There Goes Rhymin’ Simon by Paul Simon
Choosing a work of Paul Simon’s to tackle feels like a huge decision— his discography has a rather large range of works. From his time spent writing with his counterpart, Art Garfunkel, to his largely acclaimed solo African rooted album, Graceland, Paul Simon has attempted many styles but his third solo album, There Goes Rhymin’ Simon, has many of his most iconic, and artistically masterful tracks within it.
I first heard this album when I found it searching through a box of vinyls at my grandparents house. I was familiar with Simon and Garfunkel as a duo, but I hadn’t yet ventured into the world of Simon’s solo career. I plopped the record on to the turntable and listened to the 10 tracks. It may be cliched, but I loved each song. The songs felt like shades of muted, dilapidated reds, blues, and yellows, and it all made me nostalgic for a time I wasn’t even sure I lived through. Upon further thought, it reminded me of the Fourth of July celebration in the itty-bitty town of Robinson, where my dad grew up. The town is made up of about 200 people, and it’s downtown is just about ready to come crumbling down in one final sigh of strained relief, but every Fourth of July, the town attracts patriots from neighboring towns and Robinson lights up with celebratory cacophony. It’s a homegrown, delightful, yet somewhat nostalgic day in this small, American town, which is exactly the feeling I got from listening to the 10 songs on this record.
Downtown Robinson, Kansas, November 2020
The version that can be streamed on Spotify has an additional 4 songs. The additional songs are demos, which I am a big fan of, and will touch on later. Each track of the album offers something different in terms of color and flavor, but somehow, Simon’s natural and specific style leads the album to be one cohesive piece, which is an important factor to me when analyzing an album as a whole. The songs I most want to talk about are “Kodachrome”, “One Man’s Ceiling is Another Man’s Floor” and “Let Me Live in Your City- Work in Progress (Demo).”
Starting with the first track of the album—“Kodachrome.” This song is the only song on this album that has charted in Simon’s top ten most streamed songs, which I think is criminal, but I understand the mass appeal. The overall vibe of this song is youthful and fun, with a pea-sized touch of nostalgia. In terms of its musicality, the verse follows the widely used chord progression of I-VI-ii-V. Many many many songs follow the I-VI-ii-V where the ii chord is interchangeable with the vi chord, all in relation to the home Ionian key. This chord progression is used in a slue of 60s pop songs, which gives “Kodachrome” a sense of familiarity, like you know where the chords are going to go next even if you aren’t extremely well versed in the world of music theory. The chorus chords deviate mildly from the well known harmonic structure of the verse when Simon uses interchanges the ii with the vi, and throws in a VII chord, which leads the song out of key because of the A natural, which doesn’t fit within the boundaries of the home key of E major.
Past the technical, musical side, the lyrics recall green summer days, and times in high school as seen through Simon’s “Nikon camera.” His words emulate a youthful vibe by briefly mentioning some of his high school crushes, and the things he has learned from his experiences. The youthful atmosphere of the song is furthered by the repeated phrase: “Mama, don’t take my Kodachrome!”, which sounds a little childish, or like he’s reminiscing on the time he spent living with his mother as a child. All these topics are familiar to most of his audience, and I think that’s what makes it a great addition to this album. The instrumentation is very classically Paul Simon, but the lyrics and recognizable chord progression floods listeners, or maybe just myself, with a sort of nostalgic longing for summers past as a teenager.
The next song I want to talk about on this album is “One Man’s Ceiling is Another Man’s Floor.” I definitely felt late to the party when I discovered this song, it’s stuffed with amazing, and unusual chord structure and of course, personality from within Simon’s lyrics, and is 100% under-appreciated.
In terms of the theory, this song does something truly iconic. The song starts with a piano motif that will be used through out the song, and to me I’ve always though of the back and forth riff like two apartment building tenants who share a ceiling/floor. The riff starts with an arpeggiated dissension in the upper treble clef followed by a banging riff in the bass. In my head, it’s like the upstairs neighbor in the treble clef is dancing on their floor, and the tenet downstairs in the bass clef is banging a broom handle on the ceiling as a way to tell the upstairs neighbor to be quiet.
Beyond that silly theory, the chord structure of this song is something to marvel at. Each verse is in a different key, yet the song never falls victim to a lack of cohesion. The first verse starts in C major, but it has a blues feel, so the song relies on the blues notes of the scale that are pulled from the C minor scale. The first verse phrase starts on the V, then hits the I, yet there isn’t exactly a strong resolution in that moment. The song quickly goes back to the V, the IV then there’s a seamless slip into the chorus. The chorus plays: I-IV-V-I-I7-IV-V7-vi (!!!). The use of the little vi is so exciting! The reason Simon chose to use that deceptive cadence (the V7-vi) is to lead us into the next verse that switches keys to F, but the verse structure says the same so the first chord in the next verse is C, making the V that’s played as the first note of the verse C! And, that C gives the deceptive cadence the resolution it would need, so the key change isn’t recognized to an ear that isn’t totally aware of the pitches Simon is playing.
