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Rating: I have not yet absorbed Simon's latest album, "Surprise," released in 2006, which, surprisingly, it's fair to say, shows us a tired songwriter (despite lyrics still above average) eager to flirt with electronics, with the help of that sprite Brian Eno. But something on that record didn't work. The cohesion between the two musicians did not bring the expected results, with Simon going one way and Eno the other. A missed opportunity for both, awaiting Simon's next move.
So, nostalgia took over and inevitably I went back to listen to Simon's last good album, which unfortunately dates back to 1990, the year in which "The Rhythm Of The Saints" was released.
Simon was coming off that Grammy-winning masterpiece "Graceland," an album that exquisitely mixed American music with African music, creating small gems like "The Boy In The Bubble," "Graceland," "You Can Call Me Al"... A small masterpiece of world music, which Simon intended to replicate four years later with the release of an album of the same quality.
If Graceland was inspired by African sounds, this time Simon moved to South America and Brazil, recording much of the songs with local musicians. The result is an album full of nuances and colors, rich with sounds and musicians. Even though overall and qualitatively the songs are a step below those of Graceland, this album elevates Simon on the pedestal of world music. The opening track, "The Obvious Child", with its percussion played by Grupo Cultural OLODUM, provides the right charge and opening for the album. One of Simon's best songs.
The rest of the album maintains a lower pace compared to the energetic opening. The fluid and sensual "Can't Run But" features J.J. Cale (also present in the evocative "Born At The Right Time") on guitars, while "Spirit Voices", written with Milton Nascimento, transports us directly to the Amazon forests amid bongos and congas. Also in this album, the arrangements are to be appreciated for being able to blend wind instruments and percussion with traditional rock instruments like guitars and bass. A great example is the splendid "She Moves On" with the horns of Michael and Randy Brecker that weave among the percussion without being intrusive.
The album would be followed by a successful tour and a free concert in Central Park, ten years after the famous concert with Garfunkel. This time Simon appears without his partner but with a band of almost twenty members, alternating old hits with the new world sounds. The audience is huge, estimated at around seven hundred thousand people...
Unfortunately, this remains the last spark from the little songwriter from New Jersey, then there would be the marriage with Edie Brickell and... but that's just gossip.
Tracklist Lyrics and Videos
03 The Coast (05:03)
A family of musicians took shelter for the night
In the little harbor church of St. Cecilia
Two guitars, bata, bass drum and tambourine
Rose of Jericho and Bougainvillea
This is a lonely life
Sorrows everywhere you turn
Afd that's worth something
When you think about it
That's worth some money
That's worth something
When you think about it
That is worth some money
A trip to the market
A trip into the pearl gray morning sunlight
That settles over Washington
A trip to the market
A trip around the world
Where the evening meal
Is negotiable, if there is one.
This is a lonely-lone, lonely life
Sorrows everywhere you turn
And that's worth something
When you think about it
That's worth some money
That's worth something
When you think about it
That is worth some money
To prove that I love you
Because I believe in you
Summer skies, stars are falling
All along the injured coast
If I have money
If I have children
Summer skies, stars are falling
All along the injured coast
Oo-wah Oo-wah Doo-wop a Doo-wah
Summer skies and stars are falling
All along the injured coast
Oo-wah Oo-wah Doo-wop a Doo-wah
Summer skies and the stars are falling
All along the injured coast
We are standing in the sunlight
The early morning sunlight
In the harbor church of St. Cecilia
To praise a soul's returning to the earth
To the rose of Jericho and the Bougainvillea
To prove that I love you
Because I believe in you
Summer skies, stars are falling
All along the injured coast
If I have money
If I have children
Summer skies, stars are falling
All along the injured coast
If I have weaknesses
Don't let them blind me now
Summer skies, stars are falling
All along the injured coast
Oo-wah Oo-wah
Doo Wop a Doo Wah
Summer skies, stars are falling
Leaving the shadow of the valley behind me now
