linclink
Apr-14-2011, 03:28 GMT
USA - United Staates America
 | Christgau´s previous grade for Paul Simon:
http://www.robertchristgau.com/get_artist.php?id=1
056&name=Paul+Simon
Paul Simon: "So Beautiful or So What" (Hear Music):
A good bet to turn 70 before year´s end, the patient craftsman surrounds a 96-second acoustic guitar moment with nine four-minute songs about eternity. The mood is melancholy. yet suffused with gratitude‑-for his wife´s Love first of all, but even more for God´s gifts, with the Divinity Himself an actor in several lyrics and close by in most of the others. Fundamentally general and speculative language is always pinned down by a specific or two‑-a blizzard near Chicago, Jay-Z hawking Roc-a-Wear, a banker´s pockets, a CAT scan and the Montauk Highway, gumbo in the pot and Dr. King shot, the form you have to fill out before you get into heaven. The music is the mild, irregular folk-rock he´s explored for decades, graced with global colors that sound as natural as that guitar. I´ve had many disagreements with my homeboy Paulie, plus I´m an atheist. But here my main quarrel is the identity of the "fragment of song" whose title you can´t quite recall as the Divinity Himself sets you "swimming in an ocean of love." Simon seems to think it´s "Be-Bop-a-Lula." I vote for the competing "Ooh Poo Pah Doo," in part because I want God to keep creating a disturbance in my mind.- "A".
His previous grades, without reviews (note in later years he gave odd ratings that weren´t grades along with grades- "choice cuts", "*", "**", "***", or "neither", "dud")...
Paul Simon A+
There Goes Rhymin´ Simon B+
Paul Simon in Concert: Live Rhymin´ C+
Still Crazy After All These Years B
Greatest Hits, Etc. A
One Trick Pony B-
Hearts And Bones B+
Graceland A
Negotiations And Love Songs 1971-1986 B
The Rhythm Of The Saints *
The Concert In The Park--August 15th, 1991 Dud
Songs From ´The Capeman´ Neither
You´re The One Choice Cuts
The Paul Simon Songbook
Surprise [Warner Bros., 2006] *
Simon & Garfunkel ratings:
http://www.robertchristgau.com/get_artist.php?id=3
719&name=Simon+%26+Garfunkel
Bridge Over Troubled Water B
The Concert in Central Park C+
|
Klausi
Apr-14-2011, 06:57 GMT
Germany
 | Generally I agree to these ratings, but would exchange the ones for "Paul Simon" (A+) and "Still crazy..."(B) Maybe his joy about separating from Garfunkel was too big. "Everything put together...", "Armistice day", "Hobo`s Blues" and "Paranoia Blues" are ambitious but also not very attractive.
I think SBOSW is the most appealing album since ROTS, and will also be loved by more people than the albums between. |