If you put a gun to my head and asked me to name the best song on Paul Simon’s There Goes Rhymin’ Simon, I would first wonder why somebody would do something quite so perverse. Then I’d pick ‘American Tune.’
But coming in a very close second would be ‘Something So Right,’ one of those songs that feels like it must have been written in the 40s by Cole Porter or some other urbane songwriting genius. It’s another modern standard, a feat Simon has pulled off again and again.
Paul Simon’s self-titled solo album was a bit of an oddity in that it didn’t carry over the style of the songs he wrote for Simon & Garfunkel but neither did it feel like the great material that was still to come.
His next album, released a year later in 1973, feels a lot more like a true Paul Simon record. There Goes Rhymin’ Simon, despite its goofy title, is Simon’s first great solo album.
Paul Simon’s self-titled album isn’t exactly packed with hits or songs well-known to the casual fan. Its one classic Simon track is ‘Me and Julio Down By the Schoolyard‘ (though that song is so great that, really, what else do you need?).
The rest of the album contains songs that I know only casually — the jazzy ‘Hobo’s Blues,’ the soft-as-a-whisper ‘Everything Put Together Falls Apart’ and the bluesy ‘Congratulations,’ which hinted at Simon’s looming divorce from first wife Peggy.
Two years after Simon & Garfunkel split up, Paul Simon dipped his toes back into record-making with the release of his second solo record (he had recorded the little-heard, acoustic Paul Simon Songbook during the first S&G hiatus).
This self-titled record signaled a departure from the folk rock Simon had recorded with Garfunkel. He introduced reggae and latin influences to some songs and a more contemporary sheen that places this album squarely on the other side of 1970.
Simon & Garfunkel recorded together for just six years, releasing only five albums, but they made a major impact on popular music both through their sound and through the classic songs Paul Simon wrote for them to perform.
A couple of years after their (second) breakup, Paul Simon would start his solo career in earnest, but Garfunkel would remain a presence in his music in one way or another for more than a decade.
Meet Me In Montauk 