[MUSIC CLIP - OSCAR PETERSON, 'MOONGLOW']
- Simon & Garfunkel Bookends Theme
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This book contains 30 Paul Simon songs, most from his Simon and Garfunkel days, some from his early solo career that can be played with G, D, C, Em, Am, and Bm. The Bijou Theatre in Bridgeport, CT will present The Simon & Garfunkel Songbook Show as a fundraiser for WPKN, the award-winning nonprofit community FM radio station. This uniquely fun and entertaining benefit concert celebrates the incredible songs and iconic career of Simon & Garfunkel, as well as their contribution to American Pop Culture in.
Welcome to Afterglow, I’m your host, Mark Chilla.
Songwriter Paul Simon has been delighting us with melodies for over 50 years now. This week, I’m going to take a dive into the Paul Simon songbook, and explore some vocal jazz interpretations of his music. First, we’ll hear some jazz artists tackle the music of his 1960s duo Simon and Garfunkel, including a few artists who recorded their songs in the 1960s, like Frank Sinatra and Carmen McRae. And then later, we’ll hear jazz interpretations of some of Simon’s solo songs from the 1970s and beyond.
It’s The Paul Simon Jazz Songbook, coming up next on Afterglow
[MUSIC - SOPHIE MILMAN, “50 WAYS TO LEAVE YOUR LOVER”]
Singer Sophie Milman from her 2009 album Take Love Easy with the 1975 Paul Simon tune “50 Ways To Leave Your Lover,” originally off of his album Still Crazy After All These Years. In this recording, you heard drummer Mark McLean transforming that original iconic drum part by Steve Gadd into something a little more Afro-Cuban.
[MUSIC CLIP - PAUL DESMOND, 'AMERICA']
Mark Chilla here on Afterglow. On this show, we’re exploring jazz interpretations of Paul Simon. Simon’s melodic gifts were recognized by musicians almost immediately when the duo Simon and Garfunkel first became famous in 1965 when their song “The Sound of Silence” became an underground radio hit. Although they were primarily recording folk music, artists in pop, rock, R&B, and even jazz music began to perform their songs as soon as the late 1960s. In the background right now we’re hearing jazz saxophonist Paul Desmond performing Simon and Garfunkel’s “America,” from a 1969 recording he made of all Simon and Garfunkel tunes.
One of the first jazz singers to perform a Simon and Garfunkel tune was Carmen McRae. In 1968, she made “The Sound of Silence” the centerpiece and title track of her latest album, turning into a soulful jazz strut.
Here is Carmen McRae in 1968 with Paul Simon’s “The Sound of Silence,” on Afterglow.
[MUSIC - CARMEN MCRAE, “THE SOUND OF SILENCE”]
[MUSIC - FRANK SINATRA, “MRS. ROBINSON”]
A swinging version of Simon and Garfunkel’s “Mrs. Robinson” from Frank Sinatra and arranger Don Costa from the 1969 album My Way. Before that, Carmen McRae with Simon and Garfunkel’s “The Sound of Silence,” from her 1968 album called The Sound of Silence. Both of those songs were featured in the 1967 mega-hit film The Graduate, which likely helped put them into the repertoires of these jazz and pop icons.
When “The Sound of Silence” initially became an underground hit in 1965, the duo Simon and Garfunkel was basically broken up. Simon had moved to England and Garfunkel was taking classes at Columbia in New York. But their newfound success caused them to record again, and they quickly put together two new albums in 1966. Many of the songs from these albums, including “Homeward Bound,” “I Am A Rock,” and “Scarborough Fair” have become folk music classics. But let’s hear a few songs from these albums as performed by jazz musicians.
First up, this is singer Rachel Caswell and bassist Jeremy Allen in 2015 with the 1966 Simon and Garfunkel song “The 59th Street Bridge Song (Feelin’ Groovy)” on Afterglow.
