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ALBUM REVIEW

PAUL SIMON

There Goes Rhymin' Simon

Released - May, 1973, on Colombia (now Warner Bros.) Records. Produced by Paul Simon and co-produced by Phil Ramone, Muscle Shoals Sound Rhythm Section, Roy Halee and Paul Samwell-Smith.

Paul Simon - Lead and Backing Vocals, Acoustic Guitars and Percussion

Additional Personnel: Guitars: Pete Carr, Cornell Dupree, Jimmy Johnson, David Spinozza, Alexander Gafa, Richard Davis, Jerry Puckett; Bass: David Hood, Bob Cranshaw, Gordon Edwards, Vernie Robbins; Piano: Barry Beckett, Paul Griffin, Bob James, Bobby Scott; Vibes: Barry Beckett, Don Elliott; Organ: Carson Witsett; Drums: Roger Hawkins, Rick Marotta, James Straud, Grady Tate; Percussion: Roger Hawkins, Airto Moreira Horns: Onward Brass Band; Backing Vocals: The Dixie Hummingbirds (on "Tenderness"), Maggie & Terre Roche (on "Was a Sunny Day"); Vocal Harmonies: The Dixie Hummingbirds (on "Loves Me Like A Rock"); Falsetto: Rev. Claude Jeter (on "Take Me To the Mari Gras")

All songs written by Paul Simon

REVIEW

Paul Simon's second solo album, There Goes Rhymin' Simon, with its very mellow collection of songs, will remind you of his debut solo LP Paul Simon, but overall, this one is just a bit better.

The LP starts off with the song "Kodachrome", one you still hear on the radio today, even if they don't make Kodachrome film anymore - who would had thought such a thing back in the 1970s? But this is an excellent tune, and the second best one on the album; what a great pick for the lead-off spot, even if it is one of the faster tracks found on the album.

The best song on There Goes Rhymin' Simon is "Take Me To The Mardi Gras". Damn, I can listen to this one over and over and never grow tried of it. Perhaps it's just what the song is about as to why I love it so, as I always wanted to go to the Mardi Gras and never have (not to the real one in New Orleans, anyway). But there is just a fantastic feeling I get from this tune in the way it is sang and played, and the horns that come on at the song's ending fit in perfectly!

There are three more great songs found on here. First a gospel number about motherly love, "Loves Me Like A Rock", which features The Dixie Hummingbirds on vocal harmony, boy could those cats belt out a song! Then another excellent song involving parenthood, "St. Judy's Comet". This a bedtime song Paul wrote about and for his young son, one that years later I found myself singing to my own son. Yet you don't have to be a parent to dig either of these two songs, as they hit the spot just right.

The last of the "great" songs on There Goes Rhymin' Simon is "American Tune". You almost can't be too sure where Paul is going lyric wise with this one, it could have been more uplifting perhaps, but still, the lyrics are trying to say something positive out of all of the negative forces out there bombarding mankind.

All of the other songs found on here are very good, simple, and easy going tunes that you only have to hear two or three times to be hooked on them. Paul Simon had a knack for doing that back when he sang with Art Garfunkel, and once he went solo he never lost that special touch - both in this singing, and with his writing style, heck, the title of this album could not have said it better about him!

- Keno 2007

To listen to some soundclips from There Goes Rhymin' Simon or to purchase it, click on: There Goes Rhymin' Simon

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