☼⊕☼⊕☼ ILM Artist Poll #15: PAUL SIMON - VOTING THREAD ☼⊕☼⊕☼

Rank your top 20 Paul Simon tracks. If he sang on it, wrote it, produced it, w/e, it counts.

normal scoring: 1:40, 2:36, 3:33, 4:30, 5:28, 6:26, 7:25, 8:24, 9:23, 10:22, 11:21, 12:20, 13:19, 14:18, 15:17, 16:16, 17:15, 18:14, 19:13, 20:12.

Send your ballots to specficpoll @ gmail.com w/o the spaces obv (it seemed wasteful somehow to generate another ilx poll related account). Deadline is 10:00 a.m. EST friday march 16th. results will start the following monday.

http://www.brooklynvegan.com/img/music2/paulmuppets.jpg

this guy

With five or fewer exceptions, my ballot will probably be all S&G.

Up for this. Been jamming him all week, and loving it.

artist polls that get my vote: timbaland, paul simon

psyched for this

haha those are the two that ive voted in as well

Will vote in this one, probably close to the deadline -- I want to get some research listening in.

The great thing is that he doesn't have that huge a discography, and his albums are all pretty short, so I've got all acquainted in about three days. James Brown he ain't.

He's another one (like Bowie) who's kept the quality a lot higher than you'd maybe think.

ooh this will be a good one. the Bowie one doesn't interest me so much since the ALL 70s results are kind of a foregone conclusion.

whereas the different periods of Simon's career (S&G, solo 70s, Graceland-era) are all very different and littered with gems. Picking a number one is gonna be sort of impossible.

I'm off the Simon bandwagon by '76 so this isn't too tough. Love him before then, but something doesn't click with me afterwards.

^ Yes xp. I've got about fifteen 'must's to go on my ballot; depending on whether I vote by lyric, melody, craft, playing, mood, humour, vocal, story, arrangement, etc, virtually any of them could be my no.1

I'm off the Simon bandwagon by '76 so this isn't too tough

?! wtf

have you seen One Trick Pony?

I'm not gonna bother asking if you've heard Graceland, assume you have yr reasons for hating it

I nominate "When Numbers Get Serious" for the results thread title.

I've seen One Trick Pony, owned Hearts and Bones and Graceland and Rhythm of the Saints, and have heard the last two a few times. As i get older I just find something a bit off about his later work; l think he's trying to hard or something.

I'd buy de-simonized versions of Graceland and Rhythm, as some of the backing tracks are amazing.

I adore those records but I do kinda get what you mean. When I'm trying to do my ordering by songwriting, the Graceland cuts slip a bit. I wasn't expecting that.

I know/knew his work pretty well, but no time to relisten.

With five or fewer exceptions, my ballot will probably be all S&G.

Same here. Not a knock on his solo work (I only know a couple of albums' worth) but a tribute to how much I loved S&G as a teenager.

You should put a ballot together for this one, Morbs. Lots less contentiousness on these musical artist polls than the film polls. xp

I suppose we could argue about what is/is not an actual Paul Simon song lol

You should put a ballot together for this one, Morbs. Lots less contentiousness on these musical artist polls than the film polls.

Is that what's called a tautology?

Ooh I like this, I wanna play! I think I kind of drop off Paul Simon after Graceland, but I'm def going to dig back and relisten.

The last album was damn vital.

yah my only real hope for this poll - other than that lots of ppl vote in it - is that we get a really broad crosssection of simon's career from his earliest tom & jerry stuff to the most recent lp

the tom & jerry stuff is pretty tough to listen to, as I recall.

As long as "Song About The Moon" makes the top five.

i dont really like the tom & jerry stuff but shit like 'lone teen ranger' or 'play me a sad song' are total jamz

If The Obvious Child doesn't place very, very high it will be a crying shame. For my money that's the best song he's ever written, and ever will write.

Wow wow wow this is going to be REALLY HARD to write my ballot for it - I never realized S&G would be fair game! And I assume "Red Rubber Ball" will place! Man oh man though. I could easily fill two ballots with just Simon solo stuff. Love this guy.

Voted! I could easily have given you a different 20 and not felt bad about it. How I love this guy.

Ballot sent. Ended up an even split between S&G and solo Simon.

gonna vote in this! will work something up soon.

will I be alone in reaping for Capeman tracks? I love "Born in Puerto Rico" & "Killer Wants To Go To College II".

er repping

No, I voted for one of those.

nothing after '76 on mine, as I explained upthread.

dang this is hard!

For your consideration:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n1DJDnddsbU

Threads to read before voting (because in them I rep for minor One-Trick Pony and Hearts and Bones tracks):

Paul Simon: "Hearts And Bones" C/D?
http://www.ilxor.com/ILX/ThreadSelectedControllerServlet?action=showall&boardid=41&threadid=31830

and, in case you might somehow forget any of these (I guess "Slip Slidin' Away" is easy to miss, not being on an album):

no need to be coy roy: the PAUL SIMON '70s SINGLES poll

and by that i mean, basically, be sure to check out "Oh Marion" and "God Bless the Absentee." Tough to find room in a 20-line ballot, but still.

feel like I should familiarize myself with the post-Graceland stuff before I vote, might take a little while

Rhythm of the Saints is definitely worth getting to know...it's hard to feel close to it a la Graceland, but the best songs on it are awesome - see POLL paul simon - the rhythm of the saints

I have tried and tried to get into Capeman - there's some strong tunes and interesting lyrical moments buried in there but man, what an inaccessible piece of work.

The later ones I really have no idea, I Spotified the last one when it came out and quite enjoyed it for two listens and then completely forgot about it. I should pick that up again.

OMG SO EXCITED YOU GUYS

i would like everyone to consider voting for every song on Paul Simon

where is plax?

the bits I've heard of the last couple were really good, I've just been lazy about picking them up. There was some song about his new daughter that I heard while (oddly) teaching my daughter to swim so it sort of hit me on a gut/sentimental level (which is really one of Simon's key strengths as a songwriter imho)

also just gonna come out and say this now - while I am a huge fan of his 70s solo work, I find it pretty much on par with Lou Reed's in terms of the crap/gems to ratio

They're really good. His weakest albums are a couple of the S&G ones imo.

also writing about his kids is one of his key strengths

xxp how dare u

the 70s albums are near-perfect. paul simon is perfect.

nah. this version is infinitely superior to the officially released version, for ex. so much so that I stole the beat from it recently lol

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z9ZEqoCZJIM

i mean then there's something like rhythm of the saints, which i like more than still crazy but still crazy is still incredible.

Me & Julio came up on my ipod last night and I've listened to it like 5 times since then. Love that album

His weakest albums are a couple of the S&G ones imo.

totally agree. the worst stuff on the first couple S&G albums is def a low point, at least lyrically. On the 70s solo stuff that I don't like, even when the writing is more self-assured/accomplished my attention drifts when his arrangements and chord structures get too fussy.

xp

yeah I don't pay a lot of attention to the concept of Capeman, but I dig a bunch of the tunes, the ones I named the most, but all the doo wop tunes too; also the "Born in Puerto Rico" with José Feliciano on the reissue is terrific.

gonna be hard to avoid just voting all of Graceland, though.

There's a really nice solo-acoustic "Train in the Distance" demo that was part of the H&B reissue--not on YouTube but out on iTunes for 99 cents.

emailed plax btw

Looking forward to this one just as much as the Bowie one... I've got a general idea of what I'm going to vote for, but I want to give it a few more days.

Bowie results were such a foregone conclusion - I don't think the canon is anywhere close to as narrow for Simon

The S&G stuff makes me cringe. Will vote exclusively for post-Garfunkel material.

I've room for one S&G song, maybe 2 depending on how a relisten to Rhythm of the Saints goes.

Just put a 22-track shortlist together, exactly half S&G and half solo. I don't know many of the solo albums so I might do some digging around before I send my ballot.

I love the S & G stuff, I will have a hard time dividing between that and solo. Likely heavier on S & G becuase I don't know a ton of solo stuff.

just d/ld Rhythm of the Saints and Hearts and Bones. Don't think I've listened to Rhythm of the Saints since buying a vinyl copy for my mom for her birthday when it came out lol

rhythm is great, up there with his best imo. ditto hearts and bones!
just sent my votes in... kinda got arbitrary with the ranking but oh well.

i would like everyone to consider voting for every song on Paul Simon
listening to this right now, and was tempted. what a great album.

The Rhythm of the Saints is ideal for Stevensian complacencies of the peignor on Sunday mornings, while H&B works after a night of drinking.