[MUSIC - RACHEL CASWELL, “THE 59TH STREET BRIDGE SONG (FEELIN’ GROOVY)”]
[MUSIC - KARRIN ALLYSON, “APRIL COME SHE WILL”]
Simon & Garfunkel Bookends Theme
Karrin Allyson in 2011 off of her album Round Midnight with the Paul Simon song “April Come She Will.” Before that, we heard Rachel Caswell and bassist Jeremy Allen in 2015 off of the album All I Know with the Paul Simon song “Feelin’ Groovy” aka “The 59th Street Bridge Song. Both of those songs were originally recorded by Simon and Garfunkel in 1966.
After Simon and Garfunkel found more success on their 1968 album Bookends and their work in the film The Graduate, the famously splintered relationship between Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel came to the fore. They recorded one more album in 1970, their ambitious, diverse, and hugely commercially and critically successful album Bridge Over Troubled Water. As a duo, Simon and Garfunkel went out on top, and inspired dozens of other artists over the years to cover their songs.
Let’s hear two songs from that album now as recorded by jazz artists. I’ll start with the New York Voices. In 1998, the jazz vocal group released an album called The Songs Of Paul Simon, featuring jazz interpretations of songs from Simon’s entire career, both with Art Garfunkel and solo. They kick off the album with this track from Bridge Over Troubled Water.
Here are the New York Voices with “Baby Driver,” on Afterglow
[MUSIC - NEW YORK VOICES, “BABY DRIVER”]
[MUSIC - QUINCY JONES, “BRIDGE OVER TROUBLED WATER”]
Quincy Jones and singer Valerie Simpson, of Ashford and Simpson fame, with Simon and Garfunkel’s “Bridge Over Troubled Water.” That comes from Quincy Jones’s 1970 album Gula Matari. Fun fact, Valerie Simpson later sang background vocals on Simon’s solo album Still Crazy After All These Years, and Jones later did string arrangements for Simon’s album There Goes Rhymin’ Simon.
Before that, we heard the New York Voices with Simon and Garfunkel’s “Baby Driver.” That comes from their 1998 Paul Simon jazz tribute album.
[MUSIC CLIP - PAUL DESMOND, “THE 59TH STREET BRIDGE SONG (FEELIN’ GROOVY)”]
Coming up in just a bit, we’ll hear some jazz interpretations of Paul Simon’s solo works. Stay with us.
I’m Mark Chilla, and you’re listening to Afterglow
[MUSIC CLIP - BOB JAMES, “TAKE ME TO THE MARDI GRAS”]
[MUSIC CLIP - BILL EVANS, “I DO IT FOR YOUR LOVE”]
Welcome back to Afterglow, I’m Mark Chilla. We’ve been listening to jazz interpretations of the music of Paul Simon this hour. And now I want to turn my attention to Paul Simon’s solo songs. While Simon’s first post-Simon and Garfunkel solo album stayed close to his folk music roots, his later albums into the 70s and 80s embraced the eclecticism of Simon and Garfunkel albums like Bookends and Bridge Over Troubled Water.
His 1977 album Still Crazy After All These Years is arguably his jazziest album, exploring more adventurous jazz harmonies and featuring jazz musicians like Michael Brecker and Grady Tate on the album. It’s also an album that jazz musicians embraced. In fact, what you’re hearing in the background right now is legendary pianist Bill Evans and harmonica player Toots Thielemans in 1979 performing a Paul Simon song from that album “I Do It For Your Love.”
Let’s hear a jazz singer with the title track from that album now. This is singer Susannah McCorkle in 1993 with “Still Crazy After All These Years,” on Afterglow
[MUSIC - SUSANNAH MCCORKLE, “STILL CRAZY AFTER ALL THESE YEARS”]
Susannah McCorkle in 1993 from her album From Bessie To Brazil with Paul Simon’s “Still Crazy After All These Years.”
In the last 20 or so years, jazz singers have dug deep into the Paul Simon catalog to find interesting songs to reinterpret. And luckily for them, Paul Simon’s solo catalog is filled with gems of rich melodic and harmonic nuance, and evocative lyrics.
I want to play for you now a couple of jazz interpretations of perhaps lesser known Paul Simon tunes. I’ll start with a song Simon wrote for his underrated 1983 album Hearts and Bones. This is jazz singer Alexis Cole in 2016 with “Song About The Moon,” on Afterglow.
