Top Ten Songs of 2011 – #3
As my series of Paul Simon Weekends comes close to wrapping up, I hope I’ve made a strong case for his spot atop my list of favorite songwriters. For 50 years he has led listeners on a musical journey as sublime as it is ambitious.
I hope his latest album, So Beautiful Or So What, is not his last, but if that turns out to be the case, it would be a fitting end to his career. It’s a beautiful work, one of his finest, and it touches gracefully on themes or mortality and the afterlife.
The album’s centerpiece song, ‘Love and Hard Times,’ is a gently meandering beauty that starts big (with a visit to Earth by God and Jesus) and ends small (with a husband and wife clasping hands in bed). It is the most quietly powerful tune on an album full of meaningful songs.
Another of my favorite artists, Elvis Costello, contributed liner notes to So Beautiful Or So What and had this to say about ‘Love and Hard Times’:
In “Love and Hard Times,” two-thirds of the Trinity arrive on earth only to disagree over who and what is worthy of salvation. This bold and, for any other songwriter, completely humbling piece of composition took my breath away on first hearing.
The opening statement is as lovely as anything Paul has written. I felt as if I was suddenly within the idyllic scene of natural beauty that it describes, only for it be leavened by the Lord’s blue aside, “We’d better get going,” as He departs the scene.
The song concludes with recognition that it is the reassuring touch of a lover that calms an uneasy but grateful heart near dawn. If love is discovery made in a moment, then it is still one for which we must give thanks.
This song does in four minutes what Terrence Malick’s The Tree of Life attempts in 2 1/2 hours, and without the need for CGI dinosaurs or Sean Penn.
Paid a courtesy call on Earth
One Sunday morning
Orange blossoms opened their fragrant lips
Songbirds sang from the tips of Cottonwoods
Old folks wept for His love in these hard times
“Well, we got to get going,” said the restless Lord to the Son
“There are galaxies yet to be born
Creation is never done
Anyway, these people are slobs here
If we stay it’s bound to be a mob scene
But, disappear, and it’s love and hard times”
I loved her the first time I saw her
I know that’s an old songwriting cliché
Loved you the first time I saw you
Can’t describe it any other way
Any other way
The light of her beauty was warm as a summer day
Clouds of antelope rolled by
No hint of rain to come
In the prairie sky
Just love, love, love, love, love
When the rains came, the tears burned, windows rattled, locks turned
It’s easy to be generous when you’re on a roll
It’s hard to be grateful when you’re out of control
And love is gone
The light at the edge of the curtain
Is the quiet dawn
The bedroom breathes
In clicks and clacks
Uneasy heartbeat, can’t relax
But then your hand takes mine
Thank God, I found you in time
Thank God, I found you
Thank God, I found you
Meet Me In Montauk 
This is a beautiful song, and, as I said earlier, this album continues to impress me upon repeat listening.
And thanks for pointing out the liner notes by Elvis. I hadn’t looked at those and didn’t even know he wrote them. It’s so wonderful to see one artist I so love admiring the work of another artist I love.