Stevensian complacencies of the peignor

what are these words

lol, alfred is making a wallace stevens/paul simon connection. bring it ON.

Woody Allen already went there

The author of "The Dangling Conversation" deserves no less!

OK to knock the 20-yr-old cheese in some of S&G, but "America" is a pretty perfect song.

I suspect there'll be more than a couple of tracks from Rhythm Of The Saints that will make my ballot. Possibly more than Graceland.

It's making me sad that S & G isn't as loved as I thought they would be.

Not that I don't see the obvious maturity in his songwriting in Simon's solo stuff, but I kind of like the innocence in S & G. Homeward Bound, Cecilia. The Boxer, it's hard for me dismiss that stuff as cheese. And Bridge over Troubled Water. I'm sure it's sentimental cornball stuff but to me it's like a psalm, the sentiment is so moving to me. Maybe it's the simplicity? Something. Anyway now I sound like a big dumb stan.

but my childhood self would be mad at me for not sticking up for them. I think I listened to Live in Central Park every year til I was 10, lol

Yeah, I agree with that and love all of those. Was thinking more of "Scarborough Fair" pastiche, but other than that I take it back.

I kind of like the innocence in S & G. Homeward Bound, Cecilia. The Boxer, it's hard for me dismiss that stuff as cheese. And Bridge over Troubled Water. I'm sure it's sentimental cornball stuff but to me it's like a psalm, the sentiment is so moving to me.

this is all late period S&G stuff. the more indefensible and super heavy-handed stuff (imho) is earlier - A Simple Desultory Phillipic (or How I Was Robert McNamara'd Into Submission), He Was My Brother, the silly gospel covers (Go Tell It On the Mountain, Silent Night), A Most Peculiar Man, etc.

a lot of that shit is really corny and cloying, even when it works (Feelin' Groovy, Sounds of Silence)

Well no-one seemed to be distinguishing between periods of S & G, so if it's just early stuff that ppl recoil at, then that's kind of understandable I guess.

I like 'A Most Peculiar Man' a hell of a lot. I don't think I'll be voting for it, though.

I learned what cobblestones were when my second-grade teacher taut us "Feelin' Groovy" and drew them on the chalkboard.

Feelin Groovy was 5 yo me's favorite song. It was like a Sesame Street song to me, "Talking lamp posts? YAY!"

The music teacher also had to explain "Ain'tcha" to us.

i like "peculiar man" tho the lyrics are a little silly. music is groovy, almost makes me think of the VU somehow.

i was all about dismissing S&G, but because of plax, i have to admit that the bridge over troubled water album is amazing.

I forgot how much I like "April Come She Will"

BOTW is fantastic. The whole thing is gorgeous.

None of him, sorry

Yeah, I'm def. gonna have some Bookends and Bridge Over Troubled Water stuff on mine. I think if they had never done anything else after S&G I would actually have more leniency for the youthful angsting self-aware poetry as just kind of a period piece that strikes a certain chord - like, "I Am A Rock" is a really really well-constructed song that actually hits its notes pretty damned well, I loved it at age 14 and I'm not gonna hate on it. But I'm not going to vote for it either, up against the later stuff. I think grown-up PS does occasionally dip into some pretension here and there, but on the whole I think the landscape he gives himself is sort of immunized against pretension by basically just being "Hey, I'm a middle-aged guy and nothing seems like THAT big a deal anymore but here's the stuff that's been weighing on me lately" or whatever. He's probably the archest and most deliberate songwriter that I can still fundamentally relate to.

i love the s&g stuff for the most part, even the cringe-worthy english major vibes. but simon definitely blossomed as a songwriter sometime around BOTW.

"Homeward Bound" and "America" and others have some of that immunity to, in the sense that they're young, romantic, rhapsodic songs with some self-awareness of being young, romantic, and rhapsodic.

WTF, Yes has a prog cover of America?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/America_(Simon_%26_Garfunkel_song)

Listening to Parsley atm, and the biggest black mark for me against Simon in the early S&G stuff is the round-vowelyness of his singing. The plum in the mouth posh-ness/Englishness just sounds so weird compared to his natural voice.

but yeah, Desultory Philippic and Big Bright Green Pleasure Machine are definitely trapped in the amber of their youth, they did not age well, lol.

"I Am A Rock" is awesome fuiud

nobody disagrees

i am going to have to listen to every single paul simon-related song over and over again for the next week. life is so hard. :D

i love you all terribly.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0lrdBMR2IEQ

I'm lookin for the rewrite
that's right

<3 that english teacher.

also sigh of relief that plax is here

<3 that movie

WTF, Yes has a prog cover of America?

i believe jon anderson & chris squire bonded over their shared love of s & g when they first met

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EReWi009IL4

i wouldn't miss this poll for anything but i guess now i have to d/l bookends and you're the one

<3 Bookends

Lamp, which are the Jerry Landis songs i should seek out?

I like some Yes stuff, but I've never been a fan of that cover. 'America' is such a beautiful song in its original Simon & Garfunkel rendition, whereas the Yes cover just sounds like a not-very-good Yes song with the lyrics to 'America' on it.

thanks so much for all the early ballots! BUT fyi the email address that signed up for ilx with is no longer valid so if you webmail me a ballot i wont get it. sorry its gotta be through the email address at the top of the thread

also for reference heres a wikipedia list of songs hes written

horseshoe theres not necessarily much to differentiate any of the jerry landis songs, there all pretty short and goofy but my faves are: tick tock, lone teen ranger, play me a sad song, lisa and the tico and triumphs motorcycle. but i mean i totally love that like late 50s/early 60s pop so yknow

Listened to this on the drive home from work

Oh! You guys!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AGDt2skie84

i belieeeeeeeve in the future i maaay live in my car
my raaaaaaadio tuned to the voooooooice of a star

<3 <3 <3

Jesus, that Yes cover!

oh man i forgot how much i like "america" and "cecilia"

i'm totally voting in this btw, but i feel guilty doing so having never heard rhythm of the saints. so i'm going to listen to that. cause that youtube sounded great. and then i'll vote.

Cecilia pwns

Desultory Philippic ... definitely trapped in the amber of their youth, they did not age well, lol

I don't agree with the last bit. I wouldn't've considered it if there was only the S&G version, but the one on The Paul Simon Songbook is rawer and angrier. He's channelling Dylan obviously, but he does it well.

(same goes for the versions of I Am A Rock and I think also Somewhere They Can't Find Me. S&G can be lovely, but also kinda weedy)

so the top 4 will be all about Simon's mama? "mama loves me like a rock", "mother and child reunion", "mama don't take my kodachrome away", "mama pajama".

sorry if this was too obvious or just silly

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=brWW70DsQlg

Born In Puerto Rico (1997)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U5eNT6lzzVU

Darling Lorraine (2000)

Here are a couple of more recent tracks that I adore, for anyone who may be reluctant to go past Rhythm of the Saints. There are other joys, but these are my favourites. I'm struggling to think of anyone who compares as a storytelling lyricist; these bring a tear to my eye.

I love that moment in "Darling Lorraine" when he goes "Allll my life I've been a wanderer" and the background singers groan in sympathy, and then he goes "Not really, I mostly live near my parents' home."

ha, yeah that's great. You're The One is kind of a sleeper in Simon's catalogue. Some fantastic tunes. Maybe not a masterpiece, but a really solid effort.

I like the whole album a lot, other than "Pigs, Sheep, and Wolves." Really ambitious songwriting, in putting a whole marriage in a song or all of human history ("Old"). And crazy-complex structures too, for pop songs ("Darling Lorraine" has two different bridges, kind of like a stretched-out "Obvious Child").

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VMnePz_E5EM

Surprise is probably best left alone. Some good couplets in this one on their own--if singers did mixtapes, I'd like to hear Alanis do her own lyrics over this track; would be a better fit.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FzoQRrzN3nc

haha yeah, i tried with Surprise once and didn't last long

people who should vote in this poll: deej, max, tipsy mothra, estela, the pinefox.

;_;

just because they haven't showed up in the thread yet!

jaymc too!

(joeks)

Desultory Philippic ... definitely trapped in the amber of their youth, they did not age well, lol

I don't agree with the last bit. I wouldn't've considered it if there was only the S&G version, but the one on The Paul Simon Songbook is rawer and angrier. He's channelling Dylan obviously, but he does it well.

