In a matter of days, Paul Simon is going to put his career on
\nthe line when his first Broadway musical,
\nThe Capeman<\/i>, opens. And while we could jump on the bandwagon
\nand review
\nSongs From The Capeman<\/i>, instead I’d prefer to dig a little
\ndeeper in the Pierce Archives and take a look at
\nThere Goes Rhymin’ Simon<\/i>, his 1973 release which probably
\nmade his solo career an early success.<\/p>\n
Despite the success of the ska-influenced “Mother And Child
\nReunion,” Simon’s first solo album was hardly a smash hit like
\nanything he had done with Simon & Garfunkel. He needed to reach
\ndeep within himself and utilize all of his pop music writing skills
\nand create a work that would establish himself in the industry as a
\nbonafide solo artist.<\/p>\n
On
\nThere Goes Rhymin’ Simon<\/i>, he makes it sound so effortless.
\nThe leadoff track, “Kodachrome,” takes a nostalgic look back at
\nlife through the metaphor of color film. ‘Course, Kodak, who
\nmanufactures the film of the same name, got pissed and demanded
\nthat Simon put a trademark notice on the song. Seems kind of silly,
\nreally – while the song does often mention the product, it could
\nhave been a commercial for it.<\/p>\n
But SImon wasn’t done yet. On “Take Me To The Mardi Gras,” he
\ndabbles a little bit in Dixieland, though he saves the fireworks
\nfor the instrumental ending performed by the Onward Brass Band.
\n“Loves Me Like A Rock” has a strong doo-wop beat provided by the
\nDixie Hummingbirds, and is a fun song to listen to. Another hit,
\n“Something So Right,” is a more serious number that returns to
\nSimon’s usual introspective style that was so overbearing on his
\nfirst solo effort.<\/p>\n
Even the songs that might not have made it onto the radio are
\nstrong numbers. “Learn How To Fall” easily could have been a hit
\nhad it been chosen, and is one of Simon’s underrated classics. “St.
\nJudy’s Comet” is also a decent number, if not quite as strong.<\/p>\n
The only “disappointment” of sorts is “American Tune” – and it’s
\nnot that it’s a bad song. But it’s just that I’m so used to the
\npoignant live version that I grew up hearing on
\nGreatest Hits, Etc.<\/i> that is more moving than the original
\nstudio version. Still, that’s a small criticism.<\/p>\n
Simon established himself in a major way with
\nThere Goes Rhymin’ Simon<\/i>, re-positioning himself as one of
\nthis era’s greatest songwriters. And though his biggest successes
\nstill lay ahead of him, he made a strong step in the right
\ndirection with this one.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":24676,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"tags":[],"artist":[5719],"rating":[5613],"class_list":["post-35880","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-paul-simon","rating-rating-a-minus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/35880","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=35880"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/35880\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24676"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35880"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35880"},{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=35880"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=35880"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}