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― Gatsby was a success, in the end, wasn't he? (D-40), Monday, 22 August 2011 18:24 (thirteen years ago) link
pure sex
― ice cr?m, Monday, 22 August 2011 19:17 (thirteen years ago) link
Talked to a gal this weekend who thought for decades that the song was called "Coat of Chrome."
― The Freewheelin' Rebecca Black (Eazy), Monday, 22 August 2011 19:20 (thirteen years ago) link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EmAAaXI8riY&ob=av2e
― Doctor Casino, Tuesday, 23 August 2011 04:30 (thirteen years ago) link
I think I thought that too for a while til I bought the 45.
― Alamac, Tuesday, 23 August 2011 19:57 (thirteen years ago) link
Tonight I listened to my favourite Radio 2 programme about standards, mostly c.1920s-1950s.
The theme was songs with the word 'crazy' so it made a rare foray to 'still crazy after all these years', which presenter Russell Davies praised.
What was interesting was, he agreed with Horseshoe's view of the song as being about a murderer! Though maybe a would-be killer rather than one who has already done it in the song.
I had never really heard the song all the way through before. Need to hear it again.
I post this mainly for Horseshoe's benefit.
― the pinefox, Sunday, 28 August 2011 21:11 (thirteen years ago) link
I feel like the "murderer" reading sort of steps too far away from the tone/mood of the song, or maybe it's just like - - - for the people that bought and connected with this record at the time, it totally wasn't a "twist" song about one of those "always was a quiet guy, kept to himself" cases... It was about a feeling that they themselves had or recognized...y'know? This sense of being in your 30s (in the 70s), a little rattled, some notches on the bedpost now and most of the old dramas with people settled down into warm recognition (maybe with a few lines around the smiles) - the important thing isn't that he could picture himself going off and doing something nuts, but that he "would not be convicted by a jury of (his) peers" - because they're going through the same thing and can all relate to where he's coming from.
...I dunno!
― Doctor Casino, Tuesday, 30 August 2011 16:52 (thirteen years ago) link
no no you guys this one's pretty easy
"I look outside my window and I watch the Cars" - Paul is in London where Roy Thomas Baker is producing their debut, he sees them arriving at the studio daily for tracking"I fear I'll do some damage one fine day" - he is thinking of covering one of their songs in his own style"but I would not be found guilty by a jury of my peers" - old hippies will love my Cars cover no matter what it sounds like"still crazy after all these years" - I am an axe murderer
― pathos of the unwarranted encore (underrated aerosmith bootlegs I have owned), Tuesday, 30 August 2011 16:57 (thirteen years ago) link
i'm sorry but lol
― tylerw, Tuesday, 30 August 2011 17:00 (thirteen years ago) link
I'm not sorry
― satisfying punishment for that thing he said about lesbians (Shakey Mo Collier), Tuesday, 30 August 2011 17:04 (thirteen years ago) link
always thought that the line "It was late in the evening, and I blew that room away" referred to simon's desire to mow his audience down with a submachine gun.
― tylerw, Tuesday, 30 August 2011 17:06 (thirteen years ago) link
^^Inspired by his viewing of Female Trouble.
― Status Update...in my Seether? (C. Grisso/McCain), Tuesday, 30 August 2011 17:07 (thirteen years ago) link
stepped outside to smoke some angel dust
― pathos of the unwarranted encore (underrated aerosmith bootlegs I have owned), Tuesday, 30 August 2011 17:09 (thirteen years ago) link
i think when he went outside and "smoked himself a J" he actually killed a dude named Jay with an axe.
― tylerw, Tuesday, 30 August 2011 17:09 (thirteen years ago) link
thanks, pinefox!
whatever, you guys lol yourselves a lol, i think "still crazy after all these years" is legit menacing. i was convinced by WmC's reading earlier in this thread, but still.
