![]() It’s tough to overstate how startling this detail would have sounded in 1972, especially the way he’s so casual about it. It’s also worth noting the “she” that jumps out of the first verse, when he visits his doctor. Believe it or don’t, I won’t judge - but you have to admire the pettiness of polishing that anecdote for a half-century. In Robert Hilburn’s 2016 bio, Simon says he injured it while cutting a guitar part for Garfunkel’s solo album. It captures his acoustic chops at an all-time peak, right before a tough injury - in the fall of 1972, he hurt his left index finger, which hindered his playing for years. ![]() ![]() Paul Simon is also a real guitar album, the only one he’s ever made. (Maybe Duncan will end up as “Papa Hobo” from Side Two - but what a way to go.) What a meet-cute: “I told her I was lost/And she told me all about the Pentecost.” But she turns out to be his real adventure. Until he finds a night of salvation in the arms of a Jesus freak. You can’t imagine Artie singing, “Mama look down and spit on the ground every time my name gets mentioned.” “Duncan” is a wildly funny tale of a hippie kid who hits the road hoping for a romantic Dylan/Kerouac adventure, but just ends up starving in a parking lot. So he didn’t even try to copy his old style. No matter, however successful you’ll be, you’ll never be as successful as S&G.’ So I said, ‘Yeah, like Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis. “Clive once said to me, ’S&G is a household word. Did he let that bother him? Ah, yes - he’s Paul Simon, remember? In his classic 1972 Rolling Stone interview with Jon Landau - his most entertaining, most likably cranksome chat ever - he says that even his own label expected him to bomb. Simon knew that nobody was betting on him. It’s hard to believe this is the same sniffly emo boy who had an existential crisis over a traffic jam on the New Jersey Turnpike. He lets his Larry David side run wild, in the comic urban angst of “Paranoia Blues,” “Papa Hobo,” and “Run That Body Down.” No sap, no saccharine. The album has two monster hits, “Mother and Child Reunion” and “Me and Julio Down by the Schoolyard.” But there isn’t an orchestra in sight. As he told Rolling Stone at the time, “I didn’t want to sing ‘Scarborough Fair’ again.” So he slammed the lid on his G-funk era with a vengeance, going his own way. But for some fans, including this one, it’s the best album he’s ever made, with or without the other guy.įor Simon, it was simple. It was considered a commercial flop, too eccentric for the millions who liked him better with Artie around. But this album was his big Garfunkel Purge, embracing his bitchy wit. 24, 1972, it was a shock to a pop audience that was expecting more sweetness in the Simon and Garfunkel mode. When the singer-songwriter dropped Paul Simon on Jan. Happy 50th birthday to Paul Simon’s self-titled solo album - the funniest, nastiest, leanest, meanest, and possibly weirdest masterpiece of his great career.
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