Paul Simon
American singer-songwriter and guitarist, half of the folk-singing duo Simon and Garfunkel who continues a successful solo career.
When I look back on all the crap I learned in high school,
It's a wonder I can think at all,
And though my lack of education hasn't hurt me none,
I can read the writing on the wall.
Take me. I'm an ordinary player in the key of C.
And my will was broken by my pride and my vanity.
Who's gonna love you when you're looks are gone?
God will. Like he waters the flowers on your window sill.
Then I learned to play some lead guitar, I was underage in this funky bar
And I stepped outside to smoke myself a j
When I came back to the room, everybody just seemed to move
And I turned my amp up loud and I began to play.
Moves like a fist through traffic,
Anger and no-one can kill it,
Shoves a little bump to the momentum,
It's just a little lump but you feel it
In the creases and the shadows,
With a rattling deep emotion.
The cool, cool river
Sweeps the wild, wide ocean.
Sonny sits by his window and thinks to himself,
How it's strange that some rooms are like cages,
Sonny's yearbook from high school is down from the shelf,
And he idly thumbs through the pages,
Some have died, some have fled from themselves,
On a struggle from here to get there,
Sonny wanders beyond his interior walls,
Runs his hands through his thinning brown hair.
We don't mean to mess things up,
But mess them up we do.
And then it's "Oh, I'm sorry."
Here's a smiling photograph
Of love when it was new.
At a birthday party.
Make a wish and close your eyes:
Surprise, surprise, surprise.
It's outrageous to line your pockets off the misery of the poor.
Outrageous, the crimes some human beings must endure.
It's a blessing to wash your face in the summer solstice rain.
It's outrageous a man like me stand here and complain.
But I'm tired.
Time, time, time, see what's become of me,
While I looked around for my possibilities,
I was so hard to please,
But look around, the leaves are brown,
And the sky is a hazy shade of winter.
This is near enough true bliss.
It's a turn-around jump-shot,
It's everybody jump-start, it's,
Every generation throws a hero up the pop-charts,
Medicine is magical and magical is art,
Think of the boy in the bubble and the baby with the baboon heart...
I get all the news I need from the weather report.
Kodachrome,
They give us those nice bright colours,
Give us the greens of summers,
Makes you think all the world's a sunny day,
Oh, yeah, I got a Nikon camera,
I love to take a photograph,
So Mama, don't take my Kodachrome away.
She's a rich girl,
She don't try to hide it,
Diamonds on the soles of her shoes,
He's a poor boy,
Empty as a pocket,
Empty as a pocket with nothing to lose,
Sing ta-na-na, ta-na-na-na,
She got diamonds on the soles of her shoes.
Cecilia, you're breaking my heart
You're shaking my confidence daily
Oh, Cecilia, I'm down on my knees
I'm begging you please to come home.
I'm sitting in the railway station.
Got a ticket to my destination.
On a tour of one-night stands my suitcase and guitar in hand.
And ev'ry stop is neatly planned for a poet and a one-man band.
I'm going to Graceland, Graceland,
Memphis, Tennessee,
Well, I'm going to Graceland.
Poor boys and pilgrims with families
And we are going to Graceland,
And my travelling companion is nine years old,
He is the child of my first marriage,
But I've reason to believe
We both will be received in Graceland.
First thing I remember when you came into my life
I said I wanna get that girl, no matter what I do
Well I guess I've been in love before and once or twice have been on the floor
But I've never loved no-one the way that I love you.
Home where my thought's escaping,
Home where my music's playing,
Home where my love lies waiting
Silently for me.
The Mississippi Delta was shining like a National guitar,
I am following the river down the highway
Through the cradle of the Civil War.
Someone told me
It's all happening at the zoo.
I do believe it,
I do believe it's true.