PAUL SIMON POLL RESULTS THREAD AND DISCUSSION

aw it is an impossible poll, max!

I didn't think cecilia would place. Lovely pop song, but it's got to be more than that to be classic Paullie

people looooooove cecilia, though. it does sound pretty amazing. i didn't vote for it.

can't believe i have to go to work in the middle of the top ten, such an indignity

i will say this for cecilia: it doesn't sound like a museum

i was the first place vote for 'diamonds' and 'cecilia' was, coincidentally, my 20th place vote. 'diamonds' was the first paul simon song i really loved its soft and sad and perfect the way the first minute or so wistfully lays out the premise, the ta-na-nas coming out almost resigned, and then the terrific insight of 'you're taking me for granted because i please you' and then the song starts to expand and brighten but stays a little forlorn 'putting on aftershave' the fantastic horns and the ooh-oohs its just such a perfect song

My perception may be coloured by first knowing it through Suggs' version.

yeah the beginning of "diamonds" i will never get sick of

xp

also the second verse

by the bodegas and the lights on upper broadway

Cecilia!!!! Lamp that pic is perfection

I love everything about this song, AND IT HAS HANDCLAPS.

jubilaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaation

surprised by "cecilia" tbh -- just always sounded throwaway to me. not, like, casually-tossed-off greatness but actual throwaway.

http://i1224.photobucket.com/albums/ee366/lamp11/06TheObvious.jpg
#06 THE OBVIOUS CHILD
1990
459 points/19 votes/2 #1 votes
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9HKNAhAxMAk&ob=av2e

xpost whut

man these results are really interesting.

Love Obvious Child, love love love love

xpost (damn lamp u move fast) whereas at times "american tune," "america," "the boxer" and "graceland" have actually saved my life

i really should have got it together to vote in this one huh?

Obvious Child was my number 1

'the obvious child' is another one of those paul simon songs that - over and above what a total fucking jam it is - just seems to capture the sort of generous humanist spirit that simon at his best. like theres a quality of clear-eyed empathy in both songs that allow them to be both sorta joyous and melancholy and gently self-mocking thats really appealing to me and also seems to genuinely express how id like to see the world, hopefully but resigned to setbacks. idk the way he elongates 'died' in 'obvious child' just fucking slays me

My top 3 were Cecilia, Diamonds, and Al - so I'm pretty satisfied with this poll so far!

"Cecilia" is just ridiculously joyous (despite the heartbreak theme) - JUBILAAAAAAAAAATION! This is incredibly fun to sing in huge groups, for a while here it was an end-of-the-night karaoke standard, whoever was still at the bar at 2:20 or whatever piling on stage and feeling the love etc.

"The Boy In The Bubble" was my #1. Had known it before, but rediscovered it a few years ago over the speakers at used book store. I was in the early stages of a still-happening life change, and man-oh-man that chorus says it all.

Obvious Child was my #2 - it just kept rising and rising, and might've been #1 had I not had a euphoric reaction to something else first.

I listened to "Obvious Child" several times thanks to Alfred's urging, but it still hasn't grabbed me.

I didn't vote for Diamonds, there are other songs on Graceland that I like more - didn't know it was so highly regarded tbh

That percussion, WmC - keep listening!

at the end of this poll I hope there's an explanation of all Lamp's pic choices cuz a bunch are going right over my head

That squawking according (I'm guessing it's an accordion) is such a perfect way to open Graceland.

uh accordion I should only type at home on a typewriter

I thought "Cecilia" would be what u folx dismiss as a novelty song

lol, "u folx"

Morbs, you are an ilxor, you are ONE OF US. Embrace it or throw yourself off a bridge as you see fit. (I'd prefer the former.)

Embrace us as we fall into thr troubled water.

that's mighty kind of you

xp

We will all fall into Graceland...

'Cecilia' is probably a novelty song, but it's joyful, funny and crackles with life. Which most novelty songs aren't.

lol, i TOLD yuz "cecilia" was top 10

it's not just some tossed-off pop tune, either, it's 2:55 of compressed human joy, delivered straight

it is "people who seem to have figured out how to live" in musical form

http://i1224.photobucket.com/albums/ee366/lamp11/05America.png
#05 AMERICA
1968 (album)/1971 (promo b-side)/1972 (single)
459 points/21 votes/2 #1 votes
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W773ZPJhcVw

so Only Living Boy is gonna be number 1 then

I have no idea why I left "America" off my ballot. Helluva tune.

sounds like a museum iirc

That was it!

Actually, I bumped it off so I could vote for childhood favorite "The Big Bright Green Pleasure Machine"

kinda figured that was gonna win, seems like the song you'd put in the paul simon time capsule

I like Bowie's version of "America."

"America" is so good, the swell of "counting the cars on the New Jersey Turnpike" is no museum piece.

Okay, America - it didn't grab me on my run through the catalogue so I set it aside. I was surprised to see you all putting it down as a lock.

Listened there again and reassessed a little. It's beautiful, but complicated - I feel like I'd need to spend a lot of time with it to appreciate it properly, like there are links and resonances where I'm not making the connections. What it reminds me most of is Surf's Up, which is a good start I'd say.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1FM1cPS6i24

^^^ empty & aching

"Be careful/His bow-tie is really a camera!"

http://i1224.photobucket.com/albums/ee366/lamp11/04Duncan.jpg
#04 DUNCAN
1972
470 points/18 votes/2 #1 votes
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ngH4zZ-oiuY