[MUSIC - ALEXIS COLE, “SONG ABOUT THE MOON”]
[MUSIC - HOLLY COLE, “ONE TRICK PONY”]
[MUSIC - ALMAZ YEBIO, “FURTHER TO FLY”]
Swedish-based jazz singer Almaz Yebio in 2013 with the Paul Simon song “Further To Fly,” originally off of Simon’s 1990 album Rhythm Of The Saints. Before that, we heard singer Holly Cole off of her 2000 album Romantically Helpless with her smoky version of Simon’s “One Trick Pony” the title track from his 1980 album and film. And before that, Alexis Cole (no relation) with Simon’s “Song About The Moon,” from her 2016 album of all Paul Simon songs called Dazzling Blue.
Bookends Simon And Garfunkel Meaning
I have one more jazz interpretation of a Paul Simon song for you this hour, and this comes from singer Kurt Elling. Paul Simon’s 1973 song “American Tune,” based on a centuries-old German melody, is one of his most famous songs, a world-weary quasi-political tune from Nixon’s America. At least a couple jazz versions of this song exist, including one from singer Curtis Stigers in 2007, but I keep gravitating back to this one version, marvelously sung by Elling from his album 1619 Broadway — The Brill Building Project.
To close off this hour of Paul Simon songs, this is Kurt Elling from 2012 with “American Tune,” on Afterglow.
[MUSIC - KURT ELLING, “AMERICAN TUNE”]
Kurt Elling in 2012 with “American Tune.” And thanks for tuning in to this look at some jazz interpretations of the music of Paul Simon, on Afterglow.
[MUSIC CLIP - BRAD MEHLDAU, “STILL CRAZY AFTER ALL THESE YEARS”]
Afterglow is part of the educational mission of Indiana University and produced by WFIU Public Radio in beautiful Bloomington, Indiana. The executive producer is John Bailey.
Playlists for this and other Afterglow programs are available on our website. That’s at indianapublicmedia.org/afterglow.
I’m Mark Chilla, and join me next week for our mix of Vocal Jazz and popular song from the Great American Songbook, here on Afterglow.
Sounds of Silence, as few other songs can, gives one a genuine scare regarding modern life. It is like pages out of Spengler, or Rousseau, condensed to a poetic moment.
How does it do this? I’m sure much could be explained by the ominous melody, and the way the cherubic voices are contrasted against it. But the lyrics are the most decisive factor, and they gain much of their impact by means of an old poetic tactic, the reporting of a vision. Calla lily drawing. Simon and Garfunkel become seers who tell us what our future, if it gets more modern yet, will be like.
After the opening, we learn that the narrator has had seen a vision in a dream, and its report brings us right into it. In this restless dream our narrator walks alone through an urban environment of loneliness-and-anonymity-evoking imagery; it is like a scene out of film noir :
‘Neath the halo of a streetlamp
I turned my collar to the cold and damp,
When my eyes were stabbed by a flash of a neon light . . .
I turned my collar to the cold and damp,
When my eyes were stabbed by a flash of a neon light . . .
From later references to subways, tenements, and a neon light placed high above a crowd, we see that the associations lean in a New York City direction—fittingly, for it is the archetypal modern city. Interestingly, NYC is also Simon and Garfunkel’s “home place” in both the literal and literary senses, a place they sought to poetically celebrate and thus make more livable, such as in “59th St. Bridge Song(Feelin’ Groovy),” and in whose park they played their famous concerts.
But back to the vision. What the neon light reveals is a crowd of many thousands, so that the sense of walking alone in empty streets is exchanged for the experience of being in the lonely crowd. The description of this crowd is the song’s key lyric:
People talking without speaking,
people hearing without listening,
people writing songs that voices never shared,
no-one dared
disturb the sounds of silence.
people hearing without listening,
people writing songs that voices never shared,
no-one dared
disturb the sounds of silence.
