Paul Simon: Frasi in inglese
Kodachrome
Song lyrics, There Goes Rhymin' Simon (1973)
“I shoot a thought into the future, and it flies like an arrow, through my lifetime. And beyond.”
Everything About It Is a Love Song
Song lyrics, Surprise (2006)
Contesto: I shoot a thought into the future, and it flies like an arrow, through my lifetime. And beyond.
If I ever come back as a tree, or a crow, or even the wind-blown dust; find me on the ancient road in the song when the wires are hushed. Hurry on and remember me, as I'll remember you. Far above the golden clouds, the darkness vibrates.
The earth is blue.
And everything about it is a love song. Everything about it.
“You'd better keep an eye on them children, eye on them children in the pool.”
Beautiful
Song lyrics, Surprise (2006)
Contesto: Little kid dancin' in the grass, legs like rubber band.
It's summertime, summertime. There's a line at the candy stand.
Keep an eye on them children, eye on them children in the pool.
You'd better keep an eye on them children, eye on them children in the pool.
“Maybe the heart is part of the mist.
And that's all that there is or could ever exist.”
I Don't Believe
Song lyrics, Surprise (2006)
Contesto: Maybe the heart is part of the mist.
And that's all that there is or could ever exist.
Maybe and maybe and maybe some more.
Maybe's the exit that I'm looking for.
The Sound of Silence
Song lyrics, Wednesday Morning, 3 A.M. (1964)
Contesto: And in the naked light I saw
Ten thousand people maybe more
People talking without speaking
People hearing without listening
People writing songs that voices never shared
No one dared
Disturb the sound of silence.
Still Crazy After All These Years
Song lyrics, Still Crazy After All These Years (1975)
“Instead of thinking in terms of chords, I think of voice-leading”
As quoted in "Paul Simon's Workshop at the Guitar Study Center" by Richard Albero and Fred Styles in Guitar Player (April 1975), p. 20
Contesto: Instead of thinking in terms of chords, I think of voice-leading; that is, melody line and bass line, and where the bass line goes. If you do that, you'll have the right chord. [These voices] will give you some alternatives, and you can play those different alternatives to hear which one suits your ear... Keep the bass line moving so you don't stay in one spot: if you have an interesting bass line and you roll it against the melody, the chords are going to come out right.
Father and Daughter
Song lyrics, Surprise (2006)
Contesto: Trust your intuition.
It's just like goin' fishin'.
You cast your line and hope you get a bite.
But you don't need to waste your time worrying about the marketplace,
Try to help the human race.
Struggling to survive its harshest hour.
Wartime Prayers
Song lyrics, Surprise (2006)
Contesto: Prayers offered in times of peace are silent conversations,
Appeals for love, or love's release, in private invocationsBut all that is changed now.
Gone like a memory from the day before the fires.
People hungry for the voice of God
Hear lunatics and liars.Wartime prayers. Wartime prayers
In every language spoken.
For every family scattered and broken.
“How can you live in the Northeast?
How can you live in the South?”
How Can You Live In The Northeast?
Song lyrics, Surprise (2006)
Contesto: How can you live in the Northeast?
How can you live in the South?
How can you build on the banks of a river
When the flood water pours from the mouth? How can you be a Christian?
How can you be a Jew?
How can you be a Muslim, a Buddhist, a Hindu?
How can you?
Everything About It Is a Love Song
Song lyrics, Surprise (2006)
Contesto: I shoot a thought into the future, and it flies like an arrow, through my lifetime. And beyond.
If I ever come back as a tree, or a crow, or even the wind-blown dust; find me on the ancient road in the song when the wires are hushed. Hurry on and remember me, as I'll remember you. Far above the golden clouds, the darkness vibrates.
The earth is blue.
And everything about it is a love song. Everything about it.
Interview with Tony Schwartz in Playboy (February 1984) p. 166
Contesto: I write from instinct, from inexplicable sparkle. I don't know why I'm writing what I'm writing. Usually, I sit and I let my hands wander on my guitar. And I sing anything. I play anything. And I wait till I come across a pleasing accident. Then I start to develop it. Once you take a piece of musical information, there are certain implications that it automatically contains — the implication of that phrase elongated, contracted, or inverted or in another time signature. So you start with an impulse and go to what your ear likes.
“Prayers offered in times of peace are silent conversations,”
Wartime Prayers
Song lyrics, Surprise (2006)
Contesto: Prayers offered in times of peace are silent conversations,
Appeals for love, or love's release, in private invocationsBut all that is changed now.
Gone like a memory from the day before the fires.
People hungry for the voice of God
Hear lunatics and liars.Wartime prayers. Wartime prayers
In every language spoken.
For every family scattered and broken.
