I haven’t heard it yet, but a New York Times article encourages me to. Paul Simon has joined the ranks of those aging music stars to record albums presaging their deaths. The article was about Simon’s latest album, Seven Psalms. And, yes, the religious reference is pretty hard to miss. Like most kids from the sixties, I grew up hearing Simon and Garfunkel on the radio. We didn’t have money for albums, but I always liked their songs when I heard them. After their breakup I really didn’t pay much attention to Simon until Graceland, and since then I’ve listened with half an ear. You see, I’m wired in such a way that I can’t listen to music while I write. Or read. My mind grips one thing at a time. That means I don’t listen to background music much.
That doesn’t mean I don’t appreciate music. I do. Almost religiously so. On occasion I come back to Simon, with or without Garfunkel. I posted about his song “Werewolf” some years back. I eventually listened to that album, and I’m not sure I got it. Artists are that way. Some pieces you like, others are just okay. I am curious about Seven Psalms, though. I’ve posted about David Bowie’s Blackstar, Leonard Cohen’s You Want It Darker (both discussed in the Times article), and Bruce Springsteen’s Letter to You. No longer young myself—these guys were young when I was a kid—hearing them reflect on death is powerful, and, if the mood is right, peaceful. We fear death because it’s unknown. And also, we all know, deep down, that we’re flawed.
Psalms aren’t necessarily biblical, of course. Sinead O’Connor’s “Take Me to Church” is a psalm. So is “Sounds of Silence.” Artists have been writing psalms for as long as they’ve been writing songs. The biblical psalms are among the most quoted bits of literature in the western world. They were likely originally sung as well, but we can only guess what they may have sounded like. We know that across the world people turn to song to express strong emotion. I’m not sure what Paul Simon’s Seven Psalms might be, but it seems that thoughts of mortality go naturally enough with emotion. I don’t write much about music because it’s so deeply personal. I try to be intellectually honest on this blog, but if you want to talk music you really have to get to know me first. Then I’ll reveal my psalms.