PAUL SIMON POLL RESULTS THREAD AND DISCUSSION

nice start! It felt weird leaving "Keep The Customer Satisfied" and "My Little Town" off my ballot so I'm glad to see them place.

Spotify playlist

Hope that works. It should be collaborative, so get adding as lamp counts 'em down.

I thought my little town would be top ten for sure

Four songs from my ballot in that first batch. "My Little Town" was a late scratch, as I rate "Still Crazy" much higher among his mid 70s angst-classics. Re "Johnny Ace," I like to imagine that the song is actually haunted -- if a house or a painting can be haunted, why not a song? "Fakin' It" was another late cut.

man i have a lot of love for feelin groovy but i just couldnt bring myself to put it on my ballot

I'm happy it made it in, have a lot of nice childhood memories of that song

Just one of mine - Gumboots. Aiui it's reckoned as possibly the slightest cut on Graceland (though not by me), raising the possibility that all eleven could make the forty(!)

ahh jeez they've started and so MANY! Thanks again, Lamp.

I say this on every ballot poll results thread but is there any hope of slowing down the flow of results? It'd be nice to really digest a few songs at once. But I might be in the minority here and obviously it hangs on what your schedule really allows.

A little surprised "Train in the Distance" didn't rank higher.

― "marvellously inoffensive" (Eazy), Monday, March 19, 2012 8:19 AM (2 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

on the one hand, me too. on the other hand i can see how it would happen with this poll. i was amazed at how low some of the tracks on my ballot were, but there are too many good songs!

i think "train" is the only one so far that i voted for -- but some awesome songs so far. each one i saw, i thought, ooh should've voted for that!

I'm happy it made it in, have a lot of nice childhood memories of that song

― Peppermint Patty Hearst (VegemiteGrrl), Monday, March 19, 2012 10:19 AM (52 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

sang "feelin' groovy" as part of an s&g medley in middle school chorus. maybe that's the root of my not liking s&g that much?

"My Little Town" was also in my first-round ballot and eventually fell off somehow - - I love the intensity of it, the chorus is genius, and the heavy piano at the beginning is such a great intro. I think it does feel maybe a little more "stock" than some of his other lyrics - there are flashes of specificity but the ride past the gates of the factories is maybe a little too on-the-nose. I always picture the old movie version of Willy Wonka's chocolate factory and Paul Simon as Charlie. (Garfunkel as Grandpa Joe?)

"Late Great Johnny Ace" is brilliant, probably the only really good "tribute to John Lennon" because it's not really about John Lennon, it's about how strange it is when someone dies, and how it will land at odd, anticlimactic times. And then overlay that with this sense of common loss and bleakness that shows up when it is John Lennon, and Paul Simon, writing with as much autobiographical clarity as he's ever mustered, bumps into a complete stranger who goes, "hey, you're Paul Simon---" (or maybe, not recognizing him at all: "hey, stranger---") "--- did you hear?" And even though Simon's experience of the Beatles was in this completely different circumstance there's enough commonality in that loss that they can close a bar together. It's a really great piece of work.

As the architecture nerd in the room I should probably like "So Long, Frank Lloyd Wright" more than I do. As I said on one of the other threads, I think it just doesn't sit well in the context of the album. It remains a little obscure to me - what exactly are they trying to say about Wright? And if Wright is just a metaphor for some bigger concept, it seems kinda cheezy, like this way of adding coffee-table NPR-ness to the album.

i believe "So Long, Frank Lloyd Wright" doesn't have a whole lot to do w/ the actual architect -- it's more about garfunkel, who (i think?) studied to be an architect. i just love the melody, and that line "all of the nights, we'd harmonize til dawn". so gorgeous.

I think on vinyl "So Long" works better than cd. It closes side one, and gives the listener a breather (it's an intense side of vinyl - "Bridge", "El Condor Pasa", "Cecelia", "Keep the Customer" precede it).

It's not about Wright, but about Garfunkel the architecture student. Is it an inside joke, an appraisal of their deteriorating relationship Simon's point of view (I can't read this line as complimentary: "Architects may come and Architects may go and Never change your point of view" even if the next line is about Garfunkel as sometime muse), a reference to Simon's architecture indifference by naming one of the few figures to cross to popular culture? Maybe all, maybe none.

