![]() ![]() Here, Simon is blunt, mimicking intolerance with resonant repetition: “How can you be a Christian? / How can you be a Jew? / How can you be a Muslim, a Buddhist, a Hindu? / How can you?” He offers a humanist solution, arguing that whatever religion is assigned to us or whatever path we choose, “Everybody gets a tongue to speak / And everyone hears an inner voice”. While it is not unusual for Simon to take up political and social issues, earlier songs like “The Boxer” did so metaphorically. “How Can You Live in the Northeast?”-the opening track-blends isolated guitar with a full rock sound. ![]() On Surprise, Simon offers a group of tunes that reflect both his traditional and transformational styles. Yet, there are lyrical and musical moments that offer refreshing shifts, enlivening particular songs or albums. His focused lead guitar and trademark tight rhymes enable listeners familiar with his style to readily tag a song as Paul Simon’s. Throughout his career, aspects of Simon’s music have remained foundational alongside the emergence of new qualities, creating an oeuvre with a comfortable range of variety. Surprise was Simon’s 11th solo album, following five platinum studio albums by Simon & Garfunkel between 19. A physically unassuming man with a smallish voice and big ideas, Simon has left a career-long mark on folk-rock and the rest of popular music. In 2001, he confirmed his dual role as a native New Yorker and songwriter when he captured the American ethos by standing on a candlelit stage and singing “Bridge Over Troubled Water” at the September 11th heroes benefit concert. Then, there’s 1986, when Saturday Night Live veteran Chevy Chase towered over Simon as the two delivered a goofy music video version of “You Can Call Me Al”. Simon’s impact as a musician can be marked by a handful of flashbulb generational moments, beginning in 1967, when Katherine Ross and Dustin Hoffman sat at the back of the bus in the last scene of The Graduate while Simon & Garfunkel’s “Sound of Silence” plays. After all, Simon was already a transgenerational artist whose first single-a duet with Art Garfunkel performing as “Tom and Jerry”-charted in 1957. A tender wish for good things for his child, “Father and Daughter” was penned as the theme song for the animated feature The Wild Thornberrys Movie and likely appealed to both children and their parents. “ Father and Daughter”, the final track on Paul Simon’s 2006 album, Surprise, marks the artist’s intent to draw in a transgenerational audience. ![]()
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