The Paul Simon Thread—What's your favorite?

[Tombstone Mountain]

Hey, ya know, breakdowns come and breakdowns go, so,

What are you gonna do about it, that's what I'd like to know

You don't feel you could love me but I feel you do

It was in the early morning hours that I fell into a phone call

Believing I had supernatural powers, I slammed into a brick wall.

 

----

 

Today's entry is a little ditty made famous by a movie.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bE1dz6_u2JI

 

Edit to add: I don't think Paul exploited African musicians, rather he put a face (and a sound) on the people suffering under Apartheid. Paul exposed their rich musical culture and helped focus world attention on the people.

soooo cool...this little Paul Simon thread has made me smile at 5:50 in the morning...that's hard to do.

[Tombstone Mountain]

Here's something that's really touching...Paul played at a teacher's funeral. What a special person

 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-20810417

 

21 December 2012 Last updated at 06:03 ET

Paul Simon plays at teacher's funeral

http://news.bbcimg.co.uk/media/images/64894000/jpg/_64894370_simongetty.jpg

 

Simon played the song, simply, on an acoustic guitar

Paul Simon performed his classic track The Sound of Silence at the funeral of a teacher who died in the school shooting in Connecticut on 14 December.

 

The 1966 song was understood to be a favourite of 27-year-old Victoria Soto, a first-grade teacher at Sandy Hook Elementary School.

 

The singer, a family friend, performed the song in front of some 400 mourners, at Soto's local church on Wednesday.

 

Twenty six people were killed by Adam Lanza in the mass shooting last week.

Among them were 20 children, all aged between 6 and 7.

 

Soto was killed while shielding her pupils from gunfire. She is understood to have hidden some of the children in a closet, ensuring they were safe, and then told the gunman that her class was in the gym.

Simon is believed to know the Soto family through his sister-in-law, who is a nurse like Victoria's mother. He received no introduction at the funeral and left without making any comment.

 

Soto grew up in Stratford, Connecticut and graduated from Eastern Connecticut State University. She was studying for a master's degree in special education.

 

"She lost her life doing what she loved," her cousin, Jim Wiltsie told ABC News.

[Tombstone Mountain]

 

This is a fantastic piece guys and gals —TM

 

 

http://newswatch.nationalgeographic.com/2012/10/11/paul-simon-looks-back-on-the-anniversary-of-the-amazing-graceland/

 

Paul Simon Looks Back on the Anniversary of the Amazing “Graceland”

 

 

 

 

These days Paul Simon enjoys music from Mali, which he discovered two years ago in his continual lookout for new sounds. Twenty-five years ago, it was music from South Africa that caught the attention of the singer-songwriter, who reached international acclaim with his 1986 solo album, Graceland, the most commercially successful of his career.

The album, which integrated South African music styles like isicathamiya and mbaqanga with elements of good old American rock and pop, was received with both praise and protest. Critics loved it, but others thought the choice to record the album in apartheid South Africa breached the UN’s cultural boycott on the country.

Still, the music prevailed. The album proved to be an immediate hit, reaching the tops of charts all over the world, selling 14 million copies worldwide, and earning two Grammys, including Album of the Year in 1986 and Record of the Year in 1987, with the title song.

This year, Paul Simon released a 25th anniversary album edition of Graceland in a boxed set that includes Joe Berlinger’s Emmy-nominated documentary, “Under African Skies,” which follows Simon’s 2011 return to South Africa, from which the original story of Graceland’s making unfolds.

In honor of this special occasion, National Geographic’s Pop Omnivore spoke with Paul Simon about what has changed in the quarter of a century since he first set foot Under those African Skies. And of course, we couldn’t help but ask his opinion on the

.

-by Rena Silverman

You first thought of creating Graceland in your car, after driving around to a cassette of South African music. How did one thing lead to another?

