by Garrett Sawyer
Paul Simon's landmark album "Graceland" sold 14,000,000 copies and earned the Grammy Award for Album of the Year. But the road to Graceland was anything but smooth.
Let's backtrack a bit to 1980. Simon had just released "One Trick Pony", both the movie and the soundtrack. Although the latter yielded a top ten hit with "Late in the Evening" the former was a flop at the box office, garnering decidedly mixed reviews.
Then there was the long-awaited Simon and Garfunkel reunion ... except it never happened. The legendary duo had reunited in the studio for the album Simon was working on.
But the same old interpersonal squabbles got in the way with the end result being that one day Simon unilaterally announced to Art Garfunkel that he had erased Garfunkel's vocal tracks and that he was going to be releasing the album solo after all.
"Hearts and Bones" came out in 1983 but failed to land a single song on Billboard's Top 40 chart for the first time since he flopped with Garfunkel as a fledgling folk-rock duo on "Wednesday Morning, 3 A.M." almost twenty years earlier.
I saw "Hearts and Bones" on "Ten Best of the Year" lists but that was probably scant consolation.
And finally there was his marriage to actress Carrie Fisher. It was his second marriage and lasted a grand total of one year, from 1983 to 1984. The title song from "Hearts and Bones" was written about their marital collapse ("One and one-half wandering Jews ...").
It was right around that time that Simon was reading one of the radio trade journals. This particular issue had an article on future trends in radio programming. One of the radio personnel interviewed actually said something like, "Well, we're not going to be playing people like Paul Simon anymore."
And Simon read that! He later said that you try to de-personalize such a statement. Unfortunately, human nature being what it is, you can't de-personalize something like that beyond a certain point when they say it about you!
At that point, with a failed movie, a failed album, a failed marriage and a failed reunion under his belt (do you detect a pattern here?) Simon was understandably feeling something to the effect of, "Well, I might as well do whatever I want because it doesn't seem like anyone's going to care anyway."
With a fellow as talented as Simon you could almost guess what was going to happen next: it freed him of all expectation. So one day he was listening to a cassette a friend had given him of the Boyoyo Boys instrumental "Gumboots."
Simon later wrote lyrics for the song, which later was included in a new album that revitalized his career and helped put World Music on the map.
Vince Lombardi once said, "The real glory is being knocked to your knees and then coming back. That's real glory. That's the essence of it."
I seriously doubt if Paul Simon ever played football but he sure showed what he was made of, coming back from multiple adversities to deliver what Rolling Stone would rank as one of the 100 best albums of all time.
If you like Paul Simon's "Graceland" then you'll like a song inspired by the story of a young soldier who returned from Iraq. For a limited time only you can download that song for FREE by clicking HERE.
Download your free song at: http://www.garrettsawyer.net/am/
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Garrett_Sawyer
http://EzineArticles.com/?The-Rocky-Road-to-Paul-Simons-Graceland&id=7614377
Showing posts with label Paul Simon. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Paul Simon. Show all posts
Friday, July 5, 2013
Saturday, April 20, 2013
The Story Behind Simon And Garfunkel's Songs: "Richard Cory" With A Twist
by Garrett Sawyer
OK, you're Paul Simon. You and Art Garfunkel have become an overnight sensation when your song "The Sound of Silence" became a number one hit on Billboard without your even knowing that it had been re-recorded and re-released.
You've hurried back from England to reunite with your partner and rush to the studio to record some more songs so that your new smash can be made into an album.
Problem: you need more songs. Solution? You use some songs that you've had stored up.
And you write a couple more, like "Richard Cory."
Most people don't know it but Simon was an English major at Queens College, obtaining a degree in English literature (even fewer know that he briefly attended the Brooklyn Law School).
So it's only natural he would reach into his knowledge of poetry to help him come up with material for the album they were hastily putting together.
Given that Simon's audience was in the process of becoming disenchanted with the Vietnam War and distrustful of the "Establishment", the wealthy, and the elder generation it's only natural that he would choose the Edward Arlington Robinson poem "Richard Cory".
Written during the depression that followed the Panic of 1893 it portrays a man who seems to have it all: wealth, education, manners, and the admiration of all those around him.
And those who envy him haven't enough money for meat and cursed the bread they did have (many were forced to live on day-old bread in those depression years). But despite all this success Cory calmly goes home one day and commits suicide with a gun.
The reader is compelled to see that all Cory's advantages didn't matter and that he lacked something essential.
