| If you don't know Paul Simon's Surprise, listen to Outrageous before proceeding. You have to read this blog as it was posted, earliest first. Start with "Cracked 2 More" ('06, Nov.) and then work your way down the list. The fully cracked explanations are in the comments, not in the blogs (for those who want to do their own cracking). |
Two more songs with no cracking: "That's Me" and "How Can You Live in the Northeast?". The latter is very complex, to say the least. The former is autobiographical and doesn't take much cracking, though I do have some comments.
Penetrating insights, I hope. Maybe. Madman's musings, maybe. Even some uncracked confusion. Whatever, that will have to wait a moment. The radio's playing "Bohemian Rhapsody."
2 comments:
I love interior rhyme (rhymes that are not at the ends of lines). "And get to the place where you can read my face" is a good example. He's still our Rhymin' Simon.
And he's self-deprecating, to an extreme. If Yale had awarded me an honorary doctorate I would be very, very proud of it. I wouldn't refer to it as "a bogus degree," though this is technically accurate.
"And money never cared for me." This from a man who is said to have lost several millions on his ill-fated musical, Capeman. Is it possible he got a call from his broker?
"Searching for the emerald sea, boys" is a good way of describing his unending pursuit of something that hasn't been done already. Surprise shows just how great it can be when a great artist refuses to settle for a repeat of his last achievement. (I fear that Surprise sets such a high standard that it will be difficult for Simon to go further. I don't expect to hear from him again unless he is convinced he can go further.)
First love? Yes, it moves you. But I've got a problem with the bear.
I hike regularly in the Catskills, small mountains in central New York state. Bears there shy away from men, usually. This may be due to the fact that we have a bear-hunting season. One time, a medium-sized black bear did not shy away from me. She was walking through the forest parallel to the trail I was hiking, perhaps twenty yards away. I was not held in her sight and her power. I was terrified. I guess the difference is that Simon's bear was running, presumably not toward him.
When the going gets steep, counting steps is a natural. I'm partial to humming "A Hundred Bottles of Beer on the Wall." (Four bars, four beats, sixteen steps per bottle.)
"Forgotten is a long, long time." On the other hand, Paul Simon's shot a thought into the future. It will go through his lifetime and long, long beyond.
"I'm in the valley of twilight." One reviewer said that this was a humble comment on his position in his career. How can you pair twilight with realizing fully the most ambitious work of your life? Surprise isn't twilight, it's blazing sun.
On the continental shelf? "The continental shelf is the extended perimeter of each continent which is covered during interglacial periods such as the current epoch by relatively shallow seas ...". (Thanks, Wikipedia.) Scuba diving? Also from Wikipedia, "The South China Sea lies over another extensive area of the continental shelf, ..." Bringing home babies? I don't believe I understand this line.
"... answering a question I am asking of myself." Not satisfied with "maybe" as your exit?
And if you are beginning to think that your cracker is not cracking with clarity at the end of this track, let me add my big concern. Every other track is about what goes on in the mind. More exactly, each is about one specific aspect of what goes on in the mind, such as insecurity, prayer, things that don't feel like love and so on. If "That's Me" is about a specific aspect of the mind, I don't believe I understand it.
Well, I guess this one needs some more spins. We really need some other active crackers. Don't be bashful!
I think my interpretation of what a black bear means is partially skewed by reading Steven King's "On Writing," where he talks about the class where he met his wife, and a poem she wrote about a black bear (the black bear representing Saint Augustine.) So I've always connected black bears and love.
I thought the black bear was the woman he was in love with. The tricky skies are the warning signs that the first love will not last. "Your eyes are true"--the woman knows that it isn't going to last and isn't pretending it will. She knows that the future is sorrow. But reflecting on that doomed first love now, Simon wishes he could see her again.
Forgotten is a long, long time--maybe a tongue-in-cheek way of saying that he's drifted out of the public eye.
I totally think that Surprise was Simon's most ambitious album, but I think he realizes that my generation doesn't know about him. Or maybe he's calling his last album his twilight, and this his continental shelf. The sun is setting, but he's at the top of the mountain. (Or, it could just be a reference to his age.)
I don't think we're meant to know the question he asked or the answer he found. We're just supposed to get closure to the story of the album. After the characters of the album question religion, don't feel like love, express their outrage, don't believe, and run out on their wedding, something unstoppable is set into motion, and they answer the question.
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