SIMON & GARFUNKEL
Tom & Jerry, as they are also known, among geriatric circles, kidding !!! ...Tom & Jerry 's music & lyrics still stand the test of time. I can't claim to have had access to LPs by Simon & Garfunkel. I dare say - I was more or less stuck on their tapes in my wonder years.
These are my favorite songs, as rendered by Simon and Garfunkel, in no particular order -
1) Cecelia - you're breaking my what ? ho-hum lyrics, but foot-tapping music, catchy tune
Cecelia-lyrics
2) El Condor Pasa - minimalist lyrics
El Condor Pasa-lyrics
3) A Simple Desultory Phillipic OR How I Was Robert McNamara'd Into Submission
Simply superb lyrics, des paroles incroyable !!!
Lyrics
4) America - contrast this with Rammstein's stupid song by the same name
I love this song - especially the part which goes - "...She said the man in the gabardine suit was a spy, I said " His bowtie's really a camera..."" & "toss me a cigarette...", no subliminal or direct messages intended. :D
America-Lyrics
5) At the zoo - oh why didn't I mug this one up when I was in 7th standard. And why did I get wheedled into elocutions where I'm expected to speak about Zoos & animals. I had a classic-case of wobbly knees, frogs in my throat & tongue-tied-ness. Fate, albeit imposing and alarming, without being conscientiously partial, paved the path for better speeches to come.
At the zoo-lyrics
6) The Dangling Conversation - I just love the lyrics of this song. I was really impressed by this song, when I was younger. So much so that, I feel inclined to paste them here -
It's a still life water color,
Of a now late afternoon,
As the sun shines through the curtained lace
And shadows wash the room.
And we sit and drink our coffee
Couched in our indifference,
Like shells upon the shore
You can hear the ocean roar
In the dangling conversation
And the superficial sighs,
The borders of our lives.
And you read your Emily Dickinson,
And I my Robert Frost,
And we note our place with bookmarkers
That measure what we've lost.
Like a poem poorly written
We are verses out of rhythm,
Couplets out of rhyme,
In syncopated time
And the dangled conversation
And the superficial sighs,
Are the borders of our lives.
Yes, we speak of things that matter,
With words that must be said,
"Can analysis be worthwhile?"
"Is the theater really dead?"
And how the room is softly faded
And I only kiss your shadow,
I cannot feel your hand,
You're a stranger now unto me
Lost in the dangling conversation.
And the superficial sighs,
In the borders of our lives.
"We note our place with bookmarkers, that measure what we've lost." :-) GEM.
I always knew who Robert Frost was, but I used to wonder who Emily Dickinson was.
Here's a version of this song that I found on YouTube -
7) CLOUDY
One of their better songs, I like the last para, for its lyric & its music's semi-crescendo, which goes something like this -
Hey sunshine
I haven't seen you in a long time.
Why don't you show your face and bend my mind?
These clouds stick to the sky
Like floating questions, why?
And they linger there to die.
They don't know where they are going, and, my friend, neither do I.
Which brings me to the burning question, why should I ignore the other stanzas !!! Without much ado -
Cloudy
The sky is gray and white and cloudy,
Sometimes I think it's hanging down on me.
And it's a hitchhike a hundred miles.
I'm a rag-a-muffin child.
Pointed finger-painted smile.
I left my shadow waiting down the road for me a while.
Cloudy
My thoughts are scattered and they're cloudy,
They have no borders, no boundaries.
They echo and they swell
From Tolstoy to Tinker Bell.
Down from Berkeley to Carmel.
Got some pictures in my pocket and a lot of time to kill. ....