There was a group called the

who made an album of accordion music, “Township Jives” and that’s what I was listening to. It was instrumental music with an accordion, electric guitar, bass, and drums. It reminded me of a certain kind of fifties rock ‘n’ roll. It was a couple of months before it dawned on me that this was something I liked so much that I could write to it. I had just been listening to it for fun, but then I become obsessed with it.

You have a history of discovering and collaborating with musicians from different parts of the world. Graceland and The Capeman are only a few examples. How far back does your interest in different cultures go?

It goes back to before Graceland, to the first music I was interested in, which is early rock ‘n’ roll. Without really understanding because I was just 12 or 13 years old, this kind of music that I liked came from a combination of different cultures. It was African American cultures, like doo-wop singing, which comes from gospel singing. It was Louisiana rhythms. I liked the Ethel Waters and that kind of Appalachian, Celtic tradition and Johnny Cash, which also has country roots. And Elvis Presley is both: the combination of Anglo-Saxon and African American. So, I grew up in an environment like that and when I was with Simon & Garfunkel, we recorded

[1970], a very famous song from Peru, hundreds of years old. We recorded that song with a group called Los Incas [known currently as Urubamba].

And then I went to Jamaica to record “Mother and Child Reunion” [1972], so I’ve been interested in pursuing music that I like regardless of where it comes from. I learned pretty early on if you want to get the music right you should probably travel to where it’s being played as opposed to asking musicians who are not familiar with it to copy it.

But, once you hear something that you like does it mean you can play it?

When I first realized that I was free to go to any place that I wanted, I didn’t really think about how well I could play and there were times when I didn’t think I played very well. Like, “Gone at Last” [1975], an up-tempo gospel song and I just don’t think I’m good at up-tempo gospel singing. I was better with gospel quartettes, something like “Loves Me Like a Rock” [1973]. So, just because I like something doesn’t mean I’m necessarily going to play it well or even necessarily understand it. I never really had a deep grasp of Latin music and clave [a five-stroke rhythmic pattern used in many famous Afro-Cuban genres, including rumba, mambo, salsa, Latin jazz, and more] and so in The Capeman I had a lot of help from band members and singers like Rubén Blades and Marc Anthony.

When you first got to South Africa, was the music a challenge?

It was difficult to play. No, it was difficult to play well, and to play it as well as South Africans play it. To play that guitar style and to play it well takes a long time. Even though the chords are relatively simple, it’s about how you play those chords. It’s about touch, like Johnny Cash’s music—boom-chick-boom-chick-boom—sounds easy, but only Johnny Cash could make that stuff swing. And everybody else who tries, well they just sound like an imitation of Johnny Cash.

The music in South Africa was not difficult to write [lyrics and melody], but what I was writing was a hybrid and was not purely South African. It was American and South African.

You recorded the tracks then did the writing?

That’s right. I start with the structure.

There was a lot going on in South Africa at the time of your arrival in the mid-eighties, like apartheid. You were accused of breaking the United Nation’s cultural boycott of the country at one point. Did you see that coming given you just wanted to learn about the music? Were you surprised?

They didn’t really say that while I was there or before the record was released. After the record was a hit, then there were some people who were saying that. And I never would have guessed that scenario was going to be our reality when I began recording in the months before the record came out. Other people knew that there were political implications. But, it was sort of kept from me, as you see in the documentary. My producer Koloi [Lebona] didn’t want me to be intimidated by anyone’s objections, so he kept the objections from me.

Once released, Graceland was an international hit, climbing the charts in the UK, Australia, the Netherlands, and Austria. Are you ever surprised by where your music is received?

I’ll tell you a story that’s good for National Geographic. I was on a trip in the Amazon in the eighties, before Graceland, maybe in the middle eighties. And we stopped in this very small village, really completely away from anything. It was so small it didn’t really have roads in it. And we were walking through the village and a girl was sitting in a hut playing a nylon string guitar. We listened for a while and I said to her, I know a song from Peru. We were that far on the Amazon. I played “El Cóndor Pasa,” and she knew that song and then she said, I know a song from America and she played

Wow. That’s pretty good

Yeah! That is good. So, there are times when I’ve been surprised.

