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Paul Simon: Heats and Bones

 A l b u m   D e t a i l s


Label: Warner Bros. Records
Released: 1983.10.01
Time:
 40:30
Category: Pop/Folk
Producer(s): See Artists ...
Rating: *********. (9/10)
Media type: CD
Web address: www.paulsimon.com
Appears with: Simon & Garfunkel
Purchase date: 2001.10.13
Price in €: 7,99



 S o n g s ,   T r a c k s


[1] Allergies (P.Simon) - 4:37
[2] Hearts and Bones (P.Simon) - 5:37
[3] When Numbers Get Serious (P.Simon) - 3:25
[4] Think Too Much (P.Simon) - 2:44
[5] Song About the Moon (P.Simon) - 4:07
[6] Think Too Much (P.Simon) - 3:05
[7] Train in the Distance (P.Simon) - 5:11
[8] Rene and Georgette Magritte With Their Dog (P.Simon) - 3:44
[9] Cars Are Cars (P.Simon) - 3:15
[10] The Late Great Johnny Ace (P.Simon) - 4:45

 A r t i s t s ,   P e r s o n n e l


PAUL SIMON - Acoustic & Electric Guitar, Composer, Programming, Vocals, Background Vocals, Producer

ROB MOUNSEY - Synthesizer, Vocoder
THE HARPTONES - Vocals, Background Vocals, Vocal Arrangement
BERNARD EDWARDS - Bass
NILE RODGERS - Electric Guitar, Programming
AIRTO MOREIRA - Percussion
MARIN ALSOP - Violin
MICHAEL BODDICKER - Synthesizer
WELLS CHRISTY - Synthesizer, Synclavier
TOM COPPOLA - Synthesizer, Synclavier
GORDON EDWARDS - Bass
STEVE FERRONE - Drums
STEVE GADD - Drums
ERIC GALE - Electric Guitar
PETE "Wet Dawg" GORDON - Horn
ANTHONY JACKSON - Bass, Guitar, Contrabass Guitar
JILL JAFFE - Viola
JESSE LEVY - Cello
MIKE MAINIERI - Background Vocals
MICHAEL MAINIERI, Jr. - Marimba, Background Vocals, Vibraphone
GEORGE MARGE - Clarinet, Bass Clarinet
SID MCGINNIS - Guitar, Electric Guitar
MARCUS MILLER - Bass
GREG PHILLINGANES - Piano, Keyboards, Fender Rhodes
MICHAEL RIESMAN - Synthesizer, Conductor
MARK RIVERA - Saxophone, Alto Saxophone
AL DI MEOLA - Guitar
DAVID NICHTERN - Synclavier
JEFF PORCARO - Drums
DEAN PARKS - (Electric & Hi String Guitar
ROBERT SABINO - Synthesizer, Piano
RICHARD TEE - Synthesizer, Piano, Keyboards, Vocals, Fender Rhodes
CAROL WINCENC - Flute
FREDERICK ZLOTKIN - Cello
PETER GORDON - French Horn
DAVE MATTHEWS - Horn Arrangements

ROY HALEE - Producer, Engineer, Mixing
RUSS TITELMAN - Producer
LENNY WARONKER - Co-Producer on [10]
JASON CORSARO - Engineer
KEN DEANE - Engineer
JAMES DOUGHERTY - Engineer
DAVID GREENBERG - Engineer
LEE HERSCHBERG - Engineer
ANDY HOFFMAN - Engineer
DAN NASH - Engineer
GENE PAUL - Engineer
TERRY ROSIELLO - Engineer
TOM BATES - Digital Engineer
GREG CALBI - Mastering
JEFFREY KENT Ayeroff - Art Direction
PAULA GREIF - Art Direction
JERI MCMANUS - Design
ARTHUR ELGORT - Photography

