PAUL SIMON - SEVEN PSALMS

What is it with Seven Psalms. Last year Nick Cave released a record of that name and now it is Paul Simon’s turn. Neither artist writing Psalms particularly shocked me. Watching how interested both had become in God things over the years, it was more of a pleasant surprise.

Paul Simon’s So Beautiful So What record from 2011 had a lot of God on it. Of that record he said, "I wondered whether there was a subconscious theme that I was tapping into. I have Christian symbols and imagery before in songs. It’s very strongly evocative, so it may just be coincidence—but it may not be.”

On Seven Psalms God is not in the subconscious. This is a man in his 80s sharing his ruminations of life and death and what after. It begins with that question on The Lord:

 

I've been thinking about the great migration

Noon and night they leave the flock

And I imagine their destination

Meadow grass, jagged rock

 

And end on that same question on Wait:

 

Life is a meteor

Lеt your eyes roam

Heavеn is beautiful

It's almost like home

Children! get ready

It's time to come home

Amen

 

In between and Simon is asking seeking God:

 

The Lord is my engineer

The Lord is the earth I ride on

The Lord is the face in the atmosphere

The path I slip and I slide on healing:

 

… and healing

 

The garden keeps a rose and a thorn

And once the choice is made

All that's left is

Mending what was torn

Love is like a braid

 

… and resolution, like sorting out the affairs of his soul:

 

Yesterday's boy is gone

Driving through darkness

Searching for

Your forgiveness

 

I’ve been amazed at the books and songs seeking out resolution to relationships with parents, family, actions we’ve done:

 

Gonna carry my grievances

Down to the shore

Wash them away in the tumbling tide

 

The Psalms get their biggest connection in The Sacred Harp. Here Simon sees the power of music: 

 

The sacred harp

That David played to make his

Songs of praise

We long to hear those strings

That set his heart ablaze

 

The ringing strings

The thought that God turns music

Into bliss…

 

Seven Psalms is pretty much this. It is a genius songwriter, making his guitar his soul mate. There is no catchy 59th Street Bridge Song here. Paul Simon has always been able to make his guitar playing artistic and he does that here without many grace notes. It is as stark as a sacred retreat but then that is what it is. Spiritually deep.