― horseshoe, Tuesday, 30 August 2011 17:24 (thirteen years ago) link
best interpreted via the SNL turkey suit performance
― incredibly middlebrow (Dr Morbius), Tuesday, 30 August 2011 17:30 (thirteen years ago) link
I think it's more an undertone/subtle implication than the cruz of the song but that interpretation is completely legit and is how I've always thought of it
― satisfying punishment for that thing he said about lesbians (Shakey Mo Collier), Tuesday, 30 August 2011 17:31 (thirteen years ago) link
crux
― satisfying punishment for that thing he said about lesbians (Shakey Mo Collier), Tuesday, 30 August 2011 17:32 (thirteen years ago) link
like, all of what Dr. Casino notes is true (and is crucial to why the song works so well!) but then there's this subtext underneath of it referring to a deeper, more personalized, threatening craziness.
A few more layers than "I get up to wash my face/When I come back to dance, someone's taken my place."
― reggae night staple center (Eazy), Tuesday, 30 August 2011 17:39 (thirteen years ago) link
it's back to BED btw
― satisfying punishment for that thing he said about lesbians (Shakey Mo Collier), Tuesday, 30 August 2011 17:44 (thirteen years ago) link
― tylerw, Tuesday, August 30, 2011 1:06 PM Bookmark
aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahahahahahah
― Doctor Casino, Tuesday, 30 August 2011 17:49 (thirteen years ago) link
horseshoes reading would be less convincing if paul simon didnt look like a guy who stares at you intensely on the subway
― max, Tuesday, 30 August 2011 18:17 (thirteen years ago) link
lol he does! btw i don't think paul simon, the actual historical person, killed a dude.
― horseshoe, Tuesday, 30 August 2011 18:19 (thirteen years ago) link
nah i just think he thinks about it, like, all the time
― max, Tuesday, 30 August 2011 18:24 (thirteen years ago) link
http://hem.passagen.se/hakangbg/paulsimon.jpgsaw a guy like this on the bus, he definitely was thinking about killing me
― tylerw, Tuesday, 30 August 2011 18:26 (thirteen years ago) link
Most murderrific material was his Broadway musical The Capeman... which I saw, for free! It wasn't the worst thing I've ever experienced.
― incredibly middlebrow (Dr Morbius), Tuesday, 30 August 2011 18:36 (thirteen years ago) link
Capeman album is very strange
― satisfying punishment for that thing he said about lesbians (Shakey Mo Collier), Tuesday, 30 August 2011 18:39 (thirteen years ago) link
i don't know that one at all, but it's on Spotify!
― horseshoe, Tuesday, 30 August 2011 18:40 (thirteen years ago) link
best song title: "You Fucked Up My Life"
― incredibly middlebrow (Dr Morbius), Tuesday, 30 August 2011 18:42 (thirteen years ago) link
I'll just say that I don't think Derek Walcott's style really jibes well with Simon. Hearing Simon employing declarative "motherfuckers" and "n******" is very jarring.
― satisfying punishment for that thing he said about lesbians (Shakey Mo Collier), Tuesday, 30 August 2011 18:47 (thirteen years ago) link
"Adios Hermanos" is a great song. Don't really like the rest.
― reggae night staple center (Eazy), Tuesday, 30 August 2011 18:50 (thirteen years ago) link
I think the MFs and Ns are more Simon writing in the full-on voice of a character than Wolcott's doing. (I don't think DW co-wrote "Adios", which makes me think a) it was the song that convinced Simon he could write a bunch of songs on this same thing and b) working with a Nobel-prize winning poet doesn't improve what Simon does.)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RRWMWktpNHA
― reggae night staple center (Eazy), Tuesday, 30 August 2011 18:53 (thirteen years ago) link
for the record this is not Walcott's style either.
