But its expansive geniality – the warming-reggae optimism of “Mother and Child Reunion,” recorded in Jamaica the adolescent vigor and spindly Hispanic bounce of “Me and Julio Down by the Schoolyard” – was perfect pop in design and delivery. In the wake of Bridge’s massive success and deliberate grandeur, the first album of Simon’s new solo career seemed musically spare and more modest in reach. But the friendship, never as strong as the vocal bond, was doomed.
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The duo’s final studio album veered with meticulous poise from the title hymn – an enduring monument to spiritually inclusive healing and truly angelic singing – to poignant anthropology (“El Condor Pasa”), crisp rockabilly (“Keep the Customer Satisfied”) and baroque-folk majesty (“The Boxer”). Further Listening: Simon and Garfunkel, Bridge Over Troubled Water (1970) “It seems like our fate/To suffer and wait for the knowledge we seek,” he sang. As a young folk singer, Simon was reflective beyond his years here, as he turned 70, he addressed lingering questions (“The Afterlife”) and continued blessings (“Love and Hard Times”) with the craft and curiosity of an affable perpetual seeker. So Beautiful or So What was his most relaxed album – less dense in its tonal and rhythmic experimentation, breezy and vibrant in its Afro-folk step and ruminative spirit. Two and a half decades after Graceland, Simon reminded us why he remained a master. Must-Have: So Beautiful or So What (2011) What he started there was in fact an album about walls falling and chains breaking, heard ’round the world. Simon was criticised for violating a cultural boycott by recording in the apartheid state. Lyrically, Graceland has some of Simon’s most pictorial yet fluid writing (“The Boy in the Bubble,” “Diamonds on the Soles of Her Shoes”), made more vivid by the nimble charge of his South African sidemen and the ethereal soul of the great Zulu choir Ladysmith Black Mambazo. Simon’s long road to completion also passed through Louisiana’s Cajun country and landed, in spirit, at Elvis Presley’s Memphis home. Its rough kick and contagious joy led Simon to the source and a set of sessions in Johannesburg in February 1985. This improbable triumph began with a cassette of South African black-township music, given to Simon by a friend. “Still,” he sang, “tomorrow’s going to be another working day.” Must-Have: Graceland (1986) “American Tune” connected immigrants’ dreams with exhaustion from Vietnam and Nixon. In this earthy tour of America’s diverse musical character, Simon found liberating inspiration and a literal army of singers and players to help him feel at home in every genre – including New Orleans’ Onward Brass Band, in the strut of “Take Me to the Mardi Gras,” and the Dixie Hummingbirds, in the robust prayer “Loves Me Like a Rock.” The slinky “Kodachrome” highlighted his knack for turning the familiar into probing metaphor.
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“They’re all that’s left you.” Must-Have: There Goes Rhymin’ Simon (1973)
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But Side One was an exquisite suite of urgency and remembering – the distance and despair within families in “Save the Life of My Child,” the passing of this nation’s ideals in “America” – ending with the eerie, prophetic intimacy of “Old Friends” and the early warning in “Bookends Theme.” “Preserve your memories,” the duo sang. Side Two was ultimately an unrelated melange of recent singles. These high school pals from Queens were three years into their stardom – the biggest, most creatively ambitious act to come out of the folk revival since Bob Dylan – when they made this classic, gorgeous and unprecedented album: a look back at the Sixties even before they ended, as hard lessons and now-distant dreams. Must-Have: Simon and Garfunkel, Bookends (1968) Tarantino's trail of bread crumbs leads to the French New Wave.Here is our comprehensive guide to his life’s work, from 1957 up through the present, broken up into the must-haves, suggested further listening and the deeper, more obscure cuts for those keen to get fully immersed.
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The Charlie Rose Tarantino Interview, October 14, 1994ģD Stills by Phil McNally from his short film, Pump Action, the interrogation of Mr. Greg the Bunny doing a long & lame Pulp Fiction spoof in 2005 Pulp Fiction in 30 seconds, re-enacted by bunnies, and the 13 other 30-Second Bunnies movies by “Angry Alien” More top-rated YTMNDs than you can shake a stick at Pulp Fiction completely cut & edited for the small screen.