Paul Simon: One Trick Pony (Expanded + Remastered) CD Track Listing

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Paul Simon One Trick Pony (Expanded + Remastered) (1980)
2004 Warner Strategic Marketing\n\nOriginally Released October 1983\nCD Edition Released \nRemastered + Expanded CD Edition Released July 13, 2004\n\nAMG EXPERT REVIEW: Though released to coincide with the film One Trick Pony, which Paul Simon wrote and starred in, the One Trick Pony album is not a soundtrack -- at least, not exactly. If it were, it might contain the Simon song "Soft Parachutes" and other non-Simon music featured in the movie. Instead, this is a studio album containing many of the movie songs; the closest thing to a band album Simon ever made, it contains some of his most rhythmic and energetic singing...The title song and the ballads "How the Heart Approaches What It Yearns" and "Nobody" are up to his usual standard...The album spawned a Top Ten hit in "Late in the Evening" and may have sold more copies than the film did tickets... ~ William Ruhlmann\n\nAmazon.com Customer Review\nThink Too Much, September 23, 2001 \nReviewer: Ben C-F (Cedar Falls, IA United States)\nONE TRICK PONY is a strange paradox-- an album and film project with a lot of history and publicity, but hardly any recognition. It seemed to be news at the time when Simon, already a laborious songwriter whose albums took anywhere from two to three years on average to generate, deliberately took time away from making albums, focusing instead on other multimedia, first appearing in a few movies (Annie Hall), then making many appearances on Saturday Night Live (the turkey costume easily his shining moment) and hosting his own low-rating, but really damn funny, television special-- and finally, writing and starring in his own movie with accompanying soundtrack. After years of work, the movie opened, the movie closed, practically within a week of eachother. It showed up on video, occasionally aired on WGN and other networks late at night, and had a mild resurgance on VH1's Movies That Rock. The album, meanwhile, fared better, but still didn't capture audiences or critics in ways his earlier efforts had-- all in all, nothing to destroy a career, but I'm sure it wasn't the reaction Simon hoped for (or expected).\nBut regardless, if you do happen to find this album and take the time to listen to it, you will be pleasently surprised. This is probably Simon's most intellectual album-- the lyrics are very thought-provoking and deep, and being a soundtrack, they revolve around the subject of facing one's own age, realizing that dreams will not always become reality, wondering where it all went wrong, yet still following the one thing that does make sense somehow-- music. "Lord I am a working man, and music is my trade," Simon sings in "God Bless The Absentee." In other songs, such as the wonderful "How The Heart Approaches What It Yearns," Simon beautifully weds simple images ("wondering as the television burns") and brief pastiches of everyday life with the desire, nay, just the question of how and why we desire others. The poetry is moving, abstract but still coherent. There is some brilliant prose on the album-- by this point in his career, Simon was absolutely a master of the English language and carving images out of a few simple words.\nHowever, sometimes, it's a bit much. There's almost too much introspection, a little too much analysis, the songs are all about the same theme and after a while, it gets repetitive. This would not necessarily be a problem (after all, he did somewhat the same thing on "Still Crazy"), except the music tends to suffer the same fate. The sound very strongly recalls "Still Crazy," only on this album Simon actually recruited a house band to play on each song (Tony Levin on bass, Steve Gadd on drums, Richard Tee on keyboards, and Eric Gale on guitar), and so the sound is fairly consistent on each song, while "Still Crazy" offered thematic unity but still had some diversity throughout. Therefore, the album is interesting, at times very moving and brilliant, but also seems monotonous in places.\nNevertheless, there are two absolute Simon classics, and several others that come really friggin close. "Late In The Evening" is one of Simon's funkiest pieces, backed by a powerhouse horn section and just brilliant Steve Gadd rhythms. "Ace In The Hole" is also a great romp, with some of Simon's greatest lyrics: "Some people say music, that's your ace in the hole; Just your ordinary rhythm and blues or your basic rock and roll; You can sit ontop of the beat, you can lean on the side of the beat, you can hang from the bottom of the beat, but you gotta admit that the music is sweet!" "Nobody," "That's Why God Made The Movies," "Oh Marion," and the title track are also great tunes. In fact, each tune is really a teriffic rhymin Simon song, the problem is when placed together they sort of weigh eachother down-- the whole is less than the sum of its parts. It's damn near impossible to call a Simon album weak, and this album is by no means weak-- it's just a little weaker than some of his other work. But get it-- it is essential Paul Simon, and required for any collection. You will enjoy it, believe me!! \n\nHalf.com Album Credits\nEric Gale, Contributing Artist\nJoe Beck, Contributing Artist\nJon Faddis, Contributing Artist\nPatti Austin, Contributing Artist\nRichard Tee, Contributing Artist\nTony Levin, Contributing Artist\nJim Boyer, Engineer\nPhil Ramone, Engineer\nPaul Simon, Producer\nPhil Ramone, Producer\n\nAlbum Notes\nPersonnel: Paul Simon (vocals, guitar, percussion); Richard Tee (vocals, piano, tambourine); Patti Austin (vocals); Hugh McCracken (acoustic guitar, slide guitar); John Tropea (acoustic guitar); Eric Gale, Hiram Bullock, Jeff Mironov, Joe Beck (electric guitar); Jon Faddis (flugelhorn); Don Grolnick (synthesizer); Tony Levin (bass guitar, background vocals); Anthony Jackson (bass guitar); Steve Gadd (drums); Ralph MacDonald (percussion); Lani Groves (background vocals).\n\nRecording information: A&R Studios; The Hit Factory, New York City.\n\nThe 1980 film ONE TRICK PONY starred and featured the music of Paul Simon, who portrayed a singer-songwriter of considerably less renown than himself. Full of heart, humor and realism, it's one of the best music-oriented dramas extant, and this soundtrack album is equally substantial. ONE TRICK PONY marked an important turning point in Simon's artistic development. Though his musical sophistication had grown, previous to this album his lyrical approach was still oriented towards the linear storytelling style he began with in the '60s. Here, Simon began to develop a more poetic, imagistic approach to lyric-writing.While the salsa horn section of the hit "Late In The Evening" foreshadows Simon's later cultural experiments, it's tracks like "Jonah" and "Oh, Marion" that really tell of things to come. In the former, Simon plumbs the biblical metaphor, skillfully interspersing it with more autobiographical-sounding details. On the latter, he uses metaphysical, slightly surreal imagery to tell the story of a man at odds with his own emotions. Both tunes are representative of the great literary leap Simon's writing took with ONE TRICK PONY, an album full of inventively constructed lyrics matched with Simon's usual harmonic sophistication.
This folk cd contains 14 tracks and runs 50min 35sec.
Freedb: be0bd90e

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