Paul Simon - Rhythm of the Saints

As you listen, keep in mind how he arranged them -
every song is one key up in the scale in order to lift your soul.

The Obvious Child

I'm accustomed to a smooth ride
Or maybe I'm a dog who's lost its bite
I don't expect to be treated like a fool no more
I don't expect to sleep through the night
Some people say a lie's a lie's a lie
But I say why
Why deny the obvious child?
Why deny the obvious child?

And in remembering a road sign
I am remembering a girl when I was young
And we said These songs are true
These days are ours
These tears are free
And hey
The cross is in the ballpark
The cross is in the ballpark

We had a lot of fun
We had a lot of money
We had a little son and we thought we'd call him Sonny
Sonny gets married and moves away
Sonny has a baby and bills to pay
Sonny gets sunnier
Day by day by day by day

I've been waking up at sunrise
I've been following the light across my room
I watch the night receive the room of my day
Some people say the sky is just the sky
But I say
Why deny the obvious child?
Why deny the obvious child?

Sonny sits by his window and thinks to himself
How it's strange that some rooms are like cages
Sonny's yearbook from high school
Is down from the shelf
And he idly thumbs through the pages
Some have died
Some have fled from themselves
Or struggled from here to get there
Sonny wanders beyond his interior walls
Runs his hands through his thinning brown hair

Well I'm accustomed to a smoother ride
Maybe I'm a dog that's lost its bite
I don't expect to get treated like a fool no more
I don't expect to sleep through the night
Some people say a lie is just a lie
But I say the cross is in the ballpark
Why deny the obvious child?

Can't Run But

I can't run but
I can walk much faster than this
Can't run but
I can't run but
I can walk much faster than this
Can't run but

A cooling system
Burns out in the Ukraine
Trees and umbrellas
Protect us from this new rain
Armies of engineers
To analyze the soil
The food we contemplate
The water that we boil

I can't run but
I can walk much faster than this
Can't run but
I can't run but
I can walk much faster than this
Can't run but
Oo-we Oo-we

I had a dream about us
In the bottles and the bones of the night
I felt a pain in my shoulder blade
Like a pencil point? A love bite?
A couple was rubbing against us
Rubbing and doing that new dance
The man was wearing a jacket and jeans
The woman was laughing in advance

I can't run but
I can walk much faster than this
Can't run but
I can't run but
I can walk much faster than this
Can't run but

A winding river
Gets wound around a heart. Pull it
Tighter and tighter
Until the muddy waters part
Down by the river bank
A blues band arrives
The music suffers
The music business thrives

I can't run but
I can walk much faster than this
Can't run but
I can't run but
I can walk much faster than this
Can't run but
Oo-we Oo-we

The Coast

for Anna, Elizabeth, and Derek Walcott
A family of musicians took shelter for the night
In the little harbor church of St. Cecilia
Two guitars, bass drum, and tambourine
Rose of Jericho and Bougainvillea

This is a lonely life
Sorrows everywhere you turn
And that's worth something
When you think about it
That's worth some money
That's worth something
When you think about it
That's worth some money

A trip to the market
A trip into the pearl gray morning sunlight
That settles over Washington
A trip to the market
A trip around the world
Where the evening meal
Is negotiable, if there is one.

This is a lonely-lone, lonely life
Sorrows everywhere you turn
And that's worth something
When you think about it
That's worth some money
That's worth something
When you think about it
That's worth some money

We are standing in the sunlight
The early morning sunlight
In the harbor church of St. Cecilia
To praise a soul's returning to the earth
To the Rose of Jericho and the Bougainvillea

To prove that I love you
Because I believe in you
Summer skies, stars are falling
All along the injured coast
If I have money
If I have children
Summer skies, stars are falling
All along the injured coast
If I have weaknesses
Don't let them blind me now
Summer skies, stars are falling
All along the injured coast
Oo-wah Oo-wah Doo-wop a Doo-wop
Summer skies, stars are falling
Leaving the shadow of the valley behind me now
All along the injured coast
Oo-wah Oo-wah Doo-wop a Doo-wop
Summer skies, stars are falling
All along the injured coast
Oo-wah Oo-wah Doo-wop a Doo-wop

