POLL paul simon - the rhythm of the saints

betting $10 the words "vampire weekend" were willfully excised from that story

― some dude, Saturday, June 20, 2009 4:29 PM (45 minutes ago) Bookmark

lol @ this btw

was just gonna re-paste that with a "lol"

pretty sure vamp week was mentioned by 1 j0rdan s. last nite lol

could post aim transcript but its mostly boring

im going to vote for something non-obvious ... child. just cuz

"cool cool river" is super underrated so im going with that. could also go with 'she moves on' & 'further to fly' is dope too. love this album. my dad used to play it allll the time

wtf jordan, i feel this is out of character

Srsly!

Anyway, the first Simon I ever owned, and one of my first concerts. He started playing this ballad and I turned to the yuppie next to me in the buttoned-down white shirt and said, "Hey, what is this?" He said, rather huffily, "`The Boxer'" and looked away. I hated yuppies from that point on.

Also: the only concert I've ever attended at which the performer plays one hit song ("You Can Call Me Al") and then says, "Boy, that was great! Let's do it again!" And plays it again!

I voted for "Can't Run But," just cuz of the synth and the way he pronounces "cooling system."

sargnt: "can't run but" is something like hoos would title a song

btw jordan, whenever you're back in town, this is the first album we gotta discuss

"can't run but" is cool but the first time i expected it to build to something in the outro and i've been disappointed that it kinda just peters out ever since

i voted for "the coast" cuz as much as i love like "the obvious child" i think this album's about riding out the grooves on the longest songs and "the coast" is my favorite of those - the verse (or is it the chorus?) that starts with "to prove that i love yoou" and goes into "ooh ahh ooh ahh doo wah doo wah" is probably my fav part on the whole album - it's almost too jimmy buffet or something but instead it's perfect

it doesnt even bother me that he says "the rose of jericho"

Coast #1, Rhythm #2. Two of the most relaxed pieces of music ever.

"Can't Run But"

haha thats the last song i would expect geir to like

way 2 be inconsistent

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

Man, I missed this one. Would've been "The Coast" in a heartbeat, with "Cool Cool River" and "Obvious Child" in at #3 and #2.

i voted for "the coast" cuz as much as i love like "the obvious child" i think this album's about riding out the grooves on the longest songs and "the coast" is my favorite of those - the verse (or is it the chorus?) that starts with "to prove that i love yoou" and goes into "ooh ahh ooh ahh doo wah doo wah" is probably my fav part on the whole album - it's almost too jimmy buffet or something but instead it's perfect

― swag serf (J0rdan S.), Sunday, June 21, 2009 12:41 AM Bookmark

Yeah for real! Love the main riff too. And "If I have weaknesses, don't let them blind me no-o-ow!"

I've gotten some merciless clowning from trying to turn people on to this album but FUCK THE HATERS, MAAAN.

THE CROSS IS IN THE BALLPARK

still rubbing the cold from my eyes at sarge starting this poll

my first real rock concert was during the "born at the right time" tour. LA forum! i was 10? 11? it was awesome.

great poll

born at the right time didn't get any votes?

I would have voted for 'The Coast' in this. One of Simon's best ever songs, IMO. Some absolutely beautiful guitar work and almost everything about the track seems to be a hook.

TO PROVE THAT I LOVE YOU

That's worth something, when you think about it, that is worth some monn-ehh!

i like this album more than graceland

Repoll this sometime!

this album is just fucking interesting. particular the interaction between the vocal melody of the obvious child and the drumming on the bridge.

cf. joni mitchell's jungle line.

i've been listening to this a lot recently and am good w/these poll results. the coast is a great song no question but the obvious child is just on another level.

i only got into obvious child recently and this is probably my favourite simon album. def abt the second half

SUMMER SKIES STARS ARE FALLING
ALL ALONG THE INJURED COAST

lamp can you like email me when this paul simon poll comes up, i took ilm off sna

i bookmarked the chillwave thread

did i start this? i dont think i voted

j0rdan started it, i think, which is not the most in character. i didn't vote either!!

i'm sure Lamp will email you when the paul simon poll happens, and i will too, obsessively, until you show up.

oh wait i didnt

this is my fav paul simon album fwiw

horseshoe i wish u knew how much i enjoy seeing yr name on sna

i was about to post about "born at the right time" and saw you already had! this is an album where my favorite song changes a lot. like all the paul simons, really.

xp awwww no i wish U knew

so pissed nobody IMed me abt thiss poll in
09

what up yall its the real me

here's the story of how i decided to make a poll about paul simon's the rhythm of the saints

last night i was drinking beer in my bedroom and deej im'd me and said "the rhythm of the saints" is dope. i said i'd never heard it so he linked me to a few songs. i downloaded the whole thing and played it through like 3 straight times. i continued to drink beer. eventually i listened to "the coast" a few more times before "falling asleep"

then i made this poll

― swag serf (J0rdan S.), Saturday, June 20, 2009 5:13 PM (2 years ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

^cuet, imo

i need to chill the fuck out i'm going to put this album on

but explains why none of the paul simon regulators showed up, except deej

respectfully can we do this again?

i feel like i started another paul simon poll recently tho. how did that pan out?

I still own this on cassette, and since I can still play tapes in my car this is a regular. I've worn out "Cool Cool River."

i always make ppl wait for the horns on that

"cool cool river" is probably what i would vote at this particular moment in my relationship with the music of paul simon. but who knows.

plax, that bridge over troubled water thread was great; i never knew what i was missing!

either did i!

