Edition: U.S. / Global

POP; Paul Simon's Journey To Brazil and Beyond

Published: October 14, 1990
(Page 3 of 3)

''The Cool, Cool River'' is one of two songs that offer a sober world view. The other, the poignant ''Born at the Right Time,'' juxtaposes a picture of someone born with every advantage against a bleak canvas of an overpopulated, impoverished world.

Like the songs in ''Graceland,'' those in ''The Rhythm of the Saints'' compile a vision of the world that is at once personal and comprehensive. The music's mixture of primitive and refined elements gives the album the richness of a double vision that is operating simultaneously at all times.

Where ''Graceland'' was an album of primary colors with an explosive but unspoken political subtext, ''The Rhythm of the Saints'' is a collection of pastels evoking a heady tropical world filled with supernatural phantoms. Each song creates its own atmosphere. From the triumphal feel of ''The Obvious Child,'' the mood shifts to anxiety (''Can't Run But'') well-being (''The Coast'' and ''Proof''), romance and seduction (''Further to Fly'' and ''She Moves On''), worldly contemplation (''Born at the Right Time'' and ''The Cool, Cool River'') and finally to spiritual receptivity (''Spirit Voices'' and the title track). The album fades out with a softly chanted prayer: ''Reach in the darkness/ A reach in the dark.''

Although it may not seem obvious, one can feel how the seeds for ''The Rhythm of the Saints'' were sown decades ago, when Mr. Simon was an adolescent listening to Alan Freed play rock-and-roll on the radio.

''Exploring the music of other cultures may be an intellectual idea, but it's not really how I've gotten my inspirations,'' Mr. Simon emphasized. ''What I responded to in 'Graceland' was the sound of the music. At first I didn't even know where that music came from. Some of the drumming on 'The Rhythm of the Saints' sounds a lot like the music on the flip side of the Penguins' 'Earth Angel,' a song called 'Hey, Senorita,' which I always loved.

''Bo Diddley had an incredible guitar rhythm with maracas. It was the sound of emptiness and percussion and a groove without a backbeat, and I loved it. When I listened to Bo Diddley I didn't know what he was saying, whether it was, 'My pretty baby, she was a bird' or 'My pretty baby, she was murdered.' But it didn't make any difference. It moved me. It was powerful. And it still doesn't make any difference, if someone's singing in Zulu or in Portuguese or in the language of rap. The ear is willing to accept it when the rhythm is right.''


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, 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 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

For the mother's restless son

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 plant burns

I'm used to that

My life's so common it disappears

And sometimes even music

Cannot substitute for tears.

- From Paul Simon's

''Rhythm of the Saints''

c Copyright 1989, 1990 Paul Simon

Photos: Paul Simon recording with the drum corps Olodum in the town square of Salvador, Brazil (Ines Daflon) (pg. 1); Paul Simon working on his new album with his engineer, Roy Halee, in July. (Jim Wilson/The New York Times) (pg. 32)