I'm sorry but Paul Simon is so overrated

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I'm not sorry

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 (twelve years ago) link

^^Inspired by his viewing of Female Trouble.

Status Update...in my Seether? (C. Grisso/McCain), Tuesday, 30 August 2011 17:07 (twelve 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 (twelve 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 (twelve 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 (twelve years ago) link

best interpreted via the SNL turkey suit performance

incredibly middlebrow (Dr Morbius), Tuesday, 30 August 2011 17:30 (twelve 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

crux

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 (twelve years ago) link

it's back to BED btw

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, August 30, 2011 1:06 PM Bookmark

aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahahahahahah

Doctor Casino, Tuesday, 30 August 2011 17:49 (twelve 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 (twelve 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 (twelve years ago) link

nah i just think he thinks about it, like, all the time

max, Tuesday, 30 August 2011 18:24 (twelve years ago) link

http://hem.passagen.se/hakangbg/paulsimon.jpg
saw a guy like this on the bus, he definitely was thinking about killing me

tylerw, Tuesday, 30 August 2011 18:26 (twelve 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 (twelve years ago) link

Capeman album is very strange

i don't know that one at all, but it's on Spotify!

horseshoe, Tuesday, 30 August 2011 18:40 (twelve years ago) link

best song title: "You Fucked Up My Life"

incredibly middlebrow (Dr Morbius), Tuesday, 30 August 2011 18:42 (twelve 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.

"Adios Hermanos" is a great song. Don't really like the rest.

reggae night staple center (Eazy), Tuesday, 30 August 2011 18:50 (twelve 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 (twelve 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.

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 (twelve years ago) link

I'm more apt to credit or blame Simon for it.

a 'catch-all', almost humorous, 'Jeez' quality (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Tuesday, 30 August 2011 18:55 (twelve years ago) link

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

adios hermanos is a great song that i cant really listen to

max, Tuesday, 30 August 2011 19:44 (twelve years ago) link

best interpreted via the SNL turkey suit performance

― incredibly middlebrow (Dr Morbius), Tuesday, August 30, 2011

This was great.

curmudgeon, Tuesday, 30 August 2011 20:19 (twelve years ago) link

listening again to the radio programme on BBC iPlayer

he played the song, again, and said it suggested a quiet killer
and 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 (twelve 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 (twelve years ago) link

They brought him out to do "Sounds of Silence" at the 9/11 memorial.

Alamac, Sunday, 11 September 2011 14:35 (twelve 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 (twelve 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 (twelve 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)


Used to think this was "Coat or Comb" and was a decades-late reply to those 50s "Lend Me Your Comb" songs.

Agent Double O POLL (James Redd and the Blecchs), Sunday, 11 September 2011 17:41 (twelve years ago) link

one month passes...

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

http://i14.ebayimg.com/02/i/000/a9/c6/7bd0_2.JPG
this was the first concert t-shirt i ever got. 6th grade! i was so cool.

tylerw, Thursday, 3 November 2011 17:54 (twelve years ago) link

he def looks like he killed a man on that t-shirt

horseshoe, Thursday, 3 November 2011 17:55 (twelve years ago) link

I love 'The Obvious Child', 'Proof', 'The Coast' (of course, this track is beautiful - and lovely guitar work), 'Born At The Right Time' and 'Spirit Voices'. The rest of the album kinda bores me.

Turrican, Thursday, 3 November 2011 17:56 (twelve years ago) link

rhythm of the saints is my favourite i think

plax (ico), Thursday, 3 November 2011 17:56 (twelve years ago) link

you are my favorite!

horseshoe, Thursday, 3 November 2011 17:57 (twelve years ago) link

Born At The Right Time ... For Me To Kill You

tylerw, Thursday, 3 November 2011 17:57 (twelve years ago) link

rolfz

The Uncanny Frankie Valley (Shakey Mo Collier), Thursday, 3 November 2011 17:58 (twelve years ago) link

♡U♡

(thats supposed to be a horseshoe in the middle)

plax (ico), Thursday, 3 November 2011 18:00 (twelve years ago) link

how can you be bored by the "the cool, cool river"?

YES, BOSS

xp <3

horseshoe, Thursday, 3 November 2011 18:00 (twelve years ago) link


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