For the long 17km section today we had….
Paul Simon
- Hearts and Bones
- Surprise
- So Beautiful or So What
- Stranger to Stranger
The Afro-Celt Sound System
- Seed
- The Source
Paul Simon is a genius.
My sister got the ‘Simon and Garfunkel’s Greatest Hits’ album when I was around 12. It was the first time I’d heard music that was about something. Music that was, if you like, more than just tunes.
I fell in love with New York vicariously. In my dreams I’d go to New York and it would look like the red sandstone tenements of Glasgow (the only big city I knew) with some steel and glass towers in it. Later on I watched the 70’s New York movies like Serpico and Dog Day Afternoon. All fantastically sleazy and beautiful at the same time.
Paul Simon’s songs, like The Boxer and America were a fundamental part of my teenage years. They can still reduce me to tears in seconds.
And his new(er) stuff is pretty good too…