Best Line in "Graceland"

(I'm imagining horseshoe on her 14th consecutive hour of listening to this song.)

― Bag Smart, Street Stupid (Eazy), Friday, August 20, 2010 1:58 AM (36 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

haha i don't even have to listen to it i just play it in my head!

i like how the song turns totally haunting right after "i've reason to believe we both will be received in graceland", like taking it up a notch to this incredible sense of existential loss that totally hit me even when i was like 10 years old or w/e i was when it came out

the first "i've reason to believe we both will be received in graceland" that is

<3 this album basically

my dad used to play this, taj mahal's 'the real thing' & neville bros 'yellow moon' more than any other cds

maybe tom waits 'heart of saturday night' & the james taylor album w/ 'copperline' too. & some van morrison

so many good paul simon albums really we should poll them all song by song

or i should go to sleep

lol @ 'cds.' i meant cassettes obv. oh yeah he also liked 'rum sodomy and the lash'

this combined with starting to watch SNL back in the mid-'80s was like opening up this crazy world of adult stuff that was kind of an endlessly unspooling mystery for me to solve.

so many good paul simon albums really we should poll them all song by song

if you include the jerry landis stuff then there is like ∞ good songs & i wld die of old age b4 i could choose

You're The One is way ignored.

I always really liked "my traveling companion is nine years old, he is the child of my first marriage" - it's such a distant way to say "my son"; he's more (or less) than a son: he's a reminder of a painful relationship. Sorry son.

I think part of the reason the "window in your heart" line works so well is the context - the rest of the song isn't quite as exposed and tender and the rest of the album is even less so. I could almost see it being cringe-worthy if it were in the middle of a weepy Jewel-esque ballad.

Well, I mean other lines are tender but maybe in a less direct way.

human trampoline

so so many good lines in this, but 'human trampoline' always just feels like a blown/tossed off dylan line or something to me. it's the only one that actually takes me out of the song.

also, i don't much believe anyone wld call themselves that

I just listened to it and the 'no obligations' line was the one I most compelled to sing along to.

so so many good lines in this, but 'human trampoline' always just feels like a blown/tossed off dylan line or something to me. it's the only one that actually takes me out of the song.

also, i don't much believe anyone wld call themselves that

this. thought the same thing even as a kid. it's a striking line and he delivers it very well (esp the "oh, so this is what she means" part), but it doesn't ring true. "a human trampoline," maybe.

I mean, I can sorta picture somebody loudly explaining "You know I am like a human trampoline, people just keep jumping on me!!!" and thinking they were really clever but actually being annoying and lame.... I just think this song sort of deserves better acquaintances than that, especially since she's introduced as "there is a girl in New York City," somehow the equivalent of the former talk show host that you can only find by traveling over the mountains and down to the valley. You want these mythical characters to have something better to say for themselves.

i h8 all u guys who are h8ing on human trampoline tbh

whenever people call something dylanesque all that means is it's awesome afaic

also the function of "there's a girl in new york city" is key to simon's whole slice of new york hipster community thing

in conclusion, i'm mad

i'm not voting for "there's a girl in new york city who calls herself the human trampoline" as it is isolated in this poll but that section of the song, from "there's a girl" to "she means we're bouncing into graceland" is my favorite part, like something catches in my throat at "bouncing into graceland" half the time.

Maybe her name is Maybelline or something else that rhymes with trampoline.

i like gumboots more than this, and esp in terms of NYC hipster types portraiture

MAYBE WHO CARES IF ITS IMPLAUSIBLE

gumboots is gr8

horseshoe r u actually shouting all this out loud as u type srs q.

best line(s) in that one either "I said hey you know breakdowns come and breakdowns go / so what are you going to do about it, that's what I'd like to know" largely bc of delivery or "believing i had supernatural powers i slammed into a brick wall"

haha plax i am seething with rage and spoiling for a fight

u r rong it is "hey! ain't we walking down the same street, together, on the very same day"

that is a v v nice delivery, also

so conversational!

just listened to the youtube of this as ive lost the album. do all youtube comments have to have some bit of masochistic nostalgia going on? makes me despair for humantity. i went for 'everybody sees your blown apart, everybody feels the wind blow'.

i like how the words play off each other there

window
heart
blown
apart
wind
blow

otm

great album. great song.

best album of whatever year it was released

Alright in a kind of a limited way for an off-night.

Really can't listen to this album anymore having heard it at so many cinematographers' parties.

If you listen to Live in Central Park, each NYC reference in the Simon oeuvre is met with extended whooping.

"There is a girl in New York City...."

WHOOWOOOWHOOWHWOHWOHOOOWHOOO

Haha, yeah. 'Counting the cars on the New Jersey turnpike' etc.

Has anyone seen One Trick Pony? Is it any good?

its ... entertaining

Yeah, xps, 'Gumboots' is the best

i voted "for reasons i cannot explain some part of me wants to see graceland" -- b/c that's what I feel about graceland (and any number of other tourist traps).

Some One Trick Pony discussion here:

Paul Simon - One Trick Pony, C or D

and maybe here:

http://www.ilxor.com/ILX/ThreadSelectedControllerServlet?boardid=41&threadid=31830

(that's "Do you believe Paul Simon when, in "Late in the Evening", he describes how he returns to the club after smoking a "J" and proceeds to turn up his amp and "(blow) that room away"?")