Songs? Maybe and maybe ...

First-Time Visitors

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).

I've spent a long time calling the tracks on Surprise "tracks" as opposed to songs. That they are tracks is a simple fact. Whether they are songs is open to discussion.

"Sure Don't Feel Like Love," for one example, starts with "Registered to vote ..." and then totally drops the "Felt like a fool" issue as it goes on with different music and lyrics on other topics. Many of these tracks appear more to be built with fragments of different songs than to be single songs. If we are going to call them "songs" then we are going to be redefining that word to include these tracks, assembled as they are from disparate elements.

For instance, "Sure Don't Feel ..." is built from these elements:

1 - Felt like a fool
2a - Who's that conscience
3 - Chemistry of crying
2b - Who's that conscience
4 - A voice in your head
5 - No joke, no joke
6 - Yay! Boo!
7 - Wrong again
8a - Sure don't feel like
8b - (track ends, sung acappella) It sure. Don't feel. Like love.

Calling them "tracks" does nothing to communicate what kind of tracks they are. Tracks include songs, comedy album bits, recipes from cooking shows. We need a word that says "pieces of music made from disparate lyric, melodic and harmonic bits." I'll coin one: disparongs.

The advantage of calling them disparongs is that it conveys that we have something here that is not the same as plain songs. It means musical tracks pulling together disparate bits. The disadvantage is that people will look at you funny and have no clue what you are talking about if you call them disparongs.

Our choices are two: we either agree that we will extend the definition of "song" or we need to define a new word. (Note that the tracks themselves are completely unaffected. This is a discussion of word definitions, not of the tracks.)

I'd like to have a new word, as this would let us point to the tracks on this album and similarly constructed tracks, such as "A Day in the Life" and "Bohemian Rhapsody". One critic noted Surprise's "odd song structures." (That's putting it mildly!) On the other hand, in interviews Paul Simon calls them "songs."

In the end, I think Simon rules. He's pushed the envelope on what a song is, but if he says these tracks are songs, then the rest of us have little authority to dispute the new definition. He's the one making the art, so he should be the one who decides how he wants his art named.

On the other hand, if you want to use the word "disparong" that word is now defined, within the confines of this blog, as a subset of the word "song." Wish disparong didn't sound so much like "wrong." These disparongs are as right as a soft, summer-solstice rain.

Website's Done!

Half a day after my original deadline, the website's done. It's www.CrackingTheSimonCode.org . If you haven't visited, please do. (No, Mr. Sceptic, there are no ads. This is not a commercial venture.)

The Annotations really showed me the structure of these tracks. Collecting the blogs and crackings in one place showed me how much I'd learned. The 3-part cracking of "Everything About It Is a Love Song" shows how the idea developed. The second crack didn't contradict the first, but it made it much narrower and more focused. The third part did contradict some details in the second, but mostly it just carried the idea further.

I'm pleased with the result. One correspondent called it an obsession. Guilty as charged. I guess I could have let the idea lie and spent my time on projects with a certain amount of financial potential, but I'm glad I did it. Do let me know what you think.

Don't overlook the "Reviews" page. It pulls all the reviews from the first four pages of a Google search. 27 Yay and 4 Boo. Staggering how little they knew. Exactly two noticed that they weren't listening to verse/chorus songs. None noticed the boldface in the lyrics.

Well, back to my other life. I think I know what I'm going to say on the question of whether these tracks are correctly called songs. "Maybe and maybe and maybe some more" is one answer. I've got another.

How Can You Live in the Northeast?

First-Time Visitors

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).

With this blog and comment, I'll have a complete set. This is the last blog about the first track, and perhaps the toughest. Allow me to start obliquely.

I live in New York's Hudson Valley, west of the river. I grew up in Connecticut about 75 miles due east of here. I like it here.

When the snow melts, snow drops, then forsythia announce a long flower season. July's not too stifling. (It's never too hot if your kayak's in the resevoir.) Maybe the tomato season could be longer, but in fall this is apple country. Macouns (Muh COW ans) compete with Ginger Crisps, Ginger Golds and classics like Empire and Jonathan. Then a "brown as a sparrow" month before snowshoeing and skiing in the Catskills. And when the snow melts ...

Who wouldn't want to live here?

I'm going further when I get to cracking, but first I should confess that I'm of two minds (Yay. Boo.) about this track. Some days I think I've got a good crack, absent a line or two. Other days, I don't think my insights rise to the level of a cracking. Not even close.

Yesterday I asked myself for the millionth time if my insights might not be all wrong. I don't think so. Here's the tally:

Confused: some lines in "How Can You ...", coda to "Everything About It ...", end of "That's Me."