Proof

Soon our fortunes will be made, my darling
And we will leave this loathsome little town
Silver bells jingling from your black lizard boots, my baby
Silver foil to trim your wedding gown

It's true that tools of love wear down
Time passes
A mind wanders
It seems mindless, but it does
Sometimes I see your face
As if through reading glasses
And your smile seems softer than it was

Proof
Some people gonna call you up
Tell you something you already know
Proof
Sane people go crazy on you
Say, "No man, that was not
The deal that we made
I got to go, I got to go"
Faith
Faith is an island in the setting sun
But proof, yes
Proof is the bottom line for everyone

My face, my race
Don't matter anymore
My sex, my cheques
Accepted at the door

Half moon hiding in the clouds, my darling
And the sky is flecked with signs of hope
Raise your weary wings against the rain, my baby
Wash your tangled curls with gambler's soap

Further to Fly

There may come a time
When you'll be tired
As tired as a dream that wants to die
And further to fly
Further to fly
Further to fly
Further to fly

Maybe you will find a lover
That you discover accidentally
Who falls against you gently
As a pickpocket
Brushes your thigh
Further to fly

Effortless music from the Cameroons
The spinning darkness of her hair
A conversation in a crowded room going nowhere
The open palm of desire
Wants everything
It wants everything
It wants everything

Sometimes I'll be walking down
The street and I'll be thinking
Am I crazy
Or is this some morbid little lie
Further to fly
Further to fly
Further to fly

A recent loss of memory
A shadow in the family
The baby waves bye-bye
I'm trying, I'm flying

There may come a time
When I will lose you
Lose you as I lose my light
Days falling backwards into velvet night
The open palm of desire
Wants everything
It wants everything
It wants soil as soft as summer
And the strength to push like spring

A broken laugh
A broken fever
Take it up with the great deceiver
Who looks you in the eye
And says baby don't cry
Further to fly

There may come a time
When I will lose you
Lose you as I lose my light
Days falling backwards into velvet night
The open palm of desire
The Rose of Jericho
Soil as soft as summer
The strength to let you go

She Moves On

I feel good
It's a fine day
The way the sun hits off the runway
A cloud shifts
The plane lifts
She moves on

But feel the bite
Whenever you believe that
You'll be lost and love will find you
When the road bends
And the song ends
She moves on

I know the reason I
Feel so blessed
My heart still splashes
Inside my chest, but she
She is like a top
She cannot stop
She moves on

A sympathetic stranger
Lights a candle in the middle of the night
Her voice cracks
She jumps back
But she moves on

She says "Ooh my storybook lover
You have underestimated my power
As you shortly will discover"

Then I fall to my knees
Shake a rattle at the skies
I'm afraid that I'll be taken
Abandoned, forsaken
In her cold coffee eyes

She can't sleep now
The moon is red
She fights a fever
She burns in bed
She needs to talk so
We take a walk
Down in the maroon light

She says "Maybe these emotions are
As near to love as love will ever be"
So I agree

Then the moon breaks
She takes the corner that's all she takes
She moves on

She says "Ooh my storybook lover
You have underestimated my power
As you shortly will discover"

Then I fall to my knees
I grow weak, I grow slack
As if she captured the breath of my
voice in a bottle
And I can't catch it back

But I feel good
It's a fine day
The way the sun hits off the runway
A cloud shifts
The plane lifts
She moves on

Born at the Right Time

Down among the reeds and rushes
A baby boy was found
His eyes as clear as centuries
His silky hair was brown

Never been lonely
Never been lied to
Never had to scuffle in fear
Nothing denied to
Born at the instant
The church bells chime
And the whole world whispering
Born at the right time

Me and my buddies we are travelling people
We like to go down to restaurant row
Spend those Euro-dollars
All the way from Washington to Tokyo
I see them in the airport lounges
Upon their mother's breast
They follow me with open eyes
Their uninvited guest

Never been lonely
Never been lied to
Never had to scuffle in fear
Nothing denied to
Born at the instant
The church bells chime
And the whole world whispering
Born at the right time

