Colossal Reviews

Only Unbiased Product Reviews

Colossal Reviews > Paul Simon

Still Crazy After All These Years by Paul Simon (Vinyl record album review)

By Leave a Comment

Record basics

  • Album name: Still Crazy After All These Years
  • Artist name: Paul Simon
  • Year: 1975
  • Number of discs: one
  • Label: Columbia Records
  • Collection: Selman
  • Distinguishing characteristics:
    • Clipped top right corner of album
    • Track list sticker on front of album: Columbia Records / Demonstration / Not For Sale
    • Sticker on both sides of LP: DEMONSTRATION / NOT FOR SALE
    • Scratched into side one of LP: PAL 33540-3A
    • Scratched into side two of LP: PBL 33540-3A
  • Buy it on Amazon: $20.47

Still Crazy After All These Years by Paul Simon

My review

Level of familiarity before listening

I recognize a couple of these songs by name, the title track and 50 Ways to Leave Your Lover, and I expect that I might recognize another one or two when I listen, but I’ve never listened to this record as a whole. Here are the other six Paul Simon records that I’ve reviewed:

What I expected

Folk rock, soft rock, singer-songwriter.

What it was actually like

Still Crazy After All These Years is a very bad song, with totally unnecessary use of organ, and Kenny G. level saxophone that made me want to turn the music off and listen to silence instead. When I reviewed Paul Simon’s greatest hits, I wrote about it:

Still Crazy After All These Years was terrible, slow and boring – and that was before the saxophone. It could have been the worst Paul Simon song.

In the same review, I wrote:

50 Ways to Leave Your Lover was half a good song, and half crap easy listening, but the good part, which was the chorus, was excellent, and I especially loved the bass guitar.

I felt exactly the same way today, but also want to add that the marching style snare drum made the song worse than it needed to be.

My Little Town had the the vocal harmonies of Simon and Garfunkel’s early work, but in the context of a bad and uninteresting song.

Have a Good Time was totally bland and ignorable, up until its abysmal saxophone solo at the very end.

Silent Eyes had the indulgent style of an awful Faul McCartney piano ballad.

Gone at Last was the most interesting track on the record, an up-tempo soul song with an Oompa Loompa sound.

Grade

2/5: bad, but I was able to listen to the whole thing

Greatest Hits, Etc. by Paul Simon (Vinyl record album review)

By Leave a Comment

Record basics

  • Album name: Greatest Hits, Etc.
  • Artist name: Paul Simon
  • Year: 1977
  • Number of discs: one
  • Label: Columbia Records
  • Collection: Selman
  • Buy it on Amazon: $49.99

Greatest Hits, Etc. by Paul Simon

My review

Level of familiarity before listening

I haven’t heard this record before, but I’m familiar with about half of the songs on it by name. Other Paul Simon records I’ve reviewed:

What I expected

Paul Simon’s hits from after his collaboration with Art Garfunkel, and also some non-hits.

What it was actually like

I’ve always thought that Slip Slidin’ Away was basically a good melody and a good concept for a song, but that it just never came together right. I could imagine a more rock version that could be great, or a simpler, more stripped down version like this one, which is excellent, but the version on this record just had too much weird instrumentation and too many sound effects to be enjoyable.

50 Ways to Leave Your Lover was half a good song, and half crap easy listening, but the good part, which was the chorus, was excellent, and I especially loved the bass guitar. Stranded in a Limousine mostly wasn’t bad, and musically sounded like 50 Ways to Leave Your Lover, but had some really bad saxophone to ruin it.

Duncan was a pretty good folk style song, and I liked the flutes, but also thought they were a little too much.

I still loved Me and Julio Down by the Schoolyard, but also still thought that this version was superior. If that wasn’t the best Paul Simon song, then Kodachrome might have been, and it’s probably his only song that I sing whenever I hear it [1].

I had forgotten about Mother and Child Reunion, but it was a pretty solid reggae song, and I liked it!

