Paul simon paul simon8/10/2023 ![]() “The Lord is the ocean rising / The Lord is a terrible swift sword,” he warns on the second of the three “Lords” on the album. But - perhaps because two of the three “Lords” are instrumental reprises - Simon counts them as a single composition. That brings the total number of songs to nine, not seven. “The Lord” is a recurring presence, literally and figuratively, on “Psalms.” A song titled “The Lord” appears three times, anchored by “Anji’s” lattice-like guitar figure, but with different verses each time and different musical twists. “Memory leaves us,” Simon observes on the suitably contemplative “The Lord,” which opens “Seven Psalms.” This classical rondo approach serves as a fitting nostalgic tool for the elder Simon to revisit his work as a young musician, while reflecting on the intervening decades and life moments that are either still treasured or fading with the passing of time. “Anji” anchors three songs, all with the same title and melody. On “Psalms,” it serves as a musical bookend of sorts. ![]() “Anji” would later appear as an instrumental interlude at the end of side one on “The Sounds of Silence,” Simon & Garfunkel’s second album. The New York-born Simon was working as an obscure solo artist at the time and living in England, where he wrote the future Simon & Garfunkel hit, “Homeward Bound,” while waiting for a London-bound train. He was just 23 in 1965 when he learned to play “Anji,” an intricate, finger-picked Davy Graham guitar piece now rightly regarded as a classic. He also is happy to draw from the early days of his career as a source of new/old musical inspiration. Two years after selling his song catalog in 2021 for a reported $250 million, this 16-time Grammy Award-winner seems more reflective than ever. Although he retired from touring in 2018, Simon does not appear ready to deliver his swan song just yet. A veteran observer of the human condition, he appears acutely aware that time is no longer on his side. Today, four decades later, Simon still retains a boyish sense of wonder on parts of “Psalms,” while also sounding fragile at times. In his classic 1986 song, “The Boy in the Bubble,” he exulted: “These are the days of miracle and wonder.” He has outlived many of his past peers, including Leonard Cohen, John Lennon, Laura Nyro, Marvin Gaye, Violeta Parra and George Harrison, one of Simon’s periodic collaborators.Ī secular Jew, Simon has long sung about matters of faith and transcendence, the scared and the secular. One of the most acclaimed and resourceful singer-songwriters of his generation, Simon counts Bob Dylan, Joni Mitchell, Paul McCartney and Randy Newman among his contemporaries. “Psalms” captures his restless spirit and introspective mood with masterful restraint and eloquence. Whatever its inspiration, the impermanence of life and the uncertainty of what lies ahead loom large for Simon. Billed as a “33-minute, seven-movement composition,” “Psalms” was created by Simon to be heard as “a single continuous piece” that “transcends the concept of the ‘album’.” It was inspired by a dream he had in early 2019 that is described by him later in this article.
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