― Ismael Klata, Friday, March 9, 2012 2:09 AM (9 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

yeah i love the version on the paul simon songbook. he sounds so mean and mad which is one of my favorite paul simon moods...doesn't happen much on the later albums. i'll take mean, mad and dylanesque in whatever form i can get it. that's a weird album.

the title is absurd, though

solo version of "i am a rock" also better than s&g version. garfunkel sweetens it too much.

oh also amateurist should vote in this poll

I haven't heard the Paul Simon Songbook, sounds like I need to check that out.

I am currently in love with this moment in the phrasing of '50 Ways':

She said it grieves me so to see you in such pain
I wish there was something I could do to make you smile again
I said I appreciate that and would you please explain
About the fifty ways

Just the pause, almost a sigh? the change to an almost-speaking voice when he delivers the line... I LOVE IT

yeah totes. his speak-sing delivery is one of my favorite things.

im gonna vote, just marinating rn

yay!

Voters, please save a place on your ballots for the immortal Duncan.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ngH4zZ-oiuY&feature=related

Duncan starts off poorly and then builds into something truly strange and intriguing imho

"duncan" is perfect from beginning to end o_O

Yeah, what? "Couple in the next room / bound to win a prize" is such a great scene-setter for a character. It doesn't really bear on the plot but it sets up the narrator and his world somehow - it's like the "Tell me, O muse" of songs about itinerant small-town dudes trying to find themselves out on the road or whatever.

Also, I think I've posted this before, but "Lincoln Duncan" is such a perfect name for this guy.

that song is a serious contender for my #1, along with twenty other songs.

I checked out the demo of Duncan last night after reading on the other thread about how it's a totally different song and ... isn't that the weirdest thing?

the first couple verses are just a retread of the Boxer - it isn't until the preacher girl appears and introduces some mystery and ambiguity to the scene that it gets interesting

not really. There is a specificity to it that immediately sets it apart in my mind.

otm

That seems to be a leap that Simon make solo--going from writing genre songs to writing genre songs and putting his own spin on them. Thinking of "That Was Your Mother" starting out as a standard zydeco song, but then it goes to him standing at Lafayette Square across from the Public. With "Duncan" it's a traditional ballad, but it ends mid-story with that wordless chorus.

guys, consider voting for "that was your mother," btw

"Duncan" is the biggest little song in the world.

also, difficult listening hour, you should vote in this pooooooooll

"That Was Your Mother" is really great. Was years before it dawned on me what an asshole the narrator is.

IF anyone is interested, I wrote about Duncan a few weeks ago.

that is a nice point about what he can do without garfunkel's voice. i think that's part of what distanced me from "the boxer" for a long time. it feels challopsy of me, because garfunkel's voice is beautiful, but it really gets in the way of my enjoying a lot of s&g stuff.

it makes everything sound like it's happening far away, or like cushions everything that's happening somehow.

"That Was Your Mother" is really great. Was years before it dawned on me what an asshole the narrator is.

― the sir edmund hillary of sitting through pauly shore films (Shakey Mo Collier), Friday, March 9, 2012 12:56 PM (5 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

i can see this reading, and maybe it's right, but that is not how the song seems to me.

maybe that's because i'm not a parent, though

unrelated: I put up the youtube of Only Living Boy In NY on my FB page last night because I was still really feeling it and a distant friend who I don't always love wrote the following comment:
'omg best song from the best moment in Garden State"

I swear it was all I could do not to unfriend her

EZ Snappin, great piece! Love the point about Duncan's age, was just thinking something similar earlier. I don't take the song quite as tragically - I think Duncan might still have some good times ahead of him, the important thing is that he did escape the "boredom and the chowder," and even if he's not exactly living large, he's living. But that might be context - I feel this same guy basically shows up in a lot of the Paul Simon songs and generally the tone is optimistic if reflective.

Be interesting to compare Duncan to Jonah, actually...

garfunkel's voice is beautiful, but it really gets in the way of my enjoying a lot of s&g stuff

The Paul Simon Songbook might be your thing then, there's a lot of overlap. Also the demo of Bridge Over Troubled Water, sung by Simon. I feel bad for Art.

yeah, i like a lot of the songbook. but also i just prefer paul simon solo.

maybe that's because i'm not a parent, though

yeah, maybe. "before you was born/when life was great" is a horrible thing to say to your child. practically abusive.

xp

and then the rest of the song is about being a drunken lecherous tourist soooo....

the new album is really good, which is messing me all up. how am i going to pick 20 songs?

xp but shakey, it's not totally serious! that song is kind of tongue in cheek. and he means "i sure do love you / let's get that straight," which is kind of the line that makes me love the whole song.

thanks Dr. C! Living is living and I would do well to remember that sometime, especially now that I, too, am free of the boredom and the chowder.

it's a romanticization of new orleans! and the single life! who doesn't like conversation + red wine?

like I said, it is a great song, no less so because its celebratory surface is undercut by some fairly boorish sentiments

wait not new orleans, lafayette. mixing up with "take me to the mardi gras"

if some guy standing on a corner said this to me in passing:

Along come a young girl
she's pretty as a prayerbook
sweet as an apple on christmas day
I said good gracious
can this be my luck
if that's my prayerbook
lord let us pray

I would think "eww gross get away from me"

I have some sentimental attachment to the song, having had a brush with fame with Remote Control host Ken Ober at the Lone Star Cafe when I was 18. So 80s NYC and zydeco go hand in hand for me. And it's that NYC verse at the end that, again, keeps him honest, in a way.

???

it's kind of like "hey senorita/that's astute/let's get together and call ourselves an institute," right? playful.

xp

i think also i like that song because i like mean paul simon and he surfaces. in a jokey way.

also he's written many sentimental songs about kids, all of which i love, but it's nice how he deflates/understates the sentiment in "that was your mother"

anyway, there's a lot to vote for on graceland and it comes off slight in comparison; i'm sure it won't make the cut.

it's kind of like "hey senorita/that's astute/let's get together and call ourselves an institute," right? playful.

well, that line is funny cuz it's a pickup line directed at the woman. The "That Was Your Mother" bit I quoted works a little differently cuz it's more of the "nudge nudge/wink wink" directed-at-another-observer variety. And it is a good line - the prayerbook allusion is very evocative - but at the same time when I step back and think about how the context, it's unpleasant.

how

I mean, see the "Check out the ass on that one" thread or whatever but groups of guys leering at women will always have a creepy overtone to it, to me

i always think of it as something he's saying to himself. i don't know, there are many more disgusting objectifications in pop music. i don't really think of paul simon as huge offender in that category.

xp

it's kind of like "hey senorita/that's astute/let's get together and call ourselves an institute," right? playful.

well, that line is funny cuz it's a pickup line directed at the woman. The "That Was Your Mother" bit I quoted works a little differently cuz it's more of the "nudge nudge/wink wink" directed-at-another-observer variety. And it is a good line - the prayerbook allusion is very evocative - but at the same time when I step back and think about how the context, it's unpleasant.

xp

er oops doublepost

also I'm making a distinction between Paul Simon the singer and the narrator of the song. the narrator's just a character.

yeah and i agree that there's a distinction. i just like the idea that for once simon is infusing some tired regret/nostalgia for easier times into the parental voice. i don't even know if i disagree that much with your take on the song, i just don't think the narrator is as bad a dude as you do. he's just venting.

in conclusion:

a long time ago, yeah
before you were born, too
when i was still single
and life was great

and

you are the burden
of my generation
i sure do love you
let's get that straight

are both hilarious.

i think i might be an asshole, is what is going on here.

Always heard that as before you were born, dude, which I thought was a funny thing for a dad to say.

oh i think you're right! "before you was born, dude," even.

I did a lyric search earlier this morning to see if I heard "Ever since the watermelon" correctly.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kDxQr-s26t8

my word

I hadn't seen that before. That was great.

ending is super-lol

xps great piece, EZ

thanks!

i keep thinking about the line "these days are ours, these songs are true, these tears are free"

So here's an all-Simon mix I made ages and ages ago: http://www.artofthemix.org/findamix/GetContents2.aspx?strMixid=98378&song=paranoia+blues&artist= . I think I had some thing about like, only having two songs from each album or something...so this is nothing like what my ballot would look like, but I would urge anybody not familiar with all those songs to check 'em out.

Just typing a big list of songs into Word to start narrowing down my ballot, I managed to type "My Little Town" as "My Little Tower" and "St. Judy's Comet" as "St. Judy's Combat."

God, Think Too Much is just seeeeeeeeeriously slept on. Both variants, although (b) is just killer.