― a 'catch-all', almost humorous, 'Jeez' quality (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Tuesday, 30 August 2011 18:55 (thirteen years ago) link
I'm more apt to credit or blame Simon for it.
sorry my post was poorly worded, didn't mean to imply a direct causal relationship between the two sentences. It's more like Walcott's style doesn't work AND Paul's writing "in character" is sorta off-putting
― satisfying punishment for that thing he said about lesbians (Shakey Mo Collier), Tuesday, 30 August 2011 19:04 (thirteen years ago) link
adios hermanos is a great song that i cant really listen to
― max, Tuesday, 30 August 2011 19:44 (thirteen years ago) link
― incredibly middlebrow (Dr Morbius), Tuesday, August 30, 2011
This was great.
― curmudgeon, Tuesday, 30 August 2011 20:19 (thirteen years ago) link
listening again to the radio programme on BBC iPlayer
he played the song, again, and said it suggested a quiet killerand told of the turkey shoot, I mean, turkey suit, performance
glad to see this thread revival happened.
― the pinefox, Thursday, 1 September 2011 22:34 (thirteen years ago) link
he played the song, again, and said it suggested a quiet killer
wait Simon's actually said this...?!
― I can feel it in my spiritual hat (Shakey Mo Collier), Thursday, 1 September 2011 22:34 (thirteen years ago) link
They brought him out to do "Sounds of Silence" at the 9/11 memorial.
― Alamac, Sunday, 11 September 2011 14:35 (thirteen years ago) link
it was Russell Davies who talked about the song, on the radio
I'd like to see that latest performance. saw James Taylor playing in a suit on BBC!
― the pinefox, Sunday, 11 September 2011 16:42 (thirteen years ago) link
http://gawker.com/5839085/watch-paul-simon-perform-sound-of-silence-at-the-911-memorial
― Volvo Twilight (p-dog), Sunday, 11 September 2011 17:26 (thirteen years ago) link
Not a bad version by the way.
― Anakin Ska Walker (AKA Skarth Vader) (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Sunday, 11 September 2011 17:28 (thirteen years ago) link
Once in high school in the pitch black of a cold winter morning I heard the click of my clock radio alarm coming on and then those words "Hello darkness my old friend" and it freaked me out for a few minutes.
I, too, saw The Capeman on Broadway. Thought the music was going to have more of a genuine Latin feel given the vocalists involved and was disappointed by what it turned out to be, especially the second-rate Leiber and Stoller imitation "Shoplifting Clothes"- heck, back in the day Jerry and Mike were already borrowing from Latin music and it was a lot better than what PS came up with. My fellow theatergoer Quincy Jones liked it even less than I did, according to the conversation I overheard during the break.
Talked to a gal this weekend who thought for decades that the song was called "Coat of Chrome."― The Freewheelin' Rebecca Black (Eazy), Monday, August 22, 2011 3:20 PM (2 weeks ago)
― The Freewheelin' Rebecca Black (Eazy), Monday, August 22, 2011 3:20 PM (2 weeks ago)
― Agent Double O POLL (James Redd and the Blecchs), Sunday, 11 September 2011 17:41 (thirteen years ago) link
NOTHING BUT THE DEAD AND DYING BACK IN MY LITTLE TOWN
― horseshoe, Thursday, 3 November 2011 17:34 (twelve years ago) link
was just jammin rhythm of the saints, those later tracks they sneak up on you
― ice cr?m, Thursday, 3 November 2011 17:37 (twelve years ago) link
yeah that album rules. "spirit voices"!
― horseshoe, Thursday, 3 November 2011 17:40 (twelve years ago) link
Loved his Simon & Garfunkel work... I never really delved too far into his solo work (I've heard the self-titled debut, Rhymin' Simon, Graceland and Rhythm Of The Saints), but it never really did that much for me aside from a few moments. I think 'The Coast' is one of the best songs he's ever written.
― Turrican, Thursday, 3 November 2011 17:42 (twelve years ago) link
born at the right time through rhythm of the saints is an awesome stretch
― max, Thursday, 3 November 2011 17:51 (twelve years ago) link