ALBUM: There Goes Rhymin’ Simon (1973}
MVC Ratjngs 4.5/$$$$
It’s the wonderful Paul Simon being Paul Simon. Great album featuring several classic songs. It’s Paul Simon, who on this record in 1973 got the word ‘crap’ on Top 40 radio.
‘When I think back on all the crap I learned in high school, it’s a wonder I can think at all.’
I was 13 or 14 and was digging it. When you’re a teenager, you have to feel aggrieved about something. And so I was already identifying with how worthless high school was going to be — and I haven’t even gone yet!
The other song here that just killed was ‘Love Me Like a Rock backed by a gospel choir. Radio friendly singalong.
The two hits, ‘Kodachrome’ and ‘Love Me Like A Rock’ bookend the album with Kodachrome being the first slot and “Love Me” closes out the album on the second side. In between are mostly stellar songs that showcase Simon’s fantastic voice and songwriting. It also showed him stepping across genres and experimenting with world music which would later become a significant pursuit of his.
Back to Kodachrome. This is a well written song. I particularly liked the line:
Well now my lack of education hadn’t hurt me none, i can read the writing on the wall.
Made me think, I don’t know why, to Simon and Garfunkel’s Sound of Silence: “And the words of the prophets were written on the subway walls.”