Sunday, May 23, 2010

Paul Simon, "50 Ways to Leave Your Lover"



OK, the first thing most people will notice about this video is Paul Simon's hideous mustache. The second thing they'll notice is that it's a great song. The third thing you might notice, as you don't see them until late in the clip, is that the audience seems to display, in the words of a commenter on another blog, all the enthusiasm of a class at an Economics lecture.

But the real reason I'm posting this is to point out how this song is a case of false advertising. It's all set up to make you think it's going to be one of those "list songs" like "88 Lines About 44 Women" or "We Didn't Start the Fire." Our good pal Paul Simon is going to list 50 different ways one might leave one's lover, right? Wrong! Simon only gets around to naming maybe 5 ways to leave your lover, depending on how you count (is “Don’t need to discuss much” a distinct way of leaving one's lover, or is it just a corollary to “Hop on the bus, Gus?”)

When do we get to hear the other 45 ways, Paul? We've been waiting 35 years.

Incidentally, that Nails video I linked to is pretty freaky, and probably not safe for work unless you work for National Geographic.