compared it to and went "Do I like this more or less than 'You Can Call Me Al'," and it always won. It's not really the quintessential Simon song but I will never get tired of singing along to it, any place or any time that it comes on.

my man

Is Diamonds a lock? I was having a private guess at the top ten earlier and could come up with seven (none of which were Diamonds, and only one S&G, though I guess Only Living Boy will probably make it)

america is gonna be #1

or graceland

obvious child???

Diamonds is a lock, yes

Julio

Cecilia

Living Boy in NY or Boy in the Bubble, though wouldn't be surprised if any of the previous 6 make it.

Duncan better make it.

looking like "Take Me To The Mardi Gras" isn't gonna make it, which surprises me, but I guess it got swamped by all the S&G on here.

I won't pretend to have any idea what the top 10 will be, a lot of the placements here have been completely inexplicable imho

It might not be very suspenseful if Lamp manages to sneak out the top ten without anyone noticing

#40 - FAKIN' IT
#39 - THE LATE GREAT JOHNNY ACE
#38 - THE 59th STREET BRIDGE SONG (FEELIN' GROOVY)
#37 - AT THE ZOO
#36 - KEEP THE CUSTOMER SATISFIED
#35 - MY LITTLE TOWN
#34 - TRAIN IN THE DISTANCE
#33 - STILL CRAZY AFTER ALL THESE YEARS
#32 - SO LONG, FRANK LLOYD WRIGHT
#31 - GUMBOOTS

#30 - SCARBOROUGH FAIR/CANTICLE
#29 - HOMEWARD BOUND
#29 - BORN AT THE RIGHT TIME
#27 - AMERICAN TUNE
#25 - A HAZY SHADE OF WINTER
#25 - THE COOL, COOL RIVER
#24 - PEACE LIKE A RIVER
#23 - I KNOW WHAT I KNOW
#22 - SLIP SLIDIN' AWAY
#21 - RENE & GEORGETTE MAGRITTE WITH THEIR DOG AFTER THE WAR

#20 - THE SOUND OF SILENCE
#19 - I AM A ROCK
#18 - YOU CAN CALL ME AL
#17 - BRIDGE OVER TROUBLED WATER
#16 - MRS. ROBINSON
#15 - LATE IN THE EVENING
#14 - HEARTS AND BONES
#13 - KODACHROME
#12 - 50 WAYS TO LEAVE YOUR LOVER
#11 - MOTHER AND CHILD REUNION

I am starting to think that Crazy Love will not place :(

a song I voted for primarily because of how much I love the line "fat charlie the archangel files for divorce"

11 of my votes in there so far. guess nothing from so beautiful is making it in? i voted for "dazzling blue." surprised that you can call me al wasn't top 10, thought that was a shoo-in.

figure that "diamonds", "only living boy", "cecelia", "graceland", "america" and "me & julio are locks". beyond that, i'm not sure. "the boxer" maybe? "boy in the bubble"? "bleecker street" and "el condor pasa" are favorites of mine, but i have to figure they're long shots here.

i really wasted my ballot, i blame the time pressure

did he really wear a wig? seems like he suddenly got hair in the 80s again but it's gone again now (he invariably wears hats).

"Think Too Much" will surely make this, no?