I realized that I was a Paul Simon devotee one night, way back in high school, when I was hanging out on a beach alone with a radio, and for some unknown reason the DJ played a two-hour uninterrupted Paul Simon retrospective.
My favorite track has to be Renee and Georgette Magritte with their Dog after the War. So beautiful…
And plnnr, I’ve been playing Kathy’s Song on guitar for a month straight now… love that chord progression. Great fingerpicking practice.
I’d like to mention a couple of great covers… Kathy’s Song was done well by Shawn Colvin on her live solo album. And there’s a band out of Boston called Jim’s Big Ego that does an exuberant version of Feelin’ Groovy.
I grew up on Simon and Garfunkel. I was little, and my mom would always play her oldies music…until I was 10, I rocked out to CS&N, S&G, Air Supply, and all the rest.
I named my cat Simon. I wanted Garfunkel, but my mom refused to scream that out the front door for him…
I was going to mention Renee and Georgette… but it, and the album its from, got such little play I didn’t think anyone else would know it. You’re right about it being a beautiful tune. The recurring mention of the Moonglows and Orioles and Five Satins conjures up such pleasant pictures in my head…a couple listening to music, slow dancing in their bedroom, remembering what it was like to young and in love, letting the music just carry them back. Very sweet stuff, that.
Yup. And I ain’t gonna stop.
Must’ve been cool to go out of the country with choir. I was in choir briefly (the creep of a choir director needed warm bodies. I was told to “sing quietly”. Grrrrr. He also divided the choir into the “quality” singers and the “support” singers (his words) Bastard.) Anyway, we went to Grand Junction (about a 5 hour trip) for a choir concert. We screwed around on Sat, sang on Sunday and left to go back at about 8:00 at night. I’d bought the S&G Concert in Central Park tape. While we were on the school-bus back, a buddy plunked it into his boom-box and the whole choir started vocally playing with the music. The better students (who the creep of a director was actually teaching) were doing odd harmonies and the rest of us just sang the melody. We must’ve played through the tape three or four times singing along, and it’s the only time I ever really enjoyed choir. That long drive back is one of my fondest high-school memories and I’ll always associate it with S&G.
Fenris (who’s got an awesome audio memory, a near photographic ear, and the vocal chords of a rusty gate, dammit…)
Very, very cool. 3 weeks, we left on the one day in the course of human kind that all of the international pilots were on strike. Anyhow. We sang at least one concert per day, sometimes 2, practices nearly every day. I started loosing my voice, every day, it ‘came back’ later and later. At the last concert, near the beginning, I belted out (I thought/hoped) a note, and some godawful noise came out (the person next to me turned and gave me a look). I lip synced the rest of the way. Took several weeks for my voice to heal. Still am prone to it.
You dig Jim Croce, too! OMG, I’m tiptoeing out of the closet and the air is warm on my skin! My “best of” died a year ago, and I haven’t been able to justify getting a new one when there are so many albums I’ve never owned that I want to get. Ah, forget it. I’ll get a used copy!
Welcome to the board, crocefan! Shall I call you ‘brother’ or ‘sister’?
You dig Jim Croce, too! OMG, I’m tiptoeing out of the closet and the air is warm on my skin! My “best of” died a year ago, and I haven’t been able to justify getting a new one when there are so many albums I’ve never owned that I want to get. Ah, forget it. I’ll get a used copy!
Welcome to the board, crocefan! Shall I call you ‘brother’ or ‘sister’? **[/QUOTE
Thanks for the welcome!! Have been a JC fan for a long time, and am glad to know that others remember and appreciate the man and his music as well. If you’re a fan as well, you can call me brother!!
i would sing “slow down, you move too fast, you gotta make the morning last” to a coworker of mine that would zip around the office at warp 10. towards the end of the day i start on “homeward bound.” heavens, i believe simon and garfunkel have a song for every situation.
I second Harry Chapin (W.O.L.D. is such a great song), mention James Taylor (good, but doesn’t move me), and nominate Cat Stevens (one of the only songwriters I can think of who’s lyrics (at best) equal Mr. Simon’s)
But sometimes you have to moan
when nothing seems to suit ya
But nevertheless you know
you’re locked towards the future
So on and on you go,
the seconds tick the time out
There’s so much left to know,
and I’m on the road to find out
or
You can do what you want
The opportunity’s on
And if you can find a new way
You can do it today
You can make it all true
And you can make it undo
Fenris
I kept thinking of this tune as I sat in traffic on the NJT for 4 hours waiting to cross the GWB the other day. Amazingly, it lost none of its charm.
I love the reactions of regional crowds to references like this in live shows, like when Springsteen does “This Land is Your Land” “from California, to the New York island” or “Jersey Girl”: “I’m gonna cross the river to the Jersey side…” You can feel the excitement of the hometown crowd.
-gigi, who only got to see Garth Brooks in Central Park
I love all those guys, and was fascinated to see an interview recently (:eek:) with Cat Stephens where he talked about his decision to throw all the fame, fortune and adulation away to pursue his religious life! Of course, he’s still involved in music…you just can’t take that out of a person…only now he’s only doing the religious music thing.
Yeah, I’ve heard some excerpts from his “A is for Allah” album and they’re really weird to my ear (he’s definitly not using traditional Western musical…concepts(?) ) but very, very interesting. I’m seriously considering getting it. Very few people, other than Cat Stevens, could get me to consider buying a alphabet primer (A is for Apple, B is for Bear) using a religious motif I don’t believe in.
Damn! Why didn’t I think of Cat Stevens?! I love Footsteps in the Dark. Well, I love all his albums from the post-pop, pre-Muslim period, but FITD is another of those albums that you can play on a loop and eventually realize it’s been on for two days and you’re still not tired of it!
