What's your favourite Paul Simon song?

Subject: What's your favourite Paul Simon song?
From: Rt Revd Sir jOhn from Hull
Date: 28 Jul 02 - 11:36 PM

I like Still Crazy after All These Years, Hearts and Bones & Graceland.

Subject: RE: BS: What's your favourite Paul Simon song?
From: Jack the Sailor
Date: 28 Jul 02 - 11:39 PM

The Sound of Sirens

Subject: RE: BS: What's your favourite Paul Simon song?
From: GUEST,BO in KY
Date: 29 Jul 02 - 12:22 AM

So hard to choose ... I would have to say anything off of "Rhythm of the Saints", probably one of the best underrated albums ever, but if forced, "Further to Fly" gets me every time ....

Subject: :Add: UNDER AFRICAN SKIES / AMERICAN TUNE (Simon)
From: catspaw49
Date: 29 Jul 02 - 01:50 AM

Tough choices.........

UNDER AFRICAN SKIES
Paul Simon


        Joseph's face was black as the night
        The pale yellow moon shone in his eyes
        His path was marked
        By the stars in the Southern Hemisphere
        And he walked the length of his days
        Under African Skies

        D - G - / D - A - // repeat throughout

C:        This is the story of how we begin to remember
        This is the powerful pulsing of love in the vein
        After the dream of falling and calling your name out
        These are the roots of rhythm
        And the roots of rhythm remain

        In early memory
        Mission music
        Was ringing 'round my nursery door
        I said take this child, Lord
        From Tucson, Arizona
        Give her the wings to fly through harmony
        And she won't bother you no more

C:        This is the story of how we begin to remember
        This is the powerful pulsing of love in the vein
        After the dream of falling and calling your name out
        These are the roots of rhythm
        And the roots of rhythm remain

B:        Ba umba umba umba hey - hey - hey ...

        Joseph's face was black as the night
        The pale yellow moon shone in his eyes
        His path was marked
        By the stars in the Southern Hemisphere
        And he walked the length of his days
        Under African Skies

OR MAYBE.................

AMERICAN TUNE
Words and Music by Paul Simon

Many's the time I've been mistaken
And many times confused.
Yes, and I've often felt forsaken
And certainly misused.
Oh, but I'm all right, I'm alright,
I'm just weary to my bones,
Still you don't expect to be bright and bon vivant
So far away from home,
So far away from home.

I don't know a soul who's not been battered,
I don't have a friend who feels at ease,
I don't know a dream that's not been shattered
Or driven to its knees.
Oh, but it's alright, it's alright,
For we lived so well so long,
Still, when I think of the road we're trav'ling on,
I wonder what's gone wrong,
I can't help it, I wonder what's gone wrong.

And I dreamed I was dying.
I dreamed that my soul rose unexpectedly
And looking back down at me,
Smiled reassuringly.
And I dreamed I was flying,
And high up above my eyes could clearly see
The Status of Liberty,
Sailing away to sea,
And I dreamed I was flying.

We come on the ship they call the Mayflower,
We come on the ship that sailed the moon.
We come in the age's most uncertain hours
And sing an American Tune.
Oh, and it's alright, it's alright, it's alright.
You can't be forever blessed.
Still tomorrow's goin' to be another working day,
And I'm trying to get some rest,
That's all I'm trying, to get some rest.

Subject: RE: BS: What's your favourite Paul Simon song?
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 29 Jul 02 - 01:57 AM

Still Crazy after All These Years. It can be interpreted in several ways.... it just suits me down to the ground on many of them.

LTS

Subject: RE: BS: What's your favourite Paul Simon song?
From: C-flat
Date: 29 Jul 02 - 02:50 AM

Thanks, Catspaw, I was just trying to remember the title of "Under African Skies" when I read your post. I love the opening harmonies to that song.
I remember seeing a documentary about the making of the Graceland album which showed Simon discussing the writing and recording process. Everything was worked and re-worked and painstakingly gone over. The guy is such a perfectionist, not just about the musical content or the lyrical sentiment but the actual sound of every word and its relationship with the following words.
That the man's a genius is generally accepted, but he must be hell to work with!