Take Me to the Mardi Gras didn’t sound like very much of a mardi gras song until the horns kicked in at the end, but I liked that part a lot (and here is a better mardi gras song).

Still Crazy After All These Years was terrible, slow and boring – and that was before the saxophone. It could have been the worst Paul Simon song. American Tune sounded too much like Bridge Over Troubled Water, the worst Simon and Garfunkel song.

Have a Good Time was also terrible, and its atrocious saxophone solo at the end made me want to barf.

Something So Right and I Do It for Your Love were both also easy listening crap.

Loves Me Like a Rock was soul style, but too corny to be good.

Grade

3/5: interesting, but not for me

References

References
↑1 And in my freezer, I have a factory sealed brick of Kodachrome that expired the month I was born, and I’m waiting to shoot it… any decade now.

Sounds of Silence by Simon & Garfunkel (Vinyl record album review)

By Leave a Comment

Record basics

  • Album name: Sounds of Silence
  • Group name: Simon & Garfunkel
  • Year: 1966
  • Number of discs: one
  • Label: Columbia Records
  • Collection: Selman
  • Distinguishing characteristics: “PROMOTION RECORD – NOT FOR SALE” stamped in red on back of album
  • Buy it on Amazon: $32.72

Sounds of Silence by Simon & Garfunkel

My review

Level of familiarity before listening

I’m not sure if I’ve ever listened to this record specifically, but I do know and love some of the songs on it, and in the past few months I’ve listened to:

What I expected

Folk, folk rock, vocal harmonies.

What it was actually like

It seems like the name of the song and/or record goes back and forth between Sound of Silence and Sounds of Silence, but I suppose record-keeping wasn’t as advanced back in the XX century as it is for us moderns. This was a different version of the song, though, that had a bit more of a rock sound. I liked it, but didn’t think the change was necessary.

Generally, Sounds of Silence was much more of a rock, pop rock and folk rock record than their others, and it kind of reminded me of British Invasion groups like the Hollies, which is weird because, as I may have mentioned in the past, Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel are two Ashkenazi boys from Queens.

And on that note, I’ve definitely mentioned in the past how creepy it is that these two Ashkenazi boys from Queens keep doing very overtly Christian music on their folk music records (without bothering to, you know, actually profess belief in Christianity, unlike Bob Dylan). That song on Sounds of Silence was Blessed, and it was weird!

And speaking of Bob Dylan, though Simon and Garfunkel might have anticipated Dylan’s obsession with Christianity, they definitely channeled his topical interests in Richard Cory.

Anyway, most of the record had that British Invasion sound and I quite enjoyed it – actually, now that it’s finished, I’m listening to the Hollies as I write – with the exception of Kathy’s Song, which sounded like it belonged on an earlier record, and April Come She Will, one of my favorites that I haven’t heard it since the last time I watched The Graduate.

And I Am a Rock has always seemed to me like Simon came up with a chorus but was never able to write verses for it. Shame!

Grade

5/5: love it

Paul Simon in Concert: Live Rhymin’ by Paul Simon (Vinyl record album review)

By 1 Comment

Record basics

  • Album name: Paul Simon in Concert: Live Rhymin’
  • Artist name: Paul Simon with Urubamba and the Jessy Dixon Singers
  • Year: 1974
  • Number of discs: one
  • Label: Columbia Records
  • Collection: Selman
  • Distinguishing characteristics: sticker on front of album with track list and “Columbia Records Radio Station Service / Not For Resale”
  • Buy it on Amazon: $4.99

Paul Simon in Concert: Live Rhymin'

My review

Level of familiarity before listening

I’ve never listened to this Paul Simon concert, but in the past few months I’ve listened to three Simon & Garfunkel records, including one that was recorded live:

What I expected

Based on the picture on the album, Paul Simon doing folk music with an acoustic guitar, sans Art Garfunkel.

What it was actually like

I absolutely loved El Cóndor Pasa (If I Could) and completely forgot that this song existed (and probably haven’t heard it in… I don’t know how many decades). But it was great and there was a flute accompaniment that didn’t ruin it.

