Paul Simon
The Final Show
Flushing Meadows Corona Park
September 22

Paul Simon said goodbye to touring, doing it his way.  There was no Art Garfunkel, no Ladysmith Black Mambazo, no Don Everly, no Dion, no Chevy Chase, no bells and whistles (although wife Edie Brickell  guest-whistled) – just Paul and his incredible touring band – giving it their all, and Paul’s awesomeness, one FINAL time

(I was lucky enuff to see a tribute to Paul WITH Paul back in 2008, although there wasn’t nearly enuff Paul for my liking – but there WAS David Byrne!! so there’s that)

This can’t be the final time, can it?  Paul’s still got it.  He does!  Saw his 3rd to last show at MSG on Thursday night, and cherished every second of it!! And while Saturday’s show in the park was identical in set list (like his entire Homeward Bound tour was), the final night was 1000000000 times more emotional.  When he closed it all out, alone on stage, softly singing ‘The Sound of Silence’, and then his voice, the stage, and the crowd descended into actual silence, it was a moment I wish I could freeze in time forever, so we would never reach an end of Paul Simon on stage

I guess it’s better to go out on top, than to slip slide away. I guess

Setlist – America / 50 Ways To Leave Your Lover / The Boy in the Bubble / Dazzling Blue / That Was Your Mother / Rewrite / Mother and Child Reunion / Me and Julio Down by the Schoolyard (with Edie Brickell) / Rene and Georgette Magritte With Their Dog After the War / Can’t Run But / Bridge Over Troubled Water / Wristband / Spirit Voices / The Obvious Child / Questions for the Angels / The Cool, Cool River / Diamonds on the Soles of Her Shoes / You Can Call Me Al

Encore – Late in the Evening / Still Crazy After All These Years / Graceland

Encore 2 – Homeward Bound / Kodachrome / The Boxer / American Tune / The Sound of Silence

https://www.instagram.com/p/BoDjpoQgSv_/?taken-by=thighmaster

Paul Simon, either 1 or 2 years old, pictured here in 1943 [Vulture]

David Byrne
Kings Theatre
September 17

There are some things (musically) you want so bad, that you’ll take it any way you can get it.  I want a Led Zeppelin reunion, and I will never get one, but at least I saw Robert Plant solo.  The next thing I want (besides an ABBA reunion, which I also won’t get, but hey, I did once see Benny Andersson play in a London park!) is a Talking Heads reunion, and that aint never happening, ever.  And so you go for the next best thing, but for some reason, I never thought to see David Byrne play live

My bad, cause he good, SO GOOD.  Excellent.  Brilliant.  Amazing.  Astounding.  Show of the year.  Show of the decade.  Probably.  Check back with me in 2019 or 2020 or 2021 (hard to remember when a decade ends).  But seriously – the show that David Byrne and his marching band (no time for standing still) put on is a real beauty pageant – and the winner is the viewer/listener!  WOW.  Bless you David.  You even made your current work sound juss as vital as the stuff we all came to hear.  Timely!  Timeless!   Thank you for your time!

But, c’mon, no love for Little Creatures?  How do you not end a show with ‘Road To Nowhere‘? (or begin a show with it?)  And what of the most underloved, but perhaps greatest soundtrack of ALL TIME – True Stories?  Next time around?  Yay or nay, count me in, cause with you, we’re on a road to somewhere!

–

Setlist – Here / Lazy / I Zimbra / Slippery People / I Should Watch TV / Dog’s Mind / Everybody’s Coming to My House / This Must Be the Place / Once in a Lifetime / Doing the Right Thing / Toe Jam / Born Under Punches (The Heat Goes On) / I Dance Like This / Bullet / Every Day Is a Miracle / Like Humans Do / Blind / Burning Down the House

Encore – Dancing Together / The Great Curve

2nd Encore – Hell You Talmbout (Janelle Monáe cover)

https://www.instagram.com/p/Bn2np99AAGk/

Peace The Forks Out

to

The Queen of Soul

much RESPECT

Paul McCartney owns the René Magritte painting Le Jeu de Morre (The Game of Mora), which became the inspiration behind The Beatles’ Apple Corps logo

‘In my garden at Cavendish Avenue, which was a 100-year-old house I’d bought, Robert [Fraser] was a frequent visitor. One day he got hold of a Magritte he thought I’d love. Being Robert, he would just get it and bring it. I was out in the garden with some friends. I think I was filming Mary Hopkin with a film crew, just getting her to sing live in the garden, with bees and flies buzzing around, high summer. We were in the long grass, very beautiful, very country-like. We were out in the garden and Robert didn’t want to interrupt, so when we went back in the big door from the garden to the living room, there on the table he’d just propped up this little Magritte. It was of a green apple. That became the basis of the Apple logo. Across the painting Magritte had written in that beautiful handwriting of his ‘Au Revoir’. And Robert had split. I thought that was the coolest thing anyone’s ever done with me. When I saw it, I just thought: ‘Robert’. Nobody else could have done that. Of course we’d settle the bill later. He wouldn’t hit me with a bill.‘ [ITP 20: Le Jeu de Morre by Rene Magritte, 1966; the Apple Corp. Logo, 1967]