Minor issues: "I Don't Believe", "Once Upon ..."

No issues: "Outrageous", "Sure Don't Feel ...", "Wartime Prayers", "Beautiful", "Another Galaxy", "Father and Daughter"

When I look at the tally, I'm very pleased. The confusion is only in small corners of three songs. The minor issues are minor. Over half have no issues whatsoever. Each time I answer this question, the answer gets more positive.

Well, I've postponed writing the cracking as long as I can. Guess it's time to write that comment. I wonder what I'll say?

P. S. There will be more blogging here. I said I'd postpone the discussion of whether these tracks are songs to a later date. Are they? Yay. Boo. Maybe and maybe and maybe some more.

That's Me

First-Time Visitors

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."

Father and Daughter

First-Time Visitors

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).

"Father and Daughter" was recorded for The Wild Thornberrys, a movie based on the children's TV show of the same name. It is almost a traditional verse/chorus song. It precedes the Simon/Eno collaboration and has no electronics.

I was surprised when I did the annotation, however. It's not as simple, structurally, as I thought. There is a classic chorus: "I'm gonna watch you shine, ..." through "...loved his daughter more than I love you." This chorus is repeated, with minor alterations, three times.

But the verses pressage the complex structures Simon creates for Surprise. Two verses preceded the first chorus. However, they're built on different melodies. A third verse, between the first and second chorus, also has its own melody.

And the harmonies are also complex. Anyone would resolve a dominant B7 to the tonic E. But few would resolve B9sus4 to E. (I've played the Beatles, who are known for their harmonic adventures, for years and never seen x9sus4.) Fewer still would get to B from F#m7. But none of these changes distracts you from the essential point of the song: father loves daughter.

I'll post a personal comment in the comments, since I need something to fill space in the "Crackings" column on www.CrackingTheSimonCode.org .

Another Galaxy

First-Time Visitors

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).

Finishing the www.CrackingTheSimonCode.org . I've made a list of the bloggings and crackings, song-by-song and am now completing the set. Then I'll copy from blog to website.

I've barely mentioned "Another Galaxy" here. That's because it's a straightforward, no cracking required, song about a would-be bride who bolts on the morning of her wedding day. The songpoet tells us that this is sometimes the best thing to do.

It's lyrics are the shortest of any on the CD, but its playing time (5:22) is the longest. The guitar work is so spectacular that I wouldn't mind another 5:22. In the comment here I'll mention one thing that you might not have noticed. Dreams.

I Don't Believe, Cracked

First-Time Visitors

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 up the list. The fully cracked explanations are in the comments, not in the blogs (for those who want to do their own cracking).

Finished the annotations. They're all on www.CrackingTheSimonCode.org and the color coding is great for showing the complex structures Simon creates. Seeing the structures puts any thought of randomness to rest. These tracks are rigorously built.

Got into the car (where Surprise has been in the CD for months now) and heard something in the bass that I hadn't heard in my office. When my old office Panasonic died (how old? turntable and dual cassette deck) I replaced it with the cheapest boombox that Walmart had. (When I listen to music I use the quite good electronics in the family room.) Without thinking, I'd used this boombox for the annotations. The new line in the bass made me think about it.

So to Best Buy and acquire top-of-the-line Bose head phones. Carefully replay and correct some eggregious mistakes. The heartbeats in (where? need to build the whole album version of the annotations where I could Ctrl+F "heartbeat") are bass, not drums, for example. Now I was hearing everything and there's more to the music than I knew. I like the way Simon sings left of center and puts the other instruments in other places.

If you've finished your cracking, or if you're just looking for the answers, the comment here will tell all I know about "I Don't Believe."

I Don't Believe, Structure

First-Time Visitors

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).

I Don't Believe, Structure

Though this be madness
Yet there be method in't.
(Polonius, Hamlet Act II, Scene 2)

I've just finished the annotation of "I Don't Believe." Wow! This is a meticulously organized structure!

instrumental intro

1a) "Acts of kindness, ... " Music simple, tonic/dominant alternation.
1b) "But I don't believe ... " Same music, but add minor chords.

2) "The earth was born ... " prehistory in Cm11.

3) "I got a call from my broker ..." also in Cm11.

Now each musical section repeats.

4a) "Oh, guardian angel...." repeats 1a
4b) "I don't believe a heart can be filled ..." repeats 1b

5) "Maybe the heart is part of the mist...." repeats 2

6) "I got a call ... " repeats 3

Ends with reprise of 1.

7a) "Acts of kindness, ... " repeats 1a
7b) "I don't believe ... " repeats 1b

instrumental coda

At CrackingTheSimonCode.org I've put up a page of reviews. For example, at EW.com, Chris Williams wrote, "'I Don't Believe' is practically an album unto itself: ... Most artists spend entire careers covering less territory."