Our narrator tries to intervene here in a manner that is perhaps Bible-evocative, but with a content that is medical—society is diseased:
Fools, said I, you do not know,
that silence like a cancer grows,
that silence like a cancer grows,
He also tries to intervene by reaching out his arms, saying that I might touch you. Now, his words fall like soft raindrops that make no impression, and while we are not told about the outcome of his effort to physically touch these people, presumably it fails too. As in many dreams, in this one you cannot touch what you try to, and there is no sound when you try to speak.
Let us stop here and interpret a bit. The song is saying that modern life tends to make us hesitant to even try to connect. And we have reason to think no-one would really hear us if we were to try. Worse, many of us talk without any expectation of or desire for connection. We utilize small-talk and half-listening to keep our distance from others. The song indicates that life in the modern city encourages this, but it is speaking of much more than certain conventions that those who regularly negotiate the crowds of NYC find they must to some extent utilize. The sense is rather of a growing sickness of the soul, a growing inability to talk with sincerity or listen with receptiveness. Oppressed under this, we nonetheless remain human—we are distinctive individuals having “songs” within us, but these are not shared. So it is not the mundane details of how to behave on a crowded subway that matter here, but what writers like Rousseau and Freud tell us about modern civilization’s tendency to make us act inauthentically. This gets theorized more simplistically by therapeutic pop-sociological writers, so from them it can seem that if we could just get “un-hung-up” from things like our isolating “other-directed” outward conformity, all would be well. Still, the basic set of ideas are captured well by Rousseau’s famous words towards the end of the Second Discourse. I adapt them slightly here to give them a 1965 and Rock Songbook resonance:
. . . [modern metropolitan man and woman], always active, sweats, agitates himself, torments himself incessantly in order to seek still more laborious occupations; he works to death, he even rushes to it in order to get in a condition to live, or renounces life in order to [be big in the eyes of the world]. He pays court to the [administrators, producers, lawyers] whom he hates, and to the rich whom he scorns. . . .
. . . the savage lives within himself; the sociable man, always outside of himself, knows how to live only in the opinion of others; and it is, so to speak, from their judgment alone that he draws the sentiment of his own existence.
. . . everything being reduced to appearance, everything becomes [conformist] and deceptive . . . we have only a deceitful and frivolous exterior, honor without virtue, reason without wisdom, and pleasure without happiness.
Modern metropolitan men and women actually talk quite a bit, but the “Sounds of Silence” is saying it is conducted in this deceptive spirit. Only connect the modern novelist E.M. Forster said, but modernity’s march is making it harder and harder. On the stage of life, one sees the likes of the Mad Men displaying their “success,” but behind the scenes, in the manner of a film like The Apartment , one glimpses many more myriads of lonely losers with their lives of quiet desperation. And unlike in happy film endings, they are not able to connect or even commiserate.
If that makes us feel sorry for the crowd, the logic of the song indicates that the apparently “successful” are also among it. What is more, this entire crowd is a profane people; they have chosen their degradation and seem not only deaf to the poetic narrator, but hostile to his values:
Songbook Simon And Garfunkel Chords
And the people bowed and prayed,
to the Neon god they made.
And the sign flashed out its warning,
in the words that it was forming,
and the sign said “the words of the prophets are written on the subway walls,
and tenement halls,
and whispered, in the sounds of silence.”
to the Neon god they made.
And the sign flashed out its warning,
in the words that it was forming,
and the sign said “the words of the prophets are written on the subway walls,
and tenement halls,
and whispered, in the sounds of silence.”
The people idolize modernity. The biblical references are threefold: 1) they are like the crowds before Nebuchadnezzar’s idol, 2) they are like the Hebrews who make a golden calf, and 3) prophetic words flash out, from walls, as occurred at Belshazzar’s feast. Could Simon and Garfunkel actually be calling them to return to the worship of the true God?
The meaning of the neon sign’s message suggests otherwise. It is saying, “It is not I, neon modernity, that will show you your future; rather, your doom is being heralded in the anonymous and pathetic bids of individual importance seen in the obscure places of your great city.” (We must remember that the more sporadic phenomenon of urban graffiti had a difference resonance in 1964, one that evoked, at least from intellectuals, a kind of pitying contempt more than it did a fear of crime or a solidarity-with-the-underclass approval.) So the future is one of songs unshared, or debased to crude scribbling, of ever-creeping isolation and anonymity.
