Paul Simon’s “Homeward Bound” Concert at Madison Square Garden

[chuckro]

This was actually a few weeks ago. I’ve been behind on writing things up. Some notes:

• My dad noted that he stopped following Simon’s new work somewhere in the late 70s. I was current through the early 2000s, but it still meant that “Wristband” and “The Rewrite” were both new to me.
• He performs big-band arrangements of some of the older songs. Doesn’t have all the notes any more, but he worked around it. (And brought in a “guest whistler” for “Me & Julio”.) Still a hell of a showman.
• Relatively little of the Simon & Garfunkel era until the second encore. (He made a comment about “reclaiming” “Bridge Over Troubled Water” but didn’t name any names.)
• I was very amused by the story behind “Rene and Georgette Magritte With Their Dog After the War,” which was named for the caption on a photo in a book of Magritte’s paintings that he happened upon in Joan Baez’s living room during a rehearsal. “That’s a great song title. But what should the song be about? Eh, the guy’s a surrealist; it can be about anything!”