Paul Simon: Rock & Roll Repast

Posted: June 25th, 2024 | Filed under: Music, Rock & Roll Rewind | 2 Comments »

I’m a rock & roll lifer. I got stories, lots of stories. Here’s another.

Out of respect, I have been reluctant to engage artists of note on the few occasions through the decades when I’ve been in their presence.

(The exception to the rule. I could not not engage Allen Toussaint when our paths crossed in a hotel lobby. With him, there was a connection. His album producer Joe Henry is an acquaintance.)

So I kept a distance as usual in the mid 90s with Paul Simon. He was standing about ten feet away at JazzFest’s Congo Square stage with Edie Brickell one early Thursday afternoon.

It was in the period not long after the release of “Rhythm of the Saints,” which album had been a significant comfort a couple of years earlier during my lengthy recovery after being hit by a car while jogging.

The album infused by Simon’s fascination and emergence with African and Brazilian music was recorded with a majority of the musicians from those countries. It is filled with lilting melody lines and harmonies, gentle but insistent rhythms, and as always Simon’s ever-present lyrical elusiveness and undercurrent of melancholy.

One example of his poetic brilliance from “Further to Fly”:

There may come a time/ When I will lose you/ Lose you as I lose my light/ Days falling backward into velvet night/ The open palm of desire/ Wants everything/ It wants everything/ It wants soil as soft as summer/ And the strength to push like spring

Or this from “The Cool, Cool River”:

And I believe in the future/ We shall suffer no more/ Maybe not in my lifetime/ But in yours I feel sure/ Song dogs barking at the break of dawn/ Lightning pushes the edges of a thunderstorm/ And these streets/ Quiet as a sleeping army/ Send their battered dreams to heaven, to heaven/ For the mother’s restless son/ Who is a witness to, who is a warrior/ Who denies his urge to run

Listening to that collection of songs over and over again was a major factor in the healing process. It has become my favorite album. Since its release I’ve listened to it way more than any other.

I left the creator and his bride alone. Which I now rue after recently streaming “In Restless Dreams,” the well done doc about Simon’s career and creative process on Amazon Prime.

I’ve been blessed to hear Paul Simon live a few times.

The only gig with his long time stage partner was during their last attempt to perform together. It was an outdoor show. Art Garfunkel’s voice was a croak. The adoring audience sang out his lyrics. Not a primo experience.

But a trio of other adventures hearing Simon ring special.

The first at the Xavier University basketball arena in ’91 or ’92. He was touring with many of those South African and Brazilian players. It was sublime. On crutches from that accident, I was still compelled to stand and sway during the show.

Another a few years later at the shed up in Noblesville. Again he was great. That night was exceptional since the opener was Brian Wilson, whose eight piece band rendered his Beach Boys classics pitch perfectly.

In May of 2011, the Film Babe and I heard Simon at the Ryman  (If you’ve never heard a show at that cathedral music venue, put it on your bucket list.)

Among the litany of Simon favorites performed that night, one that resonated for me was “The Boxer” with dobro master Jerry Douglas joining in.

When Don Everly was introduced and joined Simon for one of my childhood faves “Bye Bye Love,” I was in rock & roll heaven.

So, Paul, my apologies.

I should have walked over and briefly said thanks.

— c d kaplan

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