The smartest people in the world / Gathered in Los Angeles / To analyze our love affair / and finally unscramble us

ughhhh, my shortlist has 33 songs on it and doesn't even have "50 Ways To Leave Your Lover!" Man, this guy's music has seriously been a big part of my life.

i voted, basically it was too difficult so i m/l just picked some songs from the 4 albums i really vibe to, this is a quality simon thread for anyone who hasnt seen it I'm sorry but Paul Simon is so overrated

listening to bookends, counting the cars on the new jersey turnpike.

Bookends was a huge disappointment to me. I left it 'til last and was gearing up for something big, but I thought it was as weak as he's been involved with imo.

My ballot's not going to be too surprising -- probably half of it is on Negotiations and Love Songs -- but I wanna rep for "Stranded in a Limousine." Great groove, sleek tune, and one of my favorite Simon vocals. Wah-wah-wah-wah-wah-wah-wah.

And while I'm at it, "I Do It for Your Love." (If I could vote for just the bridge on that song -- "Found a rug in an old junk shopt" etc -- it would probably still make my list.)

I've had 'The Coast' in my head the last few days.

TO PROVE THAT I LOVE YOU

I only got into solo Simon in the last five years (thanks ILM!) & The Rhythm of the Saints is amongst the last albums of his that I've tried to get inside. I'd always thought of it as Graceland Part II, based on reviews at the time, but after a few listens the last few days I see now it's definitely not that. It's much more reticent, almost like a Peter Gabriel album ("Cool, Cool River" reminds me of "San Jacinto"). I like it a lot, but I can see why it didn't storm the world like Graceland did, & I think it was a quite surprising album for Simon to make after that pop smash.

yah hearts and bones > rhythm of the saints is a much more sensical progression, graceland in general just doesnt make much sense, its a wondrous lone shining snowflake

Bookends was a huge disappointment to me. I left it 'til last and was gearing up for something big, but I thought it was as weak as he's been involved with imo.

i wouldn't call it a great album, overall, but it does contains a number of his best songs: "america", "mrs. robinson", "hazy shade of winter", etc...

contains

grrr

I know what Ismael is saying though - I like Bookends, but in my mind it's almost like this EP of great songs, in between which are these sort of forgettable, semi-ambitious attempts at a concept album type deal with the "Theme," "Voices of Old People," etc. But the highs are high IMO - the hits are huge, "Fakin' It" is fun, and "Save the Life of My Child" is one of my favorite S&G songs no matter what anybody says.

Simon & Garfunkel's BOOKENDS - Classic or Dud? more to chew on here!

and, ha, Voices Of Poll People - The "Bookends" Poll

I like "Voices of Old People" -> "Old Friends", but it's like they wanted to rewrite "Eleanor Rigby" from her standpoint, which is a kinda iffy concept.

I've got it down to 24 and it's killed me so far, had to cut "God Bless The Absentee," "Hearts and Bones," and "My Little Town," among others. It's getting virtually impossible. I wonder if I should cut "Red Rubber Ball"...it's totally great but it's almost like a weird trivia fact that it's a Paul Simon song, rather than it being crucial to what I think of as Paul Simon....

man "Hearts & Bones" is a keeper, rethink that one!

I know I know! 20 is too short of a ballot!

Like I want to make sure my personal deep favorites stay in there, and not have it JUST be your basic 1-CD Simon greatest hits kind of deal. Damn, this is hard.

Sangre de Cristo, Blood of Christ mountains

The bride was contagious, she moved like a bride. I KNOW I KNOW...great stuff in there.

I've been listening through the Simon oeuvre for this poll & what's struck me, aside from Graceland, is how much his albums ride a groove, like so much so that I can't often remember the difference between "deep cuts". E.g. on the debut everything after "Duncan" kinda blurs together for me (well, not "Julio") but it's a lovely blur. & that's true generally with him for me; & I'm guessing this is part of how he approaches songwriting, to find a corner & paint in it.

it's almost like this EP of great songs, in between which are these sort of forgettable, semi-ambitious attempts

Yes, exactly this! Those mentioned were the urgent tracks I already knew, so I was looking forward to hearing what cloth they were cut from, only to find it was this kind of almost-whimsy. It was dispiriting. I mean, S&G at their most beautiful are gorgeous, but there's got to be some kind of, I dunno what it is exactly - regretful, intimate pathos that I'm not hearing in Bookends.

I compiled my longlist, in order, into a 42-track spotify playlist which I have on every chance I get. I voted for the first half already, but I could easily have gone for the second half instead with no regrets.

My ballot's not going to be too surprising -- probably half of it is on Negotiations and Love Songs -- but I wanna rep for "Stranded in a Limousine." Great groove, sleek tune, and one of my favorite Simon vocals. Wah-wah-wah-wah-wah-wah-wah.

― something of an astrological coup (tipsy mothra), Saturday, March 10, 2012 11:29 AM (4 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

And while I'm at it, "I Do It for Your Love." (If I could vote for just the bridge on that song -- "Found a rug in an old junk shopt" etc -- it would probably still make my list.)

― something of an astrological coup (tipsy mothra), Saturday, March 10, 2012 11:41 AM (4 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

yay you're here!

i keep re-listening to paul simon solo albums, realizing i have to add 12 tracks to my ballot. i think i'm doing this wrong.

Same here: my current top 15 has 11 S&G songs, two from Graceland plus 'Julio'. I'll spend the time before the deadline getting acquainted with his solo albums, since you guys are so enthusiastic about them.

i'm always like "oh yeah, i forgot he was in that band" its genuinely surprising to find out that there are people who think of his solo career in a similar light.

i am supposed to be learning all the s&g albums but somehow i keep listening to there goes rhymin' simon instead

i've never heard that one still!

it was just an example, basically the ones i keep listening to are:

paul simon
there goes rhymin' simon
still crazy after all these years
hearts and bones
rhythm of the saints

instead of doing my homework and listening to simon and garfunkel albums.

rhymin' simon is gr8 though i like still crazy a little more. paul simon obvs the greatest thing in history; nothing really compares..

i love the little suns surrounding this thread title btw and they make me get "was a sunny day" in my head

Rhymin' Simon is majorly underrated - it's a much, much more consistent set of songs than Still Crazy in my book. "Take Me To The Mardi Gras" keeps falling on and off my ballot; "Was A Sunny Day" is locked-in though, because my mother once told me that my older brother, as a very small child, would sing along as "all the people passing pies." I can't explain why but it just gives me this unfiltered window into the world of my family before I was born: mom, dad, big brother, and Paul Simon records in an apartment in Atlanta. Weird.

The cover art's awful, though.

there goes rhymin simon is a really hilarious and somewhat mortifying title

i love "take me to the mardi gras"

"Take Me To The Mardi Gras" is a supreme jam; when the horns come in at the end, it breaks my heart with gorgeous sadness.

i think tipsy pointed out in the singles thread that it's proto-"graceland"

I took a great dislike to There Goes Rhymin' Simon first time I heard it through for the poll - the production seemed somewhat cloying - so much so that I wasn't going to include American Tune even though I knew it before and thought I loved it. But I did relent a bit in the end; I had to, they're still great songs. It would've been a shame too, because I love the title.

The bonus track 'Let Me Live In Your City' - what is this, was it never completed or released? It's amazing, it could be vintage McCartney - it's only the trace accent at the end of every line that reminds who it really is.

heres a vers thats neither the demo nor the stando

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H5t1c9QatF4

Listening to "Let Me Live In Your City" - - woah, weird - it's "Something So Right," except...not.

i always thought "let me live in your city" was an early version of "something so right."

xp

Yeah, AFAICT it's just "Something So Right" but I guess at some point he thought of this other, more hooky refrain, and went with that.

Just sent in my ballot! Seems really random looking over it and I have a hard time saying that each song is actually in the exact right position but, ehhh, it's 20 great Simon songs. Stoked for the results.

seriously cannot figure out a way to cut a single track from hearts & bones right now

paul simon is obsessed with cars: discus

I hope you guys don't overlook excellence of the new album. I'm ready to add "Dazzling Blue" and the title track to the all-time canon.

his singing slows down and gets more lyrical when he sings about his own car in both "cool cool river" and "cars are cars" (lol)

"i belieeeeeeeve in the future i maaay live in my car
my raaaaaaadio tuned to the voooooooice of a star"

"i once had a car
that was more like a home
i lived in it
loved in it
polished its chrome"

i can't even figure out how to assimilate the new album into my preexisting paul simon canon. it's so good! and i still don't know it very well.