Subject: RE: BS: What's your favourite Paul Simon song?
From: Benjamin
Date: 29 Jul 02 - 03:18 AM

This is a hard question. All and all, I would have to say that Paul Simon is my favorite songwriter/musician.

I've always loved his first album (with Art). Bridge Over Troubled Water is a great song. I Know What I Know or The Boy in the Bubble from Graceland. Spirit Voices is probably one of his most underrated songs.

Another noble thing he did was introduce Bakithi Khumalo's bass playing to the world. That guy is amazing!

Subject: RE: BS: What's your favourite Paul Simon song?
From: Murray MacLeod
Date: 29 Jul 02 - 03:45 AM

As usual, Spaw has beaten me to it.

I think "American Tune" is one of the truly great songs, and it will always remain a mystery to me why Paul Simon chose to sing "The Boxer" at that 9/11 memorial concert rather than "American Tune", which would have been the perfect anthem for the occasion.

Murray

Subject: RE: BS: What's your favourite Paul Simon song?
From: Jerry Rasmussen
Date: 29 Jul 02 - 07:36 AM

Hard choice, indeed. It changes, depending on what CD I pull out. Kinda like the playground ritual of figuring out who is your First Best Friend, Second Best Friend and Third Best Friend. Some favorites that come to mind are Diamonds on the Soles of Her Shoes, (Everybody Loves the Sound of a) Train in the Distance (true words were never spoken), and Still Crazy after All These Years. Under African Skies is in there, too. I had the great pleasure of hearing Paul with musicians from both the Graceland and Rhythm Of The Spirit albums, including Ladysmith Black Mombazo, and a surprise guest appearance by Art Garfunkel seven or eight years ago in New York City. It was certainly the greatest concert I've ever been to.

Jerry

Subject: RE: BS: What's your favourite Paul Simon song?
From: dwditty
Date: 29 Jul 02 - 08:11 AM

Lord help me if I ever have to sit through another Paul Simon song....j/k. John Forster does a hilarious spoof of Simon called "Fusion" on his Entering Marion disc. It has become my favorite "Simon" song.

dw

Subject: RE: BS: What's your favourite Paul Simon song?
From: bernil
Date: 29 Jul 02 - 08:19 AM

I haven't heard everything but I do love what I've heard. The only records I have are Greatest Hits and the Rhythm of the Saints. I also have some old hits recorded on cassette. Bridge over Troubled Water and The Boxer are some of the wonderful old songs, and Obvious Child is one of the newer ones that I like. I wonder how many records he has made... I'd like to hear everything even if I have his Greatest Hits!

Berit

Subject: RE: BS: What's your favourite Paul Simon song?
From: SharonA
Date: 29 Jul 02 - 09:28 AM

"American Tune" is my fave, too!

Subject: RE: BS: What's your favourite Paul Simon song?
From: Justa Picker
Date: 29 Jul 02 - 11:03 AM

I'd think the 2 best songs Simon has written are Bridge Over Troubled Water and 50 Ways To Leave Your Lover.

Subject: RE: BS: What's your favourite Paul Simon song?
From: Mrrzy
Date: 29 Jul 02 - 11:51 AM

Was a sunny day
Not a cloud was in the sky
Not a negative word was heard
From the people passing by
Twas a sunny day
All the birdies in the trees
And the radio singing songs
All the favorite melodies...

Subject: Lyr Add: KATHY'S SONG (Paul Simon)
From: allanwill
Date: 29 Jul 02 - 11:57 AM

KATHY'S SONG
(Paul Simon)

I hear the drizzle of the rain,
like a memory it falls,
soft and warm, continuing,
tapping on my roof and walls.

And from the shelter of my mind,
through the window of my eyes
I gaze beyond the rain-drenched streets,
to England where my heart lies.

My mind's distracted and diffused,
my thoughts are many miles away.
They lie with you when you're asleep,
and kiss you when you start your day.

And a song I was writing is left undone.
I don't know why I spend my time
writing songs I can't believe
with words that tear and strain to rhyme.

And so you see I have come to doubt
all that I once held as true.
I stand alone without beliefs.
The only truth I know is you.

And as I watch the drops of rain
weave their weary paths and die
I know that I am like the rain.
There but for the grace of you go I.

