April 17, 2011
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Same New Old Tricks
(The quoted text is excerpted from old dog Elvis Costello's review of slightly older dog Paul Simon's new album; I'm sneaking the title track [along with lyrics] into this post)
"The trick, as I know it, is to care like hell and not give a damn at the same time or as more elegantly proposed here; So Beautiful Or So What."
I'm gonna make a chicken gumbo
Toss some sausage in the pot
I'm gonna flavor it with okra
Cayenne pepper to make it hot
You know life is what we make of it
So beautiful or so what
I'm gonna tell my kids a bedtime story
A play without a plot
Will it have a happy ending?
Maybe yeah, Maybe not
I tell them life is what you make of it
So beautiful or so what
So beautiful, so beautiful
So whatI'm just a raindrop in a bucket
A coin in a slot
I am an empty house on Weed Street
Across the road from a vacant lot
You know life is what you make of it
So beautiful or so whatAint it strange the way we're ignorant
How we seek out bad advice
How we jigger it and figure it
Mistaking value for the price
And play a game with time and Love
Like a pair of rolling dice
So beautiful, so beautiful
So whatFour men on the balcony
Overlooking the parking lot
Pointing at a figure in the distance
Dr. King has just been shot
And the sirens long melody
Singing savior pass me not
Aint it strange the way we're ignorant
How we seek out bad advice
How we jigger it and figure it
Mistaking value for the price
And play a game with time and love
Like a pair of rolling dice
So beautiful, so beautiful
So what"These...songs refuse to despair, despite the evidence all around us. So Beautiful Or So What rejects the allure of fashionable darkness and the hypnosis of ignorance - better to contemplate and celebrate the endurance of the spirit and the persistence of love."
Right on, Elvis. Whoever said you can't teach old dogs new tricks forgot one thing: Being an Old Dog IS a new trick; and a tricky new trick at that.
Comments (51)
That's an album I'd like to have. Thanks for posting the lyrics too.
@Swirling_Spiral - i figure if i'm reposting someone else's work and asking a reader to listen to ANY song, the least i can do is take the trouble to make things minimally difficult.
Love the lyrics, and your take on the meaning.
@Writing_the_Tides - yeah...musically it's not his most ambitious song, or even album. but lyrically nobody catches the fleeting glint of the perfect light quite like paul simon.
Elvis is one of my heroes.
@throughthinking - i dig the grand old masters; surviving would alone be enough to earn my respect. but when they survive AND get all sage and wise...IZ SOOOO MUCH MOAR POWAH...
indeedie do!!!! being an old dog is on the brink of extinction....but this may only depend upon my idea of what being an old dog is.
besides I think your a hip ol' cat.... hahahah
Ok seriously, .... things that never change...what a grrrreat!!! song.
@RealityDreams - aw, thank you.
waitaminute...cat? did you just say cat?
*explodes*
Okra feels funny in my mouth.
@mercurious_v1 - i try to consume it in its non-slimy culinary variations. ever had fried okra? yummy.
@complicatedlight - i have once buuut idk still feels funny lol like a dwarf came in my mouth
@mercurious_v1 - well i see you're wearing a condom now - so that shouldn't be a problem in the future.
cool lyrics, but orka is a one way ticket to barf-town! i mean ugh, that crap is de debbil!
happy monday morning, phil. it's a celebration day, man.
@be_the_rain - thanks. you too.
Paul Simon <3
so what--good question and answer
Life indeed is what you make of it...so's okra. Evidently many of your commenters are not from the south or if they are they have never eaten fried okra in cornmeal instead of batter...An I don't think they have tried New Orleans Gumbo. The reason I think that is because I like what is listed above..but exactly like them I don't like just boiled okra...doesn't fit my pallet. I always enjoy coming to your site...I never know what I am going to find.
@mommachatter - yeah, that okraphobe commenter is from a nameless northeastern state. what do they know about frying anything up there? having spent plenty of time in that neck of the woods i can tell you: LESS THAN NOTHING. i sometimes wonder if the union states simply refuse to learn how to fry just to spite the south. i'm in minnesota now, which is north but not really yankee north, and they can fry just fine here. maybe it's the mississippi. it's amazing the common cultural thread that runs the length of this mighty river, from music to cuisine.
woah, what's going on with your dps? Looks like an upcoming blog entry!
@kaiori - perhaps. every now and then i think maybe, but...sorry, dps?
The lyrics are amazing.
That's all I have to say.
