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Home , Sounds of Silence, The Beatles

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He concentrates on the interpretation MUSIC of natural rights and of human nature offered by the radical dissenters of the late i8th century: Price, Priestly, Paine, Wilkes, Burgh and others. These 8yes of'Blue, Cars of Tin men and their 19th-century heirs were not satisfied with the environ- mentalism that prudent readers of Now that reviews of have expression of deep feelings. But if Locke, from the Commonwealthmen been instituted by the songs are to be justified as adult of the 1720's to the Jeffersonians of , the New Yorker, High Fidelity as well as adolescent art, it cannot a77o's, found in the Essay on Human and Hi Fi Stereo Review, those of us be because of their ideas. Compared Understanding. They preferred have been bred on Bach, Mahler with the usual vapid chatter of pop psychological assumptions of the Sec- and Bartok and who like the best of songs. Rock lyrics are often poetically ond Treatise, which implied that men Rock must express our dissatisfaction. sensitive and reveal inspiration. The were born with moral ideas and the For the most part, the reviews of Rock writers have read plenty of good politics of the religious republicans of LP's are written by under thirty "seni- poetry and the effects are evident. But the English Civil War. From these boppers" who accurately reflect the ap- the poetic and emotional materials of sources they developed a version of peal of the music to the college and the lyrics to "" or "The Sounds of Silence," however natural rights that held that the higher bop crowd, but who share one remark- superior for , are not seri- law was accessible to the intuitions of able shortcoming: they almost never ously to be thought of as in the same ordinary men - and that in government discuss the music, only the "poetry" or league with, say, Auden's "Petition": as well as in society equality must the ideas. therefore prevail. The moral power For example, in , that this position conveyed became Sunday, May 5, 1968, Colin Turner Send to us power and light, a extraordinarily clear during the next reviews the latest Simon and Gar- sovereign touch century in the abolitionists' critiques funkel disc, Bookends: Curing the intolerable neural itch. of slavery and the socialists' attacks on The exhaustion of weaning, the private property. "Until Bookends my image of Simon liar's quinsy. All this suggests a continuity in the and Garfunkel was of a couple of And the distortions of ingrown radical tradition from the Revolution young guys crowded into a tiny virginity. through the Civil War. But Mr. Lynd confessional, the one humming, Prohibit sharply the rehearsed goes further, arguing that radicals to- clapping and generally keeping time, response day make essentially the same affirma- the other playing the guitar and And gradually correct the coward's tions that the radicals of the Revolu- holding little water colors of stance; tion did.' Perhaps he is right. There is himself against the grating." Cover in time with beams those in the same easy reliance today on the retreat higher law and a similar tendency to Comparing Simon and Garfunkel's That, spotted, they turn though the trust intuition, even to assume that earlier records and their latest, the reverse were great. there is a universal moral truth present reviewer continues: in the heart of every man. And cer- Even if the "poems" of Rock songs tainly there is an urgent desire among "It's this looking that's different, the were flrst-rate poetry, it would mostly radicals to create a society that brings looking out instead of looking at be a waste of effort, for any musician the moral principles of the American (one's own reflection). Gone is the knows that music not only does not Revolution into practice. self-involvement of '/ require first-rate poetry - it cannot What Mr. Lynd desires, as far as one 'Patterns,' or 'The Dangling Con- support it. Even the loveliest of can tell from the last chapter in this versation'." Shakespeare or Ben Jonson poems set brief book, is that ordinary men will to music suffer a great loss, as they insist upon their rights of self govern- In the entire course of the review, the must when the poetic meter is violated ment, and, in fidelity to their con- music is never referred to, never dis- to accommodate the music's. Handel's sciences, reconstruct society from be- cussed. The question arises: Is this Alexander's Feast is a great oratorio, low. If their are guided by record to be judged as poetry, as phi- but it doesn't do anything for Dryden's the great radical principles of the losophy, or is it a matter of songs to words. A few composers (Purcell at Revolution, they will create a society be judged (and listened to) as music? his best) caji set excellent verse to characterized by democratic devolution. Considered as poetry or as ideas, music with minimal destruction of the Mr. Lynd has great faith in local in- most Rock songs leave much to be de- poetic structure, but that's rare. (Ros- stitutions, so long as they are popu- sired. The words have little to say that sini's Stabat Mater is a hilarious ex- larly controlled. He calls this method • we ha.ven't heard before. To kids in ample of total destruction of a text of change "bicameralism from below." high school, or to less sophisticated by musical setting.) In his famous re- It is one' more expression of the New segments of the college crowd, they view of Tristan, Bernard Shaw told us Left's devotion to community. are perhaps a rather radical, visceral that even Wagner, for all his inflated

