I am on a Simon and Garfunkel kick this morning - What is your favorite

Simon and Garfunkel (or Simon or Garfunkel) song?
It shifts for me, but usually "Hazy Shade of Winter" pops out. I love winter and the imagery this song evokes.

Paul and Art both turn 70 this fall.

Good morning, rurallib! :hi:

great picks!

oh it's impossible to pick favorites, so many of their songs are just perfect.

sweet "Bookends."


Time it was
And what a time it was
It was
A time of Innocence
A time of confidences
Long ago it must be
I have a photograph
Preserve your memories
They're all that's left you.

when 'Bookends" hits that part I play it over and over and over. And shed a small tear.

a school-sponsored retreat recently, and in it I quoted the last two lines. Paul Simon is right. In the end all we have are the memories of our lifetime of experiences. Really cuts to the chase in a very profound way. Love that song.

And:

In the clearing stands a boxer
and a fighter by his trade
And he carries the reminders
of every glove that laid him down
or cut him till he cried out
in his anger and his shame
I am leaving, I am leaving
But the fighter still remains.

A metaphor for life. At one time or another, that's everybody.

i love this song

sigh

I have perhaps 15 different versions of it on my iPod.

My best friend sang an amazingly beautiful black-gospel version of the song at my wedding.

Great song

Those guys could sing the phone book and make it sound good - and their songs are awesome.

Hazy Shade, covered by the Bangles http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zG9PVucS9aw

original, with neat fan vid http://youtu.be/wSd4QJBEMvk

Scarborough Faire http://youtu.be/nIoGOgqs_20

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TJBhdKrwTOc

That was my favorite song when I was in kindergarten (about when it came out).

Not even 2 minutes long, but what a beautiful song.

And looking back down at me. Smiled Reassuringly.


There's some beautiful human thoughts in Paul's poetry.

He seems to be coming back around to writing songs with his guitar again.

...after all these years.

(Go ahead. Smack me.)

I'm glad of it.

Not that the exploration of various music possibilities wasn't...interesting.

But there's been times over the past couple of decades that we have hungered for his "voice."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zTZkk66pd1I
"American Tune"....Simon and Garfunkel


Tikki

It was as effortless as breathing to them.

I Am A Rock

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IVLFlkehGuU

A winter's day
In a deep and dark December;
I am alone,
Gazing from my window to the streets below
On a freshly fallen silent shroud of snow.
I am a rock,
I am an island.

I've built walls,
A fortress deep and mighty,
That none may penetrate.
I have no need of friendship; friendship causes pain.
It's laughter and it's loving I disdain.
I am a rock,
I am an island.

Don't talk of love,
But I've heard the words before;
It's sleeping in my memory.
I won't disturb the slumber of feelings that have died.
If I never loved I never would have cried.
I am a rock,
I am an island.

I have my books
And my poetry to protect me;
I am shielded in my armor,
Hiding in my room, safe within my womb.
I touch no one and no one touches me.
I am a rock,
I am an island.

And a rock feels no pain;
And an island never cries.

The Honda commercial brought me back to that song.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WuG35Tbrtbw

It's haunting...I've loved this song for what seems like forever.

I had forgotten this song, and it is lovely.

I hope you're feeling well, CP! :) (Had some recent surgery myself...recovery is a bear...one more surgery coming up to take the screws out of my foot!).

He and friends were driving along the Pacific Coast Highway and pulled over to a look out. He said it was night too foggy at first to see the water, but he could hear the waves crashing into the cliffs below. And that's when he heard El Condura Pasa for the first time. The fog lifted during the song. And every time he's heard it since takes him back to that moment of his life.

He has a magic time machine, to being a 21 year old man, standing on a cliff of the Pacific Ocean with his friends.

An amazingly beautiful tribute to Garfunkels's voice and Paul Simon's elegant prose.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=om7aUNZQVpQ

I have actually heard their songs so many times that I'm kind of tired of hearing them.

He Was a Most Peculiar Man

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fB-Dncg7uIY

Late in the Evening
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oUvQl2OZBD8

http://youtu.be/33aoxUeAw0E

I'd forgotten this song entirely. In my younger days when I got really emo this one would choke me right up.

