Evolution
Thank you to everyone who wrote or called yesterday (and throughout the week) to wish me a happy birthday. It feels good to be remembered!Yesterday was just the beginning of what is going to be a great year, I think. At least the first three days look pretty good.
Today is May 9th. Paul Simon has released his first album in 5 and a half years today and I went over to Borders and bought the very first copy, moments after the store opened. I'm listening to it now. God, I love Paul Simon!
You want to know how music evolves, you don't look at the people who are just breaking into the scene today and compare them to the Beatles or Mozart or whoever. I mean, that music hasn't so much "evolved" as it has just...appeared. To really grasp how music has evolved, you have to look (or listen, rather) to those people who've been making it for decades and hear how different it is now than it was when they started. Listen to Paul McCartney's new music and hear how it is far and away different--and still distinctly Paul McCartney--than his early days with the Beatles and then with Wings. Listen to John Mellencamp's newer stuff and compare it to "Jack and Diane" or "Little Pink Houses". Just not the same. That's how music evolves.
Music has evolved once more with today's release of Paul Simon's "Surprise". Gone are the floating harmonies with Art Garfunkel. Gone is the drone of Ladysmith Black Mambazo in the background. Gone is the Puerto Rican flare of "Capeman". But none of it is really gone. It's all here. Each is a part to the whole that is Paul Simon. No one can make recitative sound so effortless or inject a creeping guitar line like Paul Simon. And his lyrics are still flawless! (Whether you think they're political or not, he finds just the perfect words to express what he wants to say.)
Do yourself a favor and buy "Surprise" and own a piece of the evolution of Paul Simon. Hear where music comes from and where it's going.
Speaking of which, the Experience Music Museum in Seattle...prepare yourself. I'm on my way! That's right folks, that's day three of DAN28. I leave for Washington state tomorrow morning and I'll be gone for a whole week. It's a little birthday present to myself. I get to visit my brother, his wife, and their three children. I've not seen any of them in seven years! They've got plans for me to climb mountains, swim in the Pacific, and experience the booming cultural center that is Seattle...including a trip to the Experience Music Museum (I think that's what it's called) of which I've heard so much about.
I'll be back in a week and tell you all about it then.
posted by Dan Marrero @ 10:56:00 AM
2 Comments:
I bought this CD yesterday, on Dan's recommendation... As he promised, it is wonderful! Refreshing to hear an album written by the singer, with thoughtful lyrics, driving tunes, and authentic sound. Many top-40ers should take the hint...
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20060731/music_nm/review_music_simon_dc_1
Paul Simon delivers plenty of surprises
By Erik Pedersen
Sun Jul 30
LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) - For all the accolades Paul Simon has racked up in the past 40 years, he remains a master of the set list.
Concert songs are carefully chosen -- lyrically and/or musically -- to weave a pattern of thought and feelings among his audience while Simon and a typically ace band tweak classic arrangements.
Such was the case Friday night as Simon presented beloved oldies and tastes of his fine new album to a receptive, all-ages outdoor crowd at the Pacific Amphitheater. Some song combinations were more overt, even playful, as when disparate aspects of motherhood were nodded at with an early run of "Mrs. Robinson" -- complete with an extended, teasing intro -- "Loves Me Like a Rock" and "That Was Your Mother."
But other planned presentations were subtle, like the positioning of the lovely "Wartime Prayers," from Simon's fine new Warner Bros. album "Surprise," his first in six years. With the song's title alone making a statement, Simon strategically placed it in the encore after fan favorite "The Boxer," when he knew he had the crowd's attention.
That emphasis on having the new song heard was apparent given its opening verse: "Prayers offered in times of peace are silent conversations/Appeals for love or love's release in private invocations," it begins. "But all that is changed now." Wartime prayers, he sings a few lines later, are for "every family scattered and broken."
It wasn't a political declaration but a human one. And it was deliberately followed by the comforting message of "Bridge Over Troubled Water," which was shorn of its huge sound on record and delivered as a gentle, even pacifying signal of hope. Simon sidestepped trying to replicate Art Garfunkel's soaring climactic vocal, instead moving to a slightly uptempo groove as the song ebbed.
Since Simon is touring with a band half the size of the one he employed on his 2000 solo jaunt, some of the night's material begged for a bigger sound. That was especially true for the band's multiple trips to the album "Graceland," the Grammy-winning album that turns 20 this summer. The title track was rather plodding, while "Diamonds on the Soles of Her Shoes" sorely missed Ladysmith Black Mambazo's stirring vocals. It did, however, feature bursts of growling simultaneous sax and grumbling thumps of Bakithi Kumalo's bass.
As usual, none of the evening's material sounded exactly like the records. Anchored by dual drummers Steve Gadd and Robin DiMaggio, the band redirected familiar arrangements into a travelogue of world music. African and Cuban rhythms were juxtaposed with bayou zydeco and some good ol' New York coffeehouse folk. Simon was in laid-back voice, adding a little early-career falsetto to "Loves Me Like a Rock" and delivering a gentle version of "The Only Living Boy in New York."
Two years removed from his triumphant reunion tour with Garfunkel, Simon continues to challenge audiences and himself rather than simply reciting his Hall of Fame catalog. It's that dedication to forward thinking that continues to makes him a viable songwriter and musician -- and makes his concerts such gems.
Reuters/Hollywood Reporter
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