I've been hearing a lot about May 21, which is just around the corner, the alleged Judgment Day. The Internet is a-buzzing like a hive of angry bees. Just to be clear, the world is not going to end on Saturday. I bet you three dollars.
What are you doing before the Rapture? I might head to the record shop for the new Paul Simon. Mine is a modest bucket list.
Says Simon in a recent interview: “If there's no one listening, is there any reason to write? Art can't exist unless there's someone to appreciate it."
When I was a child, my parents often played Simon & Garfunkel on the stereo at home, and we heard all the hits on AM radio while driving around town. Two of my favorite songs were "Slip Slidin' Away" and "50 Ways to Leave Your Lover." The latter I thought of as a kind of adventure song, which, in a way, it is: hopping on the bus (Gus) and making a new key (Lee) to evade that pesky lover. Hijinks! And rhyming. You just slip out the back, Jack.
In high school one year, I got Paul Simon's Concert in Central Park double CD as a Christmas present. Which I re-bought after the disc was stolen. There's a point during "The Obvious Child" where the song skips. "Why deny the ob-ob-obviousss child." I'd always thought I'd scratched the CD, but my new one does it in exactly the same place.
I love Paul Simon's writing. And his songs. Put the two together, and the effect is, well, rapturous.
Three dollars on the world not ending, you hear? I'm setting up PayPal momentarily.
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