I want to marry Paul Simon. He’s probably already married, anyway. I know nothing about the man, except that he has produced music so heartbreakingly beautiful that it makes me cry like a baby.
So I am founding this thread in honor of the Greatest Musical Genius of Our Time (that phrase should be enough to bring all the Beatles, Elvis and Britney fans to my doorstep with pitchforks and torches). Art Garfunkle fans welcome here, too, but you have to sit in the corner and raise your hands if you want to speak. Just kidding, you don’t have to raise your hands. But stay in the corner.
If there are other Simon fans around, please share favorite songs/albums, why you love them, particularly poignant lines, intersting anecdotes, info, whatever.
500 points for anyone who can introduce me to The Man Himself.
Slip Slidin’ Away off of the Concert in Central Park album is one of my all time favorites (don’t much like the studio recording of that one). Also off that album I love The Boxer and Still Crazy after all These Years.
American Tune is also one of his very best, IMO.
Kodachrome/There goes Rhymin’ Simon is my favorite album.
Man, the more I think about it, the more absolutely great songs I can think of. Some others from the Simon and Garfunkel days:
*Kathy’s Song
Overs
America
Song for the Asking*
I don’t know if I’d call the man Genius, but he certainly is one of the very best Singer/Songwriters ever, and is on my top two list of favorite musicians (with Springsteen being the other).
I really like Paul Simon’s music. However, I think he lost a lot of the intimacy when him and Art broke up. They hated eachother by that time but I think that stress just added that much more to the music.
I saw him perform a year or two ago. He did a lot of old Simon and Garfunkel songs in addition to his new things. He plays a mean guitar but he didn’t really sing as well as he did on the earlier albums. Also, he just didn’t connect to me without Garfunkel. There is something about the close harmony that really gets me going.
This will probably be the strangest posts in this thread. I agree that Simon is a musical genius, but * I can’t stand the majority of his work!!* I like much of the early stuff with Garfunky and a couple of others, but the bulk of it makes me cringe (especially the conga crap). I do recognize and acknowledge his genius for music, and I’m sure someone out there likes it. Its kinda like Neil Young. So much music, so many genres, not everyone is going to like all of it, but a few do and many like most of it (that would be me).
So, yes, Simon is a musical treasure, but I don’t like 'em! I don’t know art, but I know what I like…or something like that.
The answers to all lifes mysteries will become apparent when you have mastered the art of pissing up rope.
Dude. I thought you meant SENATOR Paul Simon when I read the title. I was going to say that I could hook you up except he was recently married. My ex and his daughter are very close. His daughter taught one of our clinics in law school. Now THAT is one interesting family!
My wife and I are Paul Simon fans. The range of his talent seems to be without limits. Bridge Over Troubled Water, Graceland, El Condor Pasa, Mean Individual, Kodachrome, Me And Julio Down By The Schoolyard… How can one person know so much and tell it so well?
I should have mentioned in my other post that we’ve also been impressed by his complex rythms. We figure that the guy with the most job gratification on the planet may be Paul Simon’s drummer.
Saw the S&G Concert in Central Park on PBS the other day. They looked soooo young. Was kind of disappointed that they didn’t reunite for just a moment following 9/11. Mending of fences kind of thing. When I think of NYC I think of S&G.
I think Simon definitely ranks in the Top 10 songwriters of our time. It amazes me how insightful and philosophical he was in his youth. I mean, a lot of the S&G stuff was written while they were still teenagers!
Simon’s music will definitely withstand the time test but I don’t think people will choose to record his songs simply because S&G’s interpretation cannot be surpassed. Truly, who can top “Scarborough Fair”?
Favorite Simon tune? Gosh “Sound of Silence” is up there as is “Bridge Over Troubled Water” and “Scarborough Fair.” But my all-time favorite is “The Boxer.”
Ever since I first listened to the Graceland album at the tender age of 13, I was hooked on Paul Simon. The song “Diamonds on the Soles of Her Shoes” was like a revelation to me. His 1991 Concert in the Park live album is one of my personal favorite CDs to listen to. He’s simply my favorite musician.
“The Boxer”, “America”, “Diamonds on the Soles of Her Shoes”, “American Tune”, “The Sound of Silence”, “Still Crazy After All These Years”, “50 Ways to Leave Your Lover”…the list of my favorite Simon songs just goes on and on and on.