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.”
Not many people know that Simon and Garfunkel recorded a song in Latin — BENEDICTUS
Listen here :
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ai3UhslbPOk&feature=related
Simon & Garfunkel - Benedictus
“benedictus qui venit in nomine Domini.”
(”Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord.”)
--Conversation with the devil - Ray Wylie Hubbard
Some are aware, many are not, that a mp3 file can be ripped from a youtube video.
Just an FYI.
If you are interested, try:
http://www.video2mp3.net/index.php
It may come in handy if you have an iPod or the like.
somehow it escaped me that he'd married Edie Brickell, whom I actually saw (with New Bohemians) between their 1st and second albums. She has a place here in NYC. Showed up on a huffpo tell-all page about campaign contributions that named names and put little pin-like things on a google map. Really creepy, actually. (it was democrat, naturally, but wuddever).
Well, that is the question, isn't it?
I assign a rebuttable presumption to all popular musicians, they are liberal. I recall the Brikell/Paul Simon marriage on account of recently trying to learn "Circle of Friends."
In the general, I chalk it up to musical and lyrical prowess not running hand in hand with awareness of human nature.
Off that musical tangent and onto another, I really like Donald Fagen's work - and AFAIK, he and Becker are flaming liberals, as are their female companions (Suzanne Vega, etc.)
I really didn't write what I did to highlight Brickells political leanings, but to highlight huffpos shameless leveraging of technology in service of voyeurism. I should have been more circumspect.
it's none of my business who you vote for. If I like your record I'm gonna buy it.
Pretty much my point of view, too. I don't begrudge Brikell her politics; or Shawn Mullins, or on-and-on with a list of talented musicians.
For reasons that ought to be obvious, I don't give a similar benefit to "news" and "political commentary" organs.
Unfair, incorrect and otherwise wrong on my part to assign deficit in awareness. The deficit, as I see it, is in assigning solution. We can't all get along. There are irreconcilable clashes between civilizations, and the school of hard knocks is a better tool to elevate society, than is the tool of "free compassion."
I remember singing “Was a sunny day” in music class in the late 70’s. I didn’t know it was a Paul Simon song from 1972. And weirdly, it was playing in the background at the restaurant I was eating breakfast in this morning. I hadn’t heard his version before.
....WHAT THE HELL DOES THAT MEAN????????
The absolute best cover of “the Boxer” by Allison Krause & Shawn Colvin - amazing!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nxCkqNIEx2w
RE: THE BOXER
Again some religious overtones in this music from Paul Simon himself. This from Wikipedia...
Paul Simon himself has suggested that the lyrics are largely autobiographical, written during a time when he felt he was being unfairly criticized:
“I think I was reading the Bible around that time. That’s where I think phrases such as ‘workman’s wages’ came from, and ‘seeking out the poorer quarters’. That was biblical. I think the song was about me: everybody’s beating me up, and I’m telling you now I’m going to go away if you don’t stop.”
The chorus of the song is wordless, consisting of a repeated chant of “lie-la-lie”. Simon stated that this was originally intended only as a placeholder, but became part of the finished song.
“The Boxer” was originally written with a verse that is not present in the Bridge Over Troubled Water version. These are the missing verses:
Now the years are rolling by me
They are rockin’ evenly
I am older than I once was
And younger than I’ll be and that’s not unusual.
No it isn’t strange
After changes upon changes
We are more or less the same
After changes we are more or less the same
(REFRAIN Lie-La-Lie)
This “missing verse” was performed by Simon & Garfunkel when they went on tour in November 1969 (this version of the song is included on the Live 1969 album), and Paul Simon when he performed it solo after the group’s breakup. Simon & Garfunkel also performed the “missing verse” on Saturday Night Live in 1975 and when they reunited for The Concert in Central Park in 1981, and on Late Show with David Letterman.
Thanks, NoGray. I know the feeling is wrong, and, in fact, after an afternoon, it has passed. I wish everyone the joy I have in my faith in Christ, especially this Passion Week and Easter coming on Sunday.
The parable I referenced has as its point that we lose nothing by the fact that God’s grace gives others salvation just as we have.
Best regards.
I contrast him with James Taylor (not very deep lyrics) or Joan Baez (just plain liberal wailing) although I like her stuff. Simon is a true poet.
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