SONG TITLE: MRS. ROBINSON

PERFORMER: SIMON AND GARFUNKEL

SONGWRITER: PAUL SIMON

YEAR OF RELEASE: 1968

COMMENTS:

First of all, this is one righteous piece of rock and roll.   Paul Simon can play some fine guitar.  The rhythym guitar is nicely understated, but urgent and dramatic.  It pushes the song. Combined with the percussion (bongos?), and the lead guitar fills between lines of the vocal melody (and that hot jammin' bonus guitar solo on the extro), you're dealing with a grade A nicely textured hot rockin' groove.


Combined with the lyrics, the verses come out like quiet, almost conspiratorial whispers making vague references to personal scandals and indiscretions that must, above all, be hidden from the children.


Then the chorus comes crashing in with the displays of rank hypocrisy and unwarranted invocations of divine salvation "Heaven holds a place for those who pray."

Also, if you listen carefully, you can see that Simon did all this without knowing the plot of The Graduate, the movie for which this was written.  It turns out he didn't really need to:  this song is like a mini movie unto itself.

 



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