Following the weekend's thoughts on problems of time, quite coincidentally, I saw a question at Quora which creates a kind of musical sequel:
How do the first two verses of Paul Simon's "Slip Slidin' Away" support his premise that "the nearer your destination, the more you're slip slidin' away"?
An answer by Eamon O'Kelly (whose tag line is "You don't really care for music, do ya?")
both enlightened and confused me. He answered:
Because Paul Simon chose to illustrate Zeno’s Paradox through the medium of song.
Mr O'Kelly also provided a link about Zeno's Paradox which confused me even more, so I'll replace it with a Wikipedia page - which doesn't help me much further but is an easier read.
Best thing I can do, because it's Music Monday is to play the song!
Casting around for something musical and apt for today, 11 June, led me to the fact that on 11 June in 1966 "I Am A Rock" by Paul Simon, the version recorded with Garfunkel, peaked in the charts at #3.
Hmm. "I Am a Rock" isn't one of the most played of their many superb recordings these days. Paul Simon wrote the song, it was first released in 1965, and is a rather glum affair about isolation and deliberate emotional detachment. It was first performed by Simon alone as the opening track on his album The Paul Simon Songbook which he originally recorded and released in August 1965, only in the United Kingdom. Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel, as the American folk rock duo Simon and Garfunkel, re-recorded it on December 14, 1965, and included as the final track on their album Sounds of Silence, which they released on January 17, 1966.
"I Am A Rock"
A winter's day
In a deep and dark December
I am alone
Gazing from my window
To the streets below
On a freshly fallen, silent shroud of snow
I am a rock
I am an island
I've built walls
A fortress, steep and mighty
That none may penetrate
I have no need of friendship
Friendship causes pain.
It's laughter and it's loving I disdain.
I am a rock
I am an island..........
......And a rock feels no pain
And an island never cries.
The theme of the song is the exact opposite of Garth Brooks' lovely composition "The Dance", wherein he claims that if he hadn't felt "the pain" he wouldn't have had the wonderful experience of "The Dance" (the good times). Another such theme is found in a song recorded by Ronnie Milsap, "I Wouldn't Have Missed It For the World
Our paths may never cross again Maybe my heart will never mend But I'm glad for all the good times Cause you've brought me so much sunshine And love was the best it's ever been I wouldn't have missed it for the world Wouldn't have missed loving you girl You've made my whole life worth while, with your smile I wouldn't trade one memory Cause you mean too much to me Even though I lost you girl I wouldn't have missed it for the world.....
It's akin to the much clichéd "glass half full, glass half empty".
Something which will sound like blasphemy to most Simon & Garfunkel fans: the duo's version of the "I Am a Rock" was - well - in the style expected of them back in the 1960s. Listening to it now though, to my ear, it's lacking the required emotion. Same applied to their Sound of Silence, to a lesser degree. That song really opened up for me when I first heard the version by "Disturbed".
Wow! That's how it needs to be sung in 2018!
When will someone sing "I Am a Rock" as it needs to be sung in 2018? "Disturbed" could do it.
Here's a creditable cover version by Joe Paulik. It's getting there, or could be with a little help from recording/arranging maestros etc. I imagine it, ideally, sung by a deeper, resonant voice though.
Will Rogers: "We have plenty of confidence in this country, but we are a little short of good men to place our confidence in."
That's no longer true, now there IS one!
Simon & Garfunkel's lovely song "America" provides the background music. This article outlines Art Garfunkel's reasons for approving the song's use in this way; so far no comment from Paul Simon though, according to the report. However, there's also this from the New York Times referring to a CNN interview:
Art Garfunkel is a “Bernie guy.”
One half of the duo whose famous song, “America,” is the soundtrack for the most recent ad for Senator Bernie Sanders’s campaign, pledged his allegiance to the candidate in an interview with CNN’s Michael Smerconish.
“I like Bernie,” Mr. Garfunkel said. “I like his fight. I like his dignity and his stance. I like this song.”
He added that while he and his former musical partner, Paul Simon, might not agree on everything, they are both “liberals in our inclination,” and agreed on letting the Sanders campaign use their song.
Mr. Garfunkel said the idea to use the song came from the campaign, but the duo “acquiesced” to the request.
Another of Paul Simon's songs also strikes me as appropriate, being a Bernie Sanders supporter myself:
When something goes wrong
I'm the first to admit it
I'm the first to admit it
But the last one to know
when something goes right
Well it's likely to lose me
It's apt to confuse me
It's such an unusual sight I can't get used to something so right
Something so right
News surfaced at the weekend that Michael Bloomberg, billionaire and former Mayor of New York, intends to enter the presidential campaign if Donald Trump, Ted Cruz or Bernie Sanders become party nominees. Bloomberg is said to be "galled by Donald J. Trump’s dominance of the Republican field, and troubled by Hillary Clinton’s stumbles and the rise of Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont on the Democratic side."
Ah yes! Well...of course, he would, wouldn't he? He and his ilk are becoming increasingly alarmed at the thought of anti-establishment figures, on both sides of the political divide, gaining ground, gaining influence, threatening longtime power of the "princes". That thought reminds me of another song - or at least of its last verse.
