I'm sorry but Paul Simon is so overrated

i feel like w/the later tracks on that album at first they seem beautiful but somewhat spacey and unstructured, then after a while the depth of the songwriting starts to reveal itself, its p subtle

cool cool river has the best moment on the album, when the horns come in, just amazing, religious experience if done right

can we start a commune devoted to listening to paul simon albums or what

brb going to listen to the cool cool river on repeat

i guess if you find almost painfully beautiful things boring

― horseshoe, Thursday, November 3, 2011 6:01 PM (11 minutes ago) Bookmark

It's not that I find 'almost painfully beautiful things boring', it's that I don't find 'The Cool Cool River' beautiful in the first place. I like the 'yes, boss' moment, actually, and it's unusual 9/8 time signature, they're neat ideas. Ultimately though, I find the track too meandering to engage me.

cool cool river has the best moment on the album, when the horns come in, just amazing, religious experience if done right

― max, Thursday, November 3, 2011 1:06 PM (6 hours ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

this this this this

there is nothing meandering about that song, its a fact of life so

Maybe not to you.

you didn't finish that last sentence D

Maybe not to you.

― Turrican, Thursday, November 3, 2011 7:59 PM (2 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

no this is a universal established objective truth

If you say so.

These streets
quiet as a sleeping army

(Like "Quiet as a burglar/Who's stepped on a thumbtack")

Yeah, Cool Cool River is awesome, Simon doesn't often try to do 'sinister' but the ''SLIDes through the metal detECtor'' part pretty much nails it, love the whole song, live in central park version is good too IIRC.

the entirely real and valuable poster Alamac hasn't been on ilx much lately : (

I have a memory of liking 'the cool cool river'

I don't have a copy of this LP, now

how the heart approaches what it yearns

the entirely real and valuable poster Alamac hasn't been on ilx much lately : (
do you think paul simon killed him!? omg

cool cool river has the best moment on the album, when the horns come in, just amazing, religious experience if done right

on the '91 tour the horns, swathed in shadows, suddenly appeared, with the spotlights punctuating every stab. The crowd went nuts.

one of my favourite things of all time is the backing vocals on born the right time

he always has such good good backing vocal arrangements

like the oohs at the beginning of hearts and bones. this is something that attention should be drawn to i think.

There he goes, the Man Who Thought Paul Simon Overrated

his Chicago concert this evening is being streamed live right now, on WXRT. fyi

wxrt.radio.com

alright i had to do some serious deep cleaning the other day and in order to get psyched i made a lil psimon mix, guys this is not meant to be definitive so just lets all be cool ok, anyway some interesting insight emerged from the process which i would like to take a moment to share w/you:

1 i am really only into the albums graceland, paul simon, rhythm of the saints, and hearts and bones
2 he is really good abt starting off each album w/a banger, so many good 1st tracks
3 it is hard to make a paul simon mix because he has so many good songs and because u just want to put the entirety of graceland on there
4 i have never listened to any of his post rhythm of the saints music at all
5 garfunkel was a coward
6 i like generally his more up expansive songs
7 he has a sort of gross chummy mode that im really not that into

this is the mix - i didnt put any same album songs back to back just to challenge myself
Me and Julio Down by the School Yard
Mrs. Robinson
I Know What I Know
Mother and Child Reunion
Obvious Child
The Boy in the Bubble
Late In The Evening
Proof
Graceland
Allergies
All Around the World or the Myth of Fingerprints
When Numbers Get Serious
Kodachrome
Diamonds on the Soles of Her Shoes
Born at the Right Time
Duncan
My Little Town

plz compliment my mix

who am I to blow against the wind?

didnt i meet u @ plain txt message bord

good upbeat simon mix, obvs you were cleaning so ballads/downers would need to be on another mix that would be used for mourning peyton manning.

rip

slip slidin' away

I'm sorry but lag∞n's Paul Simon mix is so underrated

otm

i can tell from your mix that you have a totally diff take on paul simon than me but good for you

this is the sort of convo i was hoping to spark inside this thread, wahts yr take plax

7 he has a sort of gross chummy mode that im really not that into

could u expand on this?

no "Song About the Moon"?

song abt the moon is idk a lil too 'formal' for me

that is a hard question to answer, paul simon is so close to my heart.
but its like, in your mix there's this emphasis on bracing choruses. its paul simon the songwriter with brill building style hooks. that's pretty much a list of his more singalong hits though still kinda weird in that regard because like call me al is missing so hmm its not like completely diagnosable but it still it seems to emphasise certain aspects and increasingly its got this stop start logic, a fast one followed by a slower one.

i feel like what i like about paul simon is more about this sense of drift that he has in his songs despite the fact that they tend to be really obsessively structured. like the boxer is a good example, that melody line that keeps threading through, or like hearts and bones where it just gently plateaus several times instead of ever really reaching a crescendo. that guitar strum rising out of the keyboards. and maybe there's this moment after graceland where this becomes especially prominent but its always been there. peace like a river or the only living boy in new york. like its built into his songwriting but its something that i love about a lot of his production and arrangements. i would probably do something like:

peace like a river,
hearts and bones
50 ways to leave your lover,
father and son,
born at the right time
late in the evening
the obvious child
mother and child reunion
spirit voices
train in the distance

father and daughter i meant

Good mix, but you're primed and ready now for You're The One!

who is that for?

7 he has a sort of gross chummy mode that im really not that into

could u expand on this?

― call all destroyer, Tuesday, January 31, 2012 1:50 PM (4 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

yeah im struggling w/how to express this but theres a sort of forced intimacy to there goes rhymin simon and still crazy after all these years that just makes me uncomfortable, its the full dork swag, at its worst on the bluesier tracks

yeah i get what you mean except that i have never heard there goes rhymin simon

i feel like in many ways his first album is his most *accomplished*

i feel like what i like about paul simon is more about this sense of drift that he has in his songs despite the fact that they tend to be really obsessively structured. like the boxer is a good example, that melody line that keeps threading through, or like hearts and bones where it just gently plateaus several times instead of ever really reaching a crescendo.

― judith, Tuesday, January 31, 2012 1:54 PM (4 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

yah i like this v much abt him too, leaving those songs out prob has more to do w/how i think abt 'mixes' than paul simon

i have never heard there goes rhymin simon

!!!

yeah i guess i'm thinking of this how somebody who djs ambient house might do a paul simon mix is my problem

haha, i am abt to make yr mix and listen to it btw

i have been slowly rolling out paul simon since i realised how much i love his first album a few years ago after having grown up with graceland on car trips which seems to be the like ultimate cliche. maybe its that that album is so colorful but why does it seem to have lodged in so many ppls memorys as this album from their childhood. except for like old people i guess.

because it was a huge album that was marketed at our parents, unlike, say, the other massive 80s albums which were directed at a younger generation (Thriller, Madonna, etc. Springsteen's kinda in the middle I guess)