Paul Simon

This is an article I wrote for the music service KKBox a little over a year ago, just before Paul Simon came to play several concerts in this part of the world. It's basically a career overview.

From “The Sounds of Silence” and “Bridge over Troubled Waters” to “50 Ways to Leave Your Lover” and “You Can Call Me Al”, the songs of Paul Simon have entertained millions for half a century. One of the few artists whose music appeals to audiences of all ages, Simon has received numerous accolades over the years, and he is highly respected by his fellow musicians, with people as diverse as Randy Newman and the late Joe Strummer of the Clash praising his work. Now he is bringing the songs which made him the first recipient of the Gershwin Prize for Popular Song to East Asia for concerts in Taipei on March 20 and in Singapore in March 22.

Paul Simon has been making and recording music since he was a teenager in New York. He first gained fame as a member of Simon & Garfunkel, a folk rock duo he formed with his friend Art Garfunkel. Simon wrote the vast majority of the pair’s songs, including such timeless classics as “The Sounds of Silence”, “Homeward Bound”, “Mrs. Robinson”, “The Boxer”, and “Bridge over Troubled Water”, as well as the lyrics for their adaptation of the Peruvian melody “El Condor Pasa”. Due to his poetic lyrics and the duo’s classification as folk rockers, Simon was sometimes compared to Bob Dylan, but Simon & Garfunkel had an even broader appeal than artists like Dylan or rock bands like the Rolling Stones. Together they were one of the biggest acts of the 1960s, and many of their songs are still staples of radio play today. Their songs have also frequently been covered by other artists, particularly the gospel-flavored “Bridge over Troubled Water”, which was performed by luminaries such as Aretha Franklin and Elvis Presley.

After the release of their biggest album of all, 1970’s Bridge over Troubled Water, the duo split and Simon embarked on a solo career, writing and performing an even more eclectic variety of songs than he had with Garfunkel. He had numerous hits in the 1970s, including “Mother and Child Reunion”, “Me and Julio Down by the Schoolyard”, “Kodachrome”, “Loves Me Like a Rock”, “50 Ways to Leave Your Lover” and “Slip Slidin' Away”. He was less prolific in the late 1970s and the early 1980s and his work was less successful commercially. But he staged a spectacular comeback in 1986 with Graceland, an album inspired largely by the music of South Africa and mostly recorded in South Africa with South African musicians. Featuring songs such as “You Can Call Me Al”, “Diamonds on the Soles of Her Shoes”, “The Boy in the Bubble” and the title track, it became Simon’s biggest commercial success as a solo artist and won him a Grammy. It still is commonly included in lists of the “best albums of all time”. The subsequent tour helped bring South African musicians like Ladysmith Black Mambazo (who had also performed on the album) and Miriam Makeba to greater prominence.

After Graceland, Simon released the Brazilian-influenced The Rhythm of the Saints, featuring the UK top 20 “The Obvious Child”. This album was another commercial and critical success. While his releases no longer have much chance of matching the sales records achieved by Simon & Garfunkel or Graceland, his albums have continued to be well-received. His most recent album, So Beautiful Or So What, released in 2011 and featuring meditations on mortality such as “The Afterlife”, reached the top 10 in both the US and the UK and got excellent reviews from critics, and he continues to perform frequently, as well as contribute his money, time, and music to different causes. Back in the 1960s, Simon once sang “how terribly strange to be seventy”. Now he is already passed that milestone, but he is still going strong. Paul Simon’s concerts in Asia offer people in this part of the world a rare chance to see a living music legend in person.

West of Memphis: Voices for Justice (Review)

The following is another album review I wrote for the online music service KKbox. While I might have written it slightly differently if I'd been writing for my blog, it's a fairly accurate representation of my thoughts on the album, which is a very interesting listen, if not as immediately accessible as most mainstream pop.

For some, music is just entertainment. For others, it can be a weapon in the struggle to uphold human rights. West of Memphis: Voices for Justice is the soundtrack for West of Memphis, a documentary about the case of the West Memphis Three, three young men who were sent to prison in 1994 for the murder of three boys on the basis of questionable evidence, in what many people considered a serious miscarriage of justice. Many of the artists who appear on the soundtrack have been involved for years in the fight to clear the names of the three, and their efforts helped the three win their freedom in 2011, though they are still seeking full exoneration, and a portion of the proceeds from the album will go to their continuing legal struggle.

The soundtrack opens with Henry Rollins reading a letter from Damien Echols, who was one of the West Memphis Three and also the co-producer of the documentary, along with Peter Jackson. The letter, sent by Echols from death row, describes the conditions he was living under over music from the movie’s original score by Nick Cave and Warren Ellis, effectively setting the mood and reminding the listener that this is not just a collection of songs. The songs themselves include covers of songs that were of particular significance to Echols during his time on death row, and others that were written in support of the three.

The artists appearing on the soundtrack include a wide range of superstars, often with intriguing choices of songs. Natalie Maines of the Dixie Chicks does a cover of Pink Floyd’s “Mother” that builds from a low key country-tinged tune to a heavier rock sound, Lucinda Williams performs a gritty, guitar-heavy version of her own “Joy”, and Camp Freddy – a group led by Dave Navarro of Jane’s Addiction and the Red Hot Chili Peppers – delivers a powerful bluesy cover of “The Jean Genie”, originally by David Bowie, one of Echols’s favorite artists. Longtime West Memphis supporter Johnny Depp, performing with his ad hoc group Tonto’s Giant Nuts, does a dark cover of the Mumford & Sons song “Little Lion Man” and also plays guitar on shock rocker Marilyn Manson’s heavy metal reinterpretation of Carly Simon’s “You’re So Vain”. Eddie Vedder of Pearl Jam accompanies himself on ukulele on “Satellite”, a love song he wrote for Echols and his wife. Even Bob Dylan makes an appearance with “Ring Them Bells”, a song originally released on his album Oh Mercy. But just as moving as the big name performances are the songs by artists who may be less familiar to some listeners, such as Band of Horses’s live rendition of their Crosby, Stills and Nash-style “Dumpster World” or “Anything Made of Paper”, written by Texan singer-songwriter Bill Carter and his wife Ruth after Echols told Carter to bring him “anything made of paper”, as that was all he was allowed to have in prison [click on the song title to see the excellent video for the song].

The main soundtrack closes with Johnny Depp reading another disturbing letter sent by Echols from death row over Cave and Ellis’s haunting score. This is followed by two bonus tracks including Patti Smith’s live rendition of her song “Wing” from a benefit concert for the West Memphis Three and Bill Carter’s rendition of Ozzy Osbourne’s “Road to Nowhere”, another favorite of Echols while in prison. With an array of powerful renditions of classic songs by top-notch performers, West of Memphis: Voices for Justice combines good music with a good cause.