All along the watchtower, princes kept the view
While all the women came and went, barefoot servants, too.
Outside in the distance a wildcat did growl,
Two riders were approaching, the wind began to howl.
Hat-tip to Avedon's Sideshow for introducing me to the version of The Sound of Silence below.
I like it! I've always liked the song, written by Paul Simon, over several months between 1963–1964, made famous of course by Simon & Garfunkel. There have been other good covers of it over the years. Versions I remember best are by Irish trio, The Bachelors, who had a hit with it in Britain, and vocal group Gregorian, who sang it with a vaguely Gregorian chant flavour. The song has been used in the soundtracks of several movies, most famously in The Graduate.
This latest version of the song byDisturbed, a heavy metal band from Chicago is, on the face of it, a surprising choice for such a band. But consider again Paul Simon's lyrics and it perhaps ought not to be surprising.
Disturbed manages to better bring out the anger contained in the song, it's an anger currently being more sharply felt by many people. I'd always taken the song to be a fairly gentle rant about a general lack of communication between people. Until I heard Disturbed's version I'd never really "felt" it, but had been carried along by the lovely melody, never thinking too much, or too deeply, about the words. The words, whether Paul Simon realised it at the time or not, have a chameleon-like ability to fit any listener's own pet reasons to rant.
One, from many, interesting sidelights I found while reading Songfact's page on The Sound of Silence - this contribution by "Duff" of Calgary:
Was just re-reading HESSE's Steppenwolf novel after 15 years. And strangely found myself thinking as I was reading, "this is the setting of the song THE SOUNDS OF SILENCE". Then I googled this site. Weird.
Example #1 on Page 29 (of OWL's 1990 Steppenwolf reprint): Hesse's main character (Harry Haller) is walking alone at night in the rain. He writes:
"I trod the moist pavements of the narrow streets. As though in tears and veiled, the lamps glimmered through the chill gloom and sucked their reflections slowly from the wet ground."
Simon: "On restless streets I walked alone, Narrow streets of cobbled-stone; 'Neath the halo of an old street lamp."
Example #2 (on Page 37):
"I loitered as I wended my way homeward; turned up my collar and struck my stick on the wet pavement".
Simon: "I turned my collar to the cold and damp"
There's more too. During this night time walk, Hesse's character discovers a strange sign in the darkest of alleyways - a decidedly ELECTRIC SIGN... The NEON LIGHT in Simon's song - Only in the novel Hesse's sign says: "MAGIC THEATRE; ENTRANCE NOT FOR EVERYBODY; FOR MADMEN ONLY!"
Love the song. And rewarding to find the parallel in literature-- and probably just one of several books Simon's refers to in his NPR interview about this song.
The Lyrics: "The Sound Of Silence"
Hello darkness, my old friend,
I've come to talk with you again,
Because a vision softly creeping,
Left its seeds while I was sleeping,
And the vision that was planted in my brain
Still remains
Within the sound of silence.
In restless dreams I walked alone
Narrow streets of cobblestone,
'Neath the halo of a street lamp,
I turned my collar to the cold and damp
When my eyes were stabbed by the flash of a neon light
That split the night
And touched the sound of silence.
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 share
And no one dared
Disturb the sound of silence.
"Fools," said I, "You do not know.
Silence like a cancer grows.
Hear my words that I might teach you.
Take my arms that I might reach you."
But my words like silent raindrops fell
And echoed in the wells of silence
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 sounds of silence."
There's an archived post from 2009, relating to Paul Simon, Art Garfunkel and their astrology here:Simon & Garfunkel - So Similar.
Art Garfunkel has stated that he and Paul Simon are planning to tour together again, though he didn't reveal in which countries, other than they will not be visiting England this time. (BBC NEWS).
The songs these artists have written and performed together are truly timeless classics. Great poetry, great melodies, simply and beautifully performed. I don't think they have ever been bettered, even by The Beatles. (And I shall not wash my mouth out!)
I'd never looked at their natal charts before, so -
Art Garfunkel born 5 November 1941 at 11pm, forest Hills, NewYork. Paul Simon born 13 October 1941, Newark Heights, New Jersey.
There are subtle differences in how the planets relate to each other, because of degree variance, but on the whole the two charts are amazingly similar.
(Click on image to enlarge)
Here's a list of the planetary placements for easy reference:
Sun: Art 13 Scorpio Paul 19 Libra Moon: Art 6 Gemini Paul 17 Cancer Mercury: Art 26 Libra Paul 11 Scorpio Venus: Art 29 Sagittarius Paul 2 Sagittarius Mars: Art 11 Aries Paul 15 Aries Jupiter: Art20 Gemini Paul21 Gemini Saturn: Art 26 Taurus Paul 27 Taurus Uranus: Art 28 Taurus Paul 27 Taurus Neptune: Art 29 Virgo Paul 28 Virgo Pluto: Art 5 Leo Paul 5 Leo ASCENDANT: Art 13 Leo Paul 6 Virgo MIDHEAVEN: Art 3 Taurus Paul 2 Gemini (Paul's Uranus/Saturn is closer to Midheaven than Art's, (putting him rather more in front of the public ?)
