DISQUS

Popdose: DVD Review: “Paul Simon and Friends: The Library of Congress Gershwin Prize for Popular Song”

  • DwDunphy · 7 months ago
    Felt the exact same way when it was aired on PBS. Being a huge Simon and Garfunkel fan and always picturing him looking his puckish prime, it's a shock for this pale, guitar-playing Yoda to take center stage... But man, did they coordinate this one well.

    Judging from the track record for PBS' Mark Twain Prize shows for humor, the next Gershwin Prize honoree's special is going to suck it.
  • hemisphire · 7 months ago
    You're right about the next honoree's special - and it featured a so-so performance by Simon:
    http://www.pbs.org/inperformanceatthewhitehouse/
  • JonCummings · 7 months ago
    Dude, you shoulda seen the early shows on the Graceland tour. Definitely the most animated I've seen him, in numerous pilgrimages to his shows. Bob Cashill could also recount how he, my girlfriend and I wormed our way backstage post-concert at the Chicago Lyric Opera House (I had finagled an interview with Simon for the Daily Northwestern a couple months before), only to be left cooling our heels while Simon had an hourlong tete-a-tete with Oprah and the other Paul Simon (the senator with the bow ties). Finally they all emerged from the dressing room and walked past us, smiling the types of smiles that said "this backstage party was way out of your league, college boys."

    Alison Krauss' rendition of "Graceland" at this show is one of the greatest interpretations I've ever heard. I don't understand why it hasn't seen official release on CD/download -- maybe she's waiting for her next compilation.

    And one more thing: "Satin Summer Nights" and "Time is an Ocean" -- two wonderful songs from The Capeman.
  • Theosticles · 7 months ago
    Paul Simon has aged better than Billy Joel?
    It would seem your eyesight has not aged as well as either of them.
  • jefito · 7 months ago
    Dude, they both look like hell. Does it really matter who looks worse?
  • Thierry · 7 months ago
    At least Joel never went through a series of combovers, hairpieces, and Barbra Walters-like fuzzy cover photographs like Simon - but yeah, those two, as well as James Taylor, clearly look their age and more. In fact, last year I got my mom the James Taylor One-Man Band cd, and having not lived in North America for most of the last 30 years, she hadn't seen him physically probably since the mid/late 70s. Let's just say she was a bit shocked to see that voice coming out of that old, bald man...
  • DwDunphy · 7 months ago
    The trick would be to start off looking like crap, and then gradually easing into your ugliness. Iggy Pop is a genius.
  • BobCashill · 7 months ago
    I saw Lou Reed at the Broadway production of BLITHE SPIRIT last Friday. He looked 20 years older than co-star Angela Lansbury.

    I remember that Simon show. And I remember him leading an array of Cantopop stars in "Bridge Over Troubled Water" as a memoriam to Chinese flood victims when the "Rhythm of the Saints" tour hit Hong Kong in the early 90s. Lovely.