Paul Simon Archives - Ramblin' with Roger

Should Singers Pack It In?

Six Iconic Singers Who Should Call It a Day

Periodically, I see articles asking whether specific singers should pack it in, whether their vocal cords are too shot to keep performing in public. I’ve long been of the school that the market should decide whether the performer should hang it up.

It’s often difficult for players in many endeavors to know when to hang up the cleats. Willie Mays, the best baseball player in my lifetime, cringed as he noted he batted only .211 in 1973, his final season. (It’s not very good.)

I recall that Mick Jagger didn’t think he’d still be singing in his fifties. Yet, he’s still at it in his eighties, even though he was on more than one of those lists of “he should stop” more than a decade ago.

When Pete Seeger would perform in his later years, his voice was largely shot, but he could still play the banjo and tell stories; Pete was being inspirational Pete, whom I saw dozens of times and met once.

The 85-year-old Martha Reeves blamed her backup singers for her national anthem performance.

I saw a PBS event, America Made In Virginia: 250 Years Together on July 4. One of the performers was Judy Collins, whose voice I adore; I saw her live in 1980. In the presentation, she was a bit shaky early on, but she got better over time. Still, the 87-year-old is on her retirement tour

Several people had newsworthy physical ailments that have sidelined them for a time recently, such as Frankie Valli, Rod Stewart, and Barry Manilow.

Call it a day?

Rand Bishop’s piece on Medium recommends Six Iconic Singers Who Should Call It a Day and Pack It In. “The human voice is a machine. And machines break down.”

He praised the incomparable Tony Bennett, who still could produce at 95. I watched his special that featured Lady Gaga. He might not have remembered the performance the next day, but he delivered musically when it mattered.

Conversely, Stevie Nicks, Jon Bon Jovi, and Ann Wilson make the list of should-be retirees. I have no specific info on them. Neil Diamond is noted, but the very few times he’s performed in recent years, his fans don’t mind carrying the load.

This leaves two Pauls. Bishop notes, correctly, “McCartney’s guest appearance on a recent Saturday Night Live revealed severely compromised vocal chops.” He has put together a decent album recently, however. One commenter said that he hasn’t been any good in 30 years, which is nonsense. The show I saw in 2014 was great!

There goes Rhymin’ Simon

As for Simon, he was quite open about his hearing loss in this November 2024 interview. He’s been able to perform by changing mic placement and creating different arrangements for some songs. I watched a show from his A Quiet Celebration tour online, and it sounded much like his Stanford show in early June.

“Simon and company closed the second set with the always-fun ‘Me and Julio Down by the Schoolyard,’ with [Edie] Brickell reappearing to handle the famed whistle solo that her husband originally did on the 1972 studio recording. The whole crew then returned for a four-song encore — highlighted by the gorgeous take on Simon & Garfunkel’s “The Boxer” to close — before taking their bows in front of the highly appreciative audience.

“Yet, Simon still had one more in him and remained on the stage after the other musicians departed. What came next was the moment that everyone in attendance will likely remember for years to come as he glided into a precious, humbling and completely raw solo take on Simon and Garfunkel’s classic ‘The Sound of Silence.’

“It was one of those perfect concert moments, as Simon turned to the only song that could really bring this Quiet Celebration to a close in such a fitting and heartfelt manner.”

A buddy saw one of the two nights he was at Tanglewood in late June. This review was of the other night but is just as complimentary as my pal reported. Paul Simon needed a workaround and found it. Bravo for him; let him keep plucking away.

A Spotify surprise

J. Eric Smith

Has anything like this ever happen to you? I was visiting the site of one J. Eric Smith, as I am wont to do. In the then-current post, he noted: “It has been almost a year since I reluctantly caved to streaming my music.” He discussed the pros and cons of that.

“On the upside: I do like the ability to create playlists quickly, and there seems to be more of the musical arcana that I like available on Spotify than there was/is on iTunes, which I’d used exclusively for the prior 12 years. We’ve sort of defaulted to themed playlists around the house, ranging from 50 to 100 to 150 songs.

“(I’m obsessive about tidiness on such matters, and couldn’t stand to have a 52-song or 147-song list, no sir, that would not do, not at all).” I could definitely create a 52-song list. There are 52 cards in a standard deck of cards, after all.

Eric posted a great Africa playlist, 100 of his “favorite songs from that continent’s myriad musical cultures. ” I decided I didn’t want to listen to 30-second snippets of songs. So I figured I would finally get a free registration to Spotify.