The flute, however, did not help The Boxer at all. It and whatever was being plucked in the background – maybe some kind of Peruvian style banjo? – sounded like they were in direct competition for prominence with Paul Simon and his guitar, and it was highly distracting. Someone should have told him that when you’ve got a song like that with such a distinctive chorus, you don’t add anything that would interfere.

I was also delighted with the record’s opening track, Me and Julio Down by the Schoolyard, as I’ve had the Me First And The Gimme Gimmes cover in semi-regular rotation for probably 20 years, and every time I hear it I’m reminded of Paul Simon, but have seldom heard him singing it since I mostly listen to the much earlier Simon & Garfunkel music. His Homeward Bound was also excellent.

About Wednesday Morning, 3 A.M., I wrote a few days ago: “Not surprisingly, The Sound of Silence steals the show on this record, as it’s such a riveting song.” It wasn’t that way on Live Rhymin’, however. I think I get what Paul Simon was trying to accomplish with his choral arrangement and gospel choir backing him up, and it makes sense because the song more than just hints at a religious message, but it didn’t even remotely work, and this was probably the worst version of The Sound of Silence imaginable.

It wasn’t the worst song on the record, though. That has to have been J*sus Is the Answer, a gospel song that just didn’t sound like it belonged with the rest of the music at all. And I get that Paul Simon was into gospel – I think there’s a ton of great gospel music too – but there’s a reason you won’t see me ordering peanut butter as a pizza topping.

From there the gospel experiment continued, with very mixed results. Bridge Over Troubled Water was pretty bad, though I’ve previously described it as the worst Simon & Garfunkel song, so it shouldn’t be a surprise that it wasn’t improved by gospelizing it. Loves Me Like a Rock was much better, though.

He went back to a folk style for America, and I was glad that he did, and that he chose to end the record that way.

Grade

4/5: would listen again

Wednesday Morning, 3 A.M. by Simon & Garfunkel (Vinyl record album review)

By Leave a Comment

Record basics

  • Album name: Wednesday Morning, 3 A.M.
  • Group name: Simon & Garfunkel
  • Year: 1964
  • Number of discs: one
  • Label: Columbia Records
  • Collection: Selman
  • Buy it on Amazon: $22.98

Wednesday Morning, 3 A.M. by Simon & Garfunkel

My review

Level of familiarity before listening

I don’t think I’ve ever listened to Wednesday Morning, 3 A.M. before, but I reviewed Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and Thyme last week, and The Concert in Central Park in May.

What I expected

More folk and folk rock with extensive use of vocal harmonies.

What it was actually like

There was a lot of good material on this record that I hadn’t heard before, such as the title track Wednesday Morning, 3 A.M.. I also thought that You Can Tell the World was pretty good, and I loved the extensive use of banjo in Last Night I Had the Strangest Dream.

Benedictus, on the other hand, sounds roughly like its name would suggest. When I listened to Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and Thyme recently, I wondered why these two Ashkenazi boys from Queens were so fixated on Christian imagery in their music, and that clearly is happening on this record as well. Go Tell It on the Mountain wasn’t that bad, though. At least it was an actual folk song.

I was pretty interested to hear the Simon & Garfunkel version of Bob Dylan’s The Times They Are a-Changin’ and thought they did a pretty good job with a sort of high-low vocal harmony, and some slight changes to the guitar part from Dylan’s, though of course they don’t have Dylan’s… unusual voice… so while it’s the folkiest thing in the world for them to take Dylan’s song and reinterpret it, I do wonder whether it sounds as authentic coming from them as it did from him.

Not surprisingly, Sound of Silence steals the show on this record, as it’s such a riveting song.

Also, “Thirty dollars pays your rent on Bleecker Street…” Really? It definitely wouldn’t have paid my rent on Bleecker Street when I lived there twenty years ago, and now I think it wouldn’t even pay eight hours of rent in that neighborhood. But yeah, the 1960s was a wild time.

Grade

5/5: love it