It's gratifying to see towering 60s musicians continue to create vital music, especially when they're in their sixties. Kudos to such luminaries as Bob Dylan and The Rolling Stones and others, but as today is Paul Simon's birthday (b. 10/13/1941, Newark Heights, N.J.), it's time to spotlight the 2006 release of Surprise, his vibrant and interesting world music collaboration with Brian Eno that at times feels like My Life in the Bush of Ghosts (1981) meets and blends with Still Crazy After All These Years (1975). Simon's vocals and song-writing ability remain in top form, and Eno sounds as worldy as he ever has with co-songwriting credits and obvious impact on the album's aural landscape.
Paul Simon has graced the world's musical landscape for over forty years now. This Jewish American artist, an English major at Queens College, graduated through producing demos and various bands and working with Carole King to launch full-scale with Art Garfunkel, starting with Wednesday Morning, 3 A.M. (1964) and really kicking into gear with their soundtrack for the quintessential late sixties film, The Graduate (1967/1968).
As far as quantitative output, Simon is not a fanatically disciplined artist like Joyce Carol Oates or Woody Allen, but he plugs along, creating gems like Still Crazy After All These Years, Graceland (1986), The Rhythm of the Saints (1990), You're The One (2000), Surprise, and others. He also has a great straight part in Woody Allen's Annie Hall (1977) and his own One-Trick Pony (1980).
On top of everything else, Paul Simon has been married three times (for the last twelve years, to Edie Brickell) and has four kids. Edie Brickell (b. 3/10/1966, Dallas, Texas), originally the lead singer for The New Bohemians, also has a new album out in 2006, Strange Things.
Today's Rune: Warrior.
Viva Paul Simon!
3 comments:
I hope Edie Brickell gave her man a great birthday party. I can't remember any of her songs; however, I do remember a particular lyric: "Religion is the smile on a dog."
That's good news. I agree - seeing older artists not merely sustaining, but also producing worls which might rank alongside their golden era is gratifying. I love Paul Simon for Bookeneds 0 especially "Old Friends", which always stopped me being frightened of ageing back when I was anything but...
Cheers to Kurt V, Paul S, and maybe Bob D. though I haven't heard his latest yet...
Old friends, old friends,
Sat on their parkbench like bookends
A newspaper blown through the grass
Falls on the round toes
of the high shoes of the old friends
Old friends, winter companions, the old men
Lost in their overcoats, waiting for the sun
The sounds of the city sifting through trees
Settles like dust on the shoulders of the old friends.
Can you imagine us years from today,
Sharing a parkbench quietly
How terribly strange to be seventy
Old friends, memory brushes the same years,
Silently sharing the same fears
Time it was and what a time it was,
A time of innocence,
A time of confidences,
Long ago it must be,
I have a photograph,
Preserve your memories,
Ther all thats left you...
Surprise is awesome. If you like it as a bunch of random bits, you'll love it when you find out that there's nothing random at all. We still need some help from Surprise fans.
At www.CrackingTheSimonCode.blogspot.com I'm trying to get the whole album figured out. There are 3.5 songs left in the "random" bucket. Needs some brilliant insight, or maybe just the ability to see the obvious.
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