The color bands in the annotations were one of the rare ideas I've had that actually worked as planned. 1a and 1b are in blue, 1b slightly darker than 1a. 2 is green, 3 is red. Then the colors repeat as the music repeats. It really shows the structure well. This one's at www.CrackingTheSimonCode.org/lyrics/i3.html . Couldn't have written this blog without it.

I'm not about to post the cracking as I've still not understood two bits. Can anyone help with "To pantomime prayers with the hands of the clock"? I think that you would pantomime prayer by pressing palms together in front of chest, fingers pointing up, head bowed. But "with the hands of a clock"?

Building the Website

OK. Got to the Christmas holidays. Going to use all my spare time between now and New Years to put up the promised web site, http://www.CrackingTheSimonCode.org .

The site will have, for each song, the lyrics as printed in the booklet, the lyrics rearranged as normal song poetry, the song poetry annotated (more on this in a bit) plus bloggings and crackings from this blog. The lyrics in both forms are already up.

I've grouped the lyrics of all the songs into a single page in each form. Your browser's Find (ctrl+F in all major browsers) makes it easy to answer questions like, "How many songs use the word 'holy'?" and "How many songs use the word 'brown'?". (Answer: two each.)

The annotated lyrics are demanding to create, but illuminating in the extreme. I'm using different background colors for each different bit of music. Dramatically different colors show the dramatically different themes. Minor color changes show the variations within the themes. For example, "It's outrageous ... " will be red, "Who's gonna love you ..." will be blue. The annotation will have two bands of red, and (count? gotta go do it!) other bands of blue.

So far I've completed annotations for "How Can You Live in the Northeast?" and "Everything About It Is a Love Song." Both have a similar structure. Two themes alternate, separated by a third theme in the middle and a fourth as a coda. Take a quick look at these and I think you'll agree, this is an effective way to visualize the structure. (At least it is for the first two songs.)

If no blogs are posted here for the next several days, keep in touch by watching the website grow. By the way, it's looking really good. Very simple but appropriate design. Hope you agree.

Beautiful

First-Time Visitors

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).

On the net the lurkers (those who read but don't post) vastly outnumber the posters. I really, truly want to broaden the conversation; incorporate some more points of view; have some sober person tell me I'm nuts; have some impressionable person say, 'Wow. That makes sense.' All of which is to say I'd really appreciate some comments from you all.

I've got my teeth deep into "Northeast" and "I Don't Believe." Both obviously about religion, and neither taking an obvious position. Separating Simon's views from Simon's character's views is difficult, at best. In the last analysis, it may not even be important. Simon's brilliance as an artist does not confer on him any authority as a theologian.

So here I'll duck the really hard stuff, and look at the really easy one. The song is Beautiful, in so many ways.

Precising "Everything About It"

First-Time Visitors

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).

I've read the Simon biography. He has several honorary degrees, so "picking up a bogus degree" is autobiographical. Which confirms my suspicion about "That's Me" being autobiographical. Sort of.

"I should have been a musician. / I love the piano. / ... well, that's me." (From "Darling Lorraine" on "You're the One." Piano was Simon's first instrument and he quickly abandoned it in favor of the guitar. He is a musician, of course. So it would be a mistake to think that "That's me" rules out the possibility that a Simon-created character, not Simon himself, is speaking. But this blog is about "Everything About It Is a Love Song."

I've tightened this one significantly. The song gets better every time my understanding gets better. The precising of the cracking is attached as a comment.

Here I'll just add that the coda, and title, is still a mystery. Won't someone please lend a thought?

More Along the Riverbank

First-Time Visitors

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.

Wartime Prayers

First-Time Visitors

If you don't know Paul Simon's Surprise, listen to Outrageous before proceeding. While blog software shows the posts from most to least recent, you have to read this blog as it was posted, earliest first. The fully cracked explanations are in the comments, not in the blogs (for those who want to do their own cracking).

Yesterday was Thanksgiving. Two hour drive in the morning, early. Three hours in the opposite direction (after an epic feast) gave me five uninterrupted hours with Surprise. I alternated between listening to the whole thing and endless repetitions of the first two songs. I finally started to crack "How can you live in the Northeast?"!

It started with the line, "How can you eat from a rice bowl,
The holy man only breaks bread?" That's just wrong. Lao Tse (Taoism founder) must have eaten from a rice bowl. Confucius ate from a rice bowl. The question is posed by a character with a narrow, Western view of religion. Once you see the questions posed as questions coming from a Simon-created character, then things begin to fall into place. My previous suggestion that Simon inherited his father's name and religion is also germane.

