In the
first installment, we looked at the Jewish content of Simon’s work on
his five albums with Art Garfunkel. Here, we will deal with next phase of his
career— the six albums that took Simon from the breakup with his singing
partner in 1970 to the universally acknowledged highlight that is his Graceland album in 1986.
If he only had the hits from this part of his
story, Simon would still be the man who wrote: “Mother and Child Reunion,” “Me and Julio Down by the
Schoolyard,” “Kodachrome,” “Something So Right,” “American Tune,” “Loves Me Like a Rock,” “Still Crazy After All These
Years,” “50 Ways to Leave Your Lover,” “Late in the Evening,” and “Slip Slidin’ Away.” (I would link to
clips of these songs, but chances are you can hear them in your head just by
reading their titles.)
Simon, in fact, recorded a solo album
back in 1965 titled Songbook, but most of those songs ended up
being worked into Simon and Garfunkel albums.
On his first post-Garfunkel album,
titled simply Paul
Simon, he tells a
Boxer-like story, this time of a young man named Lincoln Duncan who encounters “a
young girl in a parking lot, preaching to a crowd… reading from a Bible.”
That young preacher also sings “sacred
songs,” one of which may have been a late 1800s hymn called “It Is Well With My Soul,” which
begins: “When peace, like a river, attendeth my way…” Which, in turn, is a
quote from Isaiah 66:12: “Behold, I will extend her peace like a river…” Simon’s song that uses that image, “Peace Like a River,”
seems to refer to a peace march winding its way “through a city.”
His follow-up album, There Goes Rhymin’ Simon, has cover art
by the great Jewish graphic designer Milton Glaser, famous for his “I [Heart] NY” T-shirts. Whatever Jewish content may
be found in the songs is strictly thematic. “Tenderness” is about softening
criticism, “One Man’s Ceiling Is Another Man’s Floor” is about social
consideration, and “Learn How to Fall” is about hoping for the best but
preparing for the worst. “American Tune” is about America being a place of
refuge and hope, an idea Jews can well appreciate: “We come in the age’s most
uncertain hour/ And sing an American Tune.”
Simon’s third solo album won a Grammy
and its title spawned a popular expression: Still
Crazy After All These Years. The most Jewish track on this album is one of
his most Jewish overall. Titled “Silent Eyes,”
it is a profound, and profoundly sad, meditation on Jerusalem: “Silent eyes
watching Jerusalem make her bed of stones… Jerusalem weeps alone. She is
sorrow… she burns like a flame, and she calls my name.”
There is another reference,
perhaps, to the Kotel in an earlier track, “My Little Town.” The song, his last duet with
Garfunkel, opens: “In my little town/ I grew up believing/ God keeps His eye on
us all/ And He used to lean upon me/ As I pledged allegiance to the Wall.”
“Some Folks' Lives Roll Easy,”
meanwhile, contains an actual prayer: “Here I am, Lord, knocking at Your gates/
I know, I ain’t got no business here/ But You said if I ever got so low I was
busted/ You could be trusted.”
“Have a Good Time”
also asks for blessing, although more cynically: “God bless the good we were
given/ And God bless the U.S. of A./ And God bless our standard of livin’/
Let’s keep it that way.”
It
should also be noted that, while the music on “Gone at Last”
is decidedly gospel, Simon’s duet partner was Jewish singer-songwriter Phoebe
Snow.
Simon
then took a break from the studio to make a movie, One-Trick
Pony, but went back in to record the soundtrack. The movie asked the
question: “What if Simon hadn’t become famous?” which it answered, “He’d be leading a bar band.” And in that band was Jewish
bass virtuoso Tony Levin; Simon’s character in the movie
was Jonah Levin.
That may be the source for the character’s last
name; what about the first? It’s about being consumed by his passion for his
art. In the song “Jonah,” he explains: “They say Jonah was swallowed by a
whale… I know Jonah, he was swallowed by a song.” The
soundtrack also features the songs “That’s Why God Made the Movies” and “God Bless the Absentee
Simon’s
pre-Graceland album, Hearts and Bones,
may be the first place Simon refers to himself as a “Jew.” The title track
introduces, in its opening lines, its story’s characters: “One and one-half
wandering Jews.” The “one-half” most likely refers to his wife, actress Carrie
Fisher, whose father was the Jewish crooner Eddie Fisher (Simon and Fisher were
married less than a year).
(And is there a more Jewish worry than
the lyric: “Maybe I think too much”? Should he think about that… or not?!?)
Which
brings us to Graceland. The title track
is one of Simon’s personal favorites of his own work. While even the geographic
clues indicate the journey is to Elvis’ mansion, the song overall is clearly
about a pilgrimage toward redemption.
The
other major hit from the album, “You Can Call Me Al,”
is about a man finding himself in unfamiliar situations. By the third verse, he
is in a “foreign” land. At first, he is disconcerted and off-balance,
“surrounded by the sounds,” and even “cattle in the marketplace.” Then, he sees
“angels in the architecture.” While still “spinning in infinity,” he’s now
happy to be experiencing this dizzying newness: “He says: ‘Amen and
Hallelujah!’”
(In the next
installment, we will continue to search for references to Jewish people,
places, and phrases in Paul Simon’s work… from after Graceland to his 2016 release, Stranger to Stranger.)