“And the people bowed and prayed
To the neon god they made”
The Sound of Silence
Song lyrics, Wednesday Morning, 3 A.M. (1964)
Contesto: And the people bowed and prayed
To the neon god they made
And the sign flashed out its warning
In the words that it was forming
And the sign said "The words of the prophets
Are written on the subway walls
And tenement halls
And whispered in the sound of silence"
“Well its great to do a neighborhood concert.”
During the Concert At Central Park (19 September 1981)
Contesto: Well its great to do a neighborhood concert. I hope everyone can hear us. I hope that the sound is good. I hope we are blasting Central Park West and Fifth avenue pretty much away. I just want to thank the police department and the fire department and the parks commissioner, and Ed Koch [Audience boos] — and particularly, you know, people that never get recognized for doing good things for the city, a group of people that have donated half of the proceeds that they're making tonight — the guys who are selling loose joints are giving the city half of their income tonight.
"The Side of a Hill" (written under the pseudonym "Paul Kane" out of his admiration for the film Citizen Kane) on The Paul Simon Song Book (1965)
The Sound of Silence
Song lyrics, Wednesday Morning, 3 A.M. (1964)
Contesto: And the people bowed and prayed
To the neon god they made
And the sign flashed out its warning
In the words that it was forming
And the sign said "The words of the prophets
Are written on the subway walls
And tenement halls
And whispered in the sound of silence"
Bridge over Troubled Water
Song lyrics, Bridge over Troubled Water (1970)
Contesto: When you're weary
Feeling small
When tears are in your eyes
I will dry them all
I'm on your side
When times get rough
And friends just can't be found
Like a bridge over troubled water
I will lay me down.
“God only knows
God makes his plan
The information's unavailable
To the mortal man.”
Slip Slidin' Away
Song lyrics
Contesto: God only knows
God makes his plan
The information's unavailable
To the mortal man.
We work our jobs
Collect our pay
Believe we're gliding down the highway
When in fact we're slip slidin' away.
“I wanted to sing other types of songs that Simon and Garfunkel wouldn't do.”
On the breakup of Simon and Garfunkel as a musical team. Interview with Jon Landau for Rolling Stone (1972); republished in The Rolling Stone Interviews: 1967-1980 (1989) edited by Peter Herbst, p. 210
Contesto: I wanted to sing other types of songs that Simon and Garfunkel wouldn't do. "Mother and Child Reunion" for example, is not a song that you would have normally thought that Simon and Garfunkel would have done. It's possible that they might have. But it wouldn't have been the same, and I don't know if I would have been so inclined in that direction. So for me it was a chance to break out and gamble a little bit … The breakup had to do with a natural drifting apart as we got older and the separate lives that were more individual. We weren't so consumed with recording and performing. We had other activities … there was no great pressure to stay together other than money, which exerted very little influence upon us. … We didn't need the money.
Mother and Child Reunion
Song lyrics, Paul Simon (1972)
Contesto: No I would not give you false hope
On this strange and mournful day
But the mother and child reunion
Is only a motion away,
Oh, little darling of mine
I can't for the life of me
Remember a sadder day
I know they say let it be
But it just don't work out that way...
“I am walking up the face of the mountain. Counting every step I climb.”
"That's Me"
Song lyrics, Surprise (2006)
Contesto: I am walking up the face of the mountain. Counting every step I climb. Remembering the names of the constellations. Forgotten is a long, long time.
“So you start with an impulse and go to what your ear likes.”
Interview with Tony Schwartz in Playboy (February 1984) p. 166
Contesto: I write from instinct, from inexplicable sparkle. I don't know why I'm writing what I'm writing. Usually, I sit and I let my hands wander on my guitar. And I sing anything. I play anything. And I wait till I come across a pleasing accident. Then I start to develop it. Once you take a piece of musical information, there are certain implications that it automatically contains — the implication of that phrase elongated, contracted, or inverted or in another time signature. So you start with an impulse and go to what your ear likes.
50 Ways to Leave Your Lover
Song lyrics, Still Crazy After All These Years (1975)
Contesto: She said, why don't we both just sleep on it tonight
And I believe, in the morning you'll begin to see the light
And then she kissed me and I realized she probably was right
There must be fifty ways to leave your lover, fifty ways to leave your lover
As quoted in "Paul Simon's Workshop at the Guitar Study Center" by Richard Albero and Fred Styles in Guitar Player (April 1975), p. 21
Contesto: I didn't want to repeat the same notes in the second verse that I used in the first, so I wrote out all the notes of the song and all the notes that were missing in the scale, given that there are twelve notes from octave to octave. All those notes that weren't in the scale were the ones I wanted in for the next verse. The listener isn't aware that they are new notes, but the sound is pleasing to the ear. I change the key, and somehow it's fresh because you haven't heard those notes before.
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