Tag Archives: Paul Simon

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Song of the Day #632: ‘She Moves On’ – Paul Simon

Graceland was a hard act to follow, to put it mildly, but four years later, Simon pulled it off by releasing 1990’s The Rhythm of the Saints, an album that built on the world music fusion of his masterpiece but felt like something completely new.

I was in my freshmen year of college when The Rhythm of the Saints came out and it was the first Paul Simon album that I bought on its release day. Before that, all of Simon’s music I had inherited or discovered. I spent my high school years familiarizing myself with the Simon and Garfunkel catalog, old classics I’d missed out on growing up. But the idea of new Paul Simon music that was new to the rest of the world, too, was exciting.

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Song of the Day #631: ‘Diamonds on the Soles of Her Shoes’ – Paul Simon

Following the disappointment of Hearts and Bones (which followed the disappointment of One Trick Pony), Simon was on the ropes. And he responded by recording one of the greatest albums of all time, 1986’s Graceland.

Inspired by the sound of South African groups whose music he’d been introduced to, Simon packed up and flew there to record his newest batch of songs. He worked with the vocal group Ladysmith Black Mambazo on several tracks (including today’s SOTD) and a host of local musicians. The music hewed closely to that African sound but Simon also found room for a little Tex Mex and zydeco toward the end of the album.

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Song of the Day #628: ‘Hearts and Bones’ – Paul Simon

Paul Simon’s slump continued with the release of 1983’s Hearts and Bones. This album, though, was undeserving of its tepid commercial and critical reception. It contains some of Simon’s very best work, in my estimation.

It also contains ‘Cars are Cars,’ which could well be his very worst work, but let’s not hold that against him. I think one ‘Train in the Distance’ is worth a handful of ‘Cars are Cars,’ no question.

Hearts and Bones also features two songs called ‘Think Too Much’ (versions ‘A’ and ‘B’), the latter (which actually shows up first in the tracklist) is a beautiful little island ditty about a dying love affair.

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Song of the Day #627: ‘Late in the Evening’ – Paul Simon

It was five years, in 1980, before Paul Simon released another album. And his amazing run of success came to an abrupt stop when he broke his silence with One Trick Pony, a companion album to a film of the same name (written by and starring Simon himself).

One Trick Pony is the second Paul Simon album I don’t own, but unlike his self-titled solo debut, this one is missing from my collection because I’ve heard it’s just not very good. Not quite a soundtrack but not quite a proper album, it apparently suffers from being not much of anything worthwhile.

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Song of the Day #626: ‘Some Folks’ Lives Roll Easy’ – Paul Simon

Three years after There Goes Rhymin’ Simon, Paul Simon released Still Crazy After All These Years. And if it weren’t for the amazing, groundbreaking work to come in the 80s, I’d be quick to call this his best album.

A quiet, intimate record, like all of his solo albums to that point, Still Crazy doesn’t have a weak song on it. That includes the title track, one of Simon’s most famous, as well as the classic ’50 Ways to Leave Your Lover.’

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