Paul Simon for the Birthday
As you may know, I’m a little obsessed with numbers. For example, I’ve just broken over from 999 to 1002 miles on my current bicycle odometer (was reset in April). I have a hard time climbing stairs without counting them, and although I don’t have it as bad as the protagonist from The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, I do pay attention to the makes and models of vehicles on the road.
Last night, as a birthday present, Lisa took me to see Paul Simon. The most salient aspect of the experience in my mind? Numbers.
0 – The number of people sitting down during favorites (which really are all songs that aren’t slow)
1 – Simon and Garfunkel were one of the first acts to use ethnic names as title of their pop group (both Simon and Garfunkel are Jewish names).
2 – The number of songs played from the days of Simon & Garfunkel (an almost unrecognizable version of Mrs. Robinson), which in my opinion, is better than it is with Garfunkel.
3 – The number of times he said something to the audience (like most good performers, he lets his music do the speaking).
4 – Count ‘em, yes, FOUR encores. 1 – Call me Al, 2 – 5 songs 3 – Bridge Over Troubled Water and 3 more , 4th – just Paul and his guitar.
65 – Paul Simon is 65 years old. And he rocks. His voice is still exactly as it sounds on the albums. Exactly as it sounds in The Graduate, and his songs are imbued with life and benefit from a harder edge exemplified on his new album, Surprise.
Paul Simon, live, around the corner from our house, was absolutely the best live music experience of my life.
This entry was posted on Wednesday, October 11th, 2006 at 5:04 am and is filed under Real World, music. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.