Paul Simon was born Jewish, the son of Hungarian Jewish immigrants, and perhaps his work is best seen in the context of his heritage alongside other mid-to-late twentieth century urban American Jewish writers like Saul Bellow and Phillip Roth, Woody Allen and Lou Reed. I don't believe that the two ever met as children though. Their mature music couldn't be more different, of course, although they were both very much self-consciously New York and Jewish songwriters who wear their New Yorkerness on their sleeves. I bring this up only as I think Lou Reed's early career does have some interesting parallels with Simon's, including a love of doo-wop and a stint at writing and recording demos for publishing companies. Paul Simon was born in Newark, New Jersey on October 13th, 1941 but grew up in the Queens borough of New York City just a few blocks from fellow New Yorker Lou Reed, who was less than half a year younger than Simon. Bootleg songs will not be held up for rating, but may be discussed where appropriate. *albums contain songs released on other albums: I will hold up songs only once, so the versions on these albums will be held up in conjuction with their songs on other albums.Īny live albums will be included in one day only discussions.īonus tracks, non-album singles, B-sides, officially released outtakes and other rarities will be discussed after the album they are associated with - see any of my other song-by-song threads for a template. So I've decided to divide them into phases by artistĪfter that I plan to go over the songs of the following albums, in this order: Paul Simon's early days are associated with a number of acts most of them pseudonymous. Only songs that were written and/or performed by Paul Simon.įor clarity's sake, I plan I plan to go through the thread in this order. I do not plan on holding up unreleased/bootleg songs for rating (if there are any) that does not mean that they cannot be discussed or referenced in their appropriate era by those who know about them it only means that I won't make a separate entry for them.ĭitto for side projects, where Paul may have contributed guitar or backing vocals: they will not be held up separately. T he main thing is to discuss ,celebrate and tear apart the music of Paul Simon, song-by-song, and to have fun with the music of this incredible songwriter with other fans. Having said that o ne does not have to rate songs to participate in the thread. And I like to make playlists from the more highly-rated songs! I like doing this simply because, a) for some reason it helps me to focus my mind critically when I'm listening and b) although individual users' ratings mean nothing, collectively, when averaged, they are an interesting statistic. I will trace his career from his early teeny pop days of Tom and Jerry, his Brill building doo-wop faze, his early "Jerry Landis" phase, his Simon & Garfunkel days and his days as one of the foremost American singer/songwriters.Īs always, I will also be rating songs on a 1-5 scale, 5 being the best. I will be going through all of Paul Simon's songs, one by one, day by day, including covers recorded by Paul, songs he recorded under different names, and of course, the entirety of Simon and Garfunkel's catalogue. My intention with this thread, starting Sunday, January 8th is to discuss the music of Paul Simon.
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