Took the basic song list;
deleted everything I couldn't immediately hear in my head;
deleted everything I actively dislike;
have a list of 60;
have only listened to the new album once so far;
may have to add some songs to the 60.

i can't even figure out how to assimilate the new album into my preexisting paul simon canon. it's so good! and i still don't know it very well.

so good or

so what

ask somebody to love you
takes a lot of nerve
ask somebody to love you
you got a lot of nerve

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VMnePz_E5EM

that is i think horseshoe is right. it is about cars. listening to all this paul simon. like even more than usual. i am committing to this poll. especially listening to a lot of new stuff makes you notice things in different ways. like that muffled kick drum. an easy four-four. its almost this bodily process, the way you nod your head to it, cars going by. we're on the road together. just driving, getting nowhere. a little rattle on the dashboard and all that sky.

but its just that, this easy little beat. i beat it out on the table with my knuckles. but its all movement. streams of traffic. so much of his songs are about road trips. following the highway. the new jersey turnpike. why don't we ride through the night, we'll wake up down in mexico. the way the landscape always conspires to beat out the rhythm of whatever's on the radio. that's what it suggests to me.

everything seems to converge on this. the wanderlust. the way he picks these little bits up. like souvenirs. gumboots is such a bauble, but he takes it home and puts in on his mantelpiece i guess. its also about this covetously touristic eye for detail i think. angels in the architecture. its never big narratives. hey lets just take a trip, get away for a weekend how about it? i guess its always about america in that regard. all frontier, highways, but also a buddy movie. that's why graceland gets so much love, why it got let off the hook so easily. it really sounds like everyone is having a good time. and i guess this is what he's always had. him and artie in a room,singing songs. tom and jerry. we'll buy some beers and hit the road. we're not old men yet.

yes that's totally what i meant

not. that's brilliant. i am going to sew together all the plax paul simon posts on ilx into a book.

obsession with cars does basically equal obsession with america

i feel like somebody should make an atlas of paul simon's albums. all the placenames and what he says about them. but then maybe hes more suggestive about place than he is actually explicit. like everyone remembers him hitchhiking from saginaw. but also his version of new york. that cab ride in gumboots for example.

always crazy to think hes been recording since the 1950s, i think at this point cars=america is more just a concept untethered from its symbolic meaning, but for him its prob still true

yeah i was thinking that. there's this way in which its all so sweet and naive and teenage.

well i kind of meant the really obvious extended metaphor thing that he's so good at and so prone too. but fair enough, i was being glib. when i was typing out my post about cars, though, i was thinking this is really about AMERICA.

xp

but that kind of grandiosity is not really the way he works

yeah what's nice is how it gestures toward the allegory but then pulls back into the simple actualness of its images

like i think its about CARS and AMERICA but its hard to see where the seams are and thats why its good

yes that is like my favorite thing! i love allegory but when it's all one-to-one it's kind of gross and DO YOU SEE

xp

like, i think he is really attached to his old cars

a perfect extended metaphor song is "train in the distance" but then at the end he ruins it a little by explaining but it's still a beautiful song.

But he ends up writing that beautifully ugly (and accurate!) line

The idea that life could be better
is woven indelibly into our hearts and our brains

Brains--the ugly real medical word instead of something symbolic like minds.

yeah, true, so plax otm

beginnings of paul simon atlas:

new england (boredom, chowder)
new orleans (city of my dreams)
mexico (don't know nothing 'bout)
lafayette, louisiana (conversation, red wine)
graceland (following the highway down the river)
tucson, arizona (this child born in)

there's like a million for new york city

fact checking that lafayette, louisiana is the setting of "that was your mother" led me to this blog: http://paulsimonsongs.blogspot.com/ this person agrees with Shakey about "that was your mother"

new mexico (sangre de christo)
whichever island it is where there are rows of jericho and bougainvillea

i'm desperate to know what city he visits at the end of call me al

detroit (hell of a hockey team)

in early memory mission music was ringing around my nursery door. the little strands of linking narrative throughout graceland.

also tom (fly down to mexico)

maritimes,the (left my home in)

plax, can you plz be ILX's official Paul Simon thinker/poet if you are not already but I think you are so: moot :)

Obvious Child: feels like the perfect lyrical/musical convergence of Simon solo & his S&G foundation.

The beat is still kinda Graceland/deep solo groove and yet echo of Cecilia

The lyrics bigger, more universal at first, but then Sonny appears and the rhythm fades & he paints you a quiet, simple beautiful picture in perfect S&G brushstrokes before you go back into "now"

How great is this song?!

I had this minor epiphany at the kitchen sink this morning, lol

Obvious Child landed just outside my top 10. That song seems to me like the entire justification for Rhythm of the Saints, or at least the album's only really perfect realization of the fusion it's attempting. (I feel similarly about Boy in the Bubble on Graceland.)

and why deny the obvious child?

yeah theres no real reason to, after all the cross is in the ballpark

(I feel similarly about Boy in the Bubble on Graceland.)

― something of an astrological coup (tipsy mothra), Sunday, March 11, 2012 10:14 AM (2 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

a loose affiliation of millionaires and billionares and babyyy

I kinda wanted to vote boy in the bubble #1 but i dinged it a few points for being a lil too cold

ur a lil too cold!

idk I just feel like ps has this catalog full of wonderful empathy is kinda weird to vote for the one publlic enemy song

haha i get what you mean it is sort of uncharacteristically encyclopedic. and prophetic!

yah its brilliant 4 sure

i would buy a paul simon book by plax/judith. consistently amazing posts!

or, what vegemite grrrl said.

I might get in trouble with this but Boy In The Bubble feels like it's trying to hard to be anthemic, veering into Billy Joel territory. I like the flow of the words & the music is undeniably groovy, but it kinda sits wrong with me

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

This one gets overlooked, with the n-word line quoted out of context. I love the Homeric length of the lines and the New Journalism approach to building a character portrait from facts. And there's one of those car rides in the last verse, too. Up there with "Nebraska" and "Johnny 99" among songs that are last words before an execution.

ilm circa now offers no pleasure greater than reading what judith has to say abt paul simon

otm

I might get in trouble with this but Boy In The Bubble feels like it's trying to hard to be anthemic, veering into Billy Joel territory

waht

Woah, Adios Hermanos is incredible. I glazed over on my first listen through, my mistake, I thought it was just doo-wop tribute/pastiche, my mistake.

I've done this all wrong, I should've taken a year out to live with this stuff.

i've got a lot of catching up to do wr2 the post-graceland stuff (won't vote til i do), but the problem i have is that when i cut my list of known favorites down to the absolutely bare bones, the stuff i'd be betraying my soul to deny, it's nearly 20 songs. with another 15 or so held in on-the-heels 2nd place reserve. and among those also-rans are songs like "america", "bridge over troubled water", "the only living boy in new york", "still crazy after all these years", "hearts and bones" and "homeless". so it's hard to imagine where i might find space for new discoveries, no matter how great they might be.

I just realized the top 3 songs on my ballot total 8 minutes altogether. But none of them are songs I think of as being short. He can pack a lot in, musically and lyrically.

i've got a lot of catching up to do wr2 the post-graceland stuff (won't vote til i do), but the problem i have is that when i cut my list of known favorites down to the absolutely bare bones, the stuff i'd be betraying my soul to deny, it's nearly 20 songs. with another 15 or so held in on-the-heels 2nd place reserve. and among those also-rans are songs like "america", "bridge over troubled water", "the only living boy in new york", "still crazy after all these years", "hearts and bones" and "homeless". so it's hard to imagine where i might find space for new discoveries, no matter how great they might be.

― Fozzy Osbourne (contenderizer), Sunday, March 11, 2012 6:25 PM Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Yeah, this was exactly my experience, plus it's like, can I really vote for a song I've liked for a couple days over a song that's had years to worm its way in?

Or, to put it another way, Negotiations and Love Songs is woven indelibly into our hearts and our brains.

where is lamp?

Listening to Songs from the Capeman for the first time today and may have to make a little room on my ballot for one in particular.

where is lamp?

i am here! ive had a busy weekend but the spreadsheet should not be up to date. i think like ~15 ppl have voted so far

i think st judy's comet has been the great treat of doing my homework for this poll. just how the form echoes the content: this little vignette, the domestic inflected with the celestial. the economy of it. and those little pools of keyboard/moonlight.

Love that song, it ultimately fell off the ballot, but I really the humility/how-the-hell-do-you-do-this-whole-parenting-thing thing. "'Cause if I can't sing my boy to sleep / then it makes your famous daddy look so dumb."

ok rhymin simon is amazing. i think i was always put off by the cover in the end.

haha yeah it is the worst cover

Tied with You're the One maybe - - between title and cover that album just screams "this is the snoozy retirement-age album you really don't need to buy this week."