But more of that later. Today I'll devote the cracking to "Wartime Prayers." This song is so straightforward that I'm not sure the word "cracking" should be used. I did not see the simplicity at first, but now it is perfectly apparent. If that's not enough to point you in the right direction, the attached comment explains the simplicity.

Another Galaxy

First-Time Visitors

Don't know Paul Simon's Surprise, listen to Outrageous before going on. You have to read this blog as it was posted, earliest first (Cracked 2 More, lower right). The crackings are in the comments.

"Another Galaxy" is a straightforward, verse-and-chorus song; cracking not required. In traditional lyric notation, you'd write it this way:

    On the morning of her wedding day
    When no one was awake
    She drove across the border
    Leaving all the yellow roses on her wedding cake
    Her mother's tears, her breakfast order

    She's gone, gone, gone

  [Chorus]
    There is a moment, a chip in time
    When leaving home is the lesser crime
    When your eyes are blind with tears
    But your heart can see
    Another life, another galaxy

    That night her dreams are storm-tossed as a willow
    She hears the clouds
    She sees the eye of a hurricane
    As it sweeps across her island pillow

    But she's gone, gone, gone

  [Chorus]

Well, maybe there's a little cracking required. Anybody have a clue about "her breakfast order"? Nowhere else does Simon just throw in some nonsense because he needs a rhyme.

And as a last note, cracking definitely required, there's the issue of boldface type in the lyrics. (Hey, buy the album. The booklet enclosed is worth the money.) Every word that refers to water - ocean, pond, tear, stream, mist - is set in boldface. Nothing else is in boldface. Every track mentions water, some way or another.

Cracking the Simon Code

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First-Time Visitors

If you don't know Paul Simon's Surprise, listen to Outrageous before proceeding.

While blog software shows the posts from most to least recent, you have to read this blog as it was posted, earliest first. The fully cracked explanations are in the comments, not in the blogs (for those who want to do their own cracking).


Today, I'll post the cracking to "Sure Don't Feel Like Love." In spite of starting with "feel like a fool" and then apparently dropping the thought, this is a more-or-less straightforward song. A good target for your first try at cracking on your own. Pay attention to the title.

Another hint? Conscience can be a good thing, your moral compass steering you through ethical choices. Or it can be a guilty conscience, a bit of remorse. The latter is more likely to be sticking to your shoe.

Cracking the Simon Code

""Once Upon a Time There Was an Ocean"

In the comment, I'll crack this one. If you like to do your own cracking, here's a hint:

Ignore the title. Focus on the character. This track tells a story.

A Walk Along the Riverbank

Cracking "Everything About It Is a Love Song." I'll post the near-complete solution as a comment. (Don't want to spoil the chase for those who prefer to do their own cracking.)

Now if I only knew how the body of the song connects to the coda (the "Everything about it is a love song" part) I'd have just three left.

Some Insights

"How Can You Live in the Northeast" at the very end, Simon is being autobiographical: "I've been given all I've wanted / Only 3 generations off the boat / I've harvested and I have planted / I'm wearing my father's olc coat." That's not all he's got from his father. He's got his name and maybe his religion ("Name and religion come right after date of birth.") One answer to "How can you live in the Northeast?" is "I was born here."

"Everything About It Is a Love Song" - focusing on theme of regret.

"I Don't Believe" is partly about faith, or the lack thereof. That's what the bit about the broker is focused on: "He hoped that my faith was not shaken." And that ties neatly to the title. This doesn't explain, "My children are laughing / Not a whisper of care...." Where that fits, I ain't got a clue. And the "Maybe's the exit..."?

"That's Me" may be literally autobiographical. Bought a biography online. Will read it when it arrives, and then will know.

Cracked 2 More

Went hiking in the Catskills yesterday (with Snuffy, of course). That gave me about three hours listening. Moved two more songs into the Unified list. Here's the tally.

Unified	Random	Traditional
"Outrageous" "Sure Don't Feel Like Love" "Wartime Prayers" "Beautiful" "Another Galaxy" "Once Upon A Time There Was An Ocean"	"How Can You Live in the Northeast" "Everything About It Is A Love Song" "I Don't Believe" "That's Me"	"Father And Daughter"

I actually don't believe that there will be any songs in the "random" category, after we understand them. Later today I'll create the website that will be the companion to this blog: www.CrackingTheSimonCode.org. I'll post the solutions to the Unified songs.

Mean time, trust me on this: once you see what the songs are about, those random bits are very, very purposeful-sensible, logical.

Does anyone want "Another Galaxy" to be moved into the Traditional list?