Poets for a Generation: Paul Simon, John Denver, and ...

. Paul Simon's genius cannot be narrowed to a particular genre. He first came to our attention as half of the wonderful singing duo of Simon and Garfunkel, who became well known in the late sixties. Paul Simon's talent with both words and lyrics is amazing. A few of his songs stayed with us for years, e.g. Mrs Robinson, from the film The Graduate. The sarcastic wit in that song was beginning to define him, when fortunately for us there was a relief from its endless repetition on the airwaves. Along with Mrs Robinson was Sound of Silence (a youthful effort drenched with images of alienation) as well as a number of songs written while the duo spent some time in England, such as Kathy's Song, one of my all time favorites. Its most poignant lines are:

So you see, I have come to doubt The things that I once held as true, I stand alone, without beliefs, The only truth I know is you.

Unfortunately (and rather anticlimactically, in my opinion,) he follows with the last verse:

And as I watch the drops of rain Weave their weary paths and die, I know that I am like the rain: There but for the grace of you go I

I really don't have words to describe this almost-but-not-quite-perfect song, with its simple and unassuming tune and accompaniment. One almost has to be a twenty-something to be able to articulate what it is about this song that makes it timeless. The early album Wednesday Morning, 3 A.M. has some rare gems that are well worth reviving, e.g. Who will love a little sparrow? (I must check the title and correct that; it may well be simply "Sparrow".) Sound of Silence is there, in the early acoustic version, as well as Bleecker Street, and the amazing Last Night I had the Strangest Dream, a song by Ed McCurdy whose cheerful irony suited the voices of Simon and Garfunkel beautifully. The album also features some gospel songs by the duo which are rarely heard, as well as a couple of Bob Dylan songs, performed beautifully. America is a gorgeous, evocative song that chronicles a time when folks were becoming more mobile, and the society of the sixties was becoming enriched by all strata discovering each other, something that was mostly restricted to a few in earlier years. It has been many years since a typical student would get into a Greyhound and embark on a big adventure. Oh for those days again! The furious gasoline consumption of the seventies may have given an illusion of even greater mobility, but it was a mobility that kept young people essentially insulated from the world they were supposed to be discovering. After the deregulation of the airlines, of course, we only discover our destinations, and nothing along the way except a few lonely bacteria on the planes. The Boxer is another poignant ode to the misery of surviving The City. Paul Simon described The City in many songs with the sensibility of an outsider, until later, in his solo albums one sees The City as merely background. Still Crazy after All these Years describes an encounter of a pair of former lovers, but the City is no longer a hostile environment, but rather a neutral one. That song also shows Simon's amazing ability to import other musical styles into his idiom. The tired wailing saxophone beautifully captures the fatigue of many nights out in the city, a happy but weary sound that says, same old, same old, but still manages to be a lovely interlude. I have a special soft spot for American Tune, set to an old German hymn tune by Hans Hassler, I believe, but an appropriate backdrop for Simon's Poem. The song Slip Sliding Away, which is interesting, reminds me of the year my daughter was born in the middle of a snowstorm, and the Hammond organ evokes the misery of those days in the hospital (and the delight of what we brought home) by association.

I know a father who had a son He longed to tell him all the reasons for the things he'd done He came a long way just to explain He kissed his boy as he lay sleeping Then he turned around and headed home again Chorus God only knows, God makes his plan The information's unavailable to the mortal man Were working our jobs, collect our pay Believe we're gliding down the highway, when in fact we're slip sliding away

John Denver, in contrast to Paul Simon, found his forte in depicting the beauty of nature, and the joys of simple things. His beloved Rocky Mountains, and the pleasure of high, isolated places formed the core of his early songs (or at least the earliest of his songs that I remember). The theme of flight was present -even if tangentially- in one of his earliest songs: Leaving on a Jet Plane, made popular by Peter Paul and Mary (who sing it here). As we know, ironically, it was while flying an unconventional single-seater plane that Denver tragically met his end. Other songs that are highly recognizable are: Follow Me, Carolina in my Mind, Take me Home, Country Roads, Starwood in Aspen, The Eagle and the Hawk, Rocky Mountain High, Goodbye Again, and the unforgettable Annie's Song, featuring a children's chorus. Though, like Paul Simon's lyrics, John Denver's poetry was intensely personal, they were less private. Even when addressing a theme such as the loneliness of the traveling artist, in Leaving on a Jet Plane, and the similar song by Gordon Lightfoot: Early Mornin' Rain, John Denver (and Gordon Lightfoot) are restrained. It may be that very restraint that makes the songs effective. Archimedes