Secret Meeting score: 74
by Phil Scarisbrick
Although his current Homeward Bound tour is being labelled as his ‘farewell tour’, many people are dubious that one of popular music’s greatest scribes will really call it a day. With a career spanning six decades, it is easy to see why he may well want to take a step back from the arduous task of touring the world. Even at the highest level, living out of a suitcase and hopping from hotel to hotel must become laborious. There are always two sides to the coin with music though, and if the live shows fade away, there is still the recording studio. To coincide with the tour, Simon has released In The Blue Light- a collection of reimagined songs from his catalogue, ranging from 1973’s There Goes Rhymin’ Simon all the way up to 2011’s So Beautiful or So What.
It would be easy to see this project as a money grab, and the recycling of old material as an opportunity to make even more money from his swansong. That is until you see the track listing. The songs picked by Simon are are ones he “thought were almost right, or were odd enough to be overlooked the first time around”, which makes the record a much more interesting prospect. As much as I love his better known songs, we don’t need to hear a reworking of The Boxer or You Can Call Me Al as the originals are perfect the way they are.
Can’t Run But from 1990’s The Rhythm of the Saints is presented here with a jagged, percussive string-section backing that shares a haunting urgency with The Beatles’ Eleanor Rigby. One Man’s Ceiling Is Another Man’s Floor is recast as a jazz composition with its piano and drum base, taking a much more wistful approach than the honky tonk blues of the original.
Probably the best known song in the collection is 1983’s René and Georgette Margritte With Their Dog After The War. Here we hear more urgency with a waltzy orchestral backing that gives it a fresh tone. Another hallmark of the ‘Paul Simon Sound’ is his impeccable finger-picked guitar. The Teacher displays this quality with frenetic, six-string gymnastics providing the bedrock for the other standout feature, his voice.
The National’s Bryce Dessner, trumpeter Wynton Marsalis, and instrumental ensemble yMusic all feature on the album offering fresh ideas to Simon’s originals. Dessner’s involvement in the PEOPLE project – spearheaded with twin brother Aaron and Bon Iver’s Justin Vernon – showed that it is fine to show your audience the work-in-progress before presenting what you feel is the finished article. Simon’s decision to take another look at these tracks at this point shows a similar boldness to embrace new ideas and change what he may have considered in the past as being that finished article. Though many of the rearrangements are only subtle shifts from their original presentations, they all have a different energy. In fact, the only thing that doesn’t shift is Simon’s still-pristine voice. But, at times, that actually works against the music as it doesn’t feel like he has changed at all in all those years.
At 76 years old, it is easy to see why Simon wishes to wind down his career, but when he is still seemingly having so much fun, you can’t help but feel like this sojourn into retirement may be temporary. Even if he sticks to his guns, at least we know that the flame still burns.
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