8) The 59th Street Bridge Song (Feelin' Groovy)
A catchy jingle - "I'm dappled & drowsy & ready to sleep" with a groovy note, sounds really anticlimactic, reminds me of a few college night-outs. ;-)
LYRICS
9) HOMEWARD BOUND
An excellent song that I associate with (no points for guessing) going home -
I'm sittin' in the railway station
Got a ticket for my destination
On a tour of one night stands
My suitcase and guitar in hand
And every stop is neatly planned
For a poet and a one man band
Homeward bound
I wish I was
Homeward bound
Home, where my thought's escaping
Home, where my music's playing
Home, where my love lies waiting
Silently for me
Everyday's an endless stream
Of cigarettes and magazines
And each town looks the same to me
The movies and the factories
And every stranger's face I see
Reminds me that I long to be
Homeward bound
I wish I was
Homeward bound
Home, where my thought's escaping
Home, where my music's playing
Home, where my love lies waiting
Silently for me
Tonight I'll sing my songs again
I'll play the game and pretend
But all my words come back to me
In shades of mediocrity
Like emptyness in harmony
I need someone to comfort me
Homeward bound
I wish I was
Homeward bound
Home, where my thought's escaping
Home, where my music's playing
Home, where my love lies waiting
Silently for me
Silently for me
Silently for me
"A poet & a one-man band" indeed. ;-)
10) THE SOUND OF SILENCE
Hello darkness, my old friend!!! One of my favorite songs - I like the fourth stanza a lot -
These lyrics seem to echo in my mind, every time I hear 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
Beneath 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 dare
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 signs said: "The words of the prophets
Are written on the subway walls
And tenement halls,
And whisper'd in the sound of silence."
11) SCARBOROUGH FAIR/CANTICLE
No piece on Tom & Jerry is complete without Canticle. Seems like an inspired effort to keep the listeners glued to the 70s and the 80s. Somehow reminds me of "Dead Poet's Society" - synesthesia anyone ?
Are you going to Scarborough Fair?
Parsley, sage, rosemary & thyme
Remember me to one who lives there
She once was a true love of mine
Tell her to make me a cambric shirt
(On the side of a hill in the deep forest green)
Parsely, sage, rosemary & thyme
(Tracing a sparrow on snow-crested ground)
Without no seams nor needlework
(Blankets and bedclothes a child of the mountains)
Then she'll be a true love of mine
(Sleeps unaware of the clarion call)
Tell her to find me an acre of land
(On the side of a hill, a sprinkling of leaves)
Parsely, sage, rosemary, & thyme
(Washed is the ground with so many tears)
Between the salt water and the sea strand
(A soldier cleans and polishes a gun)
Then she'll be a true love of mine
Tell her to reap it in a sickle of leather
(War bellows, blazing in scarlet battalions)
Parsely, sage, rosemary & thyme
(Generals order their soldiers to kill)
And to gather it all in a bunch of heather
(And to fight for a cause they've long ago forgotten)
Then she'll be a true love of mine
Are you going to Scarborough Fair?
Parsley, sage, rosemary & thyme
Remember me to one who lives there
She once was a true love of mine....
These are my favorite songs, as rendered by Simon and Garfunkel, in no particular order -
1) Cecelia - you're breaking my what ? ho-hum lyrics, but foot-tapping music, catchy tune
Cecelia-lyrics
2) El Condor Pasa - minimalist lyrics
El Condor Pasa-lyrics
3) A Simple Desultory Phillipic OR How I Was Robert McNamara'd Into Submission
Simply superb lyrics, des paroles incroyable !!!
Lyrics
4) America - contrast this with Rammstein's stupid song by the same name
I love this song - especially the part which goes - "...She said the man in the gabardine suit was a spy, I said " His bowtie's really a camera..."" & "toss me a cigarette...", no subliminal or direct messages intended. :D
America-Lyrics
5) At the zoo - oh why didn't I mug this one up when I was in 7th standard. And why did I get wheedled into elocutions where I'm expected to speak about Zoos & animals. I had a classic-case of wobbly knees, frogs in my throat & tongue-tied-ness. Fate, albeit imposing and alarming, without being conscientiously partial, paved the path for better speeches to come.
At the zoo-lyrics
6) The Dangling Conversation - I just love the lyrics of this song. I was really impressed by this song, when I was younger. So much so that, I feel inclined to paste them here -
It's a still life water color,
Of a now late afternoon,
As the sun shines through the curtained lace
And shadows wash the room.
And we sit and drink our coffee
Couched in our indifference,
Like shells upon the shore
You can hear the ocean roar
In the dangling conversation
And the superficial sighs,
The borders of our lives.
And you read your Emily Dickinson,
And I my Robert Frost,
And we note our place with bookmarkers
That measure what we've lost.
Like a poem poorly written
We are verses out of rhythm,
Couplets out of rhyme,
In syncopated time
And the dangled conversation
And the superficial sighs,
Are the borders of our lives.
Yes, we speak of things that matter,
With words that must be said,
"Can analysis be worthwhile?"
"Is the theater really dead?"
And how the room is softly faded
And I only kiss your shadow,
I cannot feel your hand,
You're a stranger now unto me
Lost in the dangling conversation.