Chip Kidd (whose work I otherwise love) did the graphic design for Surprise by Paul Simon (whose work I otherwise love).

wait so is so beautiful or so what good or

also, its amazing how quickly rhymin simon opens up. weird how simultaneously it manages to be subtle and immediate.

I listened to Rhymin Simon this morning & wondered if they sped his voice up on a bunch of the tracks; he sounded higher pitched than on the other works I've been listening to .

i was really hoping estela and gbx would post. they are both great on PS

oh yes, where is gbx. estela sings "st judy's comet" to her dog iirc.

what do we think of You're The One and Surprise btw? I own the latter and think it's pretty good, almost as good as SBOSW.

omg surprise is so super terrible

i think surprise is his only solo album from which i didnt vote for a single track

'who can you live in the northeast?' is a p great title tho ill give him that much

surprise seems horrible i can only ever listen to two songs off it before being like wtf though

plax, i think so beautiful or so what is really good, maybe as good as some of the earlier albums? i can't tell yet. would be interested to hear your thoughts, of course.

ba ba ba Ba Ba Ba Ba Ba Ba BA BA BA POOF!!!

"Father and Daughter" made my ballot.

more ballots, plz!!!

I should have my ballot complete for tomorrow, Lamp :)

yeah i think father and daughter might make mine but father and daughter was recorded earlier than the rest of the album for the wild thornberries soundtrack. it does a lot of stuff that the album suggests but never really delivers. what's really jarring about that album is how much it sounds like he's reaching. its really depressing how inelegant it is. like i'm used to him just smoothly shifting into the right gear.

yet SBOSW songs and performances aren't that much different. The problem with Surprise is Eno. Simon's arrangements are usually so crystalline -- so expert in their use of harmonics and space -- that he doesn't need "treatments."

anyway they date the record.

its simpler than that. his vocals are way too high in the mix. and the arrangements are all angles when his skill is in managing these smooth overlaps. i actually don't really buy into eno as a producer anyway but that's a different discussion and probably one i don't have the vocabulary or knowledge to back up.

Eno isn't even credited as producer -- Simon is -- which makes his gizmos sound even more redundant.

Like I said earlier, I wish it were Alanis singing over the Surprise tracks.

its such an abysmal failure of an album, i think the cover suggests something really interesting though. how that subtle attention to surfaces rubbing against each other might be recast as something digitally amorphous and liquid but the problem is how it ends up sounding like an attempt at post-punk or something. like there's something exciting that could have happened but didn't. but in the end its failings are just really elementary, like how he's just misunderstanding at this moment everything he's really good at. the dissonance of smooth on smooth. you're the one is essentially what this album wants to be but with a much less suggestive cover and production credits.

or this!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6t4luubKRFw

i just keep thinking about his first album and how he keeps coming back to that thing of punctutating phrases with hard strums on an acoustic guitar. this is something that becomes more and more refined as time goes on, albums come and go, until it reaches that moment on hearts and bones where the guitar comes in on the final crescendo, that little soft strum. and that dissolving resonance, something tidal about it, ebb and flow. jesus i love that song. i don't want to spoiler my ballot but that seems like the paul simon song to me. and how what it becomes is about the subtle modulations of the architecture of the song, not blocks and chunks of compositional elements but things that wash over and envelop each other. vistas and horizons and sweeps of sound. i remember estela used the word "niftily" and i searched for her post by typing this into the ilx search and it was one of only like five uses of the word niftily in ilx history. but his skill as a guitar player is how he can navigate this space between form and formlessness with his guitar. these gentle interventions. i'm really more in love with him as a guitar player and arranger than as a lyricist and songwriter but mainly because i think he finds all these musical antonyms and onopatopoeias that he picks out on his guitar. i realise this is all horribly abstract and i'm sortof embarrassed about hitting submit post on this but its kindof a blundering attempt to get at what is so satisfying about those songs. the deft ways that they can hint at things, the subtle gestures of the little keyboard parts on fifty ways and st judy's comet. what's beautiful is their gentle elisions and that's what Surprise gets so wrong. i mean the name suggests otherwise. the little guitar introduction on the coast, so gradual, the way it builds a little out of that little dance on the frets. its so playful and surprising. you kind of realise so gradually what its doing that it takes you unaware. its how he talks you into going places with you, kindof cons you into it. never really says it outright. i mean maybe that's why the road is where he feels most at home lyrically, you can never really say where its going to take you, even when you follow the signs on the road. all of a sudden you hit the coast and the stars are shining and its like

shit i meant metonyms not antonyms

and also that's why he can say these really nakedly sincere things, because of how niftily he sweeps you up in that moment where those things become sayable.

One song (not mentioned yet here) that first that description perfectly is "Born at the Right Time."

first, er, fits

My ballot looks stranger and stranger to me, until I listen to the Spotify playlist again and go "Oh, yeah, right." Every time I listen to "Cecilia" I just want to listen to it again, but louder, with more people in the room to join in.

judith, I totally dig what you're saying. It's a really hard thing to articulate, these little details and flourishes that summon so much recognition, like he's tackling the nuance of each scene's emotion, and the guitar strums and "elisions" of the keyboard parts say so much that the words can't.

lamp, my ballot will be with u tomorrow I hope

lamp my ballot will be with you several hours after the deadline w/ an apologetic not probably.

Thanks to this thread and Spotify I'm just now discovering the bonus tracks from the recent reissues - - "Thelma" on Rhythm of the Saints is great! I can see maybe why it didn't make it on the album but it's got a really nice sound. Actually sounds really weirdly like it could have shown up on So Beautiful or So What just in terms of the general sound of the mix, basically just his voice against this echoing steady gentle beat of the backing track - anyone else know what I mean?

and uh WOW how have i NEVER heard the "Two Teenagers" material in all my years of loving this guy's work!?

If the solo demo of "Train in the Distance" is on Spotify, check it out (was H&B reissue bonus).

Too virtuoso on the guitar imo. It makes me a little uneasy to be listening to Simon and be paying attention to the music, unless it's Graceland.

Interesting--the equivalent of noticing editing on film, which would make Surprise his Domino.

just wouldn't be the same scene with any other track would it?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1_fnn-6X3lw

ballot sent!

wonder what ari n uzi r up to these days

It was kind of hard to figure out how to rank my favourites, because he has so many distinct qualities you could judge by - storytelling, tune, songwriting craft, sound, etc. all of which would give a different answer. I ended up going for a kind of impressionistic immediacy i.e. what stuck most in my mind as I ordered.

I had nine Graceland cuts on my list but ended up only(!) finding space for four - impression is that maybe the songwriting isn't there quite as much as I'd always thought.

I should probably have paid a bit more attention to lyrics. Everytime another tune gets flagged up here it's like I'm hearing it for the first time.

more voets plz!!!!

Voters, if you are not familiar, please listen to this fantastic demo of Slip Slidin' Away.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZlZ4sP6z6gI

oh shit my ballot

today today today

a thing i have discovered from extensive research for my ballot is that i like rhymin' simon more than still crazy. tipsy is right about "i do it for your love," though. for some reason i love the detail "all that winter we shared a cold/drank all the orange juice that we could hold"

How many ballots in, Lamp?

I'm gonna vote but my ballot's gonna be really random and I haven't had the chance to properly absorb Hearts and Bones and Rhythm of the Saints yet

I expect these results to be all over the place, which should be interesting

yah im looking forward to the results expanding my simon horizons which are like 90% s-t/h&b/graceland/rots at this point tbqh

I have a reaaaaaaaaally dumb question. I have only voted in 1 poll ever so forgive me plz

the email address. it says specificpoll @ gmail in the main post. does that mean paulsimon at gmail or what it says?

sorry for being dim

That Slip Slidin' demo is great. I was pretty young when I saw it, but one of the things I remember about seeing Simon on the Rhythm of the Saints tour was an intense solo (electric?) version of that song. What a tune. I probably should have it higher on my ballot!

vg its literally 'specificpoll'

by which i mean paulsimon at hotmail dot com

it says specficpoll at gmail dot com ???
I actually just sent my ballot to specificpoll at gmail and it came back undeliverable. confused now... lamp did you get mine? cheers

to clarify: i have resent to specfic, no undeliverable message yet. i assumed that this was short for "speculative fiction" or suchlike and that's what lamp was referring to in the op.

ohhhhhhhhhh yeah I read it as specific lol

I will try again

maybe u just dd a typo? i successfully submitted by ballot and received reply from one ilxor.com usr 'lamp' via gmail addr specficpoll

lol xp

sorry simply dont have time to do this thoughtfully

(haven't heard anything really since Rhythm of the Saints)

hahaha, I misread it as specificpoll also -- good thing I C&P'd from the post to send the email (no bounce)

lol yah mee too

vg its literally 'specificpoll'

― lag∞n, Thursday, March 15, 2012 12:05 PM (9 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

i mean this is not actually true!

fat lot of help you were, lagoon lol :)

"literally" = not actually

lol what a disaster

its funny because when i sent my ballot i c&pd the addr and then when i replied to vgs post i also c&pd the addr

http://www.charlierose.com/images_toplevel/content/8/856/segment_8569_460x345.jpg

lookin good paul simon

Seeing recent photos is a bit startling - he really is quite old. Somehow it seems to have happened suddenly. I guess I must've assumed he was a young guy when I first saw him round Graceland time, rather than 45 or so, and haven't more than glanced his way since.

