• Voto:
Non ho ancora assimilato l'ultimo disco di Simon quel "Surprise" uscito nel 2006 che a "sorpresa", è proprio il caso di dirlo, ci mostra un cantautore stanco (nonostante dei testi sempre superiori alla media) ma voglioso di flirtare con l'elettronica, avvalendosi dell'aiuto di quel folletto di Brian Eno. Ma qualcosa in quel disco non ha funzionato. La coesione tra i due musicisti non ha portato ai risultati sperati con Simon che andava da una parte e Eno dall'altra. Un'occasione persa per entrambi, aspettando la prossima mossa di Simon.
Così, la nostalgia ha preso piede ed inevitabile sono andato ad riascoltarmi l'ultimo buon album di Simon, che purtroppo risale al lontano 1990, anno in cui uscì questo "The Rhythm Of The Saints".
Simon arrivava da quel capolavoro insignito di Grammy che fu "Graceland", un disco che mischiava in maniera sopraffina la musica americana con la musica aficana generando piccole gemme come "The Boy In The Bubble", "Graceland", "You Can Call Me Al"...Un piccolo capolavoro di world music, che Simon intende replicare dopo quattro anni con l'uscita di un disco della medesima fattura.
Se Graceland traeva ispirazione dai suoni africani, questa volta Simon si sposta in Sud America e in Brasile registra gran parte delle canzoni, avvalendosi dei musicisti del posto. Ne nasce un disco pieno di sfumature e colori, pieno di suoni e musicisti. Anche se complessivamente e qualitivamente le canzoni sono un gradino inferiore a quelle di Graceland questo album fa salire Simon nel piedistallo della world music. L'iniziale "The Obvious Child" con le sue percussioni suonate dal Grupo Cultural OLODUM danno la giusta carica e apertura all'album. Una delle migliori canzoni di Simon.
Il resto dell'album si mantiene su ritmi più bassi rispetto all'energica apertura. La liquida e sensuale "Can't Run But" ospita J.J. Cale (presente anche nell'evocativa "Born At The Right Time") alle chitarre mentre "Spirit Voices", scritta con Milton Nascimento, tra bonghi e congas ci trasporta direttamente nelle foreste amazzoniche. Anche in questo disco sono da apprezzare gli arrangiamenti capaci di far convivere strumenti a fiato e percussioni con tradizionali strumenti rock come chitarre e basso. Gran bel esempio è la stupenda "She Moves On" con i fiati di Michael e Randy Brecker che si insinuano tra le percussioni senza invasività.
Il disco sarà seguito da una fortunata tounèe e da un concerto gratuito a Central Park, a dieci anni di distanza dal famoso concerto con Garfunkel. Stavolta Simon si presenta senza il compagno ma con una band di quasi venti elementi, alternando vecchi successi alle nuove sonorità world. Il pubblico è delle grandi occasioni e stimato a circa settecentomila unità...
Purtroppo questo rimane l'ultimo guizzo del piccolo cantautore del New Jersey, poi ci sarà il matrimonio con Edie Brickell e...ma questo è solo gossip.
Elenco tracce testi samples e video
03 The Coast (05:03)
A family of musicians took shelter for the night
In the little harbor church of St. Cecilia
Two guitars, bata, bass drum and tambourine
Rose of Jericho and Bougainvillea
This is a lonely life
Sorrows everywhere you turn
Afd that's worth something
When you think about it
That's worth some money
That's worth something
When you think about it
That is worth some money
A trip to the market
A trip into the pearl gray morning sunlight
That settles over Washington
A trip to the market
A trip around the world
Where the evening meal
Is negotiable, if there is one.
