| Simon and Garfunkel – Cecilia Lyrics | 18 years ago |
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There are so many comments and, obviously, the St. Cecilia angle od the lyric play is pretty obvious. So I will just add my two cents on St. Cecilia herself and how she plays into the word play of the song. Long story short, St. Cecilia was martyred. They first tried suffocating her and when that didn't work they attempted to behead her twice and finally succeeded on a third. Pretty gruesome, but important...artists suffer for their work. Many artists would rather die than stop doing what they do. And many feel suffocated. The fact that it took Cecilia two days to die is an indication of the "muse" never dying...at least being around for a long, long time. |
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| Paul Simon – Sure Don't Feel Like Love Lyrics | 18 years ago |
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This is certainly one of the grooviest tracks on the album. Thematically, it reminds me of the Shakespearian sonnet in which a poet is attempting to write about the object of his affection's beauty, but can find no words to describe it. The poet assumes his credibility would be questioned ("This poet lies! Such heavenly faces never touched earthly...) Love is indescribable. I can't tell you what love feels like, but I can definately tell you what love DOESN'T feel like. I believe this is what Simon is getting at here. Throughout the song, he takes us through the a pretty large spectrum of human emotion, describing its experience - the "feeling" we get: Embarassment - "Felt like a fool." Guilt/conscience - "Whose that conscience sticking on the sole of my shoe?" Sadness/sorrow - "The chemistry of crying is not concerned with blame or fault" He further goes on to describe how that "conscience on the sole of his shoe" "feels": It feels like a threat (jealousy) A voice in your head (conscience) That you'd rather forget (so you put it as far out of your mind as possible - down to the sole of your shoe) This further makes him "sick" from the "unspoken". Being sick doesn't feel like love. (some may argue here that love can make you sick and I agree. But that's not love, it is a symptom of love.) Returning to our spectrum of emotions we "feel" Contrition - wrong again. Doubt - Maybe I'm wrong again. Honesty - I was wrong and I could be wrong again. Anger - One of my best friends turned enemy Rugtfully Placing Blame to seek forgiveness - So I was wrong Something happened at a load out in Birmingham - we don't know what happened, because it doesn't matter. We just know it didn't feel like love. Simon never describes what love feels like, just that chicken and corn muffins feel more like love than any of these other emotions. |
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| Paul Simon – Outrageous Lyrics | 18 years ago |
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One of the greatest Simon songs, in my opinion. Simon loves word play, but with this album it is almost cryptic. Interesting observations about this song: 1. The first two syllables in the song are sung before any music is heard. ("It's out-") and music enters on the third syllable ("rage") cleverly emphasizing his rage in the outrageousness. 2. "Painting my hair the color of mud" - cheap hair dye, effort to appear younger. 3. "Whose gonna love you when your looks are gone?" God? Nope, don't count on it. This is Simon word play at its best. He tells us that "God will like he waters the flowers on your window sill". When was the last time it rained indoors? A window sill is on the inside of the house. Therefore, God doesn't water those flowers, you have to. 4. Simon is fascinated with water throughout this album. In this song alone there are four refrences to water using: "wash", "rain" and "water". |
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