New Vibrations: Paul Simon, So Beautiful or So What?

For the making of his new album, So Beautiful or So What, legendery folk musician Paul Simon apparently came equipped with his trademark gifts — literary-quality lyrics and a sweet, soft voice. These come together gracefully to form a transcendent collection of songs. Simon’s is gentle-sounding, contemplative music.

Anyone who likes when songs tell beautiful stories and make them think should adore So Beautiful or So What. Paul Simon is of course known for being one-half of the ‘60s angelic-voiced, poetic powerhouse Simon and Garfunkel, the other half being the less public Art Garfunkel. The duo shot to fame in 1965 after recording a significant portion of the soundtrack for the groundbreaking film The Graduate.

Simon himself is also known for being himself, a supremely talented singer/songwriter. In this album, he lives up to our legendary expectations. He excels at all aspects of song-creation, but his particular forte is his lyrics. Those of us who like to read “The Sound of Silence” as poetry can find writing of comparable quality in most of So Beautiful or So What.

The album begins with the slightly subversive holiday song, “Getting Ready for Christmas Day.” For this track, Simon samples a sermon by Rev. J.M. Gates. The powerful voice echoes throughout the song, adding to the full, celebratory sound.

But along with the upbeat melody, Simon brings in some heavier themes.He throws in the verse, “I got a nephew in Iraq it’s his third time back / But it’s ending up the way it began / With the luck of a beginner he’ll be eating turkey dinner / On some mountain top in Pakistan.”

So for Christmas, Simon would like us to keep in mind important global concerns.“Getting Ready for Christmas Day” also focuses on the materialism that goes along with the holiday season. From the perspective of a working-class man, he sings the lines, “From early in November to the last week of December / I got money matters weighing me down / Oh the music may be merry, but it’s only temporary / I know Santa Claus is coming to town.” It is a rare and much appreciated Christmas song that deals with holiday-induced consumer stress.

Next is another great song, “The Afterlife.” Here, Simon presents death as being just as mundane as life. It’s full of annoying lines and silly bureaucracy. The afterlife is even as ordinary as high school, with the newly deceased playing the role of “the new kid in town.” It is not until the end of this song that we get a hint of spirituality, when all this waiting gives way to an experience with God.

“Rewrite,” is a clever commentary on the current state of commercial art. Simon’s character is working on a rewrite so that he can take his story and “turn it into cash.” This of course involves the removal of difficult subjects in favor of an easy, flashy plot. So this writer puts in a car chase in lieu of a distressed father abandoning his family.The story is thus commercialized to supposedly make it more appealing to the masses. As an artist himself, Simon must know something about the pressure to compromise integrity in order to sell one’s work.

Another stand-out track is “Love is Sacred Eternal Light.” This song is extremely complex, both musically and lyrically. Simon plays around with ideas of God and religion. At one point, he takes on the voice of God and sings, “Big Bang / That’s a joke that I made up / Once when I had eons to kill / You know, most folks / They don’t get when I’m joking / Well, maybe someday they will.” It’s a bit alarming but his portrayal of God is nonetheless unique and interesting. This song also contains the explosive lyrics, “Man becomes machine / Oil runs down his face / Machine becomes a man with a bomb in the marketplace.” Make of that what you will, but it’s hard to deny the excellence and intensity of Simon’s imagery.

“Love is Eternal Sacred Light” is one of three songs on So Beautiful or So What to include the word “love” in the title, the others being “Love & Hard Times” and “Love and Blessings.” Naturally, love seems to be an important theme for Paul Simon.

Another preoccupation in this album is with spiritual ideas. In many of his songs Simon seems to question religion, but he still remains deeply connected to it. He writes of the relationship between God and humanity with wonder, sensitivity and skepticism.

The album lulls a bit toward the end. “Amulet,” “Questions for the Angels” and “Love and Blessings” are nice but nothing special. Their melodies are a little slow and dreary, but the lyrics are still excellent.

The album picks up with the last and title track, “So Beautiful or So What.” This one is upbeat and catchy, often a necessity for Simon’s heavily poetic writing. As this final track encourages such an assessment, I will say with confidence that the album is mostly “so beautiful” and contains little to make a listener sigh, “so what.”