This album was, apparently, originally intended as a Simon and Garfunkel album, but during the recording, Paul Simon decided that it was so autobiographical (based on his break-up from Carrie Fisher) that it ought to be a solo album and basically erased Garfunkel rather unceremoniously, an act that damaged their friendship for a long time to come.
I think, largely, this was the right choice though; the somewhat stripped-down and melancholic sound suits Simon alone. A lot of it feels like a dry-run for Graceland. In the title track Hearts And Bones, Simon sings “One and one-half wandering Jews, free to wander wherever they choose, are travelling together in the Sangre de Christo”. This is very like the lyrics of the title track to Graceland where “my travelling companion is nine years old, he is the child of my first marriage”. Simon even sings the word “travelling” almost identically, and the song has a similar vibe, merging his favourite themes of the mixed isolation and wonder of pilgrimages and travel (looking back to the bus journey in America as well). I assume the “half a Jew” notion here is one to do with a level of observance, although it might reference Fisher whose heritage was not as solidly Jewish as his own.
There’s some typical Paul Simon wistfulness to the music and lyrics, but because it feels throughout a bit like the Graceland album without the African parts, it ultimately feels less musically distinctive. This does, however, make it more subtle as well, almost like a quieter Steely Dan album mixing in little bits of jazz, do-wop, ska, all sorts. There are some typical moments of Simon’s understated poetry - “If you want to write a song about the human race, write a song about the moon” from Song About The Moon, for example, or “Have you ever experienced a period of grace when your brain just takes a seat behind your face?” from Think Too Much (Part A) .
The Late Great Johnny Ace recalls elements of the song Abraham, Martin, and John (recorded by Dion, Smokey Robinson and Marvin Gaye among others) but in this case recalls three Johns who died too young – R&B singer Johnny Ace, JFK, and John Lennon. In Ace’s case, the gunshot was self-inflicted (accidentally but recklessly), but the song carries a sense of that shock on hearing of a sudden death, and evokes the bleakness of a cold winter’s day (JFK killed in November, Lennon in December). And that sums up the mood of the album quite well – it's not one for cheering yourself up, but one for enjoying a bit of a blue mood; sometimes you just have to lean into that and go with it. Which, being a teenager at the time, was my experience of the Eighties.
And that’s it for 1983. That was quite an eclectic mix of albums in the end, even though these early Eighties have the fewest albums on the list since a long time (reinforcing my opinion that it was a bit of a lean time for decent music). Next year, Big Brother will be watching....
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