Paul Simon's 'Ah, well...' moment

October 13^th – There’s something wistful about reminders of the one that got away. Not going into detail, just to say we’ve all probably got stuff in our past that we think back on with more than a little of the what if in our minds. And I’m not talking about regrets and things gotten wrong, that’s a whole new chapter; no, I’m just thinking about situations, events and/or people that we misread or made decisions about that just occur every now and then. You’re driving somewhere and, out the blue, a piece of music comes on the radio that whisks you back, sometimes years, to a time and place long stored, and the moments and conversations reverberate and cause a shrug, an;

Ah well’

moment in the day, nothing to be done, past now, just…

‘Ah, well.

Paul Simon has a stand-alone musical legacy that most if not all of us have knowledge of. I doubt there’s an individual in the Western world with even just a passing interest in music who won’t know of the album Graceland, and not many who don’t know at least one song from its tracks. Those of you that do have a slightly more intimate knowledge of that album; favourite track?

For me, hard to choose between Boy in the Bubble, Diamonds on the Soles of Her Shoes or Homeless. Probably Boy in the Bubble. Anyhow, that’s all by-the-by as is usual with these things I scribble. What I wanted to focus on was Mr. Simon’s love-life, not in a tabloid-y way, just as a way of measuring my opening statement.

Mr. Simon has been married three times. To Peggy Harper, in a marriage that lasted around six years and yielded a son, next to Carrie Fisher (yup, that Carrie Fisher…who, it turns out is also a highly respected script doctor in Hollywood, and I’d like to say, even from my own very humble  efforts at writing, that’s got to be one of the toughest writing assignments of all) Ms. Fisher and Mr. Simon were in a marriage that lasted just a year and then they rejoined again for several years a while after that, and then Mr. Simon was married to folk singer, Edie Brickell who, I believe is still his partner and who bore him three further children. Like many a self-searching poet he’s used these hook-ups to compose songs around, not how much I love you, dear Carrie or you make my heart stop, Peggy not schmaltz like that. No, he writes songs that question our involvement in relationships, which have a deeper resonance and gather in a greater understanding of the human condition than moon, June, spoon stuff. One name missing from here, however, is that of Kathy Chitty.

On his first tour of the Britain in 1964, he met the 17 year-old Kathy and they fell in love. On his return to the States she came with him and he wrote one of my favourites from his back-catalogue, Kathy’s Song. For me, it’s nothing short of brilliant, an almost perfect love song and through those lyrics it’s obvious of the depth of feeling they had for each other. As Mr. Simon’s success grew so the shy Kathy found it all very difficult to handle and, wanting no part of his success and the junk all that brings, they split up… Now, IMHO that’s the one he might, just might think back on and, like me and one of my very first loves, say;

Ah, well…