Okay, so after Simon and Garfunkel split once their final record titled, “Bridge Over Troubled Water,” was released back in 1970, it was time for Paul Simon to continue off his musical journey. No one knew what was expected to be. And without a musical partner, lots of questions were beginning to arise. One of them was, if Paul Simon was able to continue upon performing up to the musical standards. And surprisingly YES! It was in the year of 1972, that Paul Simon embarked on his own musical journey with the release of his self-titled record, “Paul Simon.” And to me, this is such a great, and interesting record. You get that sense of Simon trying to branch out into different musical genres, or styles. Each song within a record unfolds an interesting story. For the melody, he remains within the realm of folk rock, but surprisingly you’ll get a glimpse of the blues, and surprisingly reggae. YEAH, YOU READ THAT, REGGAE! It’s something unexpecting, but hey it’s worth checking out and seeing how it unfolds. But as I was listening to this record, it took me back to when I used to go on family vacations, specifically down to Virginia Beach. And I remember coming across a record shop with my cousin. Apologies if I forgot the name of the shot, but she’s the one who spotted it first, and then told me about it while we were on the beach. And that moment is when I stopped what I was doing, and immediately joined her. It had a great ambience, and I remember hearing the song, “Me and Julio Down By the Schoolyard.” coming out of these small bookshelf speakers, while this record was being played. I managed to snag myself a copy of “Seconds Out,” by Genesis. But, as we were leaving the shop, I kept saying to myself,“Man, I should’ve picked up that Paul Simon record, what am I blind!”

As much as this is a good memory, we need to dive into this record, because I feel as if it’s something no one knew what to expect from it.  Especially when it comes to recording your first solo record, Simon was taking a big risk at the time, and seeing if the public will go yay, or nay. But to me it’s an automatic yay, because the record starts off with my favourite song, “Mother and Child Reunion.” I love this song, not only for its lyrics, but it has such a great reggae melody to it. I can imagine the faces when they heard for the first time Paul Simon attempting reggae, somewhat puzzled, perplexed, and convinced at the same time.  The backing vocals, and the beat just gets to me, because of not only for its simplicity, but how Simon uses his vocal tones to go along with the melody. HANDS DOWN AMAZING! Plus, what cracks me is how he came up with the title track from drawing inspiration off of a Chinese menu. And we can’t forget about “Me and Julio Down By the Schoolyard.” It has an interesting story to it, where two friends that got into some trouble, were arrested, and jailed.  Soon after they find themselves released by some sort of preacher. But, I feel that it’s impossible to forget about the melody, just the opening part reminds me of 1970’s Sesame Street, with kids playing in the street, and thinking about one thing only, just having fun.