Mother And Child Reunion / Paul Simon

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I've wanted to write about that song, many, many times. Even once or twice have started, written something and resigned. But after yesterday's entry about 'Spooky' I listened a little bit to 'A Touch Of Blue' album. Btw what a great title for it. Because he recorded it with joy and sadness. 

DC : 'I recorded the Touch of Blue album in Hollywood, It is one of my two or three favourite recordings of mine because it was recorded live and in the studio at Capitol. It was as organic as I could possibly make it - live vocals and singing with a live band. (..) I wanted to record the way Sinatra did and at the same studio where all those fabulous Big Band recordings were done for so many years. Nat King Cole. Sinatra. Bobby Darin.' (David Cassidy : Could It Be Forever ?, 2007)

So it was a joy to work where those greatest had worked too, but it was also returning to his teenage years, and to the 70s. 'New York City Life', his own big-band number, so fabulous, a song worthy of playing in the final scene of a great movie from the 40s or 50s. The lyrics of that song is truly a masterpiece. David Cassidy didn't need many words to tell us the story of his success in LA, and the girls who thought that knowing him would help with their career..there is everything in that song, why he didn't want to live in LA any longer and where his heart was.

It's such a shame DC didn't write more and 'New York City Life' was the album's sole new composition. Wrote by David. The music and the lyrics. This is DC at his best, his voice, his sense of humor, he was so bright and clever. Just listen to those words and the way he sings..

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rV6PBsW0qUw

Let's return to 'Mother and Child Reunion'. Wrote by Paul Simon. Recorded in Jamaica, (later in LA Larry Knechtel added the piano). The first reggae song I've ever heard. Of course in the early 70s (it was released in January 1972) I had no idea what reggae was, or what that song was about, but that music and Paul Simon's voice. It was the love at the first hearing..

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L0BUsDf0dxY

The David Cassidy's cover of that song is outstanding. I just can't find words, (that's the reason I've avoided writing about it, just don't know how to write about my feelings) Like he wrote a new song, I mean the lyrics are the same, but everythig is different. He reread it. Forget reagge, it's kind of gospel, like a prayer, and that sound and his voice. My English is too limited. And I have to write it again. This is David Cassidy at his best..

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iT2ndFapaCc

THE PETITION

https://chng.it/NgppymDR6K


Comments

  1. Encarni12/29/22, 6:37 PM

    I understand you... This is one of my favorite Paul Simon songs and it's hard to compare. When I heard David's version I loved it, it really seems like another song, it's just great! And I like both.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Weronika12/29/22, 7:09 PM

      Yes, so true. just impossible to compare, also bc I think that for Paul Simon the fact that he recorded that song in Jamaica (being the only American and the only white person in the studio) it was more important than the lyrics actually. The music was more important. There are a lot of stories regarding the lyrics. And he was just 31. And DC, he was much older, had many difficult experiences, and it was opposite, the lyrics was the first. The most important, what meant for him, and later was music (I don't know, I think so). So we can't compare. But I love both (for different reasons)

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