I had a sudden moment of startlement the other day while I worked on my ballot -- his recording career is longer than Bob Dylan's.

You Are Old, Father Simon

he's a teenager in love
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-N2cy_J-uyU&feature=related
amazing clip -- broooce, looou, billy joel, james taylor, paul, dion.

Exactly xps! Who's had a longer career? He's getting towards jazzmen or John Lee Hooker or someone. And still such quality.

I feel like my ballot is very middle of the road, but I'm really excited to see what the results yield

omg never seen that before

Dion's voice is so perfect

Who's had a longer career?

I think he's got even Neil Young beat...? Really his only peers are Neil and Dylan imho.

lol, I wish it was possible to isolate Lou's vocal in that clip --

his mic was turned off. he looks like he is genuinely enjoying himself though. he was/is probably a big Dion fan.

I'm not sure it was turned off -- I couldn't hear him early on, but I think I saw/heard him singing the bass part near the end, which was sensible.

yeah Lou has been very vocal about his debt to Dion

ha, yeah it was probably not turned off, but simon and joel are the guys you can hear the most i think.

it may not make my ballot, but can i plug "one trick pony"?

he makes it look so easy
he looks so clean
he moves like god's immaculate machine
he makes me think about all the extra moves i make
all of this herky-jerky motion
and the bag of tricks it takes
to get me through my working day

I dig the lyrics, tune itself sorta annoys me tho

aw i think it's fun! i also like "oh marion" and "jonah" but i think one trick pony might not make my ballot at all :(

pretty sure trying to cut songs from my ballot gave me a new gray hair; thanks Lamp

but i think one trick pony might not make my ballot at all

oh I am TOTALLY voting for Late in the Evening. amazing song.

Jonah is excellent

i think i am too used to that song now. but yes, it's very good.

xp

"Oh Marion" might be a darkhorse for the countdown (I hope!). That really needs to get cycled into his compilations or used in a (new) movie soundtrack or something, it's a seriously overlooked gem.

yes the boys got a voice
but his words don't connect to his eyes

I have a memory associated with Late In The Evening that I've been meaning to share here, in the hope that it'll poll nice and high:

This would have been around April 2001, I was engaged to Mr Veg and still living in Australia waiting for my visa to be approved, which at the time I thought was almost done (turned out it wouldn't be ready for another 2 months). I was busting my ass working at a commercial laundry saving money, working flat stick 7-5 and not really having a lot of fun. So on this particular day a friend took me to the city one Saturday for a day of catching up and hanging out, and after we spent the whole day together we went to our favorite cafe for an early dinner. Turned out that her and another friend, and my Mum, and Mr Veg, and a TON of other people had all conspired together to throw me a bachelorette-type-farewell party. There were people I hadn't seen for years at the cafe that night, it was just overwhelming and wonderful and amazing. Everyone I loved was all in the same room with me, primary school friends, high school friends, college friends, everyone. They had even put together a scrapbook of messages from all my friends, some had mailed a special page to be include and some wrote messages to me that night while they were there.
One of my dearest friends made me a mix CD of all our favorite songs that we had loved. The first song on the CD was "Late In the Evening".
Eventually they closed the cafe to regular customers and the owner, who was a wonderful guy, let us stay a while enjoying food and drinks, and he offered to put on my friend's mix cd.
So then the cafe is flooded with the sounds of "Late In The Evening" and everyone danced. Even the owner danced with us. We were all drunkenly semi-conga-ing around the cafe laughing and hugging and singing, my Mum and my best friend's Mum danced together, my 3 year old nephew did his own little boogie...every time I hear that song I think of that night, and it makes me so happy I could cry.

ugh sorry for being longwinded as usual

"And that is why you should vote for Late in the Evening..."

:D

(oh and when I said Mr Veg had conspired with my friends, when I got home from the party there was an answering machine message telling me he hoped I had fun at the party, and a few days later a cd showed up in the mail that he had tried to send in time for the festivites <3...if it had shown up in time my memory might have been about 'Crazy Train' and not late In the evening,lol;)

Awww, that's cool!

(PS, it didn't make my ballot, also I like broccoli. :P)

that's a nice story, VG. i make "late in the evening" the first song on all my become a paul simon obsessive or we're no longer friends mixes i make for my loved ones.

it's a good first song

<3 horseshoe. Yeah it's def a killer opener.

and pffffflllt to you WmC :)

:)

Great story - - and perfect for a song about connecting music with little slices of half-remembered life in other places and times. Can easily imagine some version of that being a lost verse.

And when I came back to the room
Everybody just seemed to move
And they put the mix CD in and then pushed 'play'
It was "Late In The Evening"
and it blew that room away!

<3

Aw lovely - I hope Paul's the type to google himself

the first time i heard late in the evening is when they played it on a smooth jazz show my dad was listening to when we were driving somewhere.

same here! The same smooth jazz station was obsessed with "She Moves On" in early '91 too.

seems a bit up-tempo for smooth jazz, but I guess i don't listen to enough smooth jazz to say that with any real authority lol

Speaking of Smooth Jazz, I listened to Hearts and Bones this afternoon and was reminded how Steely Dan-esque much of it sounds like. No surprise, I guess, since Simon used a bunch of the same session guys.

okay this poll is KILLING me

right now, this was my cause of death: realizing i hadn't put "only living boy in new york" on my ballot: where does it go???? what do i cut????? this ballot is a mathematical impossibility

please don't die horsehoe

we NEED you

cut the lowest ranked Graceland song

i was thinking of challopsily cutting all of graceland because it's not like it'll hurt for votes. maybe i'll do that. i'm like a murderer, basically.

i sort of feel like so beautiful or so what being so fucking good is a personal affront to me at this point. what are you trying to do to me, album i've barely listened to?

life is so hard

signed, a ghost

maybe i think too much for my own good
some people say so
other people say noooo no
the fact is you don't think as much as you could
hmmm

First thing I remember I was lyin' in my bed,
Couldn't've been more than one or two.
And I remember there’s a radio, coming from the room next door
My mother laughed the way some ladies’ do

I love how the song is called "Late in the Evening," and so you think he means 1 or 2 a.m., and then you realize he means one or two years old!

Love this guy's details. "Me and the girls from Saint Augustine / up in the mezzanine / thinkin' about GOD, yeah!"

Just sent mine!

Sent mine. Unfortunately I didn't get to listen to the solo albums as much as I wanted, so my ballot is very mainstream: lots of S&G and a couple of Graceland songs. Still, looking forward to the final results!

I'll be a bit disappointed if, after all this, Bridge Over Troubled Water, Mrs Robinson and You Can Call Me Al are the top three - but in fairness I had them on this morning, and they are undeniable.

Excluding "BOTW" was easy for me, and not in a challopsy way. I understand its greatness, but I've just never felt that song. I admire its execution but I don't really respond to it. (In the way that I do to, say, "Lean On Me," which expresses more or less the same sentiment.)

if, after all this, Bridge Over Troubled Water, Mrs Robinson and You Can Call Me Al are the top three

I seriously doubt this will be the case. I'm not voting for two out of three of these fwiw

"Think Too Much" will top this easily.

gotta say not much is grabbing from Hearts and Bones. the things that have leapt out to me about it have been its missteps

grabbing ME

Oh wow, the high points of H&B are my favorite things by him ever. Won't mention specifics until I post my ballot next week.

yeah, H&B might be my fave overall of simon's solo records -- the doo wop bit in "rene & georgette" is amazing.
here's a show from the solo acoustic tour he did in between hearts and bones and graceland, if anyone's interested: http://ow.ly/9HtfR

ballot sent btw

the doo wop bit in "rene & georgette" is amazing.

yeah this was pretty good. but then I was distracted by the clumsy rhyme/insertion of french with "apres la guerre"

- BOTW featured rated pretty high for me, I have a strong emotional attachment to that song.