Subject: RE: BS: What's your favourite Paul Simon song?
From: M.Ted
Date: 29 Jul 02 - 12:21 PM

I hadn't thought of Kathy's Song, but I listened to it a lot when I was young, and it still gets to me.

I love to hear "Red Rubber Ball", such a glib combination of wit and pain, though I understand Simon hates the song--and I agree that "The Boxer" was a bizarre choice--There are so many of his songs that would have worked better--people have mentioned that "Bridge Over Troubled Water" would have been a compelling choice, but "The Sound of Silence" would have been a good choice--"the vision that was planted in my brain still remains"--

Subject: RE: BS: What's your favourite Paul Simon song?
From: kendall
Date: 29 Jul 02 - 12:27 PM

Tossup between The Sound of Silence and The Boxer.

Subject: RE: BS: What's your favourite Paul Simon song?
From: Jack the Sailor
Date: 29 Jul 02 - 12:27 PM

America,

I've got some real estate here in my bag.

Subject: RE: BS: What's your favourite Paul Simon song?
From: Little Hawk
Date: 29 Jul 02 - 02:24 PM

Paul Simon's a darn good songwriter, still I find him a little too "delicate" sometimes...it depends.

I'll go for "Kathy's Song" too. I also really like "The Boxer" and "Mrs Robinson" and "Still Crazy after All These Years". Most of the songs on "Graceland" are marvelous. I'm not too familiar with "Rythm of the Saints".

- LH

Subject: RE: What's your favourite Paul Simon song?
From: RolyH
Date: 29 Jul 02 - 05:07 PM

Its got to be America.

Many years ago on a long boring journey from NY to Miami on a Greyhound bus the passengers took turns to go up front and sing a song.On one of my few public appearances I sang the song which at the time seemed appropiate.

(are there still Greyhound buses?)

Subject: RE: What's your favourite Paul Simon song?
From: Steve-o
Date: 29 Jul 02 - 05:58 PM

I'll take "St. Judy's Comet"....of all the songs written by rock stars about their brand new children (some of which are truly inspired), that is the coolest one. For the record, I think Paul HAD a great songwriting gift, but now it's gone- just take a listen to his recent album. He's mellowed himself into nothingness. By the way, "'The Boxer' was a bizarre choice" for the concert? It's a perfect choice- it's all about tough New Yorkers.

Subject: RE: What's your favourite Paul Simon song?
From: M.Ted
Date: 29 Jul 02 - 06:07 PM

No one knew how to react to "The Boxer" until Lorne Michaels explained it, later in the week--with the right song, it would have become one of those "defining moments in television" that people remember forever--as it was, it was all a bit awkward--

Subject: RE: What's your favourite Paul Simon song?
From: Murray MacLeod
Date: 29 Jul 02 - 06:12 PM

That is certainly how it came across, M.Ted, not only to me, but to several other (American) people with whom I spoke afterwards.

Murray

Subject: RE: What's your favourite Paul Simon song?
From: greg stephens
Date: 29 Jul 02 - 06:57 PM

As a 60's person, things were pretty tribal. You liked the Stones or the Beatles, but not both. Likewise Bob Dylan and Paul Simon. Me, I liked Bob Dylan, Paul Simon was a soft cissie. So what a pleasure was waiting for me years later when I discovered the boy anew and learned to love him to bits. Of his many wonderful songs, let me purely for Mudcat reasons nominate "Mrs Robinson".
(1) It's a good song
(2) For people who like discussing old movies, it's great that bit when Dustin Hoffman drives over the bridge.
(3) For musicians, that chord that starts that sequence off is brilliant.
(4) For old lechers, it reminds you of Ann Bancroft

For nerds, it lets you say "He's driving the WRONG WAY over the bridge"

Subject: RE: What's your favourite Paul Simon song?
From: drummergirl
Date: 29 Jul 02 - 08:27 PM

Anything from Graceland - in particular "You Can Call Me Al".

My best friend and I were singing it all the time when we were in Ireland two years ago. Then when I was there this summer, the TV kept playing commercials for a special concert of Simon and Van Morrison and the Fun Loving Criminals, and it made me really miss her.

Subject: RE: What's your favourite Paul Simon song?
From: kendall
Date: 29 Jul 02 - 10:28 PM

Paul Simon may have been a sissy, but he wrote his own songs!