This is a lonely-lone, lonely life
Sorrows everywhere you turn
And that's worth something
When you think about it
That's worth some money
That's worth something
When you think about it
That is worth some money
To prove that I love you
Because I believe in you
Summer skies, stars are falling
All along the injured coast
If I have money
If I have children
Summer skies, stars are falling
All along the injured coast
Oo-wah Oo-wah Doo-wop a Doo-wah
Summer skies and stars are falling
All along the injured coast
Oo-wah Oo-wah Doo-wop a Doo-wah
Summer skies and the stars are falling
All along the injured coast
We are standing in the sunlight
The early morning sunlight
In the harbor church of St. Cecilia
To praise a soul's returning to the earth
To the rose of Jericho and the Bougainvillea
To prove that I love you
Because I believe in you
Summer skies, stars are falling
All along the injured coast
If I have money
If I have children
Summer skies, stars are falling
All along the injured coast
If I have weaknesses
Don't let them blind me now
Summer skies, stars are falling
All along the injured coast
Oo-wah Oo-wah
Doo Wop a Doo Wah
Summer skies, stars are falling
Leaving the shadow of the valley behind me now
All along the injured coast
Ooh-wah Oow-wah
Doo Wop a Doo Wah
Summer skies and stars are falling
All along the injured coast
Ooh-wah Ooh-wah
Doo Wop a Doo Wah
04 Proof (04:39)
Soon our fortunes will be made, my darling
And we will leave this loathsome little town
Silver bells jingling from your black lizard boots, my baby
Silver foil to trim your wedding gown
It's true the tools of love wear down
Time passes
A mid wanders
It seems mindless, but it does
Sometimes I see you face
As if through reading glasses
And your smile seems softer than it was
Proof
Some people gonna call you up
Tell you something that you already know
Proof
Sane people go crazy on you
Say ''No man, that was not
The deal we made
I got to go, I got to go''
Faith
Faith is an island in the setting sun
But proof, yes
Proof is the bottom line for everyone
My face, my race
Don't matter anymore
My sex, my cheques
Accepted at the door
Proof
Some people gonna call you up
Tell you something that you already know
Proof
Sane people go crazy on you
Say ''No man, that was not
The deal we made
I got to, I got to go''
Faith
Faith is an island in the setting sun
But proof, yes
Proof is the bottom line for everyone
Half moon hiding in the clouds, my darling
And the sky is flecked with signs of hope
Raise your weary wings against the rain, my baby
Wash your tangled curls with gambler's soap
Proof
Some people gonna call you up
Tell you something that you already know
Sane people go crazy on you
Say ''No man, that was not
The deal we made
I got to, I got to, I got to''
Faith
Faith is an island in the setting sun
But proof, yes
Proof is the bottom line for everyone
05 Further to Fly (05:36)
There may come a time
When you'll be tired
As tired as a dream that wants to die
And further to fly
Further to fly
Further to fly
Further to fly
Maybe you will find a love
That you discover accidentally
Who falls against you gently
As a pickpocket
Brushes your thigh
Further to fly
Effortless music from the Cameroons
The spinning darkness of her hair
A conversation in a crowded room going nowhere
The open palm of desire
Wants everything
It wants everything
It wants everything
Sometimes I'll be walking down
The street and I'll be thinking
Am I crazy
Or is this some morbid little lie
Further to fly
Further to fly
Further to fly
A recent loss of memory
A shadow in the family
The baby waves bye-bye
I'm trying, I'm flying
There may come a time
When I will lose you
Lose you as I lose my light
Days falling backward into velvet night
The open palm of desire
Wants everything
It wants everything
It wants soil as soft as summer
And the strength to push like spring
A broken laugh a broken fever
Take it up with the great deceiver
Who looks you in the eye
And says baby don't cry
Further to fly
There may come a time
When I will lose you
Lose you as I lose my sight
Days falling backward into velvet night
The open palm of desire
The rose of Jericho
Soil as soft as summer
The strength to let you go
08 The Cool, Cool River (04:32)
Moves like a fist through the traffic
Anger and no one can heal it
Shoves a little bump into the momentum
It's just a little lump
But you feel it
In the creases and the shadows
With a rattling deep emotion
The cool, cool river
Sweeps the wild, white ocean
Yes Boss. The government handshake
Yes Boss. The crusher of language
Yes Boss. Mr. Stillwater,
The face at the edge of the banquet
The cool, the cool river
The cool, the cool river
I believe in the future
I may live in my car
My radio tuned to
The voice of a star
Song dogs barking at the break of dawn
Lightning pushes the edge of a thunderstorm
And these old hopes and fears
Still at my side
Anger and no one can heal it
Slides through the metal detector
Lives like a mole in a motel
A slide in a slide projector
The cool, cool river
Sweeps the wild, white ocean
The rage of love turns inward
To prayers of devotion
And these prayers are
The constant road across the wilderness
These prayers are
These prayers are the memory of God
The memory of God
And I believe in the future
We shall suffer no more
Maybe not in my lifetime
But in yours I feel sure
Song dogs barking at the break of dawn
Lightning pushes the edges of a thunderstorm
And these streets
Quiet as a sleeping army
Send their battered dreams to heaven, to heaven
For the mother's restless son
Who is a witness to, who is a warrior
Who denies his urge to break and run
Who says: Hard times?
I'm used to them
The speeding planet burns
I'm used to that
My life's so common it disappears
And sometimes even music
Cannot substitute for tears
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