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FROM THE LOGBOOK OF PAUL SIMON (All true!!)
April 10, 2005
Dear Art, I'm in New Guinea recording the sounds of the rubber-chewing Papuans, but after three days and nights, I haven't had any new ideas for my next album. I'm not giving up and I'll keep going for a couple more weeks, who knows...
May 11, 2005
Dear Art, I've abandoned the 1,500 hours of recordings accumulated and Papua, I'm now heading towards Central Asia and Mongolia. You understand that after the stroke of luck with "Graceland" (20 years ago) made with the Africans, replicated with "The Rhythm of the Saint" done with the Brazilians and "Songs from the Capeman" with the Puerto Ricans, and considering that, as soon as I dared to change the formula, the record company half-screwed me for the flop ("The One")...I'm still here traveling the world looking for an inspiration that will bring me back to the glorious past. What one has to do to survive...
July 14, 2005
Dear Art, sorry if you can't read these writings well but I'm under the sewers of Kiev trying to record the sounds of orphaned glue-sniffing kids, all in 2 square meters without light, with rats running past the microphone. Those bastards! Who knows, maybe some idea will come to me...
July 28, 2005
Dear Art, no luck, the sniffers stole all my equipment but I don't give up. Now I'm south of Lapland and I'm convincing two half-Inuits to be my sound technicians on the next album, you know... they say they can produce miraculous arrangements and then they're satisfied with salted cod and kerosene (as payment, I mean). We'll see if at least they...
August 5, 2005
Bjork just told me to go to hell and even the Matmos flashed their middle finger at me. Can you believe it, no one wants to produce my next album?! It's a shame!! (is it time to dig deep into my wallet?!)
August 28, 2005
I'm going at random... the first one who says yes, I'll hire them and I won't think about it anymore!
September 15, 2005
Dear Art, I was walking around New York and while I was with the microphone next to the toilet flush of the Heartbreak Hotel to try to catch some sound, guess who passed by?! You won't believe it... the legendary Brian Eno, also known as "PrezzENOlo"...can you believe it?! So after I offered him coffee (with a brioche, the glutton!!) we started chatting and... HEAR IT, he agreed to be the sound engineer for my next album for the modest sum of... let's not go there, it's better!!
Well, anyway, beyond the expense, it's fantastic, don't you think?
October 8, 2005
The record company did two calculations (U2 + Eno > ZOOROPA + POP = Worldwide success = Big bucks!) and gave me the OK. I'm so excited I've written 4 silly chord sequences but "the genius of Eno" will fix everything (even Bowie told me, as he no longer knows which saint to turn to!!). Now we're entering the recording studio. I brought my packed lunch (my wife says I need to start saving something to pay Eno... who meanwhile is enjoying caviar and champagne at the bar under the studio!)
October 11, 2005
Dear Art, here every minute of recording costs me as much as a dumb child ($10,000 a minute, roughly!) so I mustn't waste time writing songs, as that's not what matters ... "the genius of Eno" will take care of it (as Zucchero Fornaciari told me who's thinking of hiring him too!) and for the lyrics, the usual crap is fine...a bit of love, freedom, loneliness, the father-son relationship...in short, the usual stuff that always "sells" (in a "literary" sense, eh?! You dirty old man :-)))
October 12, 2005
We finished...in three hours I recorded 72 songs, 40 were really bad, 21 were unbearable...in short, I kept 11 that were quite passable since "the genius of Eno" will make them cute and trendy with those fine basslines and those icy, cool sounds. I'm super excited!!
October 13, 2005
I've recorded all the vocal parts (even excessively, since I improvised random phrases too... "the genius of...oh well, you get it)!
November 20, 2005
The album is ready and I'm quite satisfied even though everyone thinks it's me singing on a Brian Eno album with U2's country-pop music, and frankly, it annoys me (CAN YOU BELIEVE IT?!?! with all I've shelled out, dammit!!!)
December 12, 2005
Bono has raised a ruckus and is going to lawyers (he says he doesn't recognize his voice... ha ha ha, he's really lost it!!).
December 18, 2005
Warner Bros wants to put on the cover as credit "U2 & Paul Simon" but I refuse (without adequate financial compensation!!). They say that way sales would be guaranteed. AND SCREW THAT, I say... we need to at least agree ON THE PRICE if we're going to talk!
January 14, 2006
Dear Art, I thought that "ON THE PRICE" would actually be a good title...since it all started from there, but the record company says it's too mercenary. Does it give you the same impression?
March 22, 2006
We've agreed on a title that will be a compromise: it will be called "SURPRISE" which, if you read between the lines, closely resembles "On Price," half Italian and half English. Cool, right? The album will be released in early May. What are the songs like? What a question: don't embarrass me now... I'd call it one undistinguished mash that comes and goes like stream water... what does stream water taste like?! Who knows... I've been drinking tap water for years!
April 24, 2006
I'm already thinking about the producer for the next album and I'm losing sleep? I was considering the Tenores di Bitti from Sardinia, the ones Gabriel used? What do you think, is it a stupid idea?! Do you have any other ideas?