Maybe it was the senselessness of excessive wealth (consider the Book of Ecclesiastes "All is vanity and a striving after wind"). Maybe it was loneliness. Maybe it was boredom or depression. We don't know ... but we're challenged to ask.
Simon, using his English literature experience, brought "Richard Cory" into the 20th Century. It begins the same way, although Simon embellished it a bit. Cory isn't just rich, he "owns one half of this whole town".
He's so wealthy he can lavishly give to charity. He knows all the right people. He was born with a silver spoon in his mouth, the pampered only son of a rich banker.
The press follow his every move like a latter-day paparazzi. For his amusement he throws unbelievable parties and indulges in orgies. Yet he still commits suicide with a gun.
And the singer of the song? He works in Cory's factory, hungry and poor, furious at fate for his poverty, bitterly envious of his "boss". But unlike the poem the singer seems to have a death wish because he still wishes he were Cory even after Cory has killed himself.
So there you have it. Alienation personified. Folk-rock with an agenda. And a 19th century poem moved forward into the rebellious '60's and given an O. Henry style curveball at the end.
Simon and Garfunkel's album "The Sound of Silence" began side one with the title song and side two with "Richard Cory", a terrific match.
If you like Simon & Garfunkel's "Richard Cory" then you'll like a song inspired by the story of a soldier who died after returning from Iraq. For a limited time only you can download that song for FREE by clicking HERE.
Download your free mp3 at: http://www.garrettsawyer.net/am/
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Garrett_Sawyer
http://EzineArticles.com/?The-Story-Behind-Simon-And-Garfunkels-Songs:-Richard-Cory-With-A-Twist&id=7642898
OK, you're Paul Simon. You and Art Garfunkel have become an overnight sensation when your song "The Sound of Silence" became a number one hit on Billboard without your even knowing that it had been re-recorded and re-released.
 |
| The Definitive Simon & Garfunkel (Wikipedia) |
You've hurried back from England to reunite with your partner and rush to the studio to record some more songs so that your new smash can be made into an album.
Problem: you need more songs. Solution? You use some songs that you've had stored up.
And you write a couple more, like "Richard Cory."
Most people don't know it but Simon was an English major at Queens College, obtaining a degree in English literature (even fewer know that he briefly attended the Brooklyn Law School).
So it's only natural he would reach into his knowledge of poetry to help him come up with material for the album they were hastily putting together.
Given that Simon's audience was in the process of becoming disenchanted with the Vietnam War and distrustful of the "Establishment", the wealthy, and the elder generation it's only natural that he would choose the Edward Arlington Robinson poem "Richard Cory".
Written during the depression that followed the Panic of 1893 it portrays a man who seems to have it all: wealth, education, manners, and the admiration of all those around him.
And those who envy him haven't enough money for meat and cursed the bread they did have (many were forced to live on day-old bread in those depression years). But despite all this success Cory calmly goes home one day and commits suicide with a gun.
The reader is compelled to see that all Cory's advantages didn't matter and that he lacked something essential.
Maybe it was the senselessness of excessive wealth (consider the Book of Ecclesiastes "All is vanity and a striving after wind"). Maybe it was loneliness. Maybe it was boredom or depression. We don't know ... but we're challenged to ask.
Simon, using his English literature experience, brought "Richard Cory" into the 20th Century. It begins the same way, although Simon embellished it a bit. Cory isn't just rich, he "owns one half of this whole town".
He's so wealthy he can lavishly give to charity. He knows all the right people. He was born with a silver spoon in his mouth, the pampered only son of a rich banker.
The press follow his every move like a latter-day paparazzi. For his amusement he throws unbelievable parties and indulges in orgies. Yet he still commits suicide with a gun.
And the singer of the song? He works in Cory's factory, hungry and poor, furious at fate for his poverty, bitterly envious of his "boss". But unlike the poem the singer seems to have a death wish because he still wishes he were Cory even after Cory has killed himself.
So there you have it. Alienation personified. Folk-rock with an agenda. And a 19th century poem moved forward into the rebellious '60's and given an O. Henry style curveball at the end.
Simon and Garfunkel's album "The Sound of Silence" began side one with the title song and side two with "Richard Cory", a terrific match.
If you like Simon & Garfunkel's "Richard Cory" then you'll like a song inspired by the story of a soldier who died after returning from Iraq. For a limited time only you can download that song for FREE by clicking HERE.
Download your free mp3 at: http://www.garrettsawyer.net/am/
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Garrett_Sawyer
http://EzineArticles.com/?The-Story-Behind-Simon-And-Garfunkels-Songs:-Richard-Cory-With-A-Twist&id=7642898
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