Best Line in "Graceland"

NYC human trampoline, because it sounds like it's come in out of a Lou Reed song.

Although "shining like a National guitar" is second choice, because a) it's an awesome image, and b) it's followed by a guitar line, which might sound like a cheesy obvious thing to do, but PS makes it work.

as if i didn't know that, as if i didn't know my own bed

i was listening to this minutes ago. minutes! think i'm voting "sometimes when i'm falling, flying, tumbling in turmoil, i say oh so this is what she means" i love the way he delivers "oh" it's more like "whoa" and he speakss it instead of singing it. would like to include "she means we're bouncing into graceland," too. first time the "losing love is like a window in your heart" refrain comes around is beautiful as well.

too hard

so so hard.

i have been listening to so much paul simon in the past year i think it's because i'm old now

also that's a great point by hs--simon is such an amazing vocalist

i may be obliged to defend every love every ending, or maybe there's no obligations now

Do Call Me Al! I want to vote for the roly poly little bat-faced girl.

(this really is his best song, isn't it? wow.)

i may be obliged to defend every love every ending, or maybe there's no obligations now

― tylerw, Thursday, August 19, 2010 1:19 PM (43 seconds ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

good one

how can you possibly pick a best song there's like eight million of them and so many great ones

i have been listening to so much paul simon in the past year i think it's because i'm old now

― horseshoe, Thursday, August 19, 2010 1:18 PM (1 minute ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

no its just cause you have good taste

For this probably ghosts and empties or tumbling in turmoil

The Sweet 16 brackets of Paul Simon songs might end in Bridge Over Troubled Water versus this one.

Besides the beautiful, buoyant, rippling arrangement, the lyrics are outstanding, yet even if you were feeling sinister and accusing him of writing what looks on paper like a florid phrase ("my travelling companion is nine years old, the child of my first marriage") his singing is so masterful: he mediates between serenity and a kind of wistfulness.

has anyone ever covered this song? seems like it would be hard to sing, tho simon makes it sound easy.

as if i didn't know that, as if i didn't know my own bed

vs

my travelling companions are ghosts and empty sockets, looking at ghosts and empties

vs

i may be obliged to defend every love every ending, or maybe there's no obligations now

i also love the effortlessness of this line:

i am following the river down the highway through the cradle of the civil war

ugh, poetry

has anyone ever covered this song? seems like it would be hard to sing, tho simon makes it sound easy.

Willie Nelson, who handled the conversational cadences well but the arrangement is meh.

casiotone for the painfully alone did a cover iirc

yeah the following the river line is amazing and he has a way with simple declarations like that--see verse 1 of hearts and bones as well

as if i didn't know that, as if i didn't know my own bed

is what I picked too. Can't talk about this record enough imo

Grace Jones needs to make this the title cut of her comeback, Graceland.

love this song so much

voted for the first line

you know what is a great line from this album is "Sad as a lonely little wrinkled balloon" from "Crazy Love." also all the other lines in that song

She said, "Don't I know you from the cinematographer's party?"

^^^
I was going to mention that one.

love the youtube comments for this - I like Ladysmith Black Mambazo. But whenever I see them I think it takes ten men to take the place on one Art Garfunkel. Art is God.

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

^^another great half-spoken delivery

It's like it's written from the POV of his Annie Hall character, doing just fine in the mid eighties, attending a party at Sydney Pollack's.

"I Know What I Know," that is.

"lasers in the jungle somewhere" pops into my head all the time

a loose affiliation of millionaires and billionaires and baaaby

sorry i'll stop this is what the inside of my head is like

that whole verse:

And I believe these are the days of lasers in the jungle,
Lasers in the jungle somewhere,
Staccato signals of constant information,
A loose affiliation of millionaires
And billionaires and baby,
These are the days of miracle and wonder,

xp!!

xxxxp ^^^ also "the bomb in the baby carriage was wired to the radio"

she said losing love is like a window in your heart
and everybody sees you're blown apart, everybody feels the wind blow

Separating these two seems wrong (also I don't remember that "and" being there)

<3

i know this album so well its scary, like the back of my hand

there's no "and"

And don't cry baby, don't cry, don't cry, don't cry

the bomb in the baby carriage line is great because that whole verse is setting this scene and that line is like boom it's over here's the chorus.

'everybody sees youre blown apart'

staccato signals a pulse of information

(am i remembering right??)

i thought it was constant

love the sounds of the lines & twists & turns in meaning they make vs your expectations of how a lyric 'should' resolve

Yeah, xps, 'Gumboots' is the best

i voted "for reasons i cannot explain some part of me wants to see graceland" -- b/c that's what I feel about graceland (and any number of other tourist traps).