Sociological doom is thus pronounced, unless the vision’s call for sincerity, connection-seeking, and poetic self-expression, posed against a (conformist) faith in modernity’s progress, is somehow heeded. This sociological message is couched in biblical language to increase its impact, but its “prophecy” is of a totally modern kind. No messianic hope is offered. The only connection to the biblical point of view is a repudiation of progressive hope in modernity, a hope accused of being like idolatry.
So while the song makes an effective bid for theistic sympathies, its own answer is not to return to God. We should also notice, in contrast to That’s Not Me, that its own answer is not to return to the rural or suburban “home.” You grow up in NYC, and you glimpse the thoroughly modern life that seems likely to arrive everywhere, where you won’t really have a home to return to—others will be renting that apartment now. The cancer of inauthenticity will spread everywhere anyhow. We can be thankful that Simon and Garfunkel adopt a more typical and sentimental perspective in other songs, “Homeward Bound” in particular, but in their role as sociological seers, this is what they see.
So we are left with having to place our hope in songs. They are the most vivid examples of, and calls to, self-expression, personal connection, and conformity-breaking “silence”-overcoming. But by the logic of this song’s lyrics, the silence of the crowd can become impervious to a singer’s effort to break through. The narrator has nightmares about his song becoming lost in a well of silence , so that he will wind up speaking to no-one, but only to what he speaks to in the beginning: hello darkness, my old friend.
The only witness against this fear is the very power of “Sounds of Silence” as a whole to break through and arrest us, we not-yet so-modern folk of 1965. And there, Simon and Garfunkel’s fear proved happily unfounded—the song did break through, becoming a hit even. Enough of us proved ready to rebel against modernity’s isolating conformist reticence. Poetry won .
****************************************************************
To some extent the fear and the call of the song remain relevant, and salutary. My quoting of Rousseau reveals that conformist inauthenticity an old problem, even in some ways older than modernity itself. (Rousseau, never says the problem belongs to modern man alone, as my adjustment implied, but says it belongs to the citizen . )
But in other ways, the song seems to belong to another age. For soon after its call for everyone to dare to express their inner-selves, to cast off conformist reticence, the 70s saw the dual extremes of “Feelings” and “I Wanna Destroy.” Like plagues upon Egypt, broods of sensitive singer-songwriters, and then of cussing punk bands, successively covered the land. And yet more was to come—one critic said that while punk’s message was “F*&# You!,” Joy Division and post-punk turned this inward, into “I’m f*&#ed!” And so there became absolutely no aspect of the psyche we did not expect our rock artists to delve into for exorcism or just imitation: sensitivity, lust, anger, despair, suicide, madness, everything. In this respect, Tocqueville’s predictions about the poems of democracy proved correct: . . . they wished to illuminate and enlarge certain still obscure sides of the human heart.
Unfortunately, there is a lot of crap in our hearts, and there is a lot of conformity in how we understand what we find there, and so now the crudest expressions of our whims, whines, and maladies are found everywhere we look. We are no longer much worried about people keeping their feelings to themselves. By 2010, one of our finest artists, the novelist Marilynne Robinson, was going around college campuses saying “I miss civilization.”
Youtube Simon And Garfunkel Greatest Hits
Nor are we much worried about a conformity that isolates us. The individualism exhibited by the Hugh Grant character in About a Boy , for example, is not one that represses inclinations, and only dares to whisper them to others. For the Grant character, it is hello, telly, my old friend, and he couldn’t care less about what the world thinks of him. Yes, he fits the profile of a “Sounds of Silence” character by not daring to connect, and in not listening to others, but in his total lack of self-repression for conformity’s sake, he doesn’t fit the overall portrait.
Songbook Simon And Garfunkel Pdf
So how is that “Sounds of Silence” could feel so hauntingly right at the time, but now, despite in certain ways still speaking to us, it elicits a bundle of qualifications and hesitations?
Simon And Garfunkel Songbook Guitar
To understand that requires a detour, which the Songbook will take next time, into considering the stages of modernity, particularly the 1918-1965 stage I will be calling intermediate modernity.