40 JULY 20, 1968 notion of the importance of his libret- cause he prefers social subjects to set to the music - "Sitting on a sofa toes, realized how insignificant the psychological ones. The music is on a Sunday afternoon/' with its soft words would become when the music irrelevant. Would anyone want to "s" sounds, is a pleasant verbal com- was passionate and exciting. In the read: plement, for example. And the gro- ecstasy conveyed by the music of tesque anachronism of the traditional Act Two of Tristan, all the lovers can We might as well be apart. religious language as applied to the do is scream each other's name. Ft hardly matters. subject of the song is, whether in- Because Colin Turner dislikjs the We sleep separately. tentional or not, witty. The successful "narcissism" of the earlier Simon and And drop a smile passing in the mating of the words to the music can Garfunkel lyrics, he finds the new LP hall be contrasted with the failure in "The superior to its forerunners in its cele- Because there's no laughs left Sounds of Silence," where weak syl- bration of more public subjects. For 'Cause we laughed them all lables (the "ing" of "speaking" and all him, this makes the new songs su- In a very short time .... the other "ing" words at the ends of perior to "Patterns," and presumably lines) of the lyrics are set to strong to "The Sounds of Silence," "Cloudy," by itself, as a "poem," any more than accents in the music, resulting in and some of the other excellent songs one would want to sit through Die "speakING" - a jarring experience. of the previous LP's. Still, musically Walkure as a play without music? the new record, Bookends, is a step If "Mrs. Robinson" is a good song, it Let's take a quick look at the music is good, then, for musical reasons. backward, with the exception of the of the best song in the Bookends delightful "Mrs. Robinson" song - a Simon and Garfunkel cannot compete , "Mrs. Robinson." with on the Beatles' step backward into gimmickry and To begin with, the song holds to- . Mr. Turner singles out ground. They should stick to what gether as music, because it consists of they do best. Without the inventive "Fakin' It" as an example of special a sequence of repeated refrains and excellence to be found on the new counterpoint, , metrical shifts, maintains a regular tempo and pattern. variations of melodies and inspired use record. What we really find here is The major attraction of Simon and the absence of the unique Simon and of speeded up and slowed down tapes Garfunkel, their timbre - a tenor and of the Beatles at their best, Simon Garfunkel timbre, while in its place countertenor harmonization of voices we have a series of almost straight and Garfunkel's derivations are bound against a simple Rock beat - is strongly to seem flat. The critics will not help borrowings from the Beatles. The song present. Its beauty shines through in begins with the repeated notes that end these musicians by failing to examme the lovely sounds that are produced the music. HAROLD FROMM "Strawberry Fields Forever/' moves on at "We'd like to know a little bit to sudden tempo changes like those about you," "Hide it in a hiding place," of many of the Beatles' songs, then and the other parallel passages — soft, "borrows" two passages from the high-pitched, mellifluous. The excite- Beatles' "I am a Walrus/' the "English ment, mostly achieved through this Garden" sequence (in Simon and Gar- gentle timbre against a firm Rock ATTACH LABEL HERE funkel it appears as "And a walk beat, is heightened by the unusual and in a garden") followed immediately by sudden crescendoes that occur at "And the music of Walrus' '-'semolina pil- here's to you Mrs. Robinson," in all chard" line (which appears in the of its appearances (last time around as Simon and Garfunkel song as "Tangled "Where have you gdne, Joe DiMag- in the fallen vines," metrically and gio?"). In brief, it is the sound that CHANGING ADDRESS? musically almost identical with "semo- makes the song. The words are pretty lina pilchard"). The whole song is a good, though their relation to the Send both old and new addresses to melange of thefts from the Beatles. Mrs. Robinson of "" is a "Old Friends" from the new LP is a bit tenuous. But the words are well Subscription Department reworking of the music of the Beatles' "She's leaving home," right down to The New Republic the familiar "" strings NOTES ON CONTRIBUTORS 381 West Center St., Marion, Ohio in the background. "Save the Life of My Child" and "America" are built Michael Harrington's latest book is Allow four weeks Toward a Democratic Left. David Mor- up from materials taken from the Bea- for change to become effective tles' "A Day in the Life," especially ris IS a student at the Institute for Pol- its beat and its crescendoes of wild icy Studies in Washington, D.C. Ger- •^^^^^^•" New Address ^^""^^^^ noises. In all cases, the Beatles songs trude Himmelfarb is professor of his- are first-rate specimens of their kind, tory at Brooklyn College. Nat Hent- Name and the Simon and Garfunkel songs off's novel. Onwards! was published are manufactured products that fail to this spring. Robert Middlekauff teaches Address .• come off. Despite the inferior music, history at the University of California however, Mr. Turner likes the new al- at Berkeley. Harold Fromm will be City bum better than the earlier ones be- teaching this fall in the English De- State Zip partment of Brooklyn College.