Your absolute, favorite song

My absolute favorite song … you mean today? Yesterday? Last month?

 

The version with the Staples from The Last Waltz may be the perfect song.

 

Paul is and was the genius. And the hard worker of the two in terms of devotion to music. But he never was as popular without Artie on stage and it kills him.

 

Disturbed’s Sound of Silence is a great S&G cover as well.

Elvis’ version of Unchained Melody is also terrific. Even the performance that was recorded like a week before he died.

 

I agree with all this and revere Paul Simon as a singer, songwriter, musician and a master of incredibly infectious rhythms.

But, then again ... ask Los Lobos how great a guy Paul Simon is.

EDIT to add a link (from 2012) ...

Los Lobos' Steve Berlin Labels Paul Simon a 'Jerk,' Alleges 'Graceland' Snub

 

I think that there is a line between appropriation of a sound and outright stealing of a song and it seems clear that, at best, Paul got pretty close to it over and over again. But not quite sure why they didn’t sue if he stole a song.

 

Ha! I've been thinking about posting the Los Lobos stuff since Paul Simon's name came up in this thread. The dude sounds like a real piece of work.

Simon was a much bigger fish on the same label. Los Lobos said it was made very clear to them that they were screwed if they didn't drop the matter.

Simon's pilfering of African and Brazilian music always kind of bothered me, before the whole "cultural appropriation" thing was a discussion. I thought David Byrne managed to incorporate Brazilian music in a way that seemed organic and artistically interesting, whereas Simon seemed to take someone else's music and just write his own lyrics to it. (Then again I like David Byrne and have always thought Simon was kind of an asshole, so my view on this may be colored.)

 

No idea. But, when I was a lot younger, I always thought Artie must have been crazy to move on from the Simon & Garfunkel partnership. I always figured Simon to be a happy-go-lucky kind of guy in the biz, but he's a lot more neurotic then I knew then, and even envious of others, too.

Still love the guy and all his music, though. ... Love Los Lobos, too, and Simon should have been honored to share a song credit with them.

 

Do you ever yell "Play Freebird"?

 

She always plays stuff fast enough to challenge her, yet never slow enough that she can get through an entire piece without making one or more mistakes.

 

And you document them all, right? On a spreadsheet?

 

Speaking of Eastern European pianists, Peter Bence is incredible. His Queen covers are especially good.