Nah, I like Sting a lot, but he's not, in my opinion, on the same level as Simon who wrote all of S&G's (excellent) stuff and in addition to that created a respectable body of solo work. Sting wrote a lot of good stuff for the Police, but only had a nice couple of solo albums before getting stuck in AC sludge. Which is a shame, because Sting could have done some really interesting "world" music like Simon did (example: "I Burn for You"), but he...didn't.
Still, it's a show I'd think about going to see.
― president of the people's republic of antarctica (Arctic Mindbath), Monday, 27 January 2014 23:18 (ten years ago) link
Sting certainly never created a Graceland, and while neither Simon & Garfunkel nor the Police tended to create great, cohesive albums, both their final efforts (Bridge Over Troubled Water & Synchronicity) come closest, but the former blows the latter away because it's not bogged down by bizarre and disjointed Garfunkel compositions, while the latter definitely suffers from "Mother".
― president of the people's republic of antarctica (Arctic Mindbath), Monday, 27 January 2014 23:20 (ten years ago) link
sting is awesome, paul simon is even awesomer, i hope the keep stealing rad music until the polar ice caps melt and we all get eaten by merfolk
― Lamp, Monday, 27 January 2014 23:21 (ten years ago) link
mother does nothing but help synchronicity
― i want to say one word to you, just one word:buzzfeed (difficult listening hour), Monday, 27 January 2014 23:29 (ten years ago) link
I can see why people would think that, but it's never done anything for me. Don't know why, but perhaps I'll revisit it someday.
― president of the people's republic of antarctica (Arctic Mindbath), Monday, 27 January 2014 23:30 (ten years ago) link
i much prefer simon but
http://www.paul-simon.info/PHP/pictures/thumb2/755_AnnieHall.jpgvshttp://vaginacon.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/GF-Needed-Remakes-Image-2.jpg
not a fierce contest
― i want to say one word to you, just one word:buzzfeed (difficult listening hour), Monday, 27 January 2014 23:33 (ten years ago) link
yeah, one worked w/ david lynch and the other one's palling around w/ child molesters and war criminals
― balls, Tuesday, 28 January 2014 00:23 (ten years ago) link
war criminals
b-b-b-ut Sting invited Stewart Copeland to his palazzo!
― Bryan Fairy (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Tuesday, 28 January 2014 01:12 (ten years ago) link
dude touring with Sting is basically perfect. they are the same kind of songwriter.
I can't tell if this post is ironic or not, but you do know that Simon has also toured with Dylan, right?
― o. nate, Tuesday, 28 January 2014 01:54 (ten years ago) link
Sting played Macheath on B'way, Simon wrote a flop B'way musical
― eclectic husbandry (Dr Morbius), Tuesday, 28 January 2014 01:59 (ten years ago) link
so has My Morning Jacket
― joe perry has been dead for years (underrated aerosmith bootlegs I have owned), Tuesday, 28 January 2014 02:55 (ten years ago) link
Eliding the fact that while sting has done a lot if things, he hasn't done any of them particularly well. His output is just loathsome all around.
― Ayn Rand Akbar (Shakey Mo Collier), Tuesday, 28 January 2014 03:02 (ten years ago) link
Tantric loathsome?
― ...out of that weakness, out of that envy, out of that fear.. (C. Grisso/McCain), Tuesday, 28 January 2014 03:04 (ten years ago) link
capeman is an incredible album
― lollercoaster of rove (s.clover), Tuesday, 28 January 2014 03:11 (ten years ago) link
sting toured w/ the dead
― balls, Tuesday, 28 January 2014 03:15 (ten years ago) link
whereas these days Dylan tours as if he were dead
― Bryan Fairy (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Tuesday, 28 January 2014 03:21 (ten years ago) link
dylan toured w/ the dead
― balls, Tuesday, 28 January 2014 03:39 (ten years ago) link
bruce hornsby was in the dead
― lag∞n, Tuesday, 28 January 2014 18:50 (ten years ago) link
lenny bruce is still dead
― joe perry has been dead for years (underrated aerosmith bootlegs I have owned), Tuesday, 28 January 2014 18:56 (ten years ago) link
bela lugosi's dead
― lollercoaster of rove (s.clover), Wednesday, 29 January 2014 04:14 (ten years ago) link
Bela Fleck jammed with Jerry.