Did you tell her who you were?

No. She had found the song in a book. Somebody had given her a book of mine or a book of a bunch of songs that were popular, probably a bunch of songs that were popular. I mean it was not easy to understand each other. We sort of communicated by picking up the guitar. But, it didn’t matter who I was. The situation just struck me as a really rare coincidence. In the middle of the Amazon, to find that your songs have gotten that far.

Have you heard about Psy, the Korean rapper on YouTube?

Yeah! He’s the guy who dances that kind of horse dance, right? Yes. Now it’s a different story with YouTube and the Internet although I doubt the internet has gotten that far into the Amazon.

We don’t really hear pop music from China.

But, you just saw a Korean rapper. There’s censorship in China, so there’s less that we see, but undoubtedly stuff will come from China that we will see.

Graceland was released well before the Internet. I’m curious about your earlier point about writing a hybrid. The rhythms in the album are South African, while the melodies, themes, and subjects seem more American, like the name of the title song, which refers to Elvis’ home in Tennessee. What was the impact of merging these very different worlds?

What was unusual about Graceland is that it was on the surface apolitical, but what it represented was the essence of the antiapartheid in that it was a collaboration between blacks and whites to make music that people everywhere enjoyed. It was completely the opposite from what the apartheid regime said, which is that one group of people were inferior. Here, there were no inferiors or superiors, just an acknowledgement of everybody’s work as a musician. It was a powerful statement. We were able to accomplish that symbolically because music is so accessible and people liked it. And the political implications came later than they would have if the songs had been overtly political. And in that way Graceland was a different and slyer kind of political view.

Graceland was also making a relatively new musical music statement, though it wasn’t the first the world music attempt by any means. Graceland was the first to become an example of a hybrid that was mainstream popular . Something like [the Russian feminist punk-rock collective] Pussy Riot is overtly political. Because we’re in an Internet world now, everyone knows about them. And the spotlight is shown on the Russian judicial system. But, it’s not that people are evaluating what they did musically.

Do you see anything happening more like Graceland now, globalization or introduction to cultures from the music itself?

Yes. I think what’s going on around the world with rap in different languages says something. In the Arab world there are rappers who are talking about political subjects. In authoritarian societies, music has long played a role of being a component of the political process. I’m sure there are more, but I don’t know enough about the musicians to tell you what I think.

Have you seen the movie Searching for Sugar Man?

No, but everybody keeps asking me that. Does it have something to do with me, or something I’m interested in?

It’s about a musician, apartheid, South Africa, Detroit, the ‘70s.

I better see it.

Have you discovered more music lately from different parts of the world?

Two years ago, I started to get into a lot of music from Mali [music in Mali has been influenced by several strong musical roots, including the ancient Mande empire, local ethnic rhythms, and Moorish-European form]. And now I wonder what is going on because there is a revolution in Mali. But, I listen to music from everywhere. Electronic music is interesting to me now, or new instruments. I’m just interested in new ways of expanding sound, making sound, finding things that appeal to me in a sound. Music is just sound. When I hear a sound that I like, I incorporate it into the music.

I’ll record a field just to give a track air, you know with birds and things, you can hardly hear it, but I’m always fooling around with sounds and overtones.

The earth always hums.

Yes. And, there’s space, too. NASA has done recordings of sounds in space. That’s very interesting to me, too.

This spring, you released the 25th anniversary edition of Graceland. Once again, it climbed the charts in the UK. You went on tour in honor of the anniversary. How was performing?

That was fun. We played some concerts in Europe. It took a little practice to get back to where we were, but we got there. I liked it a lot. We were able to have all the original musicians. It was nostalgic and it was fun.

Here's another cool article from NatGeo...hope you enjoy!

