PAUL SIMON PAUL SIMON PLUS

Including only two cuts from the must-own Paul Simon plus the live version of a third, adding two quizzical new songs, and unerringly selecting the most durable tracks from Rhymin' Simon and Still Crazy-I'd replace the overly quizzical (or else arrogantly insular) 'Have a Good Time' with 'Was a Sunny Day' (pure bliss plus Roches) or 'You're Kind' (the fifty-first way to leave your lover), but that's a matter of personal ideology, and the omission of S&G's actually-a-hit 'My Little Town' more than makes up. As you may not have noticed, Simon takes this as a cue to revert to the sophomoricism of 'Richard Cory' and 'The Sound of Silence'-'a finger on the trigger of a gun' indeed. As you probably know, Art Garfunkel is back for one number. I hope in 1977 I'm not moved to praise unduly the small, self-involved ironies that define this record at its best ('50 Ways to Leave Your Lover,' 'You're Kind') without alleviating its lugubriousness ('Night Game,' 'Silent Eyes'). Now I miss its intimations of universality. I resented the patina of cheerfulness on There Goes Rhymin' Simon (1973) because I thought it sold out the terse, evocative candor of Paul Simon (1972). Not for nothing is he a studio obsessive. You get the Jessy Dixon Singers' rendition of 'Jesus Is the Answer,' you get some improvised 'yes I would's, you get several S&G songs sans G, and you get lots of inferior remakes. But I have my doubts about Kodachrome too. None of which is bad or dishonest-it suggests a new grace and flexibility for the mass-pop mode, and invests small subjects and emotions with an almost luminous wit and awareness. The lyrics celebrate domestic satisfactions and seem to find political ambiguities more curious than ominous. The vocals are softer, smoothed over with borrowed or double-tracked harmonies, and the pep shots from more specialized styles (by the Dixie Hummingbirds, the Onward Brass Band) less speedy. Quite consciously-why do you think the new single is so equivocal about the phony hues Kodachrome lays on reality?-Simon sacrifices the manic-depressive range of his solo debut in search of an equivalent for S&G's all-encompassing homiletic pleasantness. William Carlos Williams after the repression: 'Peace Like a River.' A+ The self-production is economical and lively, with the guitars of Jerry Hahn and Stefan Grossman and Airto Moreira's percussion especially inspired.

PAUL SIMON PAUL SIMON PROFESSIONAL

And the words! This is a professional tour of Manhattan for youth culture grads, complete with Bella Abzug, hard rain, and people who steal your chow fong. I hope Art Garfunkel is gone for good-he always seemed so vestigial, but it's obvious now that two-part harmony crippled Simon's naturally agile singing and composing. I've been saying nasty things about Simon since 1967, but this is the only thing in the universe to make me positively happy in the first two weeks of February 1972. The Concert in the Park-August 15th, 1991.Negotiations and Love Songs 1971-1986 B.Paul Simon in Concert: Live Rhymin' C+.

Paul simon paul simon