― Josh in Chicago, Wednesday, 29 January 2014 14:33 (ten years ago) link
(Of the Dead)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nAgd9Ijw6WI
― Jersey Al (Albert R. Broccoli), Tuesday, 9 September 2014 15:41 (nine years ago) link
siick
― lag∞n, Wednesday, 10 September 2014 15:19 (nine years ago) link
Marcello doesn't like the record:
http://nobilliards.blogspot.co.uk/2014/09/paul-simon-graceland.html
― guess that bundt gettin eaten (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Thursday, 18 September 2014 01:29 (nine years ago) link
f that noise
― lag∞n, Thursday, 18 September 2014 01:35 (nine years ago) link
Graceland is one of my favorite albums ever I won't listen to alternative opinions under any circumstances so there
― busted (art), Thursday, 18 September 2014 01:58 (nine years ago) link
otm
― lag∞n, Thursday, 18 September 2014 02:01 (nine years ago) link
also for everyone whos been getting all cultural studies on it since the 80s um whatever yr facts are backwards
― lag∞n, Thursday, 18 September 2014 02:03 (nine years ago) link
unbelievable quantities of point-missing occurring in that blog post
― call all destroyer, Thursday, 18 September 2014 03:44 (nine years ago) link
not so unbelievable if you've read any of the others tbh
― resulting post (rogermexico.), Thursday, 18 September 2014 05:08 (nine years ago) link
I guess 28 years was long enough to let this album hang around without listening to it (for the longest time, I've only known You Can Call Me Al and Diamonds on the Soles of Her Shoes and nothing else). Everybody was right. This is great!
― Johnny Fever, Monday, 6 October 2014 22:45 (nine years ago) link
:D
― Doctor Casino, Monday, 6 October 2014 22:52 (nine years ago) link
http://i.imgur.com/xg69kD8.png
― lag∞n, Monday, 6 October 2014 22:58 (nine years ago) link
Hall of Fame:
what was the controversy again, dq? was it that Ladysmith Black Mambazo weren't paid for appearing on the album or something?― rener, Sunday, December 16, 2001 7:00 PM (12 years ago) Bookmark Flag Post PermalinkPaul Simon made the singers suck his dick― Mike Hanle y, Monday, December 17, 2001 7:00 PM (12 years ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
Paul Simon made the singers suck his dick― Mike Hanle y, Monday, December 17, 2001 7:00 PM (12 years ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
― You and Dad's Army? (C. Grisso/McCain), Monday, 6 October 2014 23:13 (nine years ago) link
Glad to have you among us JF!
― she started dancing to that (Finefinemusic), Monday, 6 October 2014 23:30 (nine years ago) link
There can never be too many articles about what a piece of shit Paul Simon is...http://www.rockcellarmagazine.com/2012/07/17/viva-los-lobos-interview-with-steve-berlin-2/#sthash.Q9acF4rp.UyTOO1JH.dpbs
RCM: What did Waronker say?SB: He said, “Stay a little longer. I know he’s a weird guy but just hang in there. He’s got some great ideas. It’ll get better – you just have to wait him out. He’s not an easy guy, I know.” So we stayed in there and it was just more of the same. We were booked for three days, but after the first day we said, “Okay, we’re done. There’s no way we’re coming back to this bullshit!”And again, Lenny reached out to us and said, “Look, we really want you to do this – this is going to be a really important record for Paul.” And we’re like, “No fucking way! This guy’s a fucking idiot! He doesn’t know what he’s doing and doesn’t know what the fuck he wants. The guy is crazy.” It was such an uncomfortable environment. And I remember Lenny saying, “Come on, it’s for the family. You got to do it for the family!”RCM: What did he mean by “the family?”SB: Y’know, the Warner Bros. family. So how fucking stupid were we, going back in for the second day for just more of the same bullshit. At that point it’s just a standoff. Paul has no fucking ideas, we hate him, and feel like we’re being forced to be there against our will. We’re just standing there thinking, “What in the world are we doing here?”There’s this uncomfortable silence and then Dave starts playing what would become The Myth of Fingerprints, because it was a song we were preparing for our next record. We’d been waiting around for two days for Paul to come up with something, but he had nothing. So to have something to do, we just started playing what we thought was our song, when Paul suddenly says, “Hey, that’s cool. What is that?” And we said, “Oh, it’s a song we’ve been working on.” He goes, “Hey, can we do that?” and we just thought, “Yeah — if it will get us out of this fucking studio!” So we started playing it and captured a take of it and finally escaped and thought, “Thank god this is over with!”RCM: But you were never credited on the album, right?SB: It was six months later the record comes out and we said, “Oh, look at this: words and music by Paul Simon.” We thought, “Well, obviously that’s a mistake.” So we called up Lenny and the record company people that we had for Paul and asked them to fix the mistake.RCM: What was their response?SB: Silence, silence, silence. We’re asking and asking, then finally six months later we hear from Paul and he says, “Sue me. See what happens.” That’s a direct quote, so that gives you an indication of what kind of guy he is.
SB: He said, “Stay a little longer. I know he’s a weird guy but just hang in there. He’s got some great ideas. It’ll get better – you just have to wait him out. He’s not an easy guy, I know.” So we stayed in there and it was just more of the same. We were booked for three days, but after the first day we said, “Okay, we’re done. There’s no way we’re coming back to this bullshit!”
And again, Lenny reached out to us and said, “Look, we really want you to do this – this is going to be a really important record for Paul.” And we’re like, “No fucking way! This guy’s a fucking idiot! He doesn’t know what he’s doing and doesn’t know what the fuck he wants. The guy is crazy.” It was such an uncomfortable environment. And I remember Lenny saying, “Come on, it’s for the family. You got to do it for the family!”
RCM: What did he mean by “the family?”