[Lost In Xanadu]

See - I started a thread like this in 2011:

http://www.therushforum.com/index.php?/topic/69665-paul-simon/

[Tombstone Mountain]

See - I started a thread like this in 2011:

http://www.therushfo...665-paul-simon/

Wow...guess I shoulda checked first...do you feel violated?

[Lost In Xanadu]

See - I started a thread like this in 2011:

http://www.therushfo...665-paul-simon/

Wow...guess I shoulda checked first...do you feel violated?

 

No - the quotes are old school and look like shit. Paul deserves a nice clean thread. :)

[Presto-digitation]

Hey, ya know, breakdowns come and breakdowns go, so,

What are you gonna do about it, that's what I'd like to know

You don't feel you could love me but I feel you do

It was in the early morning hours that I fell into a phone call

Believing I had supernatural powers, I slammed into a brick wall.

 

 

Edit to add: I don't think Paul exploited African musicians, rather he put a face (and a sound) on the people suffering under Apartheid. Paul exposed their rich musical culture and helped focus world attention on the people.

 

Great song. Fantastic album all the way through. The very first CD I ever purchased, by the way. This album will forever hold a special place for me.

Edited March 4, 2013 by Presto-digitation

[Tinwoodsman]

Kodachrome and Loves Me Like a Rock were sentimental faves ... I was only 13 in 1973, but kudos to Paul nonetheless! There are several more that I enjoy as well such as Mother and Child Reunion. Edited March 5, 2013 by Tinwoodsman

[CygnusGal]

Here's one for TM ... hang one more year on the line... and have a good time. :cheers:

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GVwTbWmOsfw

[CygnusGal]

A favourite from S&G

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U6K8wfyzAJQ

[Tombstone Mountain]

A favourite from S&G

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U6K8wfyzAJQ

Quite nice selection CygnusGal...I guess my fav Is "To Emily" God that song hits me right in the first love dept!

[Animate]

Here's something that's really touching...Paul played at a teacher's funeral. What a special person

 

http://www.bbc.co.uk...t-arts-20810417

 

21 December 2012 Last updated at 06:03 ET

 

Paul Simon plays at teacher's funeral

http://news.bbcimg.co.uk/media/images/64894000/jpg/_64894370_simongetty.jpg

 

Simon played the song, simply, on an acoustic guitar

Paul Simon performed his classic track The Sound of Silence at the funeral of a teacher who died in the school shooting in Connecticut on 14 December.

 

The 1966 song was understood to be a favourite of 27-year-old Victoria Soto, a first-grade teacher at Sandy Hook Elementary School.

 

The singer, a family friend, performed the song in front of some 400 mourners, at Soto's local church on Wednesday.

 

Twenty six people were killed by Adam Lanza in the mass shooting last week.

Among them were 20 children, all aged between 6 and 7.

 

Soto was killed while shielding her pupils from gunfire. She is understood to have hidden some of the children in a closet, ensuring they were safe, and then told the gunman that her class was in the gym.

Simon is believed to know the Soto family through his sister-in-law, who is a nurse like Victoria's mother. He received no introduction at the funeral and left without making any comment.

 

Soto grew up in Stratford, Connecticut and graduated from Eastern Connecticut State University. She was studying for a master's degree in special education.

 

"She lost her life doing what she loved," her cousin, Jim Wiltsie told ABC News.

 

wow- so sad- I rarely watch the news (ahem, after all, "I get all the news I need from the weather report...." ) and did not see this before.

[Animate]

The Rhythm of the Saints is also amazing, showing what Paul can do with South American elements, although we had already seen a bit of that with "El Condor Pasa"

 

 

The Coast

 

.....

A trip to the market

A trip around the world

Where the evening meal is negotiable

If there is one...

 

http://youtube.com/watch?v=5V__mhwbQ6w

Edited March 6, 2013 by Animate

[Tombstone Mountain]

Hey guys and gals gotta question...is "Bridge over troubled water" Garfunkel's finest moment or is it "To Emily"...or something else?