 C o m m e n t s ,   N o t e s


1983 CD Warner Brothers 2-23942
1983 LP Warner Brothers 23942
1983 CS Warner Brothers 4-23942



Paul Simon's new album is all about heart versus mind, thinking versus feeling, and how these dichotomies get in the way of making music or love. He addresses the issue directly in "Think Too Much" (which was once to have been the title of this album), goes at it metaphorically in "Train in the Distance," resolves it temporarily in "Hearts and Bones" and fashions a sort of fable about it in "Rene and Georgette Magritte with Their Dog after the War." The latter song ranks among the best Simon has written. There they are, a Belgian surrealist painter, his old lady and their pooch, dancing naked in a hotel room, window-shopping on Christopher Street and getting dolled up to dine with "the power elite." Wherever they go, though, they are haunted by the likes of the Penguins, the Moonglows, the Orioles and the Five Satins. It's a hilarious and magical juxtaposition of images that's also touching, because Paul Simon obviously identifies with the figure of the grown-up, respectable artist irrevocably smitten with those doo-wop groups, "the deep forbidden music" that originally made him fall in love with rock & roll. In an earlier era, Paul Simon would have written for Broadway, a craft that demands that a song tell a story or define a character. But like any youngster in the Fifties, he got hooked on the sheer sexual energy of rock & roll – not so much the guitar-based electricity of Chuck Berry, Elvis and the Beatles, but the dreamy soulfulness of groups that euphemized their teenage romantic longings in nonsense lyrics. The trouble was that Simon was too clever for either kind of rock & roll. The words always came first for him, the music was secondary, and the rock & roll he loved–the delicate Spanish guitar, the hushed doo-wop harmonies – lingered faintly in the distance like a disembodied ideal. The same conflict between the ideal and the actual threads through his songs about relationships. "Train in the Distance" and "Think Too Much" recall such classic postmortems as "Overs" and "50 Ways to Leave Your Lover." Simon's always been good at writing about ending love affairs, perhaps because he thinks too much about his mate's faults and how perfect she should be. But the song that really goes the distance is "Hearts and Bones," which Simon gave Carrie Fisher as a present. "One and one-half wandering Jews" go mountain climbing in New Mexico, witness some exotic marriage ritual, discuss "the arc of a love affair" (as if it were a mathematical problem!) and toy with the idea of a quickie wedding south of the border. But as usual, they think too much about it, retire to separate coasts, do that mature but stupid thing of seeing other people to test the strength of their bond and nearly throw away the entire relationship before coming to their senses in a triumphant epiphany: "You take two bodies and you twirl them into one/Their hearts and their bones/And they won't come undone." The tunes on Hearts and Bones are subtle, not immediately singable and certainly less startling than the lyrics, but the music has a certain playfulness that matches the album's cerebral self-consciousness. "Cars Are Cars" stops and starts like a traffic jam; "Think Too Much" appears in two very different versions, a folk-jazzy rendition and a snappy rock version featuring Nile Rodgers and Bernard Edwards of Chic. And Simon's superb eulogy for John Lennon, "The Late Great Johnny Ace," manages to place four decades of rock & roll history on a continuum from Fifties R&B balladeer Johnny Ace to new-music maestro Philip Glass, whose poignant coda to the song ends with terrifying abruptness. The only real dud is "Allergies," which, unfortunately, opens the album–it's sort of like "Kodachrome" with Vocoder, and it could have stayed in the drawer. Hearts and Bones was meant, for a while, to be a Simon and Garfunkel album. It's just as well that it isn't. A reunion package would have made the album a different event than what it really is: a thinking man's homage to the Penguins, the Moonglows, the Orioles and the Five Satins. Not so crazy after all these years, the artist gets to be alone with his earth angel, sincerely, in the still of the night.

DON SHEWEY - RS 409
© Copyright 2001 RollingStone.com



Hearts and Bones was a commercial disaster, the lowest-charting new studio album of Paul Simon's career. It is also his most personal collection of songs, one of his most ambitious, and one of his best. It retains a personal vision, one largely devoted to the challenges of middle-aged life, among them a renewed commitment to love; the title song was a notable testament to new romance, while "Train in the Distance" reflected on romantic discord. Elsewhere, "The Late Great Johnny Ace" was his meditation on John Lennon's murder and how it related to the mythology of pop music. Musically, Simon moved forward and backward simultaneously, taking off from the jazz fusion style of his last two albums into his old loves of doo wop and rock & roll while also incorporating current sounds with such new collaborators as dance music producer Nile Rodgers and minimalist composer Philip Glass. The result was Simon's most impressive collection in a decade, and the most underrated album in Paul Simon's catalog.

William Ruhlmann - All Music Guide
© 1992 - 2001 AEC One Stop Group, Inc.