I'm not handling the trick so well
@godfatherofgreenbay - i think you do it by staying alive. any trick accomplished in that way ain't gonna be a cakewalk.
The only "good" thing that came from the South putting the black people in bondage was learning to eat on an Obama budget. The black eyed peas and okra were cow fodder, what the animals left, and a few other things helped feed their families. I mean this in the highest regard to a valiant people. Down here in Texas them's known as "soul" food. Frying in the South is indeed popular. It was often impossible to keep a oven hot so the food had to be cooked quickly and tasty. Bet the north hasn't heard or at least hasn't heard until recently of fried catfish, liver, and pokeweed. They don'[t know what they are missing. Did you know that it is said George Washinton's favorite meal was Peanut soup?
oops sorry i meant your display pictures. they look adventurous!
@kaiori - ah, thank you. i was heading in the direction of a new post, but then got hit with teh dreaded melancholia; after that things sputtered out.
Simon has a wonderful discography, however I still want more of him and Garfunkle together.
hey babe, you around? i wanna put a picture up for you on protected, but i have to find it and then it's between me and you, okay? but it's symbolism for this weekend, and it goes well with something you've used as a profile pic before, only i think you've used it around christmastime, et al. if this makes sense. mainly, you around?
@be_the_rain - just got back from a ride. i is now.
@complicatedlight - yes, i'd say you are back. and lookin mighty fine too. <3
"it's hard to teach a dinosaur a new trick. up until the party last night..." ~ neil young (old ways)
every time i read the title of this post, i think of this song. neil is in my head forever, i guess. -sigh-
@be_the_rain - you laahk mister young. you want to hoollld himmm and kissss himmm and huuuug him...
not without good reason, i hasten to add. mister young rocks.
@complicatedlight -
mehbe..
Never heard this. Thanks for sharing.
Those are some beautiful lyrics
It's dark here where I live. It's raining but it's a peaceful storm. Tornadoes have taken out the neighboring town and headed NW and took out everything else. I have never been so tense about the weather as I have been this whole month. The rain has increased as I type this.. I lost my thought on what I was going to say here.
At first I thought that I wasn't going to listen to the song because it was a different beat.. But as everything in life, it has to have a chance to be seen or heard.. I waited.
I love it.
I actually didn't hear the music as much as I did the reality of the lyrics.
I find myself feeling more and more like if it doesn't pertain to seriousness in my life, i let it go.. (Not talking about the music here, I just randomly jump to thoughts).
Have you ever been talking to someone and they want to impress you so they try to agree with actions that you should take and its completely opposite of what you would do and it just distances you more from relying on that person as a confidant?..
I'm not afraid to disagree and sometimes I seem stupid when I do agree because I get real excited that I have found an interest, ha.
Anyways,
why did I write this?
I was wondering why church was on almost every weather channel and it JUST NOW hit me that it's Sunday. sheez.
Go figure, a so what.
I love you. Oh! and why am I always the last to read your posts???
or else you could always just suck it up and be a New Dog
@Diva_Jyoti_3 - yeah, there were plans for that but they're on hold at present. possibly permanently, but one can always hope.
Thanks, Phil, that's exactly what I needed to hear right now. Thanks for the post.. Paul has been writing great poetry for too long to imagine.Be'in an old dog is a tricky damn trick, for sure. P.S. HOT PICKLED OKRA; check it out, ya'll.
@albondogas - you and me, buddy. concrete and steel.
but that's only a worldly approximation. in fact, science will never unravel the stuff of which we're made.
i appreciate the subscription!
and my mom lurves paul simon. as do i. so simple but beautiful
phil, who's sara your first love? somehow i ran across something about that earlier tonight. ttde or something like that.
oohhhhnnoo, i'm outta here.. : )
ryc: *what*, phil? .....(runs off)
ryc: no actually i was serious. but *that's* okay. we can &drop it. or not. : )
How you ended this post made me smile. I liked that. Thanks for today's smile.
@Rainboxx - you're most welcome.
someday i might even update. nah...who am i kidding...
@z_stands_for - you're always the last to comment. but that's always the way it looks when you comment...because you just...and it gets put at....
and speaking of put, how bout i put it this way: you know when you find something you've lost and ask "damn! how come it's always in the LAST PLACE I LOOKED?"
it's kind of like that.
You caught me. I didn't realize the date of this post And I only got around reading it today... I'm sorry.
Doesn't change the fact that the wit in this post is much needed and much appreciated...
Yeah.. I see what you mean now.
I love you. You are just ..
cool.
Ya know?
@z_stands_for - so are you.