[goose]

Hey, ya know, breakdowns come and breakdowns go, so,

What are you gonna do about it, that's what I'd like to know

You don't feel you could love me but I feel you do

It was in the early morning hours that I fell into a phone call

Believing I had supernatural powers, I slammed into a brick wall.

 

----

 

Today's entry is a little ditty made famous by a movie.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bE1dz6_u2JI

 

Edit to add: I don't think Paul exploited African musicians, rather he put a face (and a sound) on the people suffering under Apartheid. Paul exposed their rich musical culture and helped focus world attention on the people.

soooo cool...this little Paul Simon thread has made me smile at 5:50 in the morning...that's hard to do.

I have the Central Park DVD and it's fantastic.

[goose]

Hey guys and gals gotta question...is "Bridge over troubled water" Garfunkel's finest moment or is it "To Emily"...or something else?

Bridge is perfection.

[goose]

Here's something that's really touching...Paul played at a teacher's funeral. What a special person

 

http://www.bbc.co.uk...t-arts-20810417

 

21 December 2012 Last updated at 06:03 ET

 

Paul Simon plays at teacher's funeral

http://news.bbcimg.co.uk/media/images/64894000/jpg/_64894370_simongetty.jpg

 

Simon played the song, simply, on an acoustic guitar

Paul Simon performed his classic track The Sound of Silence at the funeral of a teacher who died in the school shooting in Connecticut on 14 December.

 

The 1966 song was understood to be a favourite of 27-year-old Victoria Soto, a first-grade teacher at Sandy Hook Elementary School.

 

The singer, a family friend, performed the song in front of some 400 mourners, at Soto's local church on Wednesday.

 

Twenty six people were killed by Adam Lanza in the mass shooting last week.

Among them were 20 children, all aged between 6 and 7.

 

Soto was killed while shielding her pupils from gunfire. She is understood to have hidden some of the children in a closet, ensuring they were safe, and then told the gunman that her class was in the gym.

Simon is believed to know the Soto family through his sister-in-law, who is a nurse like Victoria's mother. He received no introduction at the funeral and left without making any comment.

 

Soto grew up in Stratford, Connecticut and graduated from Eastern Connecticut State University. She was studying for a master's degree in special education.

 

"She lost her life doing what she loved," her cousin, Jim Wiltsie told ABC News.

 

wow- so sad- I rarely watch the news (ahem, after all, "I get all the news I need from the weather report...." ) and did not see this before.

So sad...so touching.

[CygnusGal]

Hey guys and gals gotta question...is "Bridge over troubled water" Garfunkel's finest moment or is it "To Emily"...or something else?

Tough question, TM. For me, it is Bridge Over Troubled Water. Garfunkel sings like an angel. The strength and beauty of his delivery of the line "I will ease your mind", his harmony to Paul's vocal (Sail on silver girl, sail on by...), his dynamics (so soft then so powerful) gives me goosebumps.

 

For Emily is beautiful and I love it, but because of the harmony, I give the edge to Bridge.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q-XCmb6t6Zw

Edited March 7, 2013 by CygnusGal

[Tombstone Mountain]

Hey, ya know, breakdowns come and breakdowns go, so,

What are you gonna do about it, that's what I'd like to know

You don't feel you could love me but I feel you do

It was in the early morning hours that I fell into a phone call

Believing I had supernatural powers, I slammed into a brick wall.

 

----

 

Today's entry is a little ditty made famous by a movie.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bE1dz6_u2JI

 

Edit to add: I don't think Paul exploited African musicians, rather he put a face (and a sound) on the people suffering under Apartheid. Paul exposed their rich musical culture and helped focus world attention on the people.

soooo cool...this little Paul Simon thread has made me smile at 5:50 in the morning...that's hard to do.

I have the Central Park DVD and it's fantastic.