The great thing about that chord pattern is that it happens not only once, but twice! In the second verse, the song is in F and the chord structure is the same, with different chords obviously. However, at the end of this second chorus when he hits the V7-vi and ends on the vi (which would be Dm in the key of F), he pushes into the third verse by using that deceptive cadence to make this following verse in Dm, changing the mood of the song to something a little more soulful and jazzy rather than the standard I-IV-V feel we get from a song using the 12-bar blues structure. I think this is just some of the most thoughtful songwriting, and this loophole transition between keys is so fluid, I truly marvel at how well he makes it work.
The last song on the docket for my analysis of There Goes Rhymin’ Simon is not technically an original track, but is featured on the album on Spotify. I had no idea of this songs existence for quite a while, the reason for that being that I strictly listened to this album on the vinyl I have of it, which does not include the bonus demos. However, after spending the entire month of May 2019 listening to Simon’s fifth studio album, Still Crazy After All These Years, I became aware that other albums in his discography incorporated bonus demo tracks. Still Crazy After All These Years features a demo of “Slip Slidin’ Away” and in my opinion, it’s just one of the best string of sounds to ever be recorded. Something about the vulnerability of a demo gets me every time. It’s the acoustic guitar, it’s the unpolished vocals, and it’s the minimal percussion, or coffee house percussion, if you will. It’s knowing that Simon went into the studio and just sat and played his guitar in such a skillful manner, and softly floated out some vocals. That same feeling is what drew me to the “Let me Live in Your City- Work in Progress” demo the first time I heard it.
Talking about the sound of the song, it’s just Simon playing an acoustic and singing. The timbre of the acoustic indicates that he’s playing on nylon strings, which makes sense due to the style of fingerpicking he utilizes in the song. The chord structure is unusually usual (I think I can safely come to the conclusion that Simon’s ability to create an “unusually usual” chord structure in a song is something that I admire…). It’s in E major, and follows a mostly diatonic pattern, with a few lowered 3rds, 6ths, and 7ths here and there, but whatever magic Paul Simon works on this song, he makes it sound like nothing I’ve ever heard before. This demo just exudes the classic Simon sound which is so unique to him— I can hardly describe it. The best I can do it say that it tastes like the color tan and smells like coffee. And, all these feelings are present in this song, somehow. I theorize that it’s the sound of his guitar and vocals paired with the simple yet complex chord progression makes it a true gem.
I haven’t even expressed my love for the lyrics of this track yet. Man, if anyone knows how to write some homesick/gut-wrenching lyrics, it’s Paul Simon. I believe that everyone interprets lyrics differently, like poetry. And, in this song, I interpret the lyrics words as such: We have two people in this relationship, one who keeps a wall up around them, and one who’s on the outside of the wall asking if they can “live in their city,” or essentially if they can be a part of what’s going on in the others life.
I’m writing all the lyrics here so hopefully you can read them and enjoy them as much as I do. I truly couldn't decide which lines were more deserving of a feature in this post, so, here are all of them!
“You’ve got the cool water
When the fever runs high
You got the look of lovelight in your eyes
I was in crazy motion
Til’ you calmed me down
It took a little time
But you calmed me down
Let me live in your city
The river’s so pretty, the air is so fine
Let me room where I can lay over
I’m just a traveler eating up travelin’ time
I’m just a traveler eating up
My travelin’ time
They’ve got a wall in China
It’s a thousand miles long
To keep out the foreigners
They made it strong
And I got a wall around me
You can’t even see
Took a little time
To get to me
Let me live in your city
The river’s so pretty, the air is so fine
Let me room where I can lay over
I’m just a traveler eating up travelin’ time
I’m just a traveler eating up my travelin’ time
Some people never say those words
I love you
It’s not their style to be so bold
Some people never say those words
I love you
But like a child, they’re longing to be told
Let me live in your city
The river’s so pretty, the air is so fine
Let me room where I can lay over
I’m just a traveler eating up travelin’ time
I’m just a traveler eating up
my travelin’ time”
Now, my summarized thoughts on this song are as follows: why the heck is this demo not on the vinyl I have? It’s honestly one of the most beautiful and touching songs I’ve ever heard, and the rawness of a demo is completely unmatched in my eyes. It would have been an amazing edition to the album, and I’m so sad it isn’t on here!
Overall, this album is a winner for me. As I went in depth on this album and studied the three songs I spoke about above, I somehow managed to convince myself further of why this album is Simon’s magnum opus. It has the best overall aesthetic of peaceful, coffee house music that still has the depth and musicality that I personally crave as a musician. It’s rather wonderful!
-Sophie