I really hate the "funny" horn fill after "We had a little son and we thought we’d call him Sonny", doubling down on a terrible lyric.

ha, that lyric always works for me, but i may be biased as my Dad's Italian family, and maybe everybody who knew him growing up, all called him "Sunny."

wound you say that the funny horn fill after the corny lyric is a bit... obvious, child?

would*

boom

Bonus track Thelma is amongst my favorite PS songs and would have easily been a great single. No idea why it didn’t make it, it’s one of the best songs from this sessions.

Never heard "Thelma" before, this is wonderful. Thanks, Moka!

The title track has always been my favorite thing here. Such a gently euphoric groove that I wish went on for another five minutes.

Always a stranger when strange isn't fashionable / Fashion is rich people waving at the door

i don't think I've heard "Thelma" in 25 years ... sounds amazing this morning.

yeah Thelma is gorgeous

Xps but

My life’s so common it disappears
And sometimes even music
Cannot substitute for tears

Goddamn. It always makes me think of Eno, somehow. It's too sweet and linear for Eno, really, but there's something in the backing that's a bit of Before and After Science, even a bit of Bush of Ghosts.

Yeah, "Thelma" was a nice surprise on that 1964-1993 box set, which was also my introduction to Simon's work beyond Graceland. IIRC, it didn't seem like it was well-reviewed, but I liked it and thought it was a generally organized and mastered really well. There's probably a few more tracks I would've included and there are a few edits that seem pointless, but that's it.

so nice to read all the praise for "The Cool, Cool River." a remarkable song!

Goddamn. It always makes me think of Eno, somehow. It's too sweet and linear for Eno, really, but there's something in the backing that's a bit of Before and After Science, even a bit of Bush of Ghosts.

― Shard-borne Beatles with their drowsy hums (Chinaski),

NARRATOR: Fifteen years later, Eno would collaborate with Simon.

Ah so glad to see the Thelma love in here and to have introduced it to j. Sam. It’s gorgeous indeed. Very underrated song in his catalogue.

i definitely hear the Before and After Science connection! especially after the first quiet bridge section, when the backing track comes pulsing back in.

The Cool, Cool River has been the song that has stuck with me for thirty-odd years from this. The propulsion of the rhythm, ambiguous harmonic structure and typically syncopated Simon vocal.

In general I find this record to be overflowing with unpretentious melodic ideas, with memorable verses, choruses, bridges, countermelodies, calls and responses on almost every track: The Coast, Can’t Run But, The Obvious Child, Spirit Voices, and Born at the Right Time. And unlike Graceland you almost never see the strings. Knit together with a production that kind of kind of marries adult contemporary and prog and has mostly aged really well, the result for me is one of the most listenable records in a decade that doesn’t have too many.

"the cool, cool river" performance during the central park concert goes so fucking hard. i love the way it builds to the horn section. watching him do that same rendition of the song opening the 1992 grammys. A24 needs to make themselves useful and reissue the concert in the park film on 4K

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6hOYtEKRHXw

And I believe in the future
We shall suffer no more
Maybe not in my lifetime
But in yours, I feel sure
Song dogs barking at the break of dawn
Lightning pushes the edges of a thunderstorm
And these streets
Quiet as a sleeping army
Send their battered dreams to heaven, to heaven
For the mother’s restless son
Who is a witness to, who is a warrior
Who denies his urge to break and run
Who says, “Hard times?
I’m used to them
The speeding planet burns
I’m used to that
My life’s so common it disappears”
And sometimes even music
Cannot substitute for tears

Thanks for posting; I love that song so very much

Never knew they filmed/released that concert -- the album is maybe my Simon desert-island pick.

honestly think it might be for me too? well, nothing can really replace 'rhythm of the saints' but i'd cheat and combine them into one desert island selection. given the timing of the concert in the park i kinda consider them sister albums. i think i like the versions of earlier songs such as "still crazy after all these years" and "loves me like a rock" better than the original versions, but maybe i just don't have the same personal connections to those earlier songs. to my ears tho i think the concert in the park arrangements sand off some of the saccharine elements of the earlier songs i.e. the strings on "still crazy after all these years" are more muted.

as for the filming... was anyone here receiving PBS membership awards in 2018?

This title was released in both audio and video formats.

As a double live-album, it was released on CD, cassette and vinyl LP.
Both VHS and Laserdisc formats were released with "Cecilia" omitted from the VHS and both "Cecilia" and "The Coast" omitted from the Laserdisc.

In July 2011 a Facebook campaign was started to request a release of the concert on DVD and Blu-ray. It was released on DVD in 2018 through PBS membership rewards. The long delay could be due to the contract with Pioneer that restricted the re-issue of concerts by artists signed to Warner on any future format.

hmm there's a guy in new zealand on ebay selling the DVD for $22 + shipping i'm buying this shit

^^^ could be a Simon lyric

And there is no doubt about it
He had a PBS Membership

There's a guy in New Zealand on eBay selling the DVD
I said, "Hey, man, don't I know you from the cinematographer's party?!"
But here I am I'm still buying his shit

(bass solo)

There is a guy in North New Zealand
He calls himself the human trampoline
And sometimes when I'm falling, flying, tumbling in turmoil
I say, "Whoah, so this is what he means."
He means we're selling it on eBay

Selling it on eBay
to Memphis Tennessee
Selling it on eBay
The shipping will be free

(horn break)

Memphis being the home of FedEx of course

Of course.

You know the nearer your destination, the more you're FedExing away

Dracula FedExed himself to Memphis iirc.