Now that I typed that, I see a whole wikipedia entry on it: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/So_Long,_Frank_Lloyd_Wright

It's een a favorite of mine since childhood. Bridge is easily my most played album of all time, if you count those years before I had my own collection.

Reading the wiki entry and it appears Garfunkel was very thick as he did not to realize it had anything to do with their relationship at the time.

#40 FAKIN' IT - felt like I had to be sorta choosy about what non-canon/single stuff from this album made it onto my ballot and this didn't make the cut. it is great though. noted this elsewhere, but the tailor-dialogue interlude is a really odd sonic collage/psych moment.
#39 THE LATE GREAT JOHNNY ACE - never heard (or even heard of) this song. what release is this from?
#38 THE 59th STREET BRIDGE SONG (FEELIN' GROOVY) - this is just too cloying/cheeseball for me, enjoyable singalong that it is I couldn't bring myself to vote for it.
#37 AT THE ZOO - this, on the other hand, I did vote for because a) the litany of animals is hilarious (and is echoed, in my mind anyway, with Dylan's similarly odd and funny "Man Gave Names to All the Animals"); also b) this song is really fun to play. It's a song that captures the small joys of urban living and that's something Simon does really well that I appreciate a great deal.
#36 KEEP THE CUSTOMER SATISFIED - this one didn't make my ballot either (see #40) but I consider it a worthy entry in Paul Simon's Great Songs About Weed.
#35 MY LITTLE TOWN - I get why people love this one, but I didn't vote for it.
#34 TRAIN IN THE DISTANCE - having just heard this last week for the first time, dunno if I've probably absorbed it enough to vote for it.
#33 STILL CRAZY AFTER ALL THESE YEARS - WTF ONLY 6 OF YOU VOTED FOR THIS! This is so wrong. This is the encapsulation of Simon's 70s persona/style imho. also: chicken suit.
#32 SO LONG, FRANK LLOYD WRIGHT - voted for this altho yeah I dunno what it really has to do with Wright. Like "At the Zoo" this is one of those songs that made living in a city seem romantic to me as a child. A city! With buildings that are not stripmalls! Where you can walk around the streets at night! Yes.
#31 GUMBOOTS - This song is too funny to not vote for it.

Believing I had supernatural powers I slammed into a brick wall.

Johnny Ace is the last song on Hearts and Bones - definitely check it out!

"Feelin' Groovy" was reinvigorated for me by Mr. Burns singing it on the Simpsons, somehow.

"At the Zoo" - can't play anything well enough to play this but I can say it's fun to sing along to. Maybe suffers a bit from transparency of metaphor but agreed, the litany is entertaining at face value, seems like a good song for kids too.

"Keep the Customer Satisfied" - had never even occurred to me that this was a drug thing although now it just seems ridiculously obvious. One that I like because my mother liked it, especially the "words I never heard in the BYE-BUL!"

Reallllly surprised "Still Crazy" is so low. Seemed just obvious to me. I've also liked it to different degrees at different times, now that I actually am getting to "that age" and have more old lovers to be wistful about (and old battles that don't seem like that big of a deal anymore) I relate to it a lot more. And man, such a smooth sound, it's like this time portal to a pretty chill but sorta sad version of the mid-70s. What was that review/post/comment that said something like "the song for anyone who's ever owned a Volkswagen Rabbit"?

"Gumboots" always reminds me of being a kid and having this whole dialogue worked out with my best friend, where one would sing the line from the song and the other would comment back, chiefly - "Believing I had supernatural powers I slammed into a brick wall" -- "Well, you're pretty stupid!"

"johnny ace" barely missed being on my ballot. it's great, one of simon's more haunting numbers, while being pretty plainspoken at the same time.

voted Gumboots high I think, love the casualness of "you don't feel you could live me but I feel you could"' esp using FEEL there instead of think

wow this is happening! i voted for only one of those songs and it was gumboots, couple others barely missed

I still don't know what to think of the Glass outro in "Johnny Ace." I can understand how it belongs conceptually but...