Their elemental balances are quite similar: Paul has a little more Water, Art a little more Air, but it's a minimal difference.
Although their Suns are in neighbouring signs, note that Mercury in each case is in the other's Sun sign - which kind of balances the differences between Libra and Scorpio. Moons are one of two key differences - Simon's Moon in Cancer reflects a more sensitive nature than Garfunkel's Moon in mentally oriented Gemini - but even here there's a link because Simon's Cancer Moon trines Garfunkel's Sun in Scorpio (both are Water signs).
Their ascendants present the greatest potential for discord: a discerning Virgo rising in Paul Simon's chart and show-bizzy Leo in Garfunkel's. Judging from respective successes since their original breakup, I'd have guessed it would be the other way around, for Paul Simon has been seen on stage far more than Art Garfunkel, whose name has almost sunk into obscurity for the younger generations.
It's not surprising their charts are similar, they were born just 23 days apart, both in eastern states of the USA. Even so, there are more similarities than I'd have expected.
Numerous reports of disagreements between the pair have peppered entertainment columns over the years. It's possibly a case of their being just too similar for comfort. Perhaps the few differences there are between them take on extra importance due to rarity.
Conflicts were enough to cause discord in private life sufficient to merit break-up of the professional partnership.It was a great pity. Perhaps there's a lesson here: too many chart similarities between two people, in any type of relationship, is not necessarily a good thing. Complementary traits, and even opposing traits, could be more easily managed than a situation where each partner has an almost mirror image always beside them.
From the few videos left after the copyright purge on YouTube, here's an old clip from the duo's early days: a live performance of "The Sound of Silence". Simply presented, and all the more beautiful for it!
I've been tagged to write about 5-10 songs that had an impact on my life. I want to relate this in some way to astrology, so I'm going to bend the rules a little.
The rules: 1. Each person who wants to join in has to write about 5-10 songs that had an impact on them in their life. 2. They should link back to me as well as Michelle and Jeff. 3. Then, if so inclined, tag one to five more people.
OK.
Singers and singer/songwriters seem to affect me more when there's some astrological connection between my natal chart and theirs. I've been surprised to note this, but it's true enough.
Everything Neil Diamond has ever written and sung always "hit the spot" for me. I've known for a long time that he's a Sun Aquarian, but with the computer came extra evidence that his Sun is only a degree from my own, his Mars is 5 degrees away from my Venus in Sagittarius. We're of the same generation - early Pluto in Leos with Uranus in Taurus and Neptune in Virgo. To pick one special song from those he's written is well nigh impossible. Let's see - "I Am, I Said" says how I've often felt, "Red, Red Wine", and "Longfellow Serenade" also come immediately to mind.
"Well, I'm New York City born and raised But nowadays, I'm lost between two shores LA's fine, but it ain't home New York's home but it ain't mine no more" (Substitute England for New York, and Oklahoma for LA - and it fits!)
Songs - any songs - from two famous Sun Sagittarians always soak right in. Frank Sinatra's Sun and Mercury conjoin my Venus in Sagittarius, he had Jupiter in Pisces like me, too. How to choose a song from the Sinatra repertoire? Off the top of my head - "Love's been good to me", and "Witchcraft", but literally any and every song he has ever sung becomes, for me, the definitive version. "My Way" always makes me smile, too - it fits me like a glove!
Tina Turner, another Sagittarian Sun, has Venus in Sagittarius within degrees of my own Venus, her Saturn in Aries matches mine and is also within minutes of my Moon. She's of my generation too. "Simply the Best" has always made me feel happy, and anything she sings grabs my attention.
Paul Simon is a songwriting genius. Those early songs he sang with Art Garfunkel are true modern classics, I can listen anytime anywhere and am always entranced. "American Tune" sends shivers down my spine, being a (legal) immigrant in the USA. Paul's Mars at 16 Aries is 4 degrees from my Moon. His Moon is 3 degrees away from my Cancer ascendant, and his Mercury conjoins my North Node in Scorpio.
"We come on a ship we call the Mayflower, We come on a ship that sailed the moon We come at the age's most uncertain hour And sing the American tune But it's all right, its all right You can't be forever blessed Still, tomorrow's gonna be another working day And I'm trying to get some rest, That's all, I'm trying to get some rest."
Eric Idle can always make me laugh. His "Galaxy Song" from Monty Python is priceless. His natal Jupiter is smack dab on my Cancer ascendant, his Sun in Aries is 5 degrees from my Moon, and his Mars 8 degrees from my Sun. The last lines of "Galaxy Song" always crack me up -
"So remember when you're feeling very small and insecure how amazingly unlikely is your birth And pray that there's intelligent life somewhere up in space ''cause there's bugger all down here on Earth."
I'm tagging my husband Anyjazz, at "Thinks Happen" and Chrispito , at Astroturf- who I suspect might enjoy this challenge.....and anyone else who'd like to join in, of course.
