POLL paul simon - the rhythm of the saints

guys now that i have a kid i sing so much paul simes to her

can't listen to "born at the right time" without sobbing tbh

i also feel v corny, but there it is

not rhythm of the saints-specific but she just stopped letting me sing her "graceland" to sleep after basically a year of doing so.

i think rhythm has become my favorite of his albums

argh sorry for the double post

great post tho!

so nice it needed posting twice :)

I got this t-shirt on the Born at the Right Time tour — let me tell you, I was the envy of my 6th grade peers.

https://totalholisticbody.s3.amazonaws.com/band-tees-rock-tees-vintage-paul-simon-born-at-the-right-time-tour-1991-lhoxc.jpg

damn that shirt rules wtf

Scorned at the Right Time

Never been laundered, never been dry cleaned

i was pretty into comic books at the time, so i thought Paul looked kinda like the surprisingly ruthless villain in a Punisher graphic novel or something

It's funny how, for exemplifying "grown-up" songwriting, Simon's songs connect so well with kids. One of the earliest songs I remember hearing and loving was "50 Ways to Leave Your Lover," though I thought the line was "you don't have to be corduroy."

was like a pencil point
a love bite

― guess that bundt gettin eaten (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Saturday, June 28, 2014

xp ha, that's one of my kids' favorite songs! the internal rhyming in the chorus with the names makes it a fun sing along and is reminiscent of Dr. Seuss -- "hop on the bus, Gus!"

it was one of my favorites too!
also slip slidin away

re: kids: he's just a great pop songwriter, great ear for hooks and always looking for more rhythmic interest than probably any other "folk singer-songwriter" i can think of. he puts in the work to get the songs there.

i also think there's a lot of comparison to be made with Billy Joel, who i also loved from a pretty early age (though Simon got me first - maybe 3rd vs. 6th grade?). craft out the wazoo, songs you can sing along to, and maybe this intriguing edge of unfamiliar words and sketches of vaguely 'adult' situations --- all without the dreariness of sitting down to watch a 'people movie' where a bunch of grownups are just talking all the time.

oh man as a kid i was obsessed with

cars are cars
all over the world
cars are cars
all over the world
cars are caaaaaaaaaaars
all over the world

yeah as a kid I think I associated him with the adults on Sesame Street (though I didn't see his appearance on that show til years later) — they hung out with (and liked) kids and muppets but clearly had some other unknowable life going on elsewhere.

Never been laundered, never been dry cleaned

Hazy Shirt of Winter

I HAD THAT SAME SHIRT AS A HIGH SCHOOLER, I got it at a thrift store.

The druggy boys one year ahead of me, whom I worshipped, often complimented me on it, which brought me into their good graces and eventually their inner circle.

Dr C otm

Then I fall to my knees
I grow weak, I go slack
As if she captured the breath of my
voice in a bottle
And I can't catch it back

But I feel good
It's a fine day
The way the sun hits off the runway
A cloud shifts
The plane lifts
She moves on

― le goon (J0rdan S.), Sunday, June 29, 2014 11:52 AM (eight years ago)

hard to imagine better, more economical writing than "a cloud shifts / the plane lifts / she moves on." it's up there w/ "ro-lex / mo sex" for me

The Hilburn bio has draft lyrics of "The Cool Cool River" rather different from the published ones. He was meticulous about paring down.

The Cool, Cool River is a strong candidate for my choice of the greatest song ever made.

I've always adored this entire record (there's a couple of earlier posts of mine within this thread) but of late I got even more appreciation for especially Vincent Nguini's playing. It seems to me that he played guitar as if playing elaborate bass riffs, but distinct from actual bass by picking higher notes over the full span of an acoustic guitar, creating an incredible gentle, subtle and wonderfully lush background sound of a large diversity of notes. With a huge sense of rhythm to them.

an acoustic guitar

I've been meaning to get The Cool, Cool River down on solo acoustic guitar myself, but so far struggling a lot inbetween the unusual chord scheme that's out there and some youtube video which supposedly shows all of the riffs but sounds to me like a wildly jazzed-up version. My failing to follow what's exactly happening made me so much more in awe of the song than I already was.

Good post, Valentijn.

Alfred, I LOVE all the draft lyrics (already gushed twice upthread); for a couple of these songs the work-in-progress versions could easily have been released and been beloved.

my horse and my saddle
and my gracious companions
we tripped over a mountain
and we fell into a vast canyon

That the dude can write that and then throw it away continues to amaze me.

Also when I was first learning guitar - 1989 or so - I had a book of tabs called Fingerpicking Paul Simon. I don't play fingerstyle much lately, but I still use a lot of Simonesque voicings - there's a world of fun just in the "50 Ways" intro and I throw those chords on whenever I want a spacey maj7 vibe.

Simon's helluva guitarist in his own right. It's not one of his more complicated parts, but I like his strumming beneath the guitar synth and rhythmic clatter in "The Obvious Child."

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.