Oops

Except, it appears that I had already done so. Of course, I didn’t record the password anywhere. So I had to get another one. They had the damnedest Captcha methodology I had ever seen. They showed a series of dice, some standard pips, and Arabic numbers, and you had to match the dice with a number three times.

I discovered that not only did I have an account, but I had made a playlist of my own: 12 Paul Simon songs. I have no recollection of having done so, let alone when or HOW I did that.

This falls into the category of a truism about me. Confronted by almost any technology that I don’t use regularly, it is like I’d never seen it before. When I figure it out again, maybe I’ll create more playlists. I have some particular ideas. And heck, I might even take requests.

Tactile

Or not. I came across this New York Times article. Want to Enjoy Music More? Stop Streaming It. Build a real music collection. Reintroduce intimacy to the songs you care about. Though Denise Lu is much younger than I, she gets me. “Maybe that’s why I never latched onto streaming services — I didn’t like depending on a third-party platform, or being part of a social experiment that feeds Spotify data that it then sells to advertisers.”

Something that Chuck Rozanski/Bettie Pages, the President of Mile High Comics, Inc. wrote on October 9 resonates with me. “I… drove to Jason St. mid-afternoon each day to sort comics until 8 PM. I don’t know why, but there is something about the Zen of spending hours sorting old comic books into categories that has the capacity to soothe the ache in my heart, and to restore my spirit.

“In many regards, for me, it is like visiting with old friends, as I can look at any given title and/or issue number and remember quite vividly where I was (and who I was…) when that issue was first released.”

About every four months, I have to resort all of the CDs I have played. You’d think it would be boring. Not for me. I, too, experience the joy of remembering how I got that album, maybe looking at something on the liner notes I forgot.

My top 5 rock albums

1966 to 1989

There was a question on Quora asking for people’s top 5 rock albums. What an inane question! How can anyone pick just five? So I decided to do it anyway.

First, some guidelines. I am not going to get into the definition of what is “rock.” I hear this every year when an ABBA, Nina Simone, or Joan Baez enters the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Nor will I address the “best” albums because “best” has become an increasingly elusive term for me.

I could have picked Blue by either Miles Davis or Joni Mitchell, Who’s Next, the Beach Boys’ Pet Sounds, Abraxas by Santana, k.d. lang’s Ingenue, or approximately a zillion more, including at least three by Stevie Wonder.

I’m not selecting a greatest hits album; Sly and the Family Stone would otherwise be on the podium. There are no soundtracks, Broadway cast albums or compilations, so no The Harder They Come, Hamilton, or West Side Story. And if I do this in five years, three of these might be different.

The Eclectics

I decided on three of these because they are so eclectic.

Spike – Elvis Costello, which I mentioned back in 2009 in my 25 most influential albums. The All Music review calls it “maddeningly diffuse.” Its diffuseness may be why I like it because I don’t find it maddening at all.

Veronica, Chewing Gum, Last Boat Leaving

That’s A Plenty – the Pointer Sisters. I first wrote about this album in 2006. Then in 2014; unfortunately, only the links to Little Pony, Fairytale, and Black Coffee still work.

Salt Peanuts; Love In Them There Hills

Revolver – The Beatles. I picked this one over other Beatles albums because I hate Run For Your Life (Rubber Soul). Abbey Road has Octopus’s Garden, which is too much in the Yellow Submarine vein. I may as well pick the album with Yellow Sub. It’s not my favorite song, but it fascinated me because the single, in the last verse, has “As we live a life of ease (a life of ease),” but the echo doesn’t happen on the album version I had.

The 2012 post has lots of bad links.

Taxman, For No One, Got To Get You Into My Life, Tomorrow Never Knows

Two more

Still Crazy After All These Years – Paul Simon. As I noted here in 2016. “Inextricably tied to the Okie in my mind.”

I Do It For Your Love, Have A Good Time, Title song.

Peter Gabriel (melt)- Peter Gabriel. I mentioned Gabriel in 2011 and 2020. In this post, also from 2020, I listed my favorite Gabriel songs, and the links still work! The ones from Melt have a 3 after the title because they are on the third eponymous PG album.

How terribly strange to be 70

Psalm 90:10

RogerGreenBirthdayCartoon490 How terribly strange to be 70. I’ve used that title twice before in this blog, and you can probably guess when in 2011: on October 13 and November 5.

Now, I’M three score and ten, which is old. Or at least oldish.

Psalm 90:10 in the King James Version reads, “The days of our years are threescore years and ten; and if by reason of strength they be fourscore years, yet is their strength labour and sorrow; for it is soon cut off, and we fly away.”