And the superficial sighs,
In the borders of our lives.
"We note our place with bookmarkers, that measure what we've lost." :-) GEM.
I always knew who Robert Frost was, but I used to wonder who Emily Dickinson was.
Here's a version of this song that I found on YouTube -
7) CLOUDY
One of their better songs, I like the last para, for its lyric & its music's semi-crescendo, which goes something like this -
Hey sunshine
I haven't seen you in a long time.
Why don't you show your face and bend my mind?
These clouds stick to the sky
Like floating questions, why?
And they linger there to die.
They don't know where they are going, and, my friend, neither do I.
Which brings me to the burning question, why should I ignore the other stanzas !!! Without much ado -
Cloudy
The sky is gray and white and cloudy,
Sometimes I think it's hanging down on me.
And it's a hitchhike a hundred miles.
I'm a rag-a-muffin child.
Pointed finger-painted smile.
I left my shadow waiting down the road for me a while.
Cloudy
My thoughts are scattered and they're cloudy,
They have no borders, no boundaries.
They echo and they swell
From Tolstoy to Tinker Bell.
Down from Berkeley to Carmel.
Got some pictures in my pocket and a lot of time to kill. ....
8) The 59th Street Bridge Song (Feelin' Groovy)
A catchy jingle - "I'm dappled & drowsy & ready to sleep" with a groovy note, sounds really anticlimactic, reminds me of a few college night-outs. ;-)
LYRICS
9) HOMEWARD BOUND
An excellent song that I associate with (no points for guessing) going home -
I'm sittin' in the railway station
Got a ticket for my destination
On a tour of one night stands
My suitcase and guitar in hand
And every stop is neatly planned
For a poet and a one man band
Homeward bound
I wish I was
Homeward bound
Home, where my thought's escaping
Home, where my music's playing
Home, where my love lies waiting
Silently for me
Everyday's an endless stream
Of cigarettes and magazines
And each town looks the same to me
The movies and the factories
And every stranger's face I see
Reminds me that I long to be
Homeward bound
I wish I was
Homeward bound
Home, where my thought's escaping
Home, where my music's playing
Home, where my love lies waiting
Silently for me
Tonight I'll sing my songs again
I'll play the game and pretend
But all my words come back to me
In shades of mediocrity
Like emptyness in harmony
I need someone to comfort me
Homeward bound
I wish I was
Homeward bound
Home, where my thought's escaping
Home, where my music's playing
Home, where my love lies waiting
Silently for me
Silently for me
Silently for me
"A poet & a one-man band" indeed. ;-)
10) THE SOUND OF SILENCE
Hello darkness, my old friend!!! One of my favorite songs - I like the fourth stanza a lot -
These lyrics seem to echo in my mind, every time I hear 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
Beneath 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 dare
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 signs said: "The words of the prophets
Are written on the subway walls
And tenement halls,
And whisper'd in the sound of silence."
11) SCARBOROUGH FAIR/CANTICLE
No piece on Tom & Jerry is complete without Canticle. Seems like an inspired effort to keep the listeners glued to the 70s and the 80s. Somehow reminds me of "Dead Poet's Society" - synesthesia anyone ?
Are you going to Scarborough Fair?
Parsley, sage, rosemary & thyme
Remember me to one who lives there
She once was a true love of mine
Tell her to make me a cambric shirt
(On the side of a hill in the deep forest green)
Parsely, sage, rosemary & thyme
(Tracing a sparrow on snow-crested ground)
Without no seams nor needlework
(Blankets and bedclothes a child of the mountains)
Then she'll be a true love of mine
(Sleeps unaware of the clarion call)
Tell her to find me an acre of land
(On the side of a hill, a sprinkling of leaves)
Parsely, sage, rosemary, & thyme
(Washed is the ground with so many tears)
Between the salt water and the sea strand
(A soldier cleans and polishes a gun)
Then she'll be a true love of mine
Tell her to reap it in a sickle of leather
(War bellows, blazing in scarlet battalions)
Parsely, sage, rosemary & thyme
(Generals order their soldiers to kill)
And to gather it all in a bunch of heather
(And to fight for a cause they've long ago forgotten)
Then she'll be a true love of mine
Are you going to Scarborough Fair?
Parsley, sage, rosemary & thyme
Remember me to one who lives there
She once was a true love of mine....
posted by Pradeep at
7:46 PM
2 Comments
