More Shelf Life
I must confess. My Paul Simon problem: For the longest time, I regarded the bard of Kew Gardens as kind of junior, a fussy Eng Lit major whose pointillist pop songs couldn't hold a candle to the violent word-spew of the great Dylan. But then, if it's the chaos and clatter of Highway 61 and Blonde on Blonde you're after--and that only--whose taper wouldn't be blown out by the bigger blaze? (OK. Kanye West's, I guess, but he's the self-proclaimed "voice of [his] generation" and the poet who noted "We shine because they hate us/ Floss 'cause they degrade us," but I digress.)
Simon, of course, on his own terms, is impressive and eminently enjoyable. And, truthfully, he's often more adventurous than his Bobness when it comes to structure, melody and the kind of seamless pastiche work that's become a Paul Simon signature. All of which comes through on this inaugural Library of Congress concert, staged in May of 2007, at which P.S. was awarded the Gershwin Prize for Popular Song. In the manner of the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts galas, a gaggle of artists perform the honoree's work, revealing its breadth and depth by interpreting it in a variety of modes. Here, more than a dozen acts bust their respective moves on the Simon canon. The man himself also performs, within the concert and in some vintage clips--the best of the latter being a duet with Miriam Makeba on "Under African Skies" (Zimbabwe, 1987), though there's something undeniably lump-in-the-throat touching about a 1999 "Mrs. Robinson," done as part of a Yankee Stadium Tribute to Joe DiMaggio.
Simon takes some liberties with Graceland's "Diamonds on the Soles of Her Shoes," working with Ladysmith Black Mambazo (who, on their own, turn in a stellar "Homeless"). He also pairs with Art Garfunkel for the obligatory "Bridge Over Troubled Water" and teams with Stevie Wonder for the show's two closing numbers: a lively "Me and Julio Down by the Schoolyard" (Wonder on harmonica) and, aided by the Dixie Hummingbirds, "Loves Me Like a Rock" (watch for Wonder's botched line and subsequent re-start, which are rather endearing).
The Hummingbirds assist James Taylor on "Slip Sliding Away" (he also does "Still Crazy After All These Years"), while Yolanda Adams and Jessy Dixon drive the gospel train further still with "Gone At Last." Lyle Lovett kicks the concert off with a suitably laconic "50 Ways to Leave Your Lover," then returns mid-set with Buckwheat Zydeco for an incendiary "That Was Your Mother"--another Graceland item; not surprisingly, that tune-stack gets much play. The sleeper performance of the night belongs to Marc Anthony. Following a respectful "El Condor Pasa," the actor-singer, who appeared in Simon's ill-fated Capeman musical, tears through "Late in the Evening," the songwriter's paean to the music and neighborhood scenes of his Queens kidhood. Anthony renders it all--the girls on the stoop, the corner doowoppers, the summer night's sense of limitlessness--vivid, seductive and irretrievable.
Paul Simon and Friends is solid, bang-for-your-buck entertainment and, for anyone who may need it, evidence enough of Simon's considerable contribution to American song. And you can bring the kids. The Muppets (Grover and Elmo) swing "The 59th Street Bridge Song," and those whores on Seventh Avenue pass pretty quickly in Alison Krauss, Shawn Colvin and Jerry Douglas' take on "The Boxer," another of the program's highlights.
A minor criticism: It would've been nice if someone had worked the pop-rock pages of the catalog a bit more, as in "You Can Call Me Al" or "Boy in the Bubble." Maybe next time.
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