[ar:Simon & Garfunkel]
[al:Live from New York City, 1967]
[ti:A Poem on the Underground Wall (Live in New York, 1967)]
[offset:-7500]
[au:Written by Paul Simon, introdution by Art Garfunkel]
[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,
[00:20.00]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,
[00:34.50]Because the original shots that were taken for the uh cover
[00:39.00]Were taken off... off the uh picture that you see,
[00:43.00]Standing against the subway wall on the platform
[00:46.00]Underneath the subway sign and...
[00:49.50]We took about 500 pictures
[00:52.00]Until we were satisfied with the perfect James Dean shot
[00:57.00]And packed up the cameras and guitars
[01:00.00]And as we left the station I took a glance at the subway wall
[01:05.80]In front of which we had taken all the pictures for the first time that day
[01:10.00]And noticed that written there - rather legibly, in the baroque style
[01:17.00]Common to New York subway wall writers -
[01:21.50]Was uh... was the "old familiar suggestion".
[01:27.00]
[01:37.50]And rather beautifully illustrated as well.
[01:40.50]So...
[01:41.50]
[01:46.00]Well we had a conference with Columbia records to decide what to do about this problem
[01:50.00]And uh of course we immediately told Columbia that this was exactly what we wanted on the cover of the LP.
[02:00.00]"- Forget it."
[02:02.00]I'm, um, mentioning this because we have taken a song - it's now two years later -
[02:07.80]Paul has written a song fairly recently in London
[02:12.00]Dealing with the uh theme of people who write on subway walls
[02:15.00]But treating the theme in a rather strange and serious way.
[02:19.30]The song is called "A Poem on the Underground Wall".
[02:22.00]
[02:26.00]A Poem on the Underground Wall (Live in New York, 1967)
[02:31.50]Simon & Garfunkel
[02:35.00]
[02:44.00]The last train is nearly due
[02:46.40]The underground is closing soon
[02:48.50]And in the dark deserted station
[02:51.00]Restless in anticipation
[02:53.00]A man waits in the shadows
[02:56.50]
[02:59.50]His restless eyes leap and scratch
[03:01.50]At all that they can touch or catch
[03:04.20]And hidden deep within his pocket
[03:06.40]Safe within its silent socket
[03:08.05]He holds a colored crayon
[03:12.00]
[03:14.50]Now from the tunnel's stony womb
[03:16.80]The carriage rides to meet the groom
[03:19.00]And opens wide and welcome doors
[03:20.80]But he hesitates
[03:22.60]Then withdraws deeper in the shadows
[03:30.00]
[03:30.50]And the train is gone suddenly
[03:34.80]On wheels clicking silently
[03:38.50]Like a gently tapping litany
[03:42.00]And he holds his crayon rosary
[03:45.50]Tighter in his hand
[03:49.50]
[03:50.80]Now from his pocket quick he flashes
[03:52.50]The crayon on the wall he slashes
[03:55.00]Deep upon the advertising
[03:57.00]A single worded poem comprised
[03:59.00]Of four letters
[04:00.20]
[04:02.80]And his heart is laughing, screaming, pounding
[04:04.80]The poem across the tracks rebounding
[04:07.00]Shadowed by the exit light
[04:09.00]His legs take their ascending flight
[04:11.20]To seek the breast of darkness and be suckled by the night
[04:19.50]