Paul Simon - Greatest Hits, Etc.

As a kid, Simon & Garfunkel were done right around the same time The Beatles broke up. I knew many of their songs, of course. I loved music, and my little radio was a lifeline to happiness. Still, the music that would really start to get into my musical DNA arrived in a big way for me when I was around 10 years old. This was a magical time; it seemed like every other day there was a song that became my new favourite. Some songs, of course, would get lodged deeper than others. I wasn't looking back, I was living in the moment.

One of those "new" songs was "Kodachrome" that came out in 1973. It was catchy and all, but really what sealed it for me was singing along to the opening line, "When I think back on all the crap I learned in high school ..." It was awesome, and it had the word crap in it. This was the same guy who sang about Julio who apparently was down by the schoolyard.

I didn't consider myself a huge Paul Simon fan, and aside from the songs I'd hear on the radio growing up, I never really went out of my way to pick up any of his records. Like many people, I picked up The Concert in Central Park back in '82, and it served as my first real introduction to the duo and Paul's solo material. From there I'd pick up Paul's solo albums as they came out, starting in 1983 when he released Hearts and Bones, an album I loved ... okay, liked. There were two songs that really stood out for me. The first was a seemingly throwaway song called "Allergies" that featured Al Di Meola's searing lead guitar work, and the second was the haunting "Rene and Georgette Magritte with Their Dog after the War" that just got me in the feels. There was a third too, if I'm being honest, and that was "The Late Great Johnny Ace," a beautiful song. It was also the only album during his commercial run that didn't go gold.

Anyway, I digress.

So here I am decades after this was released, and it's the only Paul Simon anthology in my collection. The album came out in 1977, two years after his previous release Still Crazy After All These Years, and it would be another three years after his Greatest Hits, Etc. that he'd release One Trick Pony. I've always tended to think of Paul as a prolific writer, as he always seemed to be on the periphery of the public eye, but in reality he was a craftsman and new music came when it was ready.

The Etc. component of the compilation was put right up front. I didn't know until reading up on the album that "Slip Slidin' Away" came out on this record. As did the following track, "Stranded in a Limousine," which wasn't a hit, and remains on the etcetera side of the ledger. However, the album hits (ha ha ha) almost all the spots you'd expect. Somehow I had expected to see "My Little Town" somewhere on the track list, but it was the right choice in leaving it off. This is about Paul's solo work, and to include a nod to his previous musical endeavour could be distracting.

Paul always seemed to be a bit of an enigma who conveyed a degree of seriousness that is likely more of an act of deliberate deception than the reality. I've always loved Paul's voice and phrasing and his guitar playing (he is a master player). There's a raw emotional element to his delivery that just works. Of course, as a kid, seeing Paul play in a turkey suit on Saturday Night Live certainly made him seem like a pretty amazing dude. Watching him play with George Harrison on that same show (a different episode) cemented that opinion.

For me, as a layman, the album is a near perfect companion to Paul's '70s output. Of course, I wish that the label, or Paul, hadn't included the live version of "American Tune." I liked the studio version. However, the other live track, "Duncan," was pretty cool. I think it depends on your reference ... and I wasn't familiar with "Duncan," so the version here is my point of reference.

The depth and breadth of Paul's writing and ability to incorporate various musical influences was on display early on. From "Me and Julio Down by the School Yard" to the straight-ahead pop of "Kodachrome," Paul was always chasing his muse. Greatest Hits albums are more often than not a summation of a career, and often there really aren't that many hits. In this case it was just a stopgap that gathered up a slew of hits and other songs before Paul would reinvent himself yet again.

Styx - Paradise Theater

Styx was hands down one of my favourite bands as a kid. They were a strange band, even back then. They were a hard rock band, almost progressive at times, who had a penchant for sucky ballads. I know there's a tendency for people to zero in on "Babe" as the song that killed the band's credibility. The roots go way back to almost the beginning when Styx released "Lady" on their second album. It showed a side to the band that needed to be kept in check, and for the most part the band kept things on a pretty tight leash. The band had been setting a gruelling pace, releasing an album a year (two in 1972) and by the time they released Paradise Theater (if I end up writing theatre later it's because that's how we spell it here) in 1981 they'd dropped ten albums in less than a decade. I snapped this up as soon as I saw it, and it became a fixture on my turntable. Like the band had announced on "Borrowed Time" from 1979's Cornerstone , ...

David Baerwald - Bedtime Stories

The little sticker on the shrinkwrap says, "You may remember David Baerwald from David & David's Boomtown ..." You bet, I remembered David Baerwald. Back in 1986 Boomtown was an album with moments of sheer brilliance. The whole album may not have been as top shelf as the first few tracks, but that didn't matter - it is an excellent album. I waited for a follow-up ... and waited, and then in 1990 it was a solo David, David Baerwald, who dropped Bedtime Stories . I snapped it up. "All For You," the opening cut, is still my favourite song on the album. It was mesmerizing. I'm not sure if the song got any airplay, it may have, but that may have been wishful thinking on my part as it was on a lot of mix tapes at the time and I heard it a lot in the car. The CD had a great booklet with all of the musician credits and lyrics. Oddly, when I found a sealed copy of the record (a great score), it just had a plain paper insert - the picture of David walking wit...

Gary Numan - The Pleasure Principle

"Cars" was really the only song I knew by Gary Numan. I knew the name of the album the song came from. Over the years bits and pieces of trivia are accumulated, but in terms of his music it was still distilled down to one song ... It would be too easy to write Mr. Numan off as a one hit wonder, and I suppose in terms of actual chart hits this was his defining moment as a solo artist. Of course this really means nothing, as Gary Numan would drop an album a year pretty much through to the end of the '80s. He'd then slow down a little but continued to make music. While The Pleasure Principle was Gary Numan's debut solo release in '79, he actually cut his teeth on a couple of albums in a band called Tubeway Army, first with the band's self-titled release in 1978, and then on Replicas that came out in April of '79. By the end of Tubeway Army's run most of the band would follow Gary into his solo career. Paul Gardiner, who had been with Gary from the b...

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