Living To Music February 2012

Join in if you can, alone or with friends, this Sunday at 9pm with Greg Wilson's Living To Music worldwide communal listening experience. The selected album this month is Paul Simon's Graceland.

http://www.gregwilson.co.uk/2012/01/living-to-music-paul-simon-graceland/

Hop on the bus, Gus

Still Crazy After All These Years was Paul Simon's fourth solo album.  It was his third solo release post- Simon & Garfunkel (The Paul Simon Songbook was released in the UK only in 1965).

I bought a copy of it for £1 at a car boot sale towards the end of last year:



Paul Simon - Still Crazy After All These Years (1975)

 

In the main, this singer-songwriter style album has a jazzy feel, with piano and acoustic guitar featuring prominently.   It produced four top 40 hits in the US.  These were My Little Town (with Art Garfunkel), Gone At Last (an up-tempo gospel track with Phoebe Snow), the title track of course and 50 Ways To Leave Your Lover.

 

It's a mostly pretty downbeat album (not surprising for a bunch of songs written around the time of his divorce from first wife Peggy Harper) and the last few tracks are fairly forgettable, but there are still enough great ones to make it a worthwhile investment or at least repeated listens on Spotify.  Top tracks:

 

Paul Simon – I'd Do It For Your Love       Paul Simon – Still Crazy After All These Years

Paul Simon – 50 Ways To Leave Your Lover

Paul Simon with Phoebe Snow and The Jessy Dixon Singers – Gone At Last

 

The album reached no.1 in the US Billboard Pop Albums chart and no.6 in the UK.  It also won the Grammy for Album of the Year in 1976.





Under African Skies

Despite going to three boot sales over the Bank Holiday weekend, I only came away with one bit of vinyl:

Paul Simon - Graceland (1986)

Bought for £1, this was Simon's seventh solo album and it reached number one in the UK.  Heavily influenced by South African music and featuring a host of musicians from here, it produced four singles.  The most successful by far was You Can Call Me Al, which featured Chevy Chase in the video and reached number four in the UK.  The others were Diamonds On The Soles Of Her Shoes, The Boy In The Bubble and the title track Graceland, which features the Everly Brothers.

Spotify:  Paul Simon – The Boy In The Bubble      Paul Simon – Under African Skies

Youtube:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uq-gYOrU8bA

Linda Ronstadt lends vocals on Under African Skies.