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Rating: And if autumn in New York were scented with rain, the smell of fallen leaves in November.
I woke up today to a sunless day at the start of October, the period is not the best, the desire for poetry and music was too high after a bike ride along unsuitable streets full of the emptiness of circulating cars. I started spinning this record on the turntable, "There Goes Rhymin' Simon," recorded in the fall-winter of '72 by a Paul Simon on his second solo attempt. It is not the most typical New York album to come from his pen, it is infused with southern sounds, with gospel, with the multicolored carnival rain of New Orleans but its progression between acoustic and rhythmic filled a morning without sounds. This is the album of the intense American parabola of "American Tune", "I don't know a dream that's not been shattered or driven to its knees", of the melancholy "Kodachrome" which cost Simon quite a bit for the unauthorized use of the Kodak trademark. From this album, I've always loved the delicacy of "Something So Right", the small beauty of "St. Judy's Comet", with Simon's inspiration still tied to the previous decade, before the reggae, before the gospel of "Loves Me Like a Rock" and "Tenderness".
Reading the lyrics, looking at the images on the cover that symbolize the various songs, it brought back a lot to a poor day; the most genuine New York will emerge from the songs of "Still Crazy After All These Years", with jazzy sounds and that mustached Paul on the fire escape smiling under his floppy hat aware of having recorded a great album. Perhaps it is the wet sidewalks that scent the air of New York in autumn.
Tracklist Lyrics and Videos
01 Kodachrome (03:35)
When I think back on all the crap I learned in high school
It's a wonder I can think at all
And though my lack of education hasn't hurt me none
I can read the writing on the wall
Kodachrome
They give us those nice bright colors
Give us the greens of summers
Makes you think all the world's a sunny day, oh yeah
I got a Nikon camera
I love to take a photograph
So mama don't take my Kodachrome away
If you took all the girls I knew when I was single
And brought 'em all together for one night
I know they'd never match my sweet imagination
And everything looks worse in black and white
Kodachrome
They give us those nice bright colors
They give us the greens of summers
Makes you think all the world's a sunny day, oh yeah
I got a Nikon camera
I love to take a photograph
So mama don't take my Kodachrome away
Mama don't take my Kodachome away
Mama don't take my Kodachome away
Mama don't take my Kodachome away
Mama don't take my Kodachome
Mama don't take my Kodachome
Mama don't take my Kodachome away
Mama don't take my Kodachome
Leave your boy so far from home
Mama don't take my Kodachome away
Mama don't take my Kodachome
Mama don't take my Kodachome away
02 Tenderness (02:55)
Words & music By Paul Simon
What can I do
What can I do
Much of what you say is true
I know you see through me
But there's no tenderness
Beneath your honesty
Oh, right and wrong
Right and wrong
Ooh, never helped us get along
You say you care for me
But there's no tenderness
Beneath your honesty
You and me were such good friends
What's your hurry?
You and me could make amends
I'm not worried
I'm not worried
Oh, honesty,
oh, honesty
Ooh, it's such a waste of energy
No you don't have to lie to me
Just give me some tenderness
Beneath your honesty
You don't have to lie to me
Just give me some tenderness
03 Take Me to the Mardi Gras (03:30)
C'mon take me to the Mardi Gras
Where the people sing and play
Where the dancing is elite
And there's music in the street
Both night and day
Hurry take me to the Mardi Gras
In the city of my dreams
You can legalize your lows
You can wear your summer clothes
In the New Orleans
And I will lay my burden down
Rest my head upon that shore
And when I wear that starry crown
I won't be wanting anymore
Take your burdens to the Mardi Gras
Let the music wash your soul
You can mingle in the street
You can jingle to the beat of the jelly roll
Tumba, tumba, tumba, Mardi Gras
Tumba, tumba, tumba, day
Mm------------
06 American Tune (03:47)
Many's the time I've been mistaken
And many times confused
Yes, and often felt forsaken
And certainly misused
But I'm all right, I'm all right
I'm just weary to my bones
Still, you don't expect to be
Bright and bon vivant
So far away from home, so far away from home
And I don't know a soul who's not been battered
I don't have a friend who feels at ease
I don't know a dream that's not been shattered
Or driven to its knees
But it's all right, it's all right
We've lived so well so long
Still, when I think of the road
We're traveling on
I wonder what went wrong
I can't help it, I wonder what went wrong
And I dreamed I was dying
And I dreamed that my soul rose unexpectedly
And looking back down at me
Smiled reassuringly
And I dreamed I was flying
And high up above my eyes could clearly see
The Statue of Liberty
Sailing away to sea
And I dreamed I was flying
We come on the ship they call the Mayflower
We come on the ship that sailed the moon
We come in the age's most uncertain hour
And sing an American tune
But it's all right, it's all right
You can't be forever blessed
Still, tomorrow's going to be another working day
And I'm trying to get some rest
That's all I'm trying to get some rest
09 St. Judy's Comet (03:21)
Words & music by Paul Simon
Oo, little sleepy boy
Do you know what time it is?
Well the hour of your bedtime's long been past
And though I know you're fighting it
I can tell when you rub your eyes
You're fading fast, oh fading fast
Won't you run come see St. Judy's Comet
Roll across the skies
And leave a spray of diamonds in its wake
I long to see St. Judy's Comet
Sparkle in your eyes when you awake
Oh, when you wake, wake
Little boy
Won't you lay your body down
Little boy
Won't you close your weary eyes
Ain't nothing flashing but the fireflies
Well I sang it once and I sang it twice
I'm going to sing it three times more
I'm going to stay 'til your resistance
Is overcome
'Cause if I can't sing my boy to sleep
Well it makes your famous daddy look so dumb
look so dumb
Won't you run come see St. Judy's Comet
Roll across the skies
And leave a spray of diamonds in its wake
I long to see St. Judy's Comet
Sparkle in your eyes when you awake
Oh, when you wake, wake
Little boy, little boy
Won't you lay your body down
Little boy, little boy
Won't you close your weary eyes
Ain't nothing flashing but the fireflies
Oo, little sleepy boy
Do you know what time it is?
Well the hour of your bedtime's long been past
And though I know you're fighting it
I can tell when you rub your eyes
You're fading fast, oh fading fast
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