H&B is totally a flawed record, and except for "Think Too Much (a)" I find the Nile Rodgers tracks distractingly slight. But "Think Too Much (b)," "Hearts and Bones," "Rene and Georgette" - great stuff. Put it along side the better One-Trick Pony tracks and you'd have one of the classic singer-songwriter records IMO.

What, Nile Rodgers did Hearts & Bones?!

I knew ILE would be a sanctuary when I found fellow H&B and Gaucho fans.

What, Nile Rodgers did Hearts & Bones?!

A couple of tracks I prefer the Chic-backed version of TTM.

should be a period in there

I feel like I should walk back what I said about 'The Boy In The Bubble' a few days ago. The 'bordering on Billy Joel' is way too dismissive, it's a much better song than I give it credit for.

I can't get away from the fact that it leaves me a little cold though, all that being said. Maybe it's something about the accompanying music...ragh I don't know.

I voted the other TTM but wish now I'd voted both, just for the bass playing on it (thump thump)

I don't care much for "The Boy in the Bubble" either; I find the music (as opposed to the lyric/conceit/vocal) a mess.

See, I love the arrangement, especially how suddenly the acoustic guitar is mixed real high over the closing notes.

That's why I have a hard time evaluating Graceland in this context, because the backing tracks are so spectacular compared to most of his other work; it feels like they have an unfair advantage, and also that maybe it's not really him I'd be voting for. That said, I concluded that Boy In The Bubble is the standout cut; it's juggernautian in its intensity (words *and* music)

The accordion (at least I think that's what it is) distracts.

I do know what y'all are saying - it feels a little more "assembled" and self-conscious than some of the other Graceland tracks, or maybe to put it another way, it's one where Simon is trying to talk about something external and maybe Make A Statement, versus expressing something he's feeling on a personal level...and combined with the very slick production that can make it feel sort of intellectually detached or something. But I just have too many happy memories of singing along to it and so on, I love the song.

so, exactly 30 ballots received. thank you very very much to anyone who voted but the polls are now closed. results on monday i think i am going to do a TOP 40 but im not completely sure

anyway thanks again to everyone who voted

!!!! So exciting!

With stuff like Graceland, Diamonds, or The Obvious Child, the songwriting eclipses the problems I have with the music. But on songs that I'm not so taken in with, The Boy in the Bubble for example, the annoyances I find with the music reaaaaallly start to bug me. I find the modern production values clash with some of the more traditional instruments, and that it's maybe over-produced. I think I still am very attached to the simplicity of his earlier solo/S&G work, where you get mostly his voice with a very simple accompaniment. So maybe it's more nostalgia working against me than anything.

oh fuck, i thought the deadline was 10pm, i was still working on my ballot :(

i'm used to the last few polls ending around midnight i guess

shit, i didnt vote, i thought i had till tonight

Yeah, for me nostalgia favors the hell out of Graceland - I mean, there were basically three cassettes in steady rotation in my household growing up, and those were this album, Billy Joel's Greatest Hits I & II, and Traveling Wilburys I - they're kind of what music sounds like to me.

if you can send them in the next couple of hours its ok. sorry i have a bunch of stuff to do this weekend so tonight is sort of my only time to work on the poll

ok cool, will def do it soon, thanks for the leniency homie

u are a kind dictator, lamp

the fact that this poll doesn't have an "unranked" option is intensely frustrating to me. these are not songs i want to display preferentiality among.

gah! i thought it was 10:00 pm too!!! will vote in the next few minutes

sent (lemme know if you didn't get it, if possible)

max, please send your ballot!!! !!!! !!

you guys are crazy upthread; hearts & bones is great. i had to slash tracks from it from my ballot like freddy krueger, because i didn't have enough space but it's awesome. i even like the more throwaway-y tracks like "allergies" and "when numbers get serious."

Allergies coloured my attitude to that whole album I'm afraid. I was so appalled. It's not that bad either, in a way it's quite good even, but it's not what I'm wanting to hear from a Paul Simon side one track one.

the first time i heard "allergies" i was like what even is this but then it got to "my heart is allergic to the women i love and it's changing the shape of my face" and i breathed a sigh of relief.

I just can't get past the idea of that as a lead single.

oh i didn't realize that was the first single! that's sort of hilarious.

c'mon that song is a mess

it is but i still like the lyrics.

yeah, allergies is a weird thing to start hearts and bones with, for sure. maybe it sounded totally "now" to simon?

Yeah, and it just kind of makes me suspicious of the whole endeavor, like somebody (Simon or the company) was like "This is gonna be a really hip-sounding record! It'll sell like hotcakes!" and no one noticed that it wasn't a particularly good Chic-type song, or a particularly strong Simon composition. Weak hook, odd lyrical conceit - it's just not what the guy is all about. Should have just gone with "Train in the Distance" and just made it clear what kind of album this was.

meanwhile, listening to So Beautiful or So What again for the first time since it came out, boy is it a nice listen. I need to keep this in rotation for a while, I'd like to really get to know these songs.

you guys are crazy upthread; hearts & bones is great. i had to slash tracks from it from my ballot like freddy krueger, because i didn't have enough space but it's awesome. i even like the more throwaway-y tracks like "allergies" and "when numbers get serious."

― horseshoe, Friday, March 16, 2012 12:50 PM (9 minutes ago) Bookmark

man bumping all this p-simon has horseshoe dropping punchlines and similes up in here

Yeah, and it just kind of makes me suspicious of the whole endeavor, like somebody (Simon or the company) was like "This is gonna be a really hip-sounding record! It'll sell like hotcakes!" and no one noticed that it wasn't a particularly good Chic-type song, or a particularly strong Simon composition

well, check out the cover of H&B. Bet his manager said, "Paul, baby, that New Wave thing is a HIT with the kids!"

haha i am in a weird headspace. every time i say something irl or on ilx i think how would paul simon metaphorize this?

xp

"when horseshoe gets serious..."

Yeah, and it just kind of makes me suspicious of the whole endeavor, like somebody (Simon or the company) was like "This is gonna be a really hip-sounding record! It'll sell like hotcakes!" and no one noticed that it wasn't a particularly good Chic-type song, or a particularly strong Simon composition.

none of the other songs have that weird sonic noise between you and the song, though! even "cars are cars" which has the cringiest title is just kind of an old-fashioned paul simon song.

but really, cars ARE cars.

makes ya think.

it's kind of funny. paul simon is really funny. i think i might be a dad.

TS: "Can The Can" versus "Cars Are Cars" < my most inexplicable thread

Can the Can is Chinnichap so would've voted for that tbh

I'd liketo teach a semester on H&B, Infidels, Various Positions, New Sensations, and Born in the U.S.A.

Sub Empire Burlesque for Infidels and I'll help.

would be that annoying breathless girl who won't shut up in that class

Needs McCartney II and Glass Houses.

only one I don't recognize is Various Positions...?

leonard cohen

^^It's the one with that song Jeff Buckley did

Froggy Goes a Courtin'?

would attend this class you speak of

a class called... life

teach me how to live, Eazy and Alfred

Synthesis and Synthesizers.

Linn drums and tom-toms

For some reason, those years yielded some of those guys' best and most personal songwriting (especially if you include "Blind Willie McTell"), with such impersonal synths.

Or maybe "plastic" is a more appropriate word than impersonal.

I've waited years for you guys to agree with me.

i wonder if Alfred's ballot had the same #1 as me

haha

okay ballots really are closed as i will be leaving work shortly but thanks again to everyone who voted i hope this poll will be ~~radical~~ enuff 4 u

nono, thanks to you lamp. Dunno how radical I want it to be tbh. If Tom & Jerry lock out the top ten there's a part of me will be a little bit uneasy, I can't deny

I expect nothing but tubular results

ty lamp!!

The Chic-backed Think Too Much is great, thanks whoever-it-was for pointing that out. What a great band. It sounds like they're just starting to kick on when it fades out. I don't suppose there'd be an extended 12" version w/breakdown and handclaps and all that?

Also, I wonder if it subconsciously led him in the direction that turned into Graceland, the sort-of highlife feel of it.

i always forget h+b starts w/ allergies bc i just always start w. the title track. how it emerges from nothing with that guitar figure. i'm so in love with it.

results thread: PAUL SIMON POLL RESULTS THREAD AND DISCUSSION