Subject: RE: What's your favourite Paul Simon song?
From: Little Hawk
Date: 30 Jul 02 - 12:43 AM

kendall - Yeah....and???

(I know, you're just trying to get a rise out of us Dylan fans. Don't forget, Paul Simon stole "Parsley, Sage, Rosemary & Thyme" from a fellow songwriter...so I've heard.)

- LH

Subject: RE: What's your favourite Paul Simon song?
From: Benjamin
Date: 30 Jul 02 - 01:32 AM

LH, the story is: that song is a traditional song. Apparently, Dylan's Girl of the North Country is pretty much the same song (so I'm told).

Subject: RE: What's your favourite Paul Simon song?
From: Wincing Devil
Date: 30 Jul 02 - 02:20 AM

Bookends
American Tune
Diamonds on the Soles of Her Shoes

I particularly thank him for introducing me to Ladysmith Black Mambazo

Subject: RE: What's your favourite Paul Simon song?
From: EBarnacle1
Date: 30 Jul 02 - 10:48 AM

I like most of his songs, but two questions remain: Why should a sloth be sympathetic (sympathetic ai's)? Is Rosie the queen of Corona male or female?

Subject: RE: What's your favourite Paul Simon song?
From: Little Hawk
Date: 30 Jul 02 - 03:02 PM

Benjamin - Yeah, the song is trad...it was the particular arrangement of it that Paul Simon "borrowed" from some musical friend (whose name I can't recall)...just as Dylan did with Dave Van Ronk's "House of the Rising Sun".

- LH

Subject: RE: What's your favourite Paul Simon song?
From: Rt Revd Sir jOhn from Hull
Date: 30 Jul 02 - 03:26 PM

LH-I believe the name you can't recall is Martin Carthy.

Subject: RE: What's your favourite Paul Simon song?
From: RolyH
Date: 30 Jul 02 - 03:30 PM

Paul Simon nicked the arrangement of Scarborough Fair from Martin Carthy. Carthy's main beef was that Simon didn't credit "trad arr"
They kissed and made up and sang the song together last year

Subject: RE: What's your favourite Paul Simon song?
From: mousethief
Date: 30 Jul 02 - 03:42 PM

Think Too Much (the slower one -- can't remember if it's 'a' or 'b').

After that, anything on Rhythm of the Saints.

Alex

Subject: RE: What's your favourite Paul Simon song?
From: Greenbeer
Date: 30 Jul 02 - 07:54 PM

mine is bookends

Subject: RE: What's your favourite Paul Simon song?
From: Greenbeer
Date: 30 Jul 02 - 08:12 PM

oh and i forgot another one: "The Only Living Boy in New York"

Subject: RE: What's your favourite Paul Simon song?
From: GUEST,Frogmore
Date: 30 Jul 02 - 11:40 PM

Many. How 'bout "(Can't Get Used to) Something So Right."?

Let's hear it for Paul, a great American songwriter.

Subject: RE: What's your favourite Paul Simon song?
From: GUEST,Don
Date: 31 Jul 02 - 03:01 PM

I'm not sure what my favorite Paul Simon SONG is, but I can tell you my favorite LINE from a Paul Simon song:

"My father was a fisherman, my mother was a fisherman's friend"

Subject: RE: What's your favourite Paul Simon song?
From: GUEST,Bill Kennedy
Date: 31 Jul 02 - 03:05 PM

there is no such thing

Subject: RE: What's your favourite Paul Simon song?
From: Dave & Julie
Date: 31 Jul 02 - 04:35 PM

PS's songwriting has constantly improved but I still get a rare buzz from the "raw edge" of his very first solo album "The Paul Simon Song Book". Choose any from "He Was My Brother", "A Church Is Burning", "I Am a Rock", "A Most Peculiar Man", "Leaves That Are Green", "Flowers Never Bend with the Rainfall". I still have the vinyl - unsophisticated, magical stuff.

Subject: RE: What's your favourite Paul Simon song?
From: Catherine Jayne
Date: 31 Jul 02 - 05:39 PM

My favourite Paul Simon song is "The Sound of Silence" but my favourite line must be "and an island never cries". As a child my brother and I would listen to the song "I Am a Rock" on long journeys.