Some One Trick Pony discussion here:

Paul Simon - One Trick Pony, C or D

and maybe here:

http://www.ilxor.com/ILX/ThreadSelectedControllerServlet?boardid=41&threadid=31830

(that's "Do you believe Paul Simon when, in "Late in the Evening", he describes how he returns to the club after smoking a "J" and proceeds to turn up his amp and "(blow) that room away"?")

classic alex in nyc on that thread:

I believe the bit about smokin' the "j", but not about the room-blowin' (like he suddenly morphed into a diminutive clone of Yngwie Malmsteen).
― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Thursday, July 22, 2004 8:59 PM (6 years ago) Bookmark

is there anyone right now writing lyrics this good and self-aware about the nyc hip-art-music-whatever scene? vampire weekend is the only band thats even attempting this i think and--i think theyre good lyricists--but theyre not paul simon

tbf they've had two albums, what album was graceland for him.

all his albums have v good lyrics post-simon and garfunkel it's kind of his "thing"

the 70s solo simon albums are so new york-y

like woody allen movies they have had a debilitating effect on my adult life

im not saying vampire weekend "should" be the new paul simon of lyrics, im just wondering if there is a 2000s paul simon

like if there was ever a 'scene' that could use a self aware lyricist with a good sense of humor about 'the scene'... its brooklyn ca 2010

and the thing is vw are UWS brats not brooklyn brats

i think it's clear what you have to do, max

zinging is my art

not lyrics

it's a fine line!!!!!

too true, too true

in a lot of ways my tumblr is my graceland

i mean you dont really need a graceland when you have the ny times in 2010:

http://celebraterickysargulesh.tumblr.com/post/418545344/brooklyn-2010

yeah i still think he did take a while to "mature" as a songwriter. the s+gf stuff is only intermittently good lyrically

Come Anticipate Norah Jones's NYC Zingers.

I do think Craig Finn works at combining stuff that's never been in a song with specific snapshots of times and spaces with stream-of-consciousness, but it's not NYC.

the s+gf stuff is only intermittently good lyrically

― plax (ico), Sunday, August 22, 2010 5:25 PM (43 seconds ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

it's true; i don't really like simon and garfunkel that much at all

yeah finns a good lyricist, but hes not as funny as simon i dont think, or as self aware, and, crucially, from britain or alaska or somewhere

yeah i still think he did take a while to "mature" as a songwriter. the s+gf stuff is only intermittently good lyrically

^^^ my next point, actually. To be fair to both Koenig and Simon, the latter didn't stumble into his lyrical genius. S&G is often painfully, clumsily erudite.

Neil Tennant and Robert Forster wrote really good songs about scenes, but their time has passed, I guess.

yeah, thats fine. i didnt really mean to rag on VW, im just wondering if there IS a 2000s-paul-simon-of-new-york, besides me and my tumblr

btw i have never seen this:

In 1988, Simon released a video for the song to promote his greatest hits compilation, Negotiations and Love Songs. The video features an introduction by rappers Big Daddy Kane and Biz Markie. The video depicts adults interacting with the youth of an inner city schoolyard where they dealt drugs. It shows Simon playing basketball and baseball with the children, and it also features basketball player Spud Webb, baseball legend Mickey Mantle, and football coach/commentator John Madden giving tips to young athletes.[1]

(thats re: me and julio)

S+G was writing genre songs in the same way that Simon always does, but he was getting Elizabethan and Hymnal Music out of the way early, saving zydeco and (on the great "Adios Hermanos") doo-wop for later.

there's a making the album documentary where simon talks u through writing graceland line by line and it seems like anyone could have written that song, its kindof awesome.

idk i think his skill is in managing to be really evocative w/ the smallest parts "the child of my first marriage" is such a banal line but it also paints a massive backstory and dovetails so well w/ the forehead hair brusher l8r

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

the last line in this song always kills me. i'm not sure why.

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

poor boys, pilgrims with families and we are going to graceland 0

^^ i dont know that this line got "robbed" buts another one where he has perfect delivery

maybe he should have worked new york city into the line somehow.

she comes back to tell me she's gone 0

The declarative sentence loses.

i'd just like to point out that there is a tie for first place here

Reading these lyrics out, they read like Dan Bejar lyrics.

The declarative sentence loses.

Which is unfortunate, because I love that line.

This thread has sparked a total renewed interest in this album, appreciating the lyrics like never before. Thinking I might go through some of them with my advanced TELF students next week.

I remember my mom asking me to explain the lyrics to the Myth of Fingerprints to her when I was 13

Something I wrote about this song last year.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JPFESqwh0ks

omg

btw i have never seen this:

In 1988, Simon released a video for the song to promote his greatest hits compilation, Negotiations and Love Songs. The video features an introduction by rappers Big Daddy Kane and Biz Markie. The video depicts adults interacting with the youth of an inner city schoolyard where they dealt drugs. It shows Simon playing basketball and baseball with the children, and it also features basketball player Spud Webb, baseball legend Mickey Mantle, and football coach/commentator John Madden giving tips to young athletes.[1]

― max, Sunday, August 22, 2010 5:29 PM (1 year ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

(thats re: me and julio)

― max, Sunday, August 22, 2010 5:29 PM (1 year ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O859wd7H6h8

like i said before this was sort of the first "adult" album i started to kind of understand, it made me almost feel older, like some weird vicarious sense of 'mono no aware' when i was 11. and an epic song.

Me and Julio video is hilarious.

Graceland doc looks a little too polite, but in any case this is my all-time favorite album so I'll watch.

wow cool!