{"id":42403,"date":"2011-08-15T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2011-08-15T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/reviews\/paul-simon-legacy-edition\/"},"modified":"2011-08-15T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2011-08-15T00:00:00","slug":"paul-simon-legacy-edition","status":"publish","type":"review","link":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/reviews\/paul-simon-legacy-edition\/","title":{"rendered":"Paul Simon (Legacy Edition)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Simon & Garfunkel went their separate ways during 1970, which was big news back in the day. Their last studio album, Bridge Over Troubled Water, <\/i>had cemented their status among music\u2019s elite, selling over 25 million copies worldwide to date, winning six Grammy Awards, and spending 10 weeks at the top of the album charts in the United States. <\/p>\n

There was a great deal of anticipation from Simon & Garfunkel and music fans alike as they waited for Paul Simon\u2019s first release. They needn\u2019t have worried; album didn\u2019t disappoint. His self-titled debut proved that his writing skills were intact and that his voice, minus Garfunkel, was a wonderful instrument in its own right. It marked the beginning of a solo career that has now passed the forty year mark and produced one of the better bodies of work in music history.<\/p>\n

Paul Simon<\/i> has now been reissued as part of the Columbia\/Legacy\u2019s Paul Simon project. It and There Goes Rhymin\u2019 Simon, Paul Simon In Concert: Live Rhymin\u2019<\/i>, <\/i>and Still Crazy After All These Years <\/i>have returned in a digitally remastered form with bonus tracks. <\/p>\n

It\u2019s been quite a while since I listened to this album from beginning to end. The songs were immediately like an old friend coming to visit. The sound has been greatly improved plus the mix of the music has been enhanced. This can be best heard on the<\/a> album\u2019s second track, \u201cDuncan,\u201d where each word can be clearly heard and the instrumental backing takes on new life with added textures. <\/p>\n

The bonus tracks are probably more interesting than essential. The simple acoustic demo versions of \u201cMe And Julio Down By The Schoolyard\u201d and \u201cDuncan,\u201d from early 1971, give a glimpse into the creative mind and process of Paul Simon. It\u2019s nice to listen to the completed songs and compare. On the other hand, the unreleased version of \u201cParanoia Blues\u201d feels like a finished project and contains some thumping rhythms.<\/p>\n

The best known tracks have long been a part of the musicial landscape. \u201cMe And Julio Down By The Schoolyard\u201d and \u201cMother And Child Reunion\u201d were both catchy pop tunes and hit singles, while \u201cDuncan\u201d is one of those introspective songs that he was so good at creating. <\/p>\n

Even at this early stage of his solo career, he had begun to experiment with different sounds that were far removed from the Simon & Garfunkel songbook. \u201cPeace Like A River,\u201d \u201cEverything Put Together Falls Apart,\u201d \u201cHobo Blues\u201d with its almost bluegrass sound, and \u201cParanoia Blues\u201d with its subtle blues base all show him beginning to move in different directions with varying degrees of success.<\/p>\n

Simon\u2019s self-titled debut was not a cohesive album, nor was it his best. It does catch him completely on his own for the first time and flexing his creative muscles. At the time it was highly praised and remains a good if somewhat simple listen today. It proved to be the first step in a long and complicated journey that would yield decades of superior music. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":59,"featured_media":30729,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"tags":[],"artist":[5719],"rating":[5615],"class_list":["post-42403","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-paul-simon","rating-rating-b"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/42403","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\/59"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=42403"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/42403\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/30729"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=42403"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=42403"},{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=42403"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=42403"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}