| 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" (lower right) and then work your way up the list. The fully cracked explanations are in the comments, not in the blogs (for those who want to do their own cracking). |
In the comments I'll elaborate on my previous post re "Everything About It Is a Love Song." This is far tighter than I previously realized. There is still that puzzling coda, from which the title springs. Hmmm.
First, I've been convinced of the following for a while, but have been reluctant to blog about it. Reaching more or less absolute judgments in public can make you feel like a fool if you later change your mind. On the other hand, there is an implied demand here for intellectual honesty.
I have cracked ALL of these tracks. (Calling them "songs" would require stretching the former definition of that term - a discussion I'll leave for another day.) There is nothing left in the "random" bin. I still have individual puzzles, such as the coda to "Everything About It ...", but all these make fundamental sense.
And all them are on different facets of a single, larger topic. Let me repeat that. The whole album is about one topic. The second comment here (don't read it if you're doing your own cracking!) identifies that topic. I previously stated that if that were true, I'd have to stop calling this album a monster and call it The Monster. So be it. It is The Monster.
I now listen to this album the same way I listen to Bach's "Prelude and Fugue in D Minor" or Beethoven's "Fifth Symphony." It is a transcendant masterpiece, one of those extraordinary works of the human imagination that happens rarely, that makes you humble and proud to be a human when it happens.
Mr. Simon, I salute you. You've joined the ranks of mankind's greatest artists.
2 comments:
On "Everything About It Is a Love Song"
Previously I said this was about thoughts. Correct, but not specific. It's about thoughts of the future and of the past, alternately.
We begin with imagination being used to find the right combination of words to use in a melody line. A song will grow out of this process. The songwriter is creating the future.
Then we go back to the twentieth century, have "vanishing memory" and a "catalogue of regrets." But before this part of the song ends we are back to the future, waiting "for the hour of my rescue."
Next we're back to regrets, "and then it's, 'Oh, I'm sorry'" followed by a photographic reminder that the past also holds "love when it was new." And then right on to thinking about what's coming with "Make a wish." (another act of imagination) and "Surprise. Surprise. Surprise."
The next part remembers, "Early December, brown as a sparrow ..." and then shoots, "a thought into the future, and it flies like an arrow, through my lifetime. And beyond."
Penultimately we are on the "ancient road" and then "remember me, as I'll remember you." Note that the exhortation to "remember me, as I'll remember you" is about the memories we'll have in the future.
Finally, we get to "Everything about it is a love song." which I can explain as the thought of another Simon-created character, but the explanation strikes me as forced. I'm missing something.
Missing piece aside, this is a track about memories, thoughts of the past, and imagination, thoughts of the future. The intricacy of the interweaving is breathtaking. The imagination of future memories is amazing.
On the album
This is a deep examination of the human mind. "Everything About It ..." examines memories and imagination. "Outrageous" examines vanity and insecurity. "Sure Don't Feel ..." looks at embarassment, guilt, indecision and the other thoughts that "don't feel like love."
"Wartime Prayers" is about prayer, another creation of the human mind. "Beautiful" is about love and happiness, the mind's best conditions. "I Don't Believe" (oops, cracking not posted - just look at the title).
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