I recently did a thread asking for your favorite Elton John deep cuts. I think Paul Simon would be another interesting catalog to discuss.
For the purposes of this thread, let’s define a deep cut as a song that the casual fan is unlikely to know.
I will wait a bit before adding my own favorites.
mmm
I think *Rene and Georgette Magritte With Their Dog After the War *is very pretty, but may not be as “deep” as you were looking for.
The acoustic demo of “Train in the Distance”. Hauntingly beautiful. Also, the demo version of “Take Me to the Mardi Gras”. The studio version is much peppier - this one feels bittersweet, especially the bridge.
While “The Sound of Silence” isn’t exactly, uh, unknown, my favorite version is pretty obscure: the first recording of the song, shortly after he wrote it, on a little-known 1965 solo album. He sounds pissed off. A lot of the other stuff on that album (Kathy’s Song, I Am a Rock) are stripped down, more personal versions of well known songs.
Also, maybe not quite as deep, but the entirety of Hearts and Bones. It was the first Paul Simon album my dad ever played for me, so I grew up thinking it was this incredibly well-known magnum opus of his. But it actually sold pretty badly, and still isn’t quite mainstream. “Song About the Moon” “Rene and Georgette Magritte with Their Dog After the War” “Think Too Much (b)” - it’s just a great collection of songs, quite lyrically distinct from his other work.
Last one, I promise: Obvious Child. I don’t like most of Rhythm of the Saints, but the opening track is gold.
“Papa Hobo” from the “Paul Simon” album is just about my favorite of his.
One of my favorite Paul Simon songs is Boy in The Bubble. Don’t think that was much of a hit.
I believe these were the highest-charting American singles of their respective albums, which in turn were Simon’s two best-selling albums, apart from Bridge Over Troubled Water with Garfunkel.
You didn’t say if it could be with S &G.
With:
Song for the Asking
Save the life of my child
Without:
Armistice Day (The coolest guitar riffs PS ever did. In drop D)
There’s no way Boy in the Bubble charted higher than You Can all Me Al.
“Something So Right” from There Goes Rhymin’ Simon
For ‘deep tracks’ off Graceland, I’d have to go with “Under African Skies” and “Homeless.” The title track doesn’t get enough love, either.
Also, much of Songs from The Capeman, especially “Quality,” “Bernadette,” and “Satin Summer Nights.”
I wouldn’t call anything that’s included on a Greatest Hits album a “deep cut.” But “Was a Sunny Day” from that album is one of my favorite mellow feel-good songs.
Night Game from Still Crazy after All These Years. Baseball:sports = poetry:art.
‘Duncan’ from one of his early solo albums is a catchy little tune.
Great song – it’s the OTHER one from that approximate time using Peruvian pan flutes (the other being S and G’s “El Condor Pasa”). Love the line “the couple in the next room are bound to win a prize…they’ve been goin’ at it all night long.”
My pick: “Look at That,” from Simon’s under-appreciated 2000 album “You’re the One.” A gentle but incisive tune – it incldes the observation that “to ask somebody to love you takes a lot of nerve.”
This is the first one I thought of. I love this song.
My current favorite is Under African Skies. I sing it as a lullaby to my son. I also really like Train in the Distance.
For personal reasons my favourite will always be “Cool cool river”. That sound…
I like “One Man’s Ceiling” from his Kodachrome album.
I like “The Coast” - the live version from his Concert in the Park.