SB: Y’know, the Warner Bros. family. So how fucking stupid were we, going back in for the second day for just more of the same bullshit. At that point it’s just a standoff. Paul has no fucking ideas, we hate him, and feel like we’re being forced to be there against our will. We’re just standing there thinking, “What in the world are we doing here?”
There’s this uncomfortable silence and then Dave starts playing what would become The Myth of Fingerprints, because it was a song we were preparing for our next record. We’d been waiting around for two days for Paul to come up with something, but he had nothing. So to have something to do, we just started playing what we thought was our song, when Paul suddenly says, “Hey, that’s cool. What is that?” And we said, “Oh, it’s a song we’ve been working on.” He goes, “Hey, can we do that?” and we just thought, “Yeah — if it will get us out of this fucking studio!” So we started playing it and captured a take of it and finally escaped and thought, “Thank god this is over with!”
RCM: But you were never credited on the album, right?
SB: It was six months later the record comes out and we said, “Oh, look at this: words and music by Paul Simon.” We thought, “Well, obviously that’s a mistake.” So we called up Lenny and the record company people that we had for Paul and asked them to fix the mistake.
RCM: What was their response?
SB: Silence, silence, silence. We’re asking and asking, then finally six months later we hear from Paul and he says, “Sue me. See what happens.” That’s a direct quote, so that gives you an indication of what kind of guy he is.
― Elvis Telecom, Friday, 10 April 2015 07:27 (nine years ago) link
hmm.
― piscesx, Friday, 10 April 2015 07:54 (nine years ago) link
At least he didn't make them suck his dick.
― Love, Wilco (C. Grisso/McCain), Friday, 10 April 2015 08:17 (nine years ago) link
are they still on this shit?
― guess that bundt gettin eaten (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Friday, 10 April 2015 11:02 (nine years ago) link
What play is he referring to? The Caveman didn't flop until the late nineties. Does he mean One Trick Pony? Also, my tape copy of Graceland bought in the late eighties shows Simon giving songwriting credit to many of the African musicians. I'm not playing Capn Save a Simon but this story always comes up and people give Los Lobos the benefit of the doubt.
― guess that bundt gettin eaten (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Friday, 10 April 2015 11:07 (nine years ago) link
find it hard to believe that a band like Los Lobos can be bullied into kicking around a studio when they didn't want to.
https://theperfectipodcollection.files.wordpress.com/2014/06/los-lobos.jpg
― piscesx, Friday, 10 April 2015 11:29 (nine years ago) link
i really hate this record, so i'm open to the idea that it was made by an insufferable jackass.
― soyrev, Friday, 10 April 2015 13:02 (nine years ago) link
btw the year-long awkward silence after the dick-sucking joke at the start of this thread is priceless
― soyrev, Friday, 10 April 2015 13:03 (nine years ago) link
From upthread, "Sting certainly never created a Graceland" - maybe Dream of the Blue Turtles approaches? The Stingster owes as much to Omar Hakim and B. Marsalis as Simon owes to Kumalo.
Oh and also to upthread - the rough drafts of the stuff from Rhythm of the Saints (I'm thinking of "The Coast" and "Spirit Voices") are alarmingly good. They were bonus tracks on some collection or other, and they include early versions of the words. Sure, I know he killed Nelson Mandela and made Los Lobos suck his dick, but the dude threw away better lyrics than a lot of people ever come up with.
― Ye Mad Puffin, Friday, 10 April 2015 13:38 (nine years ago) link
And melodies, melodies, melodies.
― guess that bundt gettin eaten (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Friday, 10 April 2015 13:41 (nine years ago) link
the knots ppl twist them in in order to justify hating paul simon
1. thinking los lobos stories are convincing and good and not a massive self pwn2. saying graceland is like cultural imperialism3. thinking paul simons music is very bad and without merit4. becoming very passionate about the idea of paul simon being a bad person
like its ok u can just dislike paul simon and then move on with yr life i dont think anyone demands you have a theory of why paul simon is bad and hated
― lag∞n, Friday, 10 April 2015 14:32 (nine years ago) link
I like Los Lobos and Paul Simon a lot, tend to believe there story there. nonetheless, they never wrote a lyric as great as the Myth of Fingerprints, and I don't really care how hard Simon is to work with/how much of an asshole he is.
― Οὖτις, Friday, 10 April 2015 15:20 (nine years ago) link
Good for you Outic no longer caring about people you think are asses, I thought that was your big thing usually.
soyrev - if u don't like graceland you don't like southern african music, the musicianship is godly
los lobos contribution is the weakest on the album anyway it would've been better without that track and worth not much at all without Paul's lyrics and melody
― Daukins (Arctic Noon Auk), Friday, 10 April 2015 15:22 (nine years ago) link
And again, Lenny reached out to us and said, “Look, we really want you to do this – this is going to be a really important record for Paul.” And we’re like, “No fucking way! This guy’s a fucking idiot! He doesn’t know what he’s doing and doesn’t know what the fuck he wants. The guy is crazy.” It was such an uncomfortable environment. And I remember Lenny saying, “Come on, it’s for the family. You got to do it for the family
― lag∞n, Friday, 10 April 2015 15:23 (nine years ago) link