A winter's day
In a deep and dark December;
I am alone,
Gazing from my window to the streets below
On a freshly fallen silent shroud of snow.
I am a rock,
I am an island.

I've built walls,
A fortress deep and mighty,
That none may penetrate.
I have no need of friendship; friendship causes pain.
It's laughter and it's loving I disdain.
I am a rock,
I am an island.

Don't talk of love,
Well, I've heard the word before.
It's sleeping in my memory.
I won't disturb the slumber of feelings that have died.
If I never loved I never would have cried.
I am a rock,
I am an island.

I have my books
And my poetry to protect me;
I am shielded in my armor,
Hiding in my room, safe within my womb.
I touch no one and no one touches me.
I am a rock,
I am an island.

And a rock feels no pain;
And an island never cries.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jN2sWrr6l80

my favorite is "Benedictus"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ai3UhslbPOk

wow

I was surprised when I saw his name on the lineup, and didnt think the kids would be interested in an old guy like Paul Simon, but I guess I was wrong.



http://hangoutmusicfest.com/paul-simon/

But really I love all their stuff.

Sharing a park bench quietly
How terribly strange to be seventy......

Interesting how from a young man's perspective a 70-year-old was relegated to sitting on a park bench watching the world go by. I love this song, but I don't see any park bench sitting in the almost 70 Paul Simon's future. I think these days 80 or 90 is the new 70.

Those are definitely my favorites, I love all their songs though!

Tom & Jerry
"I was in Manny's Musical Instruments in New York sometime in 1967, and it was raining outside. A little guy came walking in, kind of wet, and introduced himself as Paul Simon. He said he wanted me to come to dinner at his house that night, and gave me the address. I said okay and went there.

As I walked in the door, Paul was on his hands and knees in front of what appeared to be a Magnavox stereo -- the same model preferred by "the Stumbler" from Sun Village. He had his ear right up to the speaker, listening to a Django Reinhardt record.

Within moments -- for no apparent reason -- he announced that he was upset because he had to pay six hundred thousand dollars in income tax that year. This was completely unsolicited information, and I thought to myself, If only I could earn six hundred thousand dollars. What did you have to earn in order to have to pay that much tax? Then Art Garfunkel came in, and we talked and talked.

They hadn't been on the road in a long time, and were reminiscing about the 'good old days.' I didn't realize that they used to be called Tom & Jerry, and that they once had a hit song called "Hey, Schoolgirl in the Second Row."

I said, "Well, I can understand your desire to experience the joys of touring once again, and so I'll make you this offer. . . we're playing in Buffalo tomorrow night. Why don't you guys come up there and open for us as Tom & Jerry? I won't tell anybody. Just get your stuff and go out there and sing 'Hey, Schoolgirl in the Second Row' -- just play only your old stuff, no Simon & Garfunkel tunes." They loved the idea and said they would do it.

They did the opener as Tom & Jerry; we played our show, and at the encore I told the audience, "I'd like to bring back our friends to do another number." They came out and played "Sounds of Silence." At that point it dawned on everybody that this was the one, and only, the magnificent SIMON & GARFUNKEL. On the way out, after the show, a college-educated woman walked over to me and said, "Why did you do that? Why did you make fun of Simon & Garfunkel?" -- as if I had pulled some kind of cruel joke on them. What the feck did she think had just happened? That these two SUPERSTARS had dropped in out of nowhere and we had FORCED them to sing "OOO-boppa-loochy-bah, she's mine."


Always liked that story - I imagine that a lot of really successful performers wish they could get back to the sort of intimate connection with their audience that just isn't possible once celebrity gets in the way. I know Prince is pretty fond of following up his big shows by finding some local low-key club, and playing there unannounced for whoever is lucky enough to happen to be there.

And Bridge Over Troubled Water are my two all time favorites. Love all the old stuff, not as crazy about the stuff they recorded after Paul Simon fell in love with the synthesizer.

Heeeey, let your honesty shine shine shine now