10 Songs That Will Reduce An Open Heart To Tears: #9

I wonder, is it mainly because it’s my life? My whole, exact life sung back to me?

To this day, every single time, I simply cannot believe it. How could anyone have done this?

Why do I even attempt to write songs about my own life when this one says it all?

Do I think it’s because I, too have spent countless nights “by the bodegas and the lights on upper broadway?”

Or feeling like a “poor boy, empty as a pocket with nothing to lose?”

Or even because, as a good buddy of mine reminds me, I’ve always shot way above my paygrade when it comes to women?

Not mostly.

I tend to think it’s because Paul Simon is as rare and unique (and brilliant) a songwriter as has ever walked the Earth.

But maybe that’s just me. (I kinda doubt it).

So, maybe it’s a very personal connection which breaks open my internal floodgates every time I hear those agelessly perfect Ladysmith Black Mambazo voices laying a rhythmic cloud-pillow..

Just on the crest of which enters the voice of the quintessential boy – just on the off-beat – and then skims along like a benevolent child-spirit in a hurricane?

Or is it the quintessential city boy? Or just the quintessential me? I’ll never know.

In any case, this one destroys me. Every time.

Enjoy. And remember…

Who knows how many times you’ll actually hear this gem in your entire life?

Probably much less than you think. So really, enjoy it.

P.S. What is it about Paul Simon exactly???

NEXT & FINAL SONG…