Recorded in collaboration with producer Brian Eno, this is Paul Simon's first studio album since You're the One in 2000. Eno is not credited as producer but as provider of "sonic landscape."
Track listing
"How Can You Live in the Northeast" 3:42
"Everything About It Is a Love Song" 3:57
"Outrageous" 3:24 (Paul Simon, Brian Eno)
"Sure Don't Feel like Love" 3:57
"Wartime Prayers" 4:49
"Beautiful" 3:07
"I Don't Believe" 4:09
"Another Galaxy" 5:22 (Simon, Eno)
"Once Upon a Time There Was an Ocean" 3:55 (Simon, Eno)
"That's Me" 4:43
"Father and Daughter" 4:11
All compositions by Paul Simon, except as indicated.
Personnel
Paul Simon - Vocals, Guitar
Adrian Simon - Vocals
Jessy Dixon Singers - Vocals
Vincent Nguini - Acoustic guitar
Bill Frisell - Electric guitar
Herbie Hancock - Piano
Gil Goldstein - harmonium, keyboards
Alex Al - Bass
Abraham Laboriel - Bass
Pino Palladino - Bass
Leo Abrahams - Fretless bass
Robin DiMaggio - Drums
Steve Gadd - Drums
Jamey Haddad - Percussion
Brian Eno - Electronics, Sound landscape
Andy Smith - Recording & programming
Tchad Blake - Mixing
Main Set: Gumboots/The Boy in the Bubble; Outrageous; Slip Slidin' Away; You're the One; Me and Julio Down by the Schoolyard; How Can You Live in the Northeast; Mrs. Robinson; Loves Me Like a Rock; That Was Your Mother; Duncan; Graceland; Father and Daughter; Diamonds on the Soles of Her Shoes; Still Crazy After All These Years; Cecilia.
First Encore: You Can Call Me Al; The Only Living Boy in New York; The Boxer [joined by support Jerry Douglas on guitar].
Second Encore: Wartime Prayers; Bridge Over Troubled Water.
Note: The set listed above is in the order performed at Merriweather Post Pavilion, Columbia, Maryland, July 12, 2006
Says Paul Simon: "Working with Brian Eno opens the door to a world of sonic possibilities; plus he's just a great guy to hang with in the studio, or for that matter in life. I had a really good time."
"Surprise" features Simon's masterful voice, and showcases some of his finest guitar work to date. Augmented by Eno's innovative soundscapes, "Surprise" includes contributions from musicians including Steve Gadd, Herbie Hancock, and Bill Frisell.
"Surprise" was mixed by Tchad Blake, and recorded at Eno's studio in London as well as studios in New York and Nashville. The album features 11 songs, including the previously Oscar-nominated "Father And Daughter."
Paul Simon has already confirmed his first appearance for the new album: he and his band will cap off the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival with a headlining show at the Acura stage on Sunday, May 7th. He is also scheduled to appear on Saturday Night Live May 13th. Tour plans are currently in the works for both summer and fall, please check paulsimon.com for announcements and details.
The song titles to "Surprise" are:
1. How Can You Live In The Northeast
2. Everything About It Is A Love Song
3. Outrageous
4. Sure Don't Feel Like Love
5. Wartime Prayers
6. Beautiful
7. I Don't Believe
8. Another Galaxy
9. Once Upon A Time There Was An Ocean
10. That's Me
11. Father And Daughter
Paul Simon (vocals, guitar)
Adrian Simon, Jesse Dixon Singers (vocals)
Vincent Nguini (acoustic guitar)
Bill Frisell (electric guitar)
Herbie Hancock (piano)
Gil Goldstein (harmonium, keyboards)
Alex Al (bass instrument)
Abraham Laboriel, Pino Palladino (bass guitar)
Leo Abrahams (fretless bass)
Robin DiMaggio, Steve Gadd (drums)
Jamey Haddad (percussion)
Brian Eno (electronics).
Surprise was mixed by Tchad Blake, and recorded at Enos studio in London as well as studios in New York and Nashville.
Three songs in this album are co-written by Simon & Eno
While other old rockers hit troubled waters Paul Simon is sailing tunefully into the third age, finds Robert Sandall.
These are perilous times for the elderly gents of the rock aristocracy. In the past few weeks 62-year-old Keith Richards has done his head in falling out of a palm tree, and Sir Paul McCartney, 63, has mislaid his marriage. So its good to find that one of Americas leading sexagenarian rock icons, Paul Simon, is bearing up okay. And delightful to learn that on his 64th birthday last October Simon took a call from his old friend Macca who sang him a certain well-known Beatles song. I cant believe Im 64, he says, cheerfully.
We meet at his suite at Claridges. The knowledge that most rock stars are much shorter in person than they seem on stage hardly prepares you for this extraordinary miniature. Today Simon looks like a wrinkled child. Standing barely 5ft high and dressed in a black T-shirt and brown slacks, he is right down there with that other notable rock goblin, Prince, in terms of his startlingly petite stature.
Small suits him, however. It goes particularly well with a delicate speaking voice, which clearly belongs to the same person whose fluting, choirboyish vocals launched all those hits. From the folk rock anthems such as The Sound of Silence which established the Simon and Garfunkel brand that he started as a teenager with his childhood buddy Art through the giant MOR ballads, notably Bridge over Troubled Water which turned the duo into the biggest-selling group in the world after the Beatles (and spawned an album that shifted 14m copies in 1970) to the more adventurous adult pop of his middle years after he became a solo artist.