One of Paul Simon's most accomplished albums, Hearts & Bones is also among his least appreciated, a commercial disappointment at the time of its release due more to Simon's darker themes than to any discernible decline in his powers as a songwriter or instincts as a producer. The best songs here are among his most nakedly self-referential, from the bittersweet title song, sifting through the ashes of his failed marriage, to the self-recriminating "Think Too Much (a)" (as if to prove the point, he includes two songs with the title) and the fatalistic "Train in the Distance". "René and Georgette Magritte with Their Dog after the War" is a polished gem, both a musical analogue to the artist's dead- pan surrealism and a unique love song, and "The Late Great Johnny Ace" links the slain doo-wopper to the slain John Lennon. If there were justice in the set's cool reception, it was Simon's subsequent decision to ignore commercial stratagems altogether--a leap that yielded his next, groundbreaking album, Graceland.

Sam Sutherland - Amazon.co.uk



Hearts & Bones ist eines von Paul Simons vielseitigsten Alben, wird jedoch am wenigsten geschätzt. Als das Album herauskam, war es gleich eine kommerzielle Enttäuschung. Das lag jedoch eher an Simons "dunklen" Themen als an einem erkennbaren Abfall seiner Kraft als Liedertexter oder seinen Instinkten als Produzent. Die besten Songs auf dieser CD gehören zu denen, die ganz klar selbstbekennend sind, von dem bittersüßen Titelsong, der seine gescheiterte Ehe gründlich durchleuchtet, zu dem selbstdiskriminierenden "Think Too Much (a)" (um genau das zu beweisen, hat das Album zwei Songs mit diesem Titel) und dem fatalistischen "Train in the Distance". René und Georgette Magritte mit "Their Dog after the War" glänzen wie ein polierter Juwel. Das Stück ist sowohl musikalisches Analogon zu dem ausdruckslosen Surrealismus, als auch ein einzigartiger Liebessong. "The Late Great Johnny Ace" verbindet den ermordeten Doo-wopper mit dem ebenfalls ermordeten John Lennon. Wenn etwas die kühle Aufnahme dieses Albums rechtfertigt, dann ist erst recht Simons nachfolgende Entscheidung gerechtfertigt, sämtliche kommerzielle Listen und Tücken zu ignorieren - eine Entscheidung, die ihm zu seinem nächsten bahnbrechenden Album Graceland verhalf.

Sam Sutherland - Amazon.de



Nicht so beachtet wie Graceland, aber dennoch ein stilles Juwel des Songschreibers mit der sanften Stimme: filigrane akustische Gitarren, wunderschöne Melodielinien und lyrisch-verträumte Texte.

© Audio



Paul Simon has, very quietly, re-carved out his very own niche in pop music. For the first time since the sixties, his sound has evolved to the point where nobody else sounds like him. It's a beautiful blend of pop, rock and jazz which challenges but also has enormous mainstream appeal. Simon's songwriting is stronger now than in years-intensely personal while at the same time universal. "The Late Great Johnny Ace" is a loving tribute to John Lennon, perhaps the best so far. The title cut, while probably holding a deeply private meaning for Simon, cuts squarely into everyone's feelings about love. Also give a listen to "Song About The Moon" and "Think Too Much (a)" (featuring Nile Rodgers and Bernard Edwards).

CMJ New Music Report Issue: 28 - Nov 21, 1983
© 1978-1999 College Media, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
 

 L y r i c s


ALLERGIES

Allergies to dust and grain
Maladies
Remedies
Still these allergies remain
My hand can't touch a guitar string
My fingers just burn and ache
My head intercedes with my bodily needs
And my body won't give it a break
My heart can stand a disaster
My heart can take a disgrace
But my heart is allergic
The women I love
And it's changing the shape of my face
Allergies
Allergies
Something's living on my skin
Doctor please
Doctor please
Open up it's me again
I go to a famous physician
I sleep in the local hotel
From what I can see of the people like me
We get better
But we never get well
So I ask myself this question
It's a question I often repeat
Where do allergies go
When its after a show
And they want to get something to eat?
Allergies
Allergies
Something's living on my skin
Doctor please
Doctor please
Open up its me again
Maladies
Melodies
Allergies to dust and grain
Maladies
Remedies
Still these allergies remain