Too many people on the bus from the airport
Too many holes in the crust of the earth
The planet groans
Every time it registers another birth

But down among the reeds and rushes
A baby girl was found
Her eyes as clear as centuries
Her silky hair was brown

Never been lonely
Never been lied to
Never had to scuffle in fear
Nothing denied to
Born at the instant
The church bells chime
And the whole world whispering
Born at the right time

The Cool, Cool River

Moves like a fist through traffic
Anger and no one can heal it
Shoves a little bump into the momentum
It's just like a little lump
But you feel
In the creases and the shadows
With a rattling deep emotion
The cool, cool river
Sweeps the wild, white ocean

Yes Boss. The government handshake
Yes Boss. The crusher of language
Yes Boss. Mr. Stillwater.
The face at the edge of the banquet
The cool, the cool river
The cool, the cool river

I believe in the future
I may live in my car
My radio tuned to
The voice of a star
Song dogs barking at the break of dawn
Lightning pushes the edge of a thunderstorm
And these old hopes and fears
Still at my side

Anger and no one can heal it
Slides through the metal detector
Lives like a mole in a motel
A slide in a slide projector
The cool, the cool river
Sweeps the wild, white ocean
The rage of love turns inward
To prayers of devotion
And these prayers are
The constant road across the wilderness
These prayers are
These prayers are the memory of God
The memory of God

And I believe in the future
We shall suffer no more
Maybe not in my lifetime
But in yours I feel sure
Song dogs barking at the break of dawn
Lightning pushes the edges of a thunderstorm
And these streets
Quiet as a sleeping army
Send their battered dreams to heaven, to heaven
For the mother's restless boy
Who is a witness to, who is a warrior
Who denies his urge to break and run

Who says: Hard times?
I'm used to them
The speeding planet burns
I'm used to that
My life's so common it disappears
And sometimes even music
Cannot substitute for tears

Spirit Voices

We sailed up a river wide as the sea
And slept on the banks
On the leaves of a banyan tree
And all of these spirit voices rule the night
Some stories are magical, meant to be sung
Song from the mouth of the river
When the world was young
And all of these spirit voices rule the night

By moon
We walk
To the brujo's door
Along a path of river stone
Women with their nursing children
Seated on the floor
We join the fevers
And the broken bones

The candlelight flickers
The falcon calls
A lime-green lizard scuttles down the cabin wall
And all of these spirit voices
Sing rainwater, sea water
River water, holy water
Wrap this child in mercy -- heal her
Heaven's only daughter
All of these spirit voices rule the night

My hands were numb
My feet were lead
I drank a cup of herbal brew
Then the sweetness in the air
Combined with the lightness in my head
And I heard the jungle breathing in the bamboo

Greetings!
Excuse me, one moment
I remind you
That tomorrow
It will be all or it will be nothing
It depends, heart
It will be brief or it will be great
It depends on the passion
It will be dirty, it will be a dream
Be careful, heart
It will be useful, it will be late
Do your best, heart
And have trust
In the power of tomorrow

Lord of the earthquake
My trembling bed
The spider resumes the rhythm
Of his golden thread
And all of these spirit voices rule the night

The Rhythm of the Saints

If I have weaknesses
Don't let them blind me
Or camouflage all I am wary of
I could be sailing in seizures of laughter
Or crawling out from under the heel of love
Do my prayers remain unanswered
Like a beggar at your sleeve
Olodumare is smiling in heaven
Smiling and I do believe

Always a stranger when strange isn't fashionable
And fashion is rich people waving at the door
Or it's a dealer in drugs or in passion
Lies of a nature we've heard before
Do my prayers remain unanswered
Like a beggar at your sleeve
Babalu-aye spins on his crutches
Says leave if you want
If you want to leave

Reach in the darkness
A reach in the dark
Reach in the darkness
A reach in the dark
To overcome an obstacle or an enemy
To glide away from the razor or a knife
To overcome an obstacle or an enemy
To dominate the impossible in your life
Reach in the darkness
A reach in the dark
Reach in the darkness
A reach in the dark
To overcome an obstacle or an enemy
To dominate the impossible in your life

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Athens 2464, home of Jennifer Mottram