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I thought it was the lost verse from 'Cecilia', after he comes back from washing his face and the guy does down the fire-escape.
The thing about S&G is that, like Shakespeare, the songs appeal to different stages of life, and your favourites will change. This isn't just to do with nostalgia and regression, but with the universality and MATURITY of the songs. You feel that the excellent songs are the product of excellent psyches. It's impossible to pick. 'The Boxer' and 'America' today, maybe something else on another day.
They have a unique place. They stand in the mode of the mediaeval troubadours and keep that tradition alive. Structure, musicianship, lyrics, meaning, they excel at everything, every song is as perfect as it might be.
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There are too many for me to single out one, but I'll name a personal favorite which nobody else has mentioned:
"Punky's Dilemma."
Incidentally, I first heard the song when S & G performed it for a dance by Fred Astaire and Barrie Chase on Fred's 1968 TV special. To this day, whenever I listen to BOOKENDS, I wish they'd used the original TV version which to me was a much better, more dreamlike, arrangement. Presumably, Simon had second thoughts and re-worked it for the LP. Too bad. Maybe some day they'll dig the first version out of the vault and put it in the ultimate Simon collection. (Simon happens to live in my home town in Conecticut. Maybe some day I'll bump into him at the supermarket, in which case I'll suggest it.)
***
NON SEQUITOR: I don't suppose anybody knows why S & G screw up the rhyme scheme of "Baby Driver" by singing "I wonder how your engines feel" instead of "I wonder how your engine feels"? I can only guess that somebody at Columbia insisted on censoring the double entendre...
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Posted: |
Aug 7, 2014 - 7:34 AM
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By: |
Jim Phelps
(Member)
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The thing about S&G is that, like Shakespeare, the songs appeal to different stages of life, and your favourites will change. This isn't just to do with nostalgia and regression, but with the universality and MATURITY of the songs. You feel that the excellent songs are the product of excellent psyches. It's impossible to pick. 'The Boxer' and 'America' today, maybe something else on another day.
Well stated, though I believe all great art "changes" as we change, or rather we "find" things in songs, books, films et al. that we just didn't notice before, until we have, for lack of a better term, lived it.
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Some great songs from them down the years.
Two I really like are;
the one made more famous by Harper's Bazarre (Feeling Groovy) and Art's solo effort for Watership Down (Bright Eyes).
Two great songs...one happy and chirpy and the other sad and wistful.
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Posted: |
Aug 7, 2014 - 1:27 PM
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By: |
Tall Guy
(Member)
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Well stated, though I believe all great art "changes" as we change, or rather we "find" things in songs, books, films et al. that we just didn't notice before, until we have, for lack of a better term, lived it.
Quite right. I've been little short of scathing about Charles Dickens, based mainly on tv adaptations of various of his books. After having it sat by my bedside for a year and a half, I finally picked up Bleak House, and although it took me about a hundred pages I got hooked and will be sorry when I get to the end after 750 pages of Victorian drama. I honestly don't believe I would have had the maturity to stick with it until the last few years.
And Kev's choice of Feelin' Groovy for S&G is a great one that I'd forgotten about.
TG
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Well, Art was always skeptical of key changes in his cages.
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While I don't think much of either one of them as human beings, my favorite song of their's is Cecilia.
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that Miley Cyrus has an impressive cover of Paul Simon's "50 Ways to Leave Your Lover" and before you aging hippies think I've snapped my cap (again), take a listen to it. I've never heard her sing anything before but she does a fine job with "50 Ways..."