HEARTS AND BONES

One and one-half wandering Jews
Free to wander wherever they choose
Are traveling together
In the Sangre de Cristo
The Blood of Christ Mountains
Of New Mexico
On the last leg of their journey
They started a long time ago
The arc of a love affair
Rainbows in the high desert air
Mountain passes slipping into stones
Hearts and bones
Hearts and bones
Hearts and bones
Thinking back to the season before
Looking back through the cracks in the door
Two people were married
The act was outrageous
The bride was contagious
She burned like a bride
These events may have had some effect
On the man with the girl by his side
The arc of a love affair
His hands rolling down her hair
Love like lightning shaking till it moans
Hearts and bones
Hearts and bones
Hearts and bones
And whoa whoa whoa
She said why?
Why don't we drive through the night
And we'll wake up in down Mexico
Oh I
I don't know about nothin' about nothin'
About Mexico
And tell me why
Why won't you love me
For who I am
Where I am
He said:
'Cause that's not the way the world is baby
This is how I love you, baby
This is how I love you, baby
One and one-half wandering Jews
Returned to their natural coasts
They resume old acquaintances
Step out occasionally
And speculate who had been damaged the most
Easy time will determine if these consolations
Will be their reward
The arc of a love affair
Waiting to be restored
You take two young bodies and twirl them into one
Their hearts and their bones
And they won't come undone
Hearts and bones
Hearts and bones
Hearts and bones
Hearts and bones


WHEN NUMBERS GET SERIOUS

I have a number in my head
Though I don't know why its there
When numbers get serious
You see their shape everywhere
Diving and multiplying
Exchanging with ease
When times are mysterious
Serious numbers are easy to please
Take my address
Take my phone
Call me if you can
Here's my address
Here's my phone
Please don't give it to some madman
Hey hey, wo wo
Complicated life
Numbers swirling thick and curious
You can cut them with a knife
You can with them with a knife
Two times two is twenty-two
Four times four is forty-four
When numbers get serious
They leave a mark on your door
Urgent. Urgent
A telephone ringing in the hallways
When times are mysterious
Serious numbers will speak to us always
That is why a man with numbers
Can put your mind at ease
We've got numbers by the trillions
Here and overseas
Hey hey, whoa whoa
Look at the stink about Japan
All those numbers waiting patiently
Don't you understand
Don't you understand
So wrap me
Wrap me
Wrap me do
In the shelter of your arms
I am ever your volunteer
I won't do you any harm
You can count on my word
When time are mysterious
Serious numbers
Will always be heard
When times are mysterious
Serious numbers will always be heard
And after all is said and done
And the numbers come home
The four rolls into three
The three turns into two
And the two becomes a
One


THINK TOO MUCH

The smartest people in the world
Had gathered in Lost Angeles
The analyze our love affair
And possibly unscramble us
And we sat among our photographs
Examined every one
And in the end we compromised
And met the morning sun
Maybe I think too much
Maybe I think too much
Maybe I think too much
Maybe I think too much
They say the left side of the brain
Dominates the right
And the right side has to labor
Through the long and speechless night
And in the night
My father came for me
He said there's not much more that you can do
Go on and get some rest
And I said yeah
Maybe I think too much
Maybe I think too much
Maybe I think too much
Maybe I think too much


SONG ABOUT THE MOON

If you want to write a song about the moon
Walk along the craters of the afternoon
When the shadows are deep
And the light is alien
And gravity leaps like a knife off the pavement
And you want to write a song about the moon
You want to write a spiritual tune
The nah nah nah
Presto
Song about the moon
If you want to write a song about the heart
Think about the moon before you start
Because the heart will howl
Like a dog in the moonlight
And the heart can explode
Like a pistol on a June night
So if you want to write a song about the heart
And its ever-longing for a counterpart
Write a song about the moon
The laughing boy
He laughed so hard
He fell down from his place
The laughing girl
She laughed so hard
The tears rolled down her face
Hey Songwriter
If you want to write a song about
A face
Think about a photograph
That you really can't remember
But you can't erase
Wash your hands in dreams and lightning
Cut off your hair
And whatever is frightening
If you want to write a song
About a face
If you want to write a song about
The human race
Write a song about the moon
If you want to write a song about the moon
You want to write a spiritual tune
Then do it
Write a song about the moon


THINK TOO MUCH

They say the left side of the brain
Controls the right
They say that the right side
Has to work hard all night
Maybe I think too much for my own good
Some people say so
Other people say no
The fact is
I had a childhood that was mercifully
brief
I grew up in a state of disbelief
I started to think too much
When I was twelve going on thirteen
Me and girls from St. Augustine
Up in the mezzanine
Thinking about God
Maybe I think too much
Maybe I think too much
Maybe I think too much
Maybe I think too much
Have you ever experienced a period of grace
When your brain just takes a seat behind your face
And the world begins the Elephant Dance
Everything's funny
Everyone's sunny
You take our your money
And walk down the road
That leads me to the girl I love
The girl I'm always thinking of
But maybe I think too much
And I ought to just hold her
Stop trying to mold her
Maybe trying to blindfold her
And take her away
Maybe I think too much
Maybe I think too much
Maybe I think too much
Maybe I think too much


