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| Headline | Comparison....The Beatles Music or Paul Simon? |
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| Author | Comment |
Micky
Oct-21-2004, 12:02 GMT
IP:
United Kingdom
 | I couldn´t agree more Lekornee. As they say variety is the spice of life. I´m a big fan of Paul´s, he´s a great writer, but I do listen to other people: Alanis, Edie, Hendrix, Janis Joplin, Medievil Babes, Mozart, Bach, Sheryl Crow, some Robbi Williams, Lenny Kravitz...to name but a few..
I also enjoy Irish Folk music and world music in general.
So yes, it is good to listen to other material.
Huggies
Me XXX |
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John Whapshott
Oct-21-2004, 12:13 GMT
IP:
Sweden
 | At the risk of sounding simplistic, Paul M´s songs are, in the main, Happy, and Paul S songs are Sad. I know there are exceptions!! Yesterday, For No-one; Late In The Evening, etc. But PM was/is more afraid to show his real feelings in most of his songs. Not that there´s anything wrong with that! But his truly great ones (yesterday, Hey Jude) were personal. And Paul S writes what he called ´semi-biographical´ songs: songs about him and also about other people. And he wrote with enormous insight and precision. Think of the 4 lines in ´Darling Lorraine´ starting ´On Christmas morning Frank awakes...´ This is the most concise, precise, frightening and perfect description of married hell ever. Who else, living or dead, could describe it so accurately in 4 lines? John Lennon´s songs were personal, but there was little poetry or insight. I write songs, but unless the lyrics can as perfectly thought-out as Paul S, I don´t bother. Why aim for second best? Other songwriters (Jimmy Webb, Tim Hardin, Bob Dylan, Roger Waters, etc) have occasional flashes of genius and insight, but no-one has been as consistent or inspired for so long as Paul Simon! Here endeth the sermon... |
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John Whapshott
Oct-21-2004, 12:15 GMT
IP:
Sweden
| Of course, it helps if you read your own message before posting! Excuse the odd English in places! Bet Paul doesn´t have that problem (sigh!)... |
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Jimmie
Oct-21-2004, 12:50 GMT
IP:
Sweden
| A lot of McCartneys solostuff is way more personal than the Beatlestuff.. check out "dear friend" for example.. |
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John Whapshott
Oct-21-2004, 13:12 GMT
IP:
Sweden
| I would not agree with ´a lot´ - some, maybe... And ´Dear Friend´ is hardly very insightful or personal - although it´s about his relationship with Lennon, it doesn´t really explore Paul M´s feelings (not that it must! He´s astonishingly successful as he is!). And I think a lot of us can relate to Paul S´s words a lot more than McCartney´s. Just my opinion, and there are exceptions, of course. I Love The Beatles, and McCartney - I´ve got all their CDs! But when I want someone to express how I feel, there´s only one man can do it. Thanks, Mr Simon! |
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Micky
Oct-21-2004, 13:24 GMT
IP:
United Kingdom
| Totally agree John Whapshott, exzcept you keep writing Paul S in past tense....lol He still writes you know *g*
Huggies
Me XXX |
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John Whapshott
Oct-21-2004, 13:28 GMT
IP:
Sweden
| Oops sorry! I´m looking forward to his next album! |
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Micky
Oct-21-2004, 13:45 GMT
IP:
United Kingdom
| lol...So am I.....Infact, I´ll go out on a limb and say we all are...*g*
Huggies
Me XXX |
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John Whapshott
Oct-21-2004, 14:19 GMT
IP:
Sweden
| Just thinking about Paul M, some of his early songs were much more emotionally explicit. ´All My Loving´ with its great opening lines - ´Close your eyes and I´ll kiss you, tomorrow I´ll miss you.´ It was especially poignant when he sang it at the concert for Linda, because you realised that the lines were about death as well as life. ´Things We Said Today´ - ´Someday when I´m dreaming, wishing you weren´t so far away, then I will remember things we said today´. Oh yes! And ´I´ve Just Seen A Face´ captures perfectly the breathless excitement of a new Love. And I´ve just given a friend (female!) the lyrics of Carole King´s ´You´ve Got A Friend´ because it is precisely where we are, every single word of it. But as I said, no-one has been anywhere near as consistently excellent over 40 years (yikes!!) as Paul S has been - and will be!!! |
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Adrian
Aug-30-2005, 07:29 GMT
IP:
Australia
 | I cant beleive you people can even compare Simon to the Beatles, He wrote a dozen good songs what a joke, he´s been a hasbeen for the last 25years. |
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Søren
Aug-30-2005, 08:19 GMT
IP:
Denmark
 | I cannot believe you spent time digging out this Old thread!
A hasbeen for 25 years??? A statement like that makes you comparable to something not worth mentioning here... |
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Klausi
Aug-30-2005, 08:25 GMT
IP:
Germany
 | Old discussion, so I try to bring a new point to it: The Beatles had three good songwriters, and it is no Surprise for me, that Simon had a good opinion of George Harrison too. He wrote an article in the New York Times when Harrison died.
"Something" and "Here comes the sun" are great, as is his album "Cloud nine" from the 80`s.
And, needless to say, Lennon`s "Imagine" is more impressing than "Mull of Kintyre"...
Mccartney`s problem is well described here, similar to Elton John`s: sometimes less is more. |
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Bodo
Aug-30-2005, 11:20 GMT
IP:
Austria
 | Trollalarm :-) |
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Scaaty
Sep-02-2005, 00:32 GMT
IP:
Ireland
 | .Besides, listening to Simon ALL the time would drive you mad...you need a bit of Elgar or Emmylou Harris or Tom Baxter from time to time.
I have to contradict you there Bing all of Pauls albums are so different and then there is the S&G albums that you could easily listen to him all the time. But you are right it is important to listen to other musicians and genres ( many of which I´ve been intoduced to via Pauls music). thank goodness for the shuffle mode on the iPod - paul and opera paul and classical paul & the beatles & Abba & Irish folk & Trad & paul & LSBM etc |
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Alex Jordan
Sep-02-2005, 19:34 GMT
IP:
USA - United Staates America
 | Probably my two favorite songwriters/musicians are Paul S. and Paul M., but they are quite different.
I think Simon´s lyrics have a poetic depth that McCartney´s work generally does not. Paul M. is quite a genius when it comes to melodic inventiveness, though Paul S. is brilliant with this as well.
McCartney I think writes very instinctively; Simon probably does too, but combines the instinctive with cerebral analysis. McCartney is an intelligent guy I´m sure, but in his lyrics he is very down to earth, very simple and direct. He seems to like the sounds of words and not always be that concerned with meaning.
I think Simon also play siwht sounds but is much more likely to edit and refine the words.
Actually I think a Paul/Paul colloaboration could be very frutiful. Simon would help Paul M. alot by bringing the lyrical ideas to fruition; McCartney would bring his spontaneity and great musical ideas to the table.
They could probably inspire each other with their great harmoic sensibilites. There are both such talented players also-- I would just Love to hear them play and sing together. |
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