What was that review/post/comment that said something like "the song for anyone who's ever owned a Volkswagen Rabbit"?

I'm pretty sure I've actually heard this song in a VW Rabbit. One of my dad's friends had a Rabbit and I was in it not infrequently as a kid (kids were pretty much the only people who could fit in the backseat), and he always had music on including a lot of Paul Simon.

Anyway, "Still Crazy" is the only thing so far that I voted for. As a grade-schooler in the '70s hearing my parents' records, I think I absorbed Simon as some kind of avatar of adulthood. His stuff from that period signified the mysteries of the grown-up world to me, songs that I couldn't quite tell what they were about but helped shape my ideas of what grown-up experience might feel like. And I wasn't wrong, either. "Four in the morning, crapped out, yawning." Yeah.

(Of the others, especially happy to see "Johnny Ace" and "Gumboots.")

btw lamp can i make a request that you roll out the rest of the results slower if possible during a time when we r awake so that we can comment on each result, namaste

img for "at the zoo" is giant lol

never knew abt "So Long, Frank Lloyd Wright" breakup content, but it seems retroactively obvious.

i went to the zoo the day after i voted for "at the zoo" :)

"late great johnny ace" is kind of a slow burner for me; it took a long time for me to absorb it. it's diffuse.

"still crazy" is a great song but i don't enjoy listening to it that much. so depressing.

iirc plax loves "gumboots" and is going to be mad at its low showing.

you should maybe stick to the chicken suit version

xp

iamgine how I'm going to feel about the absence of "Big Bright Green Pleasure Machine"

xp

I think it does feel maybe a little more "stock" than some of his other lyrics - there are flashes of specificity but the ride past the gates of the factories is maybe a little too on-the-nose.

always thought this was purposeful; the small-town stockness is exactly the target of the singer's vitriol. this song means a lot to me; i used to think it was too mean, but now that i'm living in the town i grew up in it seems exactly right.

did you vote, dr. morbs? yay if you did!

ones that i voted for so far are "train in the distance" + "my little town" fwiw

sorry to be this person, but just listened to "fakin' it" for the first time and it's super-annoying

!

also voted "My Little Town", love the piano (Art!) & really the whole arrangement is slamming, esp as it ends

i love how paul simon's face always looks sad even when he's smiling

^^^youtube still for "my little town" elicited this thought

:)/:(

sad eyed lady of the lowlands

sad as a lonely little wrinkled balloon

aw i love that line. there's another good song i failed to vote for.

#38 THE 59th STREET BRIDGE SONG (FEELIN' GROOVY) - like shakey, i rejected this early on for being too cornball, but not without a twinge of regret. remember singing it in 2nd grade music class, loving the weird, sighing syncopation of "dappled and drowsy and ready to sleep".
#37 AT THE ZOO - another childhood favorite that i cut too quickly, really regret this one. similar to "the 59th street bridge song", but less cloyingly fruity, delivered with an insinuating intimacy that keeps it from getting too cute. also similar in that my favorite thing about it is the syncopation of one line: "you can take-a-the crosstown bus". the "whoa-whoa-whoa, mmm-mmm-mmm" bit here reminds me strongly of the "lie-la-lie" melody from "the boxer", but better for the understatement. should have cut that one instead :/
#36 KEEP THE CUSTOMER SATISFIED - totally voted for all these weeds songs.
#33 STILL CRAZY AFTER ALL THESE YEARS - good, but not a personal favorite. cut it to make room for "rene & georgette magritte". so sue me.
#32 SO LONG, FRANK LLOYD WRIGHT - like still crazy, almost but not quite made the cut. strange tune, hits me strong some days, other days not.
#31 GUMBOOTS - love it. didn't vote for it.

Been saying for a while that I learned what cobblestones were by having a second-grade music teacher parse the sng line by line as our class learned to sing it--but today I'm also remebering that i also learned what "no deeds to do" and "dappled" meant, and what Simon meant by "Hello, Lamppost, whatcha knowin'?" It was like my first literature class in a way, for real.

