However, I still don't understand the reason for his reference to Jesus in his paean to an adulterous relationship with the song MRS. ROBINSON.
Posted on 04/17/2011 9:24:25 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
It’s all about God, Jesus, angels, and the afterlife. And the album cover looks like a multi-colored DNA helix, causing speculation that this album is really about a search for the meaning of life.
The lyrics of the album’s first cut, "Getting Ready for Christmas Day," are taken directly from a 1941 sermon by famed Atlanta preacher Rev. J.M. Gates.
“I took a big chunk of this guy’s sermon, which was recorded in 1941,” said singer/Songwriter Simon. “It was like it was meant to be there.”
The catchy, African-inspired and bluesy rhythm of that first track underscores the chorus:
Getting ready for the power and the glory and the story of the Christmas Day.
Those aren’t the only religious lyrics in Simon’s new album, So Beautiful or So What.
In the song "Afterlife," Simon imagines meeting his Maker this way:
After you climb,
up the ladder of time,
the Lord God is here.
Face to face,
in the vastness of space,
your words disappear.
And you feel like swimming
in an ocean of love,
and the current is strong.
But all that remains
when you try to explain
is a fragment of song…
Lord is it,
Be Bop A Lu La or
Ooh Poppa Do
Lord,
Be Bop A Lu La or
Ooh Poppa Do
Be Bop A Lu La
Ben Witherington, seminary professor at Asbury Theological Seminary, reflects on the song, “It reminds me of John Donne’s poem ‘A Hymn to God, my God, in My Sickness’. In that poem Donne talks about tuning up here below to get ready to sing in the heavenly choir. In fact he talks about preparing to be made God’s music, and thinking here how to tune his instrument. I think Paul is being made God’s music even now, he just isn’t fully aware of it.”
Simon has said about So Beautiful or So What, “I thought right away, this is a really special album.”
Witherington goes on to remark that singer Paul McCartney, upon hearing some of the new album, said to Simon, “Aren’t you a Jew? How come you’re singing about Christmas and Jesus, and that sort of stuff?"
Simon was born to Jewish Hungarian parent in Newark, N.J. He has included other Christian-themed lyrics in previous songs, such as "Bridge Over Troubled Water" with Art Garfunkel and various songs in the album Graceland.
But in Simon’s previous album before this one, he spoke harshly about religious belief:
How can you be a Christian?
How can you be a Jew?
How can you be a Muslim, a Buddhist, a Hindu?
How can you?
Weak as the winter sun, we enter life on earth.
Names and religion come just after date of birth.
Simon even included a song called “I Don’t Believe,” in the album.
But the new album seems to show a change of heart.
In an interview with NPR on Tuesday, interviewer Steve Inskeep asked Simon about the religious references in the new album.
“The fact that there is so much reference to religion in this album makes me wonder if you're thinking about religion more, or thinking about God more.”
Simon responded, “I don’t think it's really so much about religion. There are quite a few references to God or in a spiritual sense. And I guess I would have to say from the evidence of this album that I am thinking about it more.
The album also include the lyrics,
God and his only Son
paid a courtesy call
on Earth one Sunday morning.
Orange blossoms opened
their fragrant lips,
Songbirds sang
from the tips of Cottonwoods,
Old folks wept for his love in these hard times.
Rolling Stone magazine has called Simon’s new album “the best since Graceland.”
In other news....
Garfinkle has been thinking about a doobie.
Sounds a lot like Dylan in the late 70s.
Paul Simon has ripped off every musical style of every ethnic group in the world. He ran out of styles to rip off and hopes God might have something he can work with as new material. Getting God to tour and sing background harmonies might prove to be a trick though.
If he is thinking more about God now, I can’t cut him down for it. Sometimes it takes a long time for people to come to Him.
I for one, would NEVER put anyone down trying to reach out to Him.
Every musician rips off somebody.
Paul’s Ok.
But he really has run the gamut musically.
Onion header?????????????
I’m sure Ladysmith Black Mambazo doesn’t feel ‘ripped off’ when they get their royalty checks for “Graceland.”
Using other people's gifts as inspiration is one thing. Taking them on tour with you and paying them $12 per day and racking them six to a room because it's quite the uprgade from a thatched hut with a dirt floor is just wrong while he makes millions off their raw talent.
True enough!
Graceland was an excellent album.
That’s a pretty serious charge you’re leveling there, got any proof that Simon did anything like that?
If none of that is true I certainly apologize.
Is he still married to the What I Am gal from Texas.
Simon’s music is ok...elevator music..amped up folks music or world music a bit...he apparently loves African rythym and Brasil drums.
although to confess Bookends and Surrealistic Pillow were my first two albums...that’s a contrast eh?
before that it was all 45s...Tommy James, Stones, Beetles..that sort of stuff
Don’t tell him about I-IV-V.
From Wikipedia:
After Graceland, Simon acted as producer on three records for the group aimed at the American market, Shaka Zulu (1987), Journey of Dreams (1988) and Two Worlds, One Heart (1990). On the latter album, the group recorded with The Winans, Julia Fordham and George Clinton among other then-popular artists. Shaka Zulu was nominated (and won) in the category of Best Traditional Folk Recording in the Grammy Awards 1988.
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