In case you don’t recognize the artist, the work was created by my friend Fred Hembeck in 2007. Fred gave me the original black and white piece, on which he indicated, “54 ROCKS!” He’s a full five weeks older than I am. I believe I’ll use this illustration every five years, just because.

The home church

Sister Leslie took the photo on her phone. It was when we visited Trinity A.M.E. Zion Church at the corner of Oak and Lydia Streets in Binghamton, NY, on October 9, 2022.

The room used to be the Sunday School room when I was a kid. My paternal grandmother, Agatha Helen (Walker) Green (1902-1964), taught me. Now, the room is used as a memorial to the Departed Loved Ones of the church.

On the wall, along with photos of Mrs. Armstrong (left of center), and Mr. Woodward, is my Grandma Green, more or less hovering over my head. I don’t THINK that was the photographer’s intent, but it’s a rather cool effect.

Not incidentally, the church – specifically, my father’s cousin Ruth – requested a picture of my parents for the wall. My sisters and I ought to work on that.

Anyway, it’s my birthday, divisible by five (and seven and two), no less, so that’s enough for today.

Musical discovery in 2022

Francis Albert Sinatra

There’s a blogger who does this EOY thing. I’m going just to pick off the music categories right now.

What was your greatest musical discovery in 2022?

It was weird. I bought more music than in the previous two years combined. Almost none were from artists who first started recording in the 21st century.

I just received this. Janis Joplin and Jorma Kaukonen – The Legendary Typewriter Tape: 6/25/64 at Jorma’s House. Haven’t given it a sufficient listen, but I will.
Nobody Loves You When You’re Down And Out

One item I got was a boxed set. Twelve CDs of Steeleye Span. I think I MIGHT have one LP of theirs. But it was the fact that it was relatively inexpensive (c. $60) that sealed the deal.
Gaudete
Thomas The Rhymer

I bought a new Elvis Costello album, The Boy Named If. This is another one with the Imposters. I have about a third of Elvis’ 30-odd albums. It’s always hard to hear old music by older artists without comparing them with other works in their oeuvre. I’ll need to listen to it some more.
The Death Of Magic Thinking

The same is largely true of Bonnie Raitt’s first album in six years, Just Like That… It’s never less than solid, but it’ll need a few more spins.
Down The Hall

Perhaps the most interesting album I listened to was from a guy who died in 1998. Frank Sinatra put out Watertown, a concept album, in late 1969. The main composer of the album is Bob Gaudio of Four Seasons fame. It was re-released in 2022 with additional tracks. I think it works.
Watertown

I did get SOME newer music. I enjoyed Jon Batiste’s 2022 Grammy Award-winning album, WE ARE. Cry

Older tunes

And there are some other older albums I picked up. After seeing the Broadway production of David Byrne’s American Utopia on television, I bought the Broadway Original Cast Recording. While not as good as viewing it, it was mighty fine.
I Should Watch TV

The 1992 album Partners by accordion player Flaco Jimenez features a lot of guests, including Stephen Stills, Dwight Yoakam, Emmylou Harris, and Linda Ronstadt
Don’t Worry Baby, featuring Los Lobos

Of course, I listened to a lot of extant music. Recently, my wife asked me how many CDs I had. I guesstimated about 2000. Then I counted them. And by counting, I tabulated the number in a drawer and multiplied because math. It’s closer to 3000. And if you HAVE that many CDs, you ought to PLAY them. And I do.

Every generation throws a hero up the pop charts

Quote a song lyric that sums up your year

First, a story that I might have told before in part. After the Paul Simon album Graceland came out, there was a 12-inch version of Boy In The Bubble that came out. I heard it on the radio, probably the local Q104, and I loved it. So I ran to my nearest record store and asked to order it. For whatever reason, it never arrived. I did record my friend Rocco’s vinyl onto a cassette, which is probably still in my attic somewhere.

I bought the Paul Simon box set at some point, hoping it would be on there. No luck. Then after 2011, I bought the 25th-anniversary version; surely, IT would contain the track I sought. Alas, no. BTW, I sent my old copy of the CD to some blogger who wasn’t familiar with Graceland.

Finally, this year, Rocco downloaded the track and burned me a CD.
Boy In The Bubble (12-inch)
Some lyrics:

The way we look to a distant constellation
That’s dying in a corner of the sky…
Staccato signals of constant information
A loose affiliation of millionaires
And billionaires and baby
These are the days of miracle and wonder
This is the long-distance call
The way the camera follows us in slo-mo
The way we look to us all, oh yeah