TRAIN IN THE DISTANCE

She was beautiful as Southern skies
The night he met her
She was married to someone
He was doggedly determined that he would
      get her
He was old.  he was young
From time to time he'd tip his heart
But each time she withdrew
Everybody loves the sound of a train in
    the distance
Everybody thinks its true
Will eventually the boy and the girl get married
Sure enough they have a son
And though they both were occupied
With the child she carried
Disagreements had begun
And in a while they fell apart
It wasn't hard to do
Everybody loves the sound of a train
     in the distance
Everybody thinks tis true
Two dissapointed believers
Two people playing the game
Negotiations and love songs
Are often mistaken for one and the same
Now the man and the woman
Remain in contact
Lt us say it's for the child
With disagreements about the meaning
Of a marriage contract
Coversations hard and wild
But from time to time
He makes her laugh
She cooks a meal or two
Everybody loves the sound of a train in
     the distance
Everybody thinks it's true
What is the point of this story
The thought that life could be better
Is woven indelibly
Into our hearts
And our brains


RENE AND GEORGETTE MAGRITTE WITH THIER DOG AFTER THE WAR

Rene and Georgette Magritte
With thier dog after the war
Returned to thier hotel suite
And they unlocked the door
Easily losing thier evening clothes
They dance by the light of the moon
To The Penguins
The Moonglows
The Orioles
And The Five Satins
They deep forbidden music
They'd been longing for
Rene and Georgette Magritte
With thier dog after the war
Were strolling down Christopher Street
When they stopped in a men's store
With all the mannequins
Dressed in thier style
That brought tears to thier
Immigrant eyes
Just like The Penguins
The Moonglows
The Orioles
and The Five Satins
The easy stream of laughter
Flowing through the air
Rene and Georgette Magritte
With their dog après la guerre
Side by side
They fell asleep
Decades gliding by like Indians
Time is cheap
When they wake they will find
All their personal belongings
Have intertwined
Rene and Georette Magritte
With their dog after the war
Were dining with the power élite
And they looked in thier bedroom drawer
And what do you think
They have hidden away
In the cabinet cold of thier hearts?
The Penguin
The Moonglows
The Orioles
and The Five Satins
For now and ever after
With thier dog
After the war


CARS ARE CARS

Cars are cars
All over the world
Cars are cars
Similarly made
Similarly sold
In a motorcade
Abandoned when they're old
Cars are cars
All over the world
Cars are cars
All over the world
Engine in the front
Jack in the back
Wheeles take the brunt
Pinion and a rack
Cars are cars
All over the world
But people are strangers
They change with the curve
From time zone to time zone
As we can observe
They shut down their borders
And they think they're immune
They stand on thier differences
And shoot at the moon
But cars ar cars
All over the world
Drive'em on the left
Drive'em on the right
Suseptible to theft
In the middle of the night
Cars are cars
All over the world
Cars are cars
All over the world
I once had a car
That was more like a home
I lived in it, loved in it
Polished its chrome
If some of my homes
Had been more like my car
I probably wouldn't have
Travelled this far
Cars are cars
All over the world
Cars are cars
All over the world


THE LATE GREAT JONNY ACE

I was reading a magazine
And thinking of a rock and roll song
The year of 1954
And I hadn't been playing that long
When a man came on the radio
And this is what he said
He said I hate to break it
To his fans
But Jonny Ace is dead
Well, I really wasn't
Such a Jonny Ace fan
But I felt bad all the same
So I sent away for his photograph
And I waited until it came
It came all the way from Texas
With a sad and simple face
And they signed it on the bottom
Fro the Late Great Jonny Ace
It was the year of the Beatles
It was the year of the Stones
It was 1964
I was living in London
With the girl from the summer before
It was the year of the Beatles
It was the year of the Stones
A year after J.F.K.
We were staying up all night
And giving the days way
And the music was flowing
Amazing
And blowing my way
On a cold December evening
I was walking through the Cristmas tide
When a stranger came up and asked me
If I'd heard John Lennon had died
And the two of us
Went to this bar
And we stayed close to the place
And every song we played
Was for The Late Great Jonny Ace

 M P 3   S a m p l e s


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