Paul Simon, "Hearts & Bones" - C/D?

the new show is the only time I ever saw that, it's weird that I remember that pretty vividly.

I saw it on HBO's Video Jukebox back in the day.

Not sure how long this will stay online, but this is the "Train in the Distance" demo included as a bonus track in the catalog re-release:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bsArOakcLHw

Really lovely, thanks for posting.

she cooks a meal or twooooooooo

good lord this album is terrible

For an album to be terrible, more than half the songs have to be terrible.

This is not one of those albums. "Allergies" and "Cars are Cars" are the only throwaways.

yeah this album is great, come on now. "train in the distance" "magritte" "think too much" "johnny ace" ... what's not to like?

It's a question I often repeat
Where do allergies go when it's after a show
And they want to get something to eat?

really? you ask yourself this question a lot? so many weak slapped together "observational" lyrics that don't add up to anything, his usually reliable storehouse of memorable melodies and hooks almost entirely absent, a bunch of arrangements that feel like tentative stabs towards some shakily defined goal - no wonder he ended up borrowing/collaborating so much on the next record, it's like he forgot how to write.

xp

"Allergies" and "Cars are Cars" are the only throwaways.

agree these are the worst, they're embarrassing

listening to them makes me feel bad for Paul Simon, in a "oh come on man, don't do THAT, oh no you are doing it anyway please stop"

way

I'd also add the Chic version of "Think Too Much" to tylerw's list. The album's second tier Simon, but it's the best kind of crisis album: an artist at a crossroads, anxious about the next step.

I'd add both of them

oh wait, he already had one. how did you know which was excluded?

after the mega-flop of the One Trick Pony film/album you can just imagine the label's reaction when they hear H+B track 1 side 1 for the first time. no wonder PS says they didn't give a shit what he did next and let him go off and do whatever the heck he wanted.

weird how the massive Central Park gig happened in between One Trick.. and this! like at that point there was nothing to be done to halt the slide.

also this is fascinating if you haven't seen it

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nap6bNPU4qU

weird how the massive Central Park gig happened in between One Trick
hearts and bones was originally conceived as a simon and garfunkel reunion album right? i'm sure the record company would've been fine w/ anything that had S&G on the cover.

One Trick Pony is not a great album but I love that movie

mmhm yeah until they had a row and he 'removed his vocals note by note'(WIKI). the demos with Art were on YouTube but.. not now it seems.

wau @ that interview!

ha yeah. innit.

xp still haven't seen One Trick but this looks.. weird/great. Lou Reed is a pretty good actor!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IDRjsKcFC9g

that's towards the end. It got put out on DVD as part of MGM's cheapier archive reissue series, def worth hunting down imo

i kind of like "cars are cars." the melody on the "i once had a car that was more like a home" parts is pretty. i guess those are the verses.

this album is good. it has "hearts and bones" and "train in the distance" and "song about the moon" and BOTH "think too much"s and "rene and georges magritte"! an embarrassment of riches.

engine in the FRONT
jack in the BACK

i don't know it always sounds like simon's singing to his kids on those parts. it's goofy, but i like it.

saddest part is the above is not true all over the world

i feel like "cars are cars" leads with its dumb tautology so that it lowers your expectations and then it manages to slip in some moving stuff? like, it's essentially making the same argument as "i am a rock" does, but more lightheartedly.

i also think paul simon has feelings about cars.

it is not the most carefully crafted of his songs, sure.

I had never connected the dots that he was playing Johnny Ace when that guy ran onstage at the Concert for Central Park (that track doesn't appear on the album iirc), that's pretty freaky.

