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[ar:Simon & Garfunkel] |
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[al:Live from New York City, 1967] |
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[ti:A Poem on the Underground Wall (Live in New York, 1967)] |
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[offset:-7500] |
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[au:Written by Paul Simon, introdution by Art Garfunkel] |
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[length: 4:45] |
| [00:07.50] |
The first album that we recorded for Columbia called "Wednesday Morning, 3 am" |
| [00:13.70] |
Has a picture on the cover of Paul and myself in the uh subway system, |
| [00:19.00] |
In New York here, |
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Standing at the uh 5th Ave. station next to an iron post. |
| [00:24.80] |
If you know the album then you're familiar with the picture. |
| [00:28.50] |
What you're not familiar with is the trouble... |
| [00:32.00] |
That we went through in order to get that final picture, |
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Because the original shots that were taken for the uh cover |
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Were taken off... off the uh picture that you see, |
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Standing against the subway wall on the platform |
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Underneath the subway sign and... |
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We took about 500 pictures |
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Until we were satisfied with the perfect James Dean shot |
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And packed up the cameras and guitars |
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And as we left the station I took a glance at the subway wall |
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In front of which we had taken all the pictures for the first time that day |
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And noticed that written there - rather legibly, in the baroque style |
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Common to New York subway wall writers - |
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Was uh... was the "old familiar suggestion". |
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And rather beautifully illustrated as well. |
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So... |
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Well we had a conference with Columbia records to decide what to do about this problem |
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And uh of course we immediately told Columbia that this was exactly what we wanted on the cover of the LP. |
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"- Forget it." |
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I'm, um, mentioning this because we have taken a song - it's now two years later - |
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Paul has written a song fairly recently in London |
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Dealing with the uh theme of people who write on subway walls |
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But treating the theme in a rather strange and serious way. |
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The song is called "A Poem on the Underground Wall". |
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|
| [02:26.00] |
A Poem on the Underground Wall (Live in New York, 1967) |
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Simon & Garfunkel |
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The last train is nearly due |
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The underground is closing soon |
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And in the dark deserted station |
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Restless in anticipation |
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A man waits in the shadows |
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His restless eyes leap and scratch |
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At all that they can touch or catch |
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And hidden deep within his pocket |
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Safe within its silent socket |
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He holds a colored crayon |
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Now from the tunnel's stony womb |
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The carriage rides to meet the groom |
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And opens wide and welcome doors |
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But he hesitates |
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Then withdraws deeper in the shadows |
| [03:30.00] |
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And the train is gone suddenly |
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On wheels clicking silently |
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Like a gently tapping litany |
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And he holds his crayon rosary |
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Tighter in his hand |
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Now from his pocket quick he flashes |
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The crayon on the wall he slashes |
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Deep upon the advertising |
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A single worded poem comprised |
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Of four letters |
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And his heart is laughing, screaming, pounding |
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The poem across the tracks rebounding |
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Shadowed by the exit light |
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His legs take their ascending flight |
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To seek the breast of darkness and be suckled by the night |
| [04:19.50] |
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