The Song Fight Bulletin Board

Hey All,

I'm listening Paul Simon's 25th Anniversary Edition of Graceland and it is as good as ever. I'm especially taken with the alternate version bonus tracks. So interesting to hear a different take/groove on a familiar song. Check it out if you like this record.

Be well,
Ken

The fact that you just posted this and that this title is up this week is a huge indication I need to call my father. This album is a really big deal in our family history.

*WHY* would you put diamonds in the souls of your shoes? Isn't that gonna make walkin' really fucking painful, Paul? Really, that's a perfect example of why the 80s were HELL.

Well, people did say she was crazy that she had diamonds on the soles of her shoes.


Though mind you - I have worked in many areas where heavy-duty work boot soles have disintergrated in a matter of months - so some form of industrial diamond and synthetic rubber comglomerate doesn't really sound that crazy at all.


I actually bought a Best of Paul Simon CD on a whim a few years ago because it was only $5 and I had nothing to listen to in the car - and I was totally amazed by how much I enjoyed it. I had no idea I was a PS fan - but apparantly I am. Not so much the Graceland stuff - but more the early 70s stuff - Loves Me Like Rock, Me and Julio, 50 Ways.. etc.. I couldn't help thinking that a lot of that stuff sounded a bit like what Caravan Ray might sound like if Caravan Ray was a really good musician and singer and writer and producer etc. - And American. A lot of bongos and percussion, faux-gospel, hook driven, backing vox - the sort of stuff I usually lean towards - Though I would never have thought PS was an influence on me -maybe unconciously he was.

Growing up in NY in the 60s, Paul Simon was a huge part of the sound track of my life. We played it at home a lot, but I never really embraced him until the world music he started doing at the same time Peter Gabriel was producing tons of world music at his Real World studio. I never felt David Byrne blended well with the Brazillian and other "world" stuff he did, but PS just melting into it and the result was such a natural blending of his story telling and all their musics.

That version of Diamonds on the Soles of Her Shoes with just bass and vocals...frickin' brilliant!

In his narrative he said "there were times when I asked Black Mombasa to sing a minor chord, they couldn't singing it. They just couldn't hear it."

I used to be a huge Paul Simon fan. Best lyricist ever. Always on to something new. And them came Graceland. Huge. So huge, he's been making it ever since. Ugh. Come on, Paul. Move on.