"Cars are Cars" is very stupid, but yeah the "I once had a car that was more like a home" section is brilliant and should have been saved for a better song. Other than that I think "Allergies" and "When Numbers Get Serious" are very weak, and "Song About the Moon" is acceptable as the same kind of laid-back unimportant album track that had populated much of the last two records. So that's a lot of the record, since there's only ten tracks on this thing, but "Rene and Georgette," "Hearts and Bones," "Johnny Ace" and the quiet "Think Too Much" are all excellent, with the first of those among Simon's very best songs. I also think the Rodgers "Think Too Much" is fun and catchy, enough that you can imagine what Simon or the label were hoping to get out of this collaboration. One of my favorite stanzas on the record:

I had a childhood that was mercifully brief
I grew up in a state of disbelief
Started to think too much when I was twelve
Goin' on thirteen
Me and the girls from St. Augustine
Up in the mezzanine, thinkin' about god, yeah

i slightly prefer the quiet "think too much" but the other "think too much" is great, and the part you quoted always makes me think of plax (hi plax, if you're around!)

Paul Simon being very Paul Simon-y in this Cinemax Album Flash special on Hearts & Bones from '84:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=59ELMdiXGkI&t=547s

or: https://youtu.be/59ELMdiXGkI

The title track and the quiet "Think Too Much" always destroy me, I can't sing along to them because I get a lump in my throat. I guess I have been listening to this album as long as Tusk, but nowhere near as often.

I just discovered this album. Wtf why is it so underrated? Is it the ugly album cover? This is actually really good.

I mean it could be that “cars are cars” is a low point from everything I’ve heard of him so far. But there’s some of the best I’ve heard of him in here too.

The title track and "Rene and Georgette Magritte With Their Dog After the War" are two of my favorite Paul Simon songs, but Simon's done a pretty good job of including them on his endless compilations, so I imagine most fans know those songs.

you take two bodies and you twirl them into one
their hearts and their bones
and they won't come undone

One of the best divorce lyrics of all time. So good. I have to admit I have never listened to this as an album, but should, because I love the three songs from it that end up on compilations.

I have never heard Paul Simon comps. I’m familiar with the popular singles and three albums: s/t, graceland, and rhythm of the saints… just rediscovering the rest. Oddly enough it’s the non-singles and some of the deep cuts the ones that make me the most interested in his music. Songs like Thelma and Peace Like a River are two of my favorite of his. Title track from this one is very impressive as are both versions of “think too much”.

He is one of those artists that his most popular singles do a disservice to the rest of his work imho.

Not that “you can call me al” or “me and julio” or “50 ways” are bad songs. They are great, but they feel like they don’t really represent this other side of him.

His comps can feel very redundant, even when they expand to fit a new format (one vinyl disc to one full CD to two full CD's, etc.) But they also highlight how much his solo records (at least before Graceland) cohere really well with each other every time you mix them together.

His first three studio albums, Graceland, Rhythm of the Saints and his last two studio albums of all-new songs wound up being my favorites. Hearts and Bones is on the cusp - good songs but something about they way they were produced feels a little thrown together to me, like they needed a few more passes to make all the elements gel within each track.

like more Art, less technique

xp Peace Like a River is all-time.

Yeah, these days the eponymous debut gets overlooked. I spent time with it in January after several years -- what a charming, friendly, smart collection!

xxp that's about right. Clearly more ambitious, but they don't quite nail the execution.

i should spend some time with this one this week, it's been ages. most recently have had really nice evenings with Still Crazy and Rhymin' Simon. i feel like almost all his albums besides Graceland are in some sense "underrated." H&B has some of his most affecting songs for sure. i think only "Allergies" and "When Numbers Get Serious" don't work for me at all.

I'm tempted to say the title track and "Rene and Georgette Magritte With Their Dog After the War" are better than any song he's written since, and the original album versions are beautiful recordings despite my reservations elsewhere. Graceland's a much better album, but it's a triumph that owes a lot more to the contributions of new and guest collaborators, etc.

Xxpost love Peace Like A River and Armistice Day off the solo debut. Had H&B on vinyl way back when. Never bought the CD so it’s been ages since I’ve heard it.

The solo-acoustic “Train in the Distance” is one of my favorites of any of his songs.

I can see that. I always liked parts of that song, but it feels underdeveloped on the studio recording. I vaguely recall some strings popping up at the end - they felt kind of thrown in there and drove home how rough the album sounds, like they were still workshopping ideas rather than figuring out what they really wanted to do and taking the usual care to execute those ideas.