The success of his 1986 album, Graceland, led to the creation of a new marketing category: world music. The fact that Simon hasnt troubled the charts for a decade and a half cant detract from the fact that his is one of the most golden catalogues in pop.
Today, the greying golden boy is not too famous for small talk. Snuggled on a sofa Simon begins by detailing his recent dilemma over hot drinks. The large chai latte teas hes been guzzling have, he realises, made him put on half a stone I found out there are 280 calories in every one of those!
So hes decided to switch to small black coffees, which are easier on the waistline but can be tough lower down as we discover halfway through the interview when he makes a sudden dash for the Gents. Thats double espressos for you! he exclaims on his return five minutes later. Where was I?
Thats a good question. By now we have progressed beyond tea, coffee and the immediate pretext for the interview Simons new album, Surprise and are on to the polarisation of attitudes in America today. Uh oh, you think. Listening to pop stars talking politics can be a toe-curling experience. Not Simon, though. He is on matey terms with several leading American politicians, notably Al Gore, with whom he appeared on Saturday Night Live last month. I asked him, Are you gonna run? and he wouldnt say. Maybe he wouldnt have made such a great president anyway.
Now this really is a surprise. Like many alumni of the protest generation Simon is generally remembered as one of those long-haired Democrats who supported the überliberal George McGovern in his doomed presidential campaign in 1972. What happened?
I think there was a powerful anti-liberal movement that began during the flowering of the 1960s, a group of people who said, I cant stand this hippie thing. And they played the long game. And they won. And for that youve gotta say, Good for you! You thought about the future and you went to work.
Hmmm. Is this the same Paul Simon who flew down to New Orleans days after hurricane Katrina struck to try to do his bit for the relief effort? Maybe hes playing devils advocate. (It helps to bear in mind that before his music career took off this guy briefly went to law school in the early 1960s.) As if on cue, Simon suddenly takes off on another tack.
When the feelings about the excesses of capitalist democracy are claimed by people who have a theocratic agenda, or by neocons who have a political agenda, which isnt discussed except among themselves, then people are gonna get really heated. Especially when you have a president with the thinnest of majorities whose attitude is : It doesnt matter if 49.5% of the people loathe us, it only matters that we get our way. Then a city like New Orleans can be destroyed and nobody does anything. And that to me is a betrayal of what we are as a country.
As much as he loves to talk politics, Simon is keen to point out that politics is none of his business. In the field of popular music, which is what Im in because I made that decision at 14 years old, its just not a very interesting subject. People are exhausted and anyway they have their own opinions and theyre not going to be influenced very much, if at all, by a 3-minute piece of music.
A bit disingenuous this, coming from the man whose Graceland album sparked a heated international argument, and questions in the United Nations, about his working with black musicians in South Africa during the final phase of apartheid.
But by now its clear that contradicting himself, or what he calls engaging in a dialogue that goes on in my head the whole time, is Simons big thing.
Brought up in suburban Queens and staunchly resident ever since in and around New York, Simon now lives there with his wife, Edie Brickell (also a musician).
Hes not been averse to a drama himself over the years, although things have calmed down since his marriage in 1992 to his third wife. They have three children who play a key role in his life and his songwriting. I write all my lyrics and melodies while Im driving the kids to school, or taking a detour, playing the backing tracks loud on the car speakers.
It was during one such session that he came up with Father and Daughter, a song about his 11-year-old only daughter, LouLou. After careful thought he and Edie decided to let their 13-year-old son Adrian (hes very musical) sing backing vocals. Were very apprehensive about the kids being in the public eye, but we decided it was okay.
Okay too, finally, is Paul Simons on-off relationship with his childhood friend Art Garfunkel, one of the longest-running real-life soaps in the world of entertainment. Almost as soon as the Simon and Garfunkel bandwagon started to roll the wheels began to fall off.
After the duo contributed songs to the soundtrack of Mike Nicholss film of The Graduate in 1967, Garfunkel decided to make movie acting his priority. Meanwhile we were making a record which had to stop every time Artie was called away on a shoot. There was, Simon admits, probably a touch of jealousy.
Simon and Garfunkel reunions have become an irregular feature of the oldie concert circuit since the pair split in 1970. Most have led to a renewal of hostilities. After they played a run of shows in 1993 the two men didnt speak for 10 years until the offer of a lifetime achievement award at the 2003 Grammys forced a rapprochement It was like, Look, lets not be a late-night talk show joke because we couldnt keep it together for even a week.
With the Grammy safely stowed, something clicked back into place and they managed an extensive world tour in 2004 without the traditional falling out. We just went back to when we were kids. I find its fun to be around anybody who knew me before fame intervened. He and Artie now hang out occasionally, like they did in Queens in the 1950s.
In terms of his current work, Simon has a new significant other, the British producer and former member of Roxy Music, Brian Eno, whom he met at a groovy dinner party in London in 2004. Simon likes London, having lived here during the 1960s. The party was given by old English friends of mine, very interesting people, he says, declining to name the hosts. David Hockney was there. A sparkling conversation led to a meeting at Enos west London studio and ended as a fully fledged collaboration to produce Surprise.
This partnership seems to have cheered up the little old fellow no end. The Simon and Garfunkel collaboration was something like this! I like Brian immensely. I was starting to find the process of working on my own very lonely.
In conclusion I say that Paul Simon now seems a far happier person than the troubled soul I met back in 1991, battling a failing marriage and post-Graceland charges of cultural imperialism. Its a cliché but I do find myself amazed at the way love has turned out, the way life has turned out. Im not as optimistic as I was. Im not as pessimistic either. And thats me. Luckily I can make songs out of it.