P.S. If maybe you could answer me from time to time, it wouldn't be bad... I'm thinking of organizing yet another big concert in some square, at least I'd be sure to fill it up... you know how it is, I have to fund the now half-drained coffers!! Eh eh eh... Write to me curly!
See you later!
Your "old friend"
Paul
Tracklist Lyrics and Samples
03 Outrageous (03:24)
It's outrageous to line your pockets off the misery of the poor.
Outrageous, the crimes some human beings must endure.
It's a blessing to wash your face in the summer solstice rain.
It's outrageous a man like me stand here and complain.
But I'm tired.
Nine hundred sit-ups a day.
I'm painting my hair the color of mud,
Mud okay?
I'm tired, tired.
Anybody care what I say?
No!
I'm painting my hair the color of mud.
Who's gonna love you when your looks are gone?
Tell me, who's gonna love you when your looks are gone?
Aw, who's gonna love you when your looks are gone?
Who's gonna love you when your looks are gone?
It's outrageous the food they try to serve in a public school.
Outrageous, the way they talk to you like your some kind of clinical fool.
It's a blessing to rest my head in the circle of your love.
It's outrageous I can't stop thinking 'bout the things I'm thinking of.
And I'm tired.
Nine hundred sit-ups a day.
I'm painting my hair the color of mud,
Mud okay?
I'm tired, tired.
Anybody care what I say?
No!
Painting my hair the color of mud.
Who's gonna love you when your looks are gone?
Tell me, who's gonna love you when your looks are gone?
Tell me, who's gonna love you when your looks are gone?
God will.
Like he waters the flowers on your window sill.
Take me.
I'm an ordinary player in the key of C.
And my will was broken by my pride and my vanity.
Who's gonna love you when your looks are gone?
God will.
Like he waters the flowers on your window sill.
Who's gonna love you when your looks are gone?
05 Wartime Prayers (04:49)
Prayers offered in times of peace are silent conversations,
Appeals for love or loves release, in private invocations.
But all that is changed now,
Gone like a memory from the day before the fires.
People hungry for the voice of God
Hear lunatics and liars
Wartime prayers, wartime prayers
In every language spoken,
For every family scattered and broken.
Because you cannot walk with the holy,
If you're just a halfway decent man.
But I don't pretend that I'm a mastermind
With a genious marketing plan.
I'm trying to tap into some wisdom,
Even a little drop would do.
I want to rid my heart of envy
And cleanse my soul of rage
Before I feel.
Times are hard, hard times,
But everybody knows all about hard times.
The thing is, what are you gonna do?
Will you cry?
And try to muscle through?
And try to rearrange your stuff?
But when the wounds are deep enough,
And it's all that we can bear,
We wrap ourselves in prayer.
Because you cannot walk with the holy,
If you're just a halfway decent man.
But I don't pretend that I'm a mastermind
With a genious marketing plan.
I'm trying to tap into some wisdom,
Even a little drop would do.
I want to rid my heart of envy
And cleanse my soul of rage
Before I'm through.
A mother murmurs in twilight sleep
And draws her babies closer.
With hush-a-bies for sleepy eyes,
And kisses on the shoulder.
To drive away despair
She sends a wartime prayer.
08 Another Galaxy (05:22)
On the morning of her wedding day, when no one was awake, she drove across
the border. Leaving all the yellow roses on her wedding cake. Her mother's
tears, her breakfast order.
She's gone, gone, gone.
There is a moment, a chip in time, when leaving home is the lesser crime.
When your eyes are blind with tears, but your heart can see: another life,
another galaxy.
That night her dreams are storm-tossed as a willow. She hears the clouds, she
sees the eye of a hurricane, as it sweeps across her island pillow.
But she's gone, gone, gone.
There is a moment, a chip in time, when leaving home is the lesser crime.
When your eyes are blind with tears, but your heart can see:
Another life, another galaxy.
11 Father and Daughter (04:11)
If you leap awake in the middle of a bad dream
And for a fraction of a second you can't remember where you are
Just open your window and follow your memory upstream
To the meadow in the mountain where we counted every falling star
I believe the light that shines on you will shine on you forever (forever)
And though I can't guarantee there's nothing scary hiding under your bed
I'm gonna stand guard like a postcard of a golden retriever
And never leave til I leave you with a sweet dream in your head
I'm gonna watch you shine
Gonna watch you grow
Gonna paint a sign
So you'll always know
As long as one and one is two
There could never be a father who loved his daughter more than I love you
Trust you intuition
It's just like goin' fishing
You cast your line and hope you get a bite
But you don't need to waste your time
Worrying about the marketplace
Try to help the human race
Struggling to survive it's harshest night
I'm gonna watch you shine
Gonna watch you grow
Gonna paint a sign
So you'll always know
As long as one and one is two
There could never be a father who loved his daughter more than I love you
I'm gonna watch you shine
Gonna watch you grow
Gonna paint a sign
So you'll always know
As long as one and one is two
There could never be a father who loved his daughter more than I love you
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