All along the injured coast
Ooh-wah Oow-wah
Doo Wop a Doo Wah
Summer skies and stars are falling
All along the injured coast
Ooh-wah Ooh-wah
Doo Wop a Doo Wah
04 Proof (04:39)
Soon our fortunes will be made, my darling
And we will leave this loathsome little town
Silver bells jingling from your black lizard boots, my baby
Silver foil to trim your wedding gown
It's true the tools of love wear down
Time passes
A mid wanders
It seems mindless, but it does
Sometimes I see you face
As if through reading glasses
And your smile seems softer than it was
Proof
Some people gonna call you up
Tell you something that you already know
Proof
Sane people go crazy on you
Say ''No man, that was not
The deal we made
I got to go, I got to go''
Faith
Faith is an island in the setting sun
But proof, yes
Proof is the bottom line for everyone
My face, my race
Don't matter anymore
My sex, my cheques
Accepted at the door
Proof
Some people gonna call you up
Tell you something that you already know
Proof
Sane people go crazy on you
Say ''No man, that was not
The deal we made
I got to, I got to go''
Faith
Faith is an island in the setting sun
But proof, yes
Proof is the bottom line for everyone
Half moon hiding in the clouds, my darling
And the sky is flecked with signs of hope
Raise your weary wings against the rain, my baby
Wash your tangled curls with gambler's soap
Proof
Some people gonna call you up
Tell you something that you already know
Sane people go crazy on you
Say ''No man, that was not
The deal we made
I got to, I got to, I got to''
Faith
Faith is an island in the setting sun
But proof, yes
Proof is the bottom line for everyone
05 Further to Fly (05:36)
There may come a time
When you'll be tired
As tired as a dream that wants to die
And further to fly
Further to fly
Further to fly
Further to fly
Maybe you will find a love
That you discover accidentally
Who falls against you gently
As a pickpocket
Brushes your thigh
Further to fly
Effortless music from the Cameroons
The spinning darkness of her hair
A conversation in a crowded room going nowhere
The open palm of desire
Wants everything
It wants everything
It wants everything
Sometimes I'll be walking down
The street and I'll be thinking
Am I crazy
Or is this some morbid little lie
Further to fly
Further to fly
Further to fly
A recent loss of memory
A shadow in the family
The baby waves bye-bye
I'm trying, I'm flying
There may come a time
When I will lose you
Lose you as I lose my light
Days falling backward into velvet night
The open palm of desire
Wants everything
It wants everything
It wants soil as soft as summer
And the strength to push like spring
A broken laugh a broken fever
Take it up with the great deceiver
Who looks you in the eye
And says baby don't cry
Further to fly
There may come a time
When I will lose you
Lose you as I lose my sight
Days falling backward into velvet night
The open palm of desire
The rose of Jericho
Soil as soft as summer
The strength to let you go
08 The Cool, Cool River (04:32)
Moves like a fist through the traffic
Anger and no one can heal it
Shoves a little bump into the momentum
It's just a little lump
But you feel it
In the creases and the shadows
With a rattling deep emotion
The cool, cool river
Sweeps the wild, white ocean
Yes Boss. The government handshake
Yes Boss. The crusher of language
Yes Boss. Mr. Stillwater,
The face at the edge of the banquet
The cool, the cool river
The cool, the cool river
I believe in the future
I may live in my car
My radio tuned to
The voice of a star
Song dogs barking at the break of dawn
Lightning pushes the edge of a thunderstorm
And these old hopes and fears
Still at my side
Anger and no one can heal it
Slides through the metal detector
Lives like a mole in a motel
A slide in a slide projector
The cool, cool river
Sweeps the wild, white ocean
The rage of love turns inward
To prayers of devotion
And these prayers are
The constant road across the wilderness
These prayers are
These prayers are the memory of God
The memory of God
And I believe in the future
We shall suffer no more
Maybe not in my lifetime
But in yours I feel sure
Song dogs barking at the break of dawn
Lightning pushes the edges of a thunderstorm
And these streets
Quiet as a sleeping army
Send their battered dreams to heaven, to heaven
For the mother's restless son
Who is a witness to, who is a warrior
Who denies his urge to break and run
Who says: Hard times?
I'm used to them
The speeding planet burns
I'm used to that
My life's so common it disappears
And sometimes even music
Cannot substitute for tears
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