Cat

Subject: RE: What's your favourite Paul Simon song?
From: GUEST,Renata
Date: 31 Jul 02 - 06:22 PM

It's got to be "America" - emigrating from Europe in the 70's, and on my way to "look for America" myself then, this one still gets me every time....

Subject: RE: What's your favourite Paul Simon song?
From: Deda
Date: 31 Jul 02 - 09:04 PM

I can't believe no one has mentioned Lincoln Duncan. Paul Simon has always been one of my favorite songwriters, although I agree, he's probably very demanding to work with. I just never get tired of him. I loved his earliest solo stuff, from Rhymin' Simon -- Papa Hobo. Also One Trick Pony. I loved all his stuff from the "Graduate" era, too. I still do. I can't think of any of his work that I don't really admire and enjoy terrifically.

Subject: RE: What's your favourite Paul Simon song?
From: GUEST
Date: 31 Jul 02 - 09:51 PM

Homeward Bound, is mine, mainly because I have never worked out that starting guitar lick. I'm sure a 'tuning' was involved.

Subject: RE: What's your favourite Paul Simon song?
From: GUEST,Bo in KY
Date: 31 Jul 02 - 11:59 PM

Just have to throw in a few more:

from the "Hearts & Bones" album, "René and Georgette Magritte with their Dog after the War" is sonically surreal, psychedelic, and knocks me out every time:

"with all of the mannequins dressed in the style
that brought tears to their immigrant eyes
just like the Penguins, the Moonglows, the Orioles
and the 5 Satins
The deep forbidden music they've been longing for ..."

And yes, the new album is fairly lame in comparison, but it has its moments:
This is from "Hurricane Eye":

"I'll be away for a long time, so here's how the story goes:
There once was a woman who lived in a shoe
she was baking a cinnamon pie
she fell asleep in a washing machine
and woke up in a hurricane eye..."

OK, so it doesn't work all that well as poetry. But the beat builds and modulates and grows on you!

Subject: RE: What's your favourite Paul Simon song?
From: GUEST,Frogmore
Date: 01 Aug 02 - 12:02 AM

To me, Paul Simon is America's Lennon/McCartney in terms of diversity, intelligence, and good ol' soul. Now Bob Dylan...that's a whole 'nother thing. And Mississippi John, and Hoagy, and Mose, and ....... Goodnight y'all.

Subject: RE: What's your favourite Paul Simon song?
From: Sir Roger de Beverley
Date: 01 Aug 02 - 10:16 AM

Dave & Julie

I too have a vinyl copy of the PS Songbook that he signed for us when stopping over after playing the Grimsby Folk Club (UK) just before S&G hit the charts with The Sound of Silence.

Since it was deleted many years ago and has never been transferred to CD (apart from a couple of tracks on a compilation) I guess that it is pretty valuable - not that I'd sell it.

R

Subject: RE: What's your favourite Paul Simon song?
From: GUEST,Lori
Date: 01 Aug 02 - 11:58 AM

Poem On an Underground Wall is my favorite Paul Simon song. I also like the poem itself. The last time I looked it was still there, scribbled on the advertising at the Russell Square station. "...a single word his poem comprising, four letters..."

Subject: RE: What's your favourite Paul Simon song?
From: Lonesome EJ
Date: 01 Aug 02 - 01:13 PM

I like Paul's stuff, but much of his early work was pretty sophomoric. Take his line from The Dangling Conversation

And you read your Emily Dickinson
And I my Robert Frost

Tell me that doesn't sound like the kind of pretentious crap an English Major at NYU would write.

I like Celia a lot, as well as Bridge Over Troubled Water, and Still Crazy after All These Years. And America? A little too much touching angst in the line "Cathy, I whispered 'I'm lost', though I knew she was sleeping". Have to admit I fell for that kind of thing when I was, myself, a college lad.

Subject: RE: What's your favourite Paul Simon song?
From: John Hardly
Date: 01 Aug 02 - 02:41 PM

Possibly One Trick Pony. I saw Peter Mulvey in a house concert cover this song and it was stunning. Another fave is Baby Driver. I can't hear it and not smile. Love the two "America's" too.