I’ve loved this song ever since its release in 1980. Give a listen if you’re not familiar.
It feels like it’s borrowing from some world music genre that I can’t put my finger on … afro-cuban/calypso/Brazilian samba…ish…whatever it is, I’d like to hear more of it. More of that percussion and cool horn part.
So what would I tell Spotify or Pandora or Alexa? “Play [something like Late in the Evening]” is there a particular key word i’m looking for?
Look up “New York City–style Cuban Mozambique”. That should get you the distinctive drum sound.
The great Steve Gadd on drums. Notice on this video he gets the sound by using two drumsticks in each hand.
Wiki mentioned that as well:
Gadd devised the distinctive drum part by using two pairs of drumsticks – one in each hand – in order to give the impression of two drummers playing together, as he has demonstrated in drum clinics.[2] Gadd plays a New York City–style Cuban Mozambique drum groove.
Thanks for the great memory!
Man, I love this tune.
It’s been one of my favorite songs of Simon’s (along with “Boy in the Bubble”) for decades. I love the rhythm, and the horns, as well as Simon’s evocative lyrics.
I’m old enough to remember that it was from the soundtrack of his not-autobiographical-but-maybe-a-bit-autobiograpical, and largely forgotten, 1980 film One-Trick Pony,
Huh. I forgot that song was from 1980 - I could have sworn it was from The Rhythm of the Saints (1990).
One-Trick Pony. The movie is forgotten but the album remains. It’s a shame, the movie has some really good music. There are some songs that appear in the movie and don’t appear and don’t appear on the album and vice versa. The songs in the movie are different versions than appear in on the album. The band was probably the best group of musicians he had behind him during his career. Eric Gale on guitar, Tony Levin on bass, Steve Gadd on drums. They are all in the movie playing his band.
Late in the Evening was featured rather prominently in Simon and Garfunkel’s concert in Central Park in 1981. They play ot once during the concert, and again as the final encore.
I would have loved to be at that Central Park concert, but the tour that followed it with the same musicians.
I was 7 years old, and my parents didn’t have that album.
Don’t feel bad, since while I didn’t misremember that one, for the longest time I thought that S+G’s breakthrough came in the very late 60s instead of the firm mid-60s, since there aren’t any other acts with that particular substyle of folk-rock around until then or even slightly afterward.
This song is one of my favourites. It blew the room away.
I would much rather listen to “Diamonds on the Soles of Her Shoes” from the Graceland album. Then again, I’m a sucker for harmonies.
There’s little point in arguing about which is the best song in Graceland. They’re almost all 10/10.
The concert in Central Park was filmed, and it’s great. The sound quality is excellent, which makes sense if they were recording it for an album.
And I mistyped a bit above. I did see S&G on their follow-up tour. It was at a huge stadium in Vancouver, so not the best sound or sightlines, but, dammit, I saw Simon and Garfunkel.
“One-Trick Pony” is the answer if anyone asks you “what was the last album mmm purchased new?”
Count me in as a big fan of the tune. The lyrics are top-notch:
“I’m feeling all right, I’m with my boys, I’m with my troops, yeah”
“My mother laughed the way some ladies do”
“Well I guess I’ve been in love before and once or twice I’ve been on the floor but I never loved no one the way that I love you”
mmm
I suppose it depends on when you think the Graduate came out (answer: 1967). The film and their breakthrough are inseparable.
Amen to that. That album was one of my dad’s top tapes in rotation in his car for the latter half of the 1980s. I probably know it by heart.
I was at the one in 1991. Maybe my favorite concert experience.
I was fortunate enough to see them twice, in July '67 and Feb '68. The setup for both concerts was: Paul, Art, two microphones, one guitar, one stool, and a card table at the back of the stage. Paul broke a string during the '67 show and retreated to the little table to restring while Art told the crowd the famous story of photographing the album cover for Wednesday Morning 3am. (“…the old familiar suggestion…”)
At the '68 show they performed Mrs. Robinson and America from the yet-to-be-released Bookends album.
They were great.