Paul Simon

Fourth gig of the week; Paul Simon at Hyde Park. And it didn't rain, for all the dark clouds. But of course the Park had taken on a lot of water in the last week (like me) and so they had chucked 8000 cubic metes of wood chip on the place to give some semblance of dry solid ground beneath our feet. If you don't know what 8000 cubic metres of wood chip looks like, well its like this.

Unfortunately I can't offer you the smell too, which is rather musty.

Anyway, I have to say this was the most expensive gig of the week and by far the least satisfying. Part of the problem I admit was me. I booked my ticket ages ago as I wanted to see old Paul Simon before he was too old to perform. So here was his 25th anniversary of Graceland tour, and I wanted to see it. But the rest of the bill, announced later, just didn't have anything in it that I liked. No doubt good if you liked that sort of thing, but I didn't.

 I arrived too late in the Rising stars tent to see much of a young indie band Bwani Junction who, from the one song I heard, seemed rather promising.

Venturing back to the main stage I watched the Punch Brothers, a bluegrass outfit based in New York.  I am sure they are very good of their type, but not for me. I felt they were playing for their own enjoyment, not ours.

I also got talking to this bloke who had spent some time in Australia and was now in England trying to catch some folk music. He explained that he had gone to the Stonehenge festival but it wasn't really a festival, just a lot of people taking drugs. So he left before seeing the summer solstice. I did rather feel like saying, what did you expect? Who else is going to hang around Stonehenge on a cold and wet night but a group of nutters high on drugs? It is one misfortune of our nation that while we have people who will defend our heritage with steely determination, as soon as a group of cretins claim they have a religion (Druidism!) we invite them to loaf around our archaeological treasures and smoke weed.

Anyway, the guy was just telling me how he was getting into traditional story-telling and he was writing some stuff himself that I felt it was time to move on before he recited some tale of Scottish crofters in the 19th century. So I headed back to the newcomers tent and came across a young Scottish singer songwriter Nina Nesbitt. Her strong suit was undoubtedly her delicate waif-like beauty. Nice enough voice too, but there are plenty of these sort of artists strumming guitars. Not sure there is room for more. But definitely the most photogenic act on the bill.

So then I returned to the main stage in time to ensure that I would have a place near the front for the great man. I caught in the meantime the performance of Alison Krauss & Union Station. Now if you like Country music then this would be for you. Great voice, great musicians. But I don't. Nice sense of humour though. After one song Alison announced that the band liked that one because they like sad songs. And that one contained just about everything bad that can happen in life. A smorgasbord of sadness. Now I too will happily dabble in melancholy, but not this sort. Perhaps something a little more up-to-the-minute than songs about the dust bowl depression?

So finally to Paul Simon. An odd set. Possibly due to his age (he is over 70) it was broken up by a number of guests, not coming on to play with him, but instead of him. The early part of the set was taken up with his own solo standards, Mother and Child Reunion, 50 Ways to Leave your Lover, Slip slidin' away, Me and Julio down by the Schoolyard, etc.

Jimmy Cliff came on to perform a couple of numbers (inevitably the Harder they Come and Many Rivers to Cross). He is in his sixties now, but the voice is still great.

 While in other "Album" concerts I have been to, the artist does the whole album and then does some greatest hits from the rest of his career, Paul did Graceland bit by bit, interspersed with slots from his African collaborators, like Ladysmith Black Mumbaza (great singers and entertainers) and Hugh Masekele (about whom I am less enthusiastic. Ok the apartheid era is more recent than the dust bowl depression, but still its long over. How about songs about Mugabe's oppression in Zimbabwe? Not as twee as freedom fighters.) He finished the set with Graceland and You Can Call Me Al, the best known tracks from Graceland.

One of Paul Simon's greatest achievements is the way he adapted so many styles over the years, folk, African, reggae, but its his adaptations I liked, not the raw materials. 

Then he came out on his own for the encore and played two Simon & Garfunkel songs, Sound of Silence and the Boxer. At that point I realised that was what I really wanted to hear. They are so beautiful and poignant. I wish I had been able to see Simon & Garfunkel, but I think age has overtaken Art. Ah well. But frankly Paul Simon never improved on that early part of his career. Even Graceland isn't up to his pre-1970 work with Art.