"Gumboots" is a quintessential example of how solo Simon, in his lyrics, doesn't pretend to be any dumber or less rich or more of an everyman than he actually is.

The John Adams coda to Johnny Ace is an oddity; I wonder why it's there?

that's philip glass, right? i kinda like it, though it is a kind of odd touch.

this was a fun poll, i automatically think "sounds like a museum" whenever i hear S&G now

^^^

'Late Great Johnny Ace' is so great, lovely take from Letterman in '82. https://youtu.be/HmJJZVXOeKA?t=858

5+ years since this poll! my god, seems like just yesterday. "and he idly thumbs through the pages..."

I've been listening to lots of 21st century Simon lately. Obviously these polls are never going to feature later work much, and he was already pushing 50 when he released Rhythm of the Saints, which is featured on the top 40. But I do think he has some strong 21st century songs that could be contenders for the list - songs like Wartime Prayers, Father and Daughter, The Afterlife, Wristband are all contenders for my Simon top 40.

xpost thanks for posting that version of "Late Great Johnny Ace." he's an underrated acoustic guitarist as well.

"the obvious child" placed staggeringly high, but yeah. bummer for "capeman" onward.

Wristband is def a new classic

Let's rank albums!.

7.

hearts and bones has a couple of his worst songs, would keep it out of a top 10 for me

Whoa. Not sure what happened. Here's the real link.

Did you not do a favourite songs list on this one? I’d like to see one either way.

Graceland
Paul Simon
Rhythm of the Saints
There Goes Rhymin’ Simon
Hearts and Bones

Still Crazy is half good and One Trick Pony is dreck. I’ve tried periodically to get into his albums from this century but have yet to find a compelling entry point.

You didn't like So Beautiful, sc0tt? He played "Dazzling Blue" and "Rewrite" at my show last night and they sounded tite.

Did you not do a favourite songs list on this one? I’d like to see one either way.

― piscesx, Sunday, September 9, 2018

Oops -- thought I included it in the link. Anyway, here

hey gang I have been listening to S&G all afternoon

...or, “taking a stroll round the museum” you might say

strollin' around and feelin' musey

hello placard
whatcha knowin'

man, i love Bookends the way it is, but "Save the Life of My Child" sets the bar SO high in this psych freak-out way. never really sat down with this album turned up loud enough to really enjoy the curtain-raising track (ahh, it's like i'm right there in the coffeeshop with the other beatniks...), which in turn means being absolutely bombarded by that first Moog blast in "Save." and then there are all these almost-dissonant shrieks during the breaks, like a succession of wispy, screaming Garfunkel heads dissolving into frame one after another. "America" then comes in to weld the same sonic fullness to something entirely more anthemic and harmonious. that suite right there could make an incredible first side of a double 10" or something.

imagine if the whole album were all AS insane as that. eat your heart out, Smile! but then again it's a great album as is. feels like one of the best things to come out of that period of people being rocked by Sgt. Pepper and expanding their ambitions and all that (is that still considered more or less accurate or is it Beatle propaganda?). i get the sense it was received as a Major Album at the time, but i don't remember ever really seeing it namechecked when i was learning the musical metanarrative of "The Sixties." is it effectively S&G's Revolver?

clemenza otm upthread about how jaw-dropping "America" is when i let myself listen with fresh ears. i know it was when i first got into them at like age 17. but damn!

it’s a heavy album. “old friends” is especially intense. really love that weird little mini detour with the piccolo or whatever and the typewriter is very British-y to me and makes me think of that era of McCartney kinda

I mean the detour in “fakin it”, accidentally clipped a sentence about how much I dig that one

"Fakin' It" also has the crazy opening, with the Mellotron (?) and stomping, Cecilia-esque percussion bursting in while already fading out... anticipating by decades the sound of an album with continuous transitions getting chopped up by skipping to an individual track on CD or MP3. so yeah side 2 is a little trippier than I remembered last night while only on side 1!

hello i am having a paul simon day today & remembering how great this poll was <3

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q_rHSTjyWNk

Life, I love you.

Liberace was the last-minute fill-in for that number when Stravinsky was unavailable.

And the Young Folks were subbing for the Fugs.