Tuesday, October 13, 2009

Still rhymin' after all these years

How great is Paul Simon?

Great enough to be one of our most beloved songwriters. Great enough at age 68 -- it's his birthday today -- to have amassed a catalog of music that is very nearly matchless in terms of productivity, diversity and pure sonic excellence.

If he has written a single mediocre song, I have yet to hear it. Almost every one is a treasure. Even the songs you wonder about at first, like "Me and Julio Down by the Schoolyard'', win you over eventually.

How do you measure that kind of excellence in song-writing? One way is to think about the songs for which you know the lyrics. If it's by Simon, you can probably do the rhymin'. I won't even start to list them, because I won't be able to stop.

Yet the song that often comes to mind when I think about Paul Simon was written by Brian Wilson. "Surfer Girl'', in fact, was the first song ever penned by Wilson as he was getting the Beach Boys wound up back in 1963. It was the song Simon chose to perform for "An All-Star Tribute to Brian Wilson'' at Radio City Music Hall in 2001. The concert was first broadcast on TNT and is available on DVD, which I highly recommend. But Simon's touching performance is just a click away below:



Simon did more than borrow a Brian Wilson song and run with it. He captured the purity and innocence of that incredible Beach Boys sound and harmoniously wrapped it around the tragic consequences of Wilson's life. It is beautiful, sad and poignant, and provides a benchmark for the term "tribute'' that can't reasonably be equaled.

That's how great Paul Simon is.

1 comment:

  1. I am a rock, I am an island. I remember that song on the radio in the barracks early in my Army days (1966).

    Bought the Parsely, Sage Rosemary and Thyme album just for the pyschedelic cover and the was surprised at how good the music was. No accounting for purchasing decisions.

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