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
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3 comments:
I saw that! It was so unexpectedly moving. For all the reasons you eloquently relate here. Good choice!
thanks for your note, just been looking on youtube to see if i could find it, but no sign of it up there, yet...
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.
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