Thighs Wide Shut

Paul Simon & Friends
Under African Skies
BAM: Brooklyn Academy of Music
April 11th

Paul Simon’s Graceland is without question one of the greatesteiststest albums of balls thyme. We’ve been jamming out to it ever since we gots the cassette tape for our 9th birthday, while we were having a sugar overload fest at Farrell’s Ice Cream Parlour in Wheaton Plaza. We were beyond obsessed with ‘You Can Call Me Al’ that we made a homemade recording of it, with help from the the 45 record single (if we every find that recording, we’ll mp3 it like the wind). The video for ‘Al’ was tres best, although at that early age, the role reversal in the video led us to believe that Chevy Chase was also Paul Simon. Anywho, his follow-up, Rhythm of the Saints aint nearly as thumcredible, but it’s mos certainly toecredible to say the least. And with that in mind, it was the biggest no-brainer to snag tickets to a show where Paul would be rockin both of these albums with a little help from his friends, including Ladysmith Black Mambazo (duh), David Byrne, Kaïssa, Vusi Mahlasela, Luciana Souza and Cyro Baptista. Sounds like a dream come true, right? Edward james ALMOST!

Apparently it was his friends who were doing the rocking with a little help from Simon. Paul only sang about 5 of the songs, and decided to let the others do the rest of the work. While the stand-ins played the part of Paul Simon quite well (David Byrne nailed ‘I Know What I Know’, although we didn’t go ga-ga for his rendition of ‘You Can Call Me Al’), it was still a huge disappointment that Edie Brickell‘s husband took a backseat pretty much the entire night. It felt like a wasted opportunity, especially since we were too young to see the Graceland tour in ’87 and thus have waited an eternity to hear PS play the entire album. For the love of dog, he spankfully joined Ladysmith BM on ‘Diamonds On The Soles of Her Shoes’. If he didn’t they may have been a riot. Who knows if Paul will ever play the album live again, so we’ll take this over nothing, even if in our hearts we knew the show coulda better than it turned out to be

Bye the gay, we’ve never seen a more white crowd in all our lives. Why do Asians, blacks, Hispanics and Eskimos hate Paul Simon so much? Is it cause he’s so short and created some of the bestestestest tunes mt EVERest? We don’t know, but what we do know, we know, and we’ll sing what we said, and who are we to blow against the wind?

further bleeding:

mo pics from judester1213
paulfournier’s pics
NY Times review
Variety review
PradaShoppeNYC’s review

bestest show we did ever see: Simon & Garfunkel, MSG, 12/4/03 (pre-TWS daze)