SONG TITLE: LATE IN THE EVENING
PERFORMER: PAUL SIMON
SONGWRITER: PAUL SIMON
YEAR OF RELEASE: 1980
COMMENTS:
The
first
thing
that
jumps
out
about
this
record
is
the
arrangement.
The
vocal
melody
is
not
obviously
of
Hispanic
heritage,
but
it
is
definitely
the
New
York
Latin
percussion
and
horns
that
really
make
this
one.
The
actual
song
is
your
usual
perfectly
constructed
catchy
blues
inflected
Paul
Simon
pop
masterwork.
Since
early
in
his
career,
Simon
has
frequently
went
out
of
his
way
to
work
more
ethnic
musical
influences
into
his
somewhat
white
bread
background.
Note,
however,
how
this
is
becoming
increasingly
integrated
into
the
songs.
In
this
case,
the
horn
charts
play
a
dominant
enough
role
to
really
be
properly
considered
as
part
of
the
composition.
The
lyrics
are
memories
of
indelible
youthful
emotional
imprints.
Note
how
every
one
of
them
is
keyed
to
music,
from
Mommy
laughing
with
the
music
on
the
radio,
to
the
acapella
blues
on
the
street,
to
the
hazy
stoned
thrill
of
being
an
underaged
musician
blowing
away
a
bar
full
of
people.
One
of
the
little
traits
I
particularly
like
about
Simon's
lyrics
is
how
he
looks
for
opportunities
to
push
the
boundaries
of
acceptability
on
mainstream
commercial
pop
radio,
from
the
secular
references
to
Jesus
in
"Mrs.
Robinson"
on.
In
this
case,
Paul
makes
an
unequivocally
positive
description
of
smoking
marijuana
-
specifically
as
an
underaged
youngster.
Anyway,
the
moral
of
this
story
is:
if
you're
gonna
get
all
sentimental,
it
is
best
done
with
lots
of
punchy
horns
to
a
kick-ass
latin dancebeat.