That's a historical kind of concert right? What songs did they sing? I gotta get it...for some reason it's never been on my radar

[Tombstone Mountain]

Here's one for TM ... hang one more year on the line... and have a good time. :cheers:

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GVwTbWmOsfw

This made my day CygnusGal...so approriate. This thread is something I look forward to daily :sundog:

[Tombstone Mountain]

Though ya'll might be interested in this article—TM

 

 

Art Garfunkel implicates film director Mike Nichols in split with Paul Simon

 

Garfunkel says the director's decision to drop Simon from the film of Catch-22 contributed to their parting in 1970

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Troubled water … Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel in 1970. Photograph: Rex Features

 

Art Garfunkel has said a major factor in the break-up of Simon & Garfunkel was the 1970 movie version of Catch-22. In the late 60s, the 71-year-old recalled, both he and Paul Simon were cast in Mike Nichols' adaptation of Joseph Heller's novel. But whereas Garfunkel received fourth billing, Simon's minor role never made the final cut.

 

Garfunkel was speaking at a recent event in New York, after a screening of Charles Grodin's 1969 documentary about the duo, Songs of America, where both he and Grodin pointed the finger at Nichols.

 

"You don't take Simon & Garfunkel and ask them to be in a movie and then drop one of their roles on them. You just don't do that," Grodin said.

 

Garfunkel agreed. "Yes, Chuck's gone right to the heart of the difficulty in Simon & Garfunkel when he says, 'Artie and Paul were cast for Catch-22, and Paul's part was dropped,'" he said. "I had Paul sort of waiting: 'All right, I can take this for three months. I'll write the songs, but what's the fourth month? And why is Artie in Rome a fifth month?' What's Mike doing to Simon & Garfunkel?'"

 

These events have never been a secret: The Only Living Boy in New York, one of Simon & Garfunkel's final songs, was written as Simon waited for Garfunkel to return from shooting. But according to Garfunkel, these tensions led directly to the duo's split in 1970.

 

Simon & Garfunkel parted after the release of Bridge Over Troubled Water, though they have frequently reunited since. Their last concerts, in 2010, were cancelled owing to Garfunkel's vocal cord paresis. "It's getting mostly better; I'm pretty much there," he said last week. "I'm starting to book small shows – warm-up things, workout places. So I'm back to 14-years-old, with the vulnerability of an audience and the nervous energy of, 'Will the voice be there?'"

[CygnusGal]

Yes, an interesting article, TM. I'm glad I can bring some sunshine to your day. :)

 

Thanks. :cheers:

[Tombstone Mountain]

Little known Garfunkel fact—he's got a master's degree in Mathmatics. Who knew?

[Tombstone Mountain]

This song is stuck on me today —TM

 

 

My Little Town

 

 

Translation in progress. Please wait...

http://www.lyricsfreak.com/i/loader.gif

In my little town

I grew up believ—ing

God keeps his eye on us all

And he used to lean upon me

As I pledged allegiance to the wall

Lord I recall

My little town

 

Coming home after school

Flying my bike past the gates

Of the factories

My mom doing the laundry

Hanging our shirts

In the dirty breeze

 

And after it rains

There's a rainbow

And all of the colors are black

It's not that the colors aren't there

It's just imagin-ation they lack

Everything's the same

Back in my little town

Nothing but the dead and dying

Back in my little town

Nothing but the dead and dying

Back in my little town

 

In my little town

I never meant nothin'

I was just my fathers son

Saving my money

Dreaming of glory

Twitching like a finger

On the trigger of a gun

Leaving nothing but the dead and dying

Back in my little town

Repeat and fade:

Nothing but the dead and dying

Back in my little town

[CygnusGal]

Here's a song with two basses. Paul plays one of them. Not the one that has the solo - Bakithi Kumalo plays the solo. The solo was recorded and then played backwards for the song. Paul is a great bass player too, so profound is his talent. Paul. Bakithi.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ULds5XR5v64