Friday 12 December 2008

Tom McRae on Paul Simon

It seems a little defeatist to choose a TV appearance as my musical highlight of 2008, but here it is. Paul Simon singing 'An American Tune' on The Colbert Report, a couple of weeks after Obama had won the Presidency. No flag waving, no politicking, just one of the genius song-writers of the modern era singing one of his many quiet masterpieces. In that one moment he seemed to sum up the relief, the hope, but also the trepidation of a nation at the crossroads of history. And he did it all in a three minute performance on a half hour comedy show. "We come in the age's most uncertain hours and sing an American tune." Perfect.

Tom McRae Site

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

I saw that! It was so unexpectedly moving. For all the reasons you eloquently relate here. Good choice!

The DJ said...

thanks for your note, just been looking on youtube to see if i could find it, but no sign of it up there, yet...

Anonymous said...

You can hear it on the Colbert Nation website in the US (http://www.colbertnation.com/video/tag/Paul+Simon) or if you're in the UK, it's on FXUK (http://www.fxuk.com/videos/). Beautiful.