Writers and musicians will have different attitudes about the corniness. Writers will focus on his writing.. he’s a different kind of writer. He’s said himself he chooses words because they sound good and sing well.. prosody I guess.
Bridge over troubled water is the corniest lyric ever but it’s a towering piece of music. S&G could be corny as hell but it almost always sounds beautiful - their harmony singing was divine and Paul is more of a lyricist in the old sense - writing words that fit the tune and the singer’s mouth - in an era when the Dylan/Joni wordiness was becoming more popular.
I urge all to try and listen as a musician - particularly as a singer and feel how magical it feels to sing his songs. His lyrics simply fit, in a way that other singer songwriters’ don’t.
One of my more controversial opinions is that The Graduate would have been a better movie without the S&G soundtrack. The (similar) ending to the original Heartbreak Kid is so much better, not entirely but at least partly because we don’t have to hear Sound of Silence.
This is funny, I always interpreted the cheery melody of “I Am a Rock” as a sign that the song is meant to be partly self-mocking. It’s about how silly you feel when you’ve been hurt and you’re dreaming of the safety of isolation. And it works imo because both the dream AND feeling silly about it are so relatable when you’re in that mood.
I keep thinking about this, because the thing that makes something both corny and genius is the ability to be an utterly shameless, incredibly talented doofus, and also somehow get at the truth. Three cheers to the corny geniuses.
I think S&G are decidedly corny but maybe not in a way your definition admits, and it's because while they're *aware* of irony and even aspire to it, they don't command it very skillfully. To me their music has always felt a bit like an annoying little brother to what is generally accepted as true 60s counterculture, whose imperfect imitations cast unintentionally unflattering light on the genuine article. (I like them, for these and other reasons, but it doesn't really matter.) To put it another way, there's a self-contradictory guilelessness at work when someone obviously cares very much about whether or not they are perceived as sufficiently ironic. A real ironist doesn't care, or at any rate is better at pretending not to. This is probably why I also relate somewhat uncomfortably with some of their songs, especially the bad ones.
The concept of having strong feelings about Simon and Garfunkel is very alien to me-I can’t see hating them, but I also don’t really get loving them either
It’s funny, I fell headlong for Plath when I was 15, and I think it was bc I honestly had no sense of who she was otherwise—if I had known her as The Sad Girl Laureate I may have resisted, but thankfully I was ignorant enough to simply go “Poetry! Yes”
This is such funny timing -- I have never particularly been a fan of Simon & Garfunkel, and think most of their hits I know are very...earnest? lol. but I've recently become OBSESSED with the Art Garfunkel song "Waters of March". Which I admit is also kind of corny, but makes me cry. Anyway. I just listened to it five times in a row then opened this substack article.
To be honest, I never considered that I Am a Rock is a bad song. It was always there the way Simon and Garfunkel were always there, radio friendly and waiting. As a piece of songwriting, the lyrics and arrangement could definitely use some work, but I still like the defiance of the chorus. There’s no way for a person to be defiant without coming off as cloyingly aspirational, but I have a lot of admiration for they do it anyway. Now El Condor Pasa, on the other hand …
Writers and musicians will have different attitudes about the corniness. Writers will focus on his writing.. he’s a different kind of writer. He’s said himself he chooses words because they sound good and sing well.. prosody I guess.
Bridge over troubled water is the corniest lyric ever but it’s a towering piece of music. S&G could be corny as hell but it almost always sounds beautiful - their harmony singing was divine and Paul is more of a lyricist in the old sense - writing words that fit the tune and the singer’s mouth - in an era when the Dylan/Joni wordiness was becoming more popular.
I urge all to try and listen as a musician - particularly as a singer and feel how magical it feels to sing his songs. His lyrics simply fit, in a way that other singer songwriters’ don’t.
One of my more controversial opinions is that The Graduate would have been a better movie without the S&G soundtrack. The (similar) ending to the original Heartbreak Kid is so much better, not entirely but at least partly because we don’t have to hear Sound of Silence.
This is funny, I always interpreted the cheery melody of “I Am a Rock” as a sign that the song is meant to be partly self-mocking. It’s about how silly you feel when you’ve been hurt and you’re dreaming of the safety of isolation. And it works imo because both the dream AND feeling silly about it are so relatable when you’re in that mood.
I keep thinking about this, because the thing that makes something both corny and genius is the ability to be an utterly shameless, incredibly talented doofus, and also somehow get at the truth. Three cheers to the corny geniuses.
requiring verdicts on corny genius:
Elvis
Baz Luhrmann (he only has the one movie to go off of so it's tough)
Jim Steinman
Mickey Rooney
also can there be individual works of corny genius. like would Sound of Music count pace Pauline Kael
also love that this a space where everyone's like "Tokyo Story....which as we all know is the exemplar bar none of basic taste....."
I think S&G are decidedly corny but maybe not in a way your definition admits, and it's because while they're *aware* of irony and even aspire to it, they don't command it very skillfully. To me their music has always felt a bit like an annoying little brother to what is generally accepted as true 60s counterculture, whose imperfect imitations cast unintentionally unflattering light on the genuine article. (I like them, for these and other reasons, but it doesn't really matter.) To put it another way, there's a self-contradictory guilelessness at work when someone obviously cares very much about whether or not they are perceived as sufficiently ironic. A real ironist doesn't care, or at any rate is better at pretending not to. This is probably why I also relate somewhat uncomfortably with some of their songs, especially the bad ones.
The concept of having strong feelings about Simon and Garfunkel is very alien to me-I can’t see hating them, but I also don’t really get loving them either
It’s funny, I fell headlong for Plath when I was 15, and I think it was bc I honestly had no sense of who she was otherwise—if I had known her as The Sad Girl Laureate I may have resisted, but thankfully I was ignorant enough to simply go “Poetry! Yes”
This is such funny timing -- I have never particularly been a fan of Simon & Garfunkel, and think most of their hits I know are very...earnest? lol. but I've recently become OBSESSED with the Art Garfunkel song "Waters of March". Which I admit is also kind of corny, but makes me cry. Anyway. I just listened to it five times in a row then opened this substack article.
To be honest, I never considered that I Am a Rock is a bad song. It was always there the way Simon and Garfunkel were always there, radio friendly and waiting. As a piece of songwriting, the lyrics and arrangement could definitely use some work, but I still like the defiance of the chorus. There’s no way for a person to be defiant without coming off as cloyingly aspirational, but I have a lot of admiration for they do it anyway. Now El Condor Pasa, on the other hand …
I thought it was just a song from the point of view of a rock