Simon Says

Bridge Over Troubled Water, the biggest-selling pop record of 1970, was the last joint effort by the two young singers Simon and Garfunkel. Everyone knows what Art Garfunkel has been doing since then: acting in Hollywood (Catch-22, Carnal Knowledge). But what of Paul Simon, the creative half of the team, the composer of Bridge and all those other hits like Sounds of Silence and Mrs. Robinson? He has been preparing his first solo LP in recording studios as far apart as Paris and Jamaica, Los Angeles and New York. Called simply Paul Simon, it manages to sound the heavy and incisive rhythms of rock without the usual buzz and blast.

Simon's lyrics express a mixture of urban and exurban complaints: carbon monoxide ("the ole Detroit perfume"), thin motel walls ("Couple in the next room/Bound to win a prize"), everybody's Congressman ("He's avoiding me"). Simon has always been a fine rock guitarist--indeed, his guitar was usually all the accompaniment S & G had at their concerts--but the new LP is filled with the unexpected lights and shadows of a newly refined classical technique. The best thing in the album, though, is a number that Simon just sings, leaving the accompaniment to others. It is a soul-gospel song called Mother and Child Reunion.

I can't for the life of me

Remember a sadder day

I know they say let it be

But it just don't work out that way

Simon is said to be anxious nowadays about his place in rock history, concerned that he has not been ranked with the likes of Bob Dylan and the Beatles. He may not rank quite that high, but part of the joy of his music has always been its unpretentiousness, the fun that went into it. He sounds more like the real Simon when he says: "I love my own music. I can work on my music, or sit and play the guitar, all night, and I love it because it's me and I'm making it all up."

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