"America" by Paul Simon (cover)

[Glennwillow]

This is my cover of Paul Simon's 1968 song "America" from the Simon & Garfunkel "Bookends" album of that year. The song tells the story of a 1964 road trip. I have been playing this song since it came out in 1968, so that is 50 years now. The guitar is my Gibson Advanced Jumbo Luthier's Choice from 2002. Thank you all for listening!

- Glenn

[Owen David]

Very nice, sensitive interpretation...

Originally Posted by Glennwillow

This is my cover of Paul Simon's 1968 song "America" from the Simon & Garfunkel "Bookends" album of that year. The song tells the story of a 1964 road trip. I have been playing this song since it came out in 1968, so that is 50 years now. The guitar is my Gibson Advanced Jumbo Luthier's Choice from 2002. Thank you all for listening!

- Glenn

[Glennwillow]

Originally Posted by Owen David

Very nice, sensitive interpretation...

Thank you Owen!

Glad you are listening! And thank you for taking the time to comment here!

- Glenn

[David Eastwood]

Just lovely, Glenn. Perhaps my favourite S&G song. And that Gibson sounds glorious.

[Glennwillow]

Originally Posted by eatswodo

Just lovely, Glenn. Perhaps my favourite S&G song. And that Gibson sounds glorious.

Thanks so very much David!

I'm glad you feel that this came out okay.

I do agree that the Gibson AJ LC is quite a guitar. As you note, I think "glorious" is just the right word.

Thanks so much for taking the time to comment, David!

- Glenn

[Kerbie]

Beautiful, Glenn! A flatpick, huh? Very nicely done... I liked it. Actually, I liked that entire album. It was a good one from beginning to end.

Great tune... one of my favorites too. Well done.

[Carmel Cedar]

Oooh, always loved this song...first from Yes' cover, to the Paul Simon original. Glenn, you did a great job - your voice really covered the range, and the picking was spot-on. Well done!

[Glennwillow]

Originally Posted by Kerbie

Beautiful, Glenn! A flatpick, huh? Very nicely done... I liked it. Actually, I liked that entire album. It was a good one from beginning to end.

Great tune... one of my favorites too. Well done.

Thank you very much Kerbie!

Glad you thought this came out okay, flat pick and all!!!

It's true that I am mostly a finger picker, but somewhere along the way I had to learn to use a flat pick. There are just too many great songs that a person would not be able to play, otherwise.

I very much agree about the "Bookends" album. It was a great album and I wore the grooves right after that record. Simon & Garfunkel, I think, were at their zenith when they made this album. "Bridge Over Troubled Waters" got much more attention from the public, but you could hear Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel going their separate ways on that last S&G album, at least from my viewpoint. "Bookends" was just perfect for me.

Kerbie, thanks so much for listening and commenting here!!

- Glenn

[Glennwillow]

Originally Posted by Carmel Cedar

Oooh, always loved this song...first from Yes' cover, to the Paul Simon original. Glenn, you did a great job - your voice really covered the range, and the picking was spot-on. Well done!

Hi Carmel Cedar,

I'm so glad to hear from you! Thanks so much for your thoughts on this! It's a fairly demanding song, with a fairly involved guitar part and requiring a fairly wide vocal range, so I was very pleased to be able to make a reasonable recording of this live.

I'm very appreciative that you both listened and took the time to comment here!

Thank you!

- Glenn

[jmat]

Nicely played Glen! I liked the guitar and your singing. I used to play that one but somewhere along the way I dropped it. Listening to you inspired me to pick it up again. You did a good job keeping the guitar part aligned to the recorded version. I need to pay more attention to that.

[Glennwillow]

Originally Posted by jmat

Nicely played Glen! I liked the guitar and your singing. I used to play that one but somewhere along the way I dropped it. Listening to you inspired me to pick it up again. You did a good job keeping the guitar part aligned to the recorded version. I need to pay more attention to that.

Hi Jmat,

Thank you for listening and for commenting! I'm very glad you liked this.

Regarding your comment, "...You did a good job keeping the guitar part aligned to the recorded version." I think you are commenting that my guitar part on this video reasonably closely reflects how Paul Simon played the guitar part on the original recording of "America." Thank you for that. I learned to play this with the record 50 years ago, so I think the way I learned to play this is fairly close to how Paul Simon played this. That's really how I learned to play way back when I was 20 years old, by closely copying the style of those people whose music I really admired. It's interesting that after all these years I still remember to play it the way I learned it way back when I was 20 years old.

I did do this video recording here live, as a performance. There was no overdubbing.

At my age now, I don't think it's necessary or even advisable to do a cover of someone else's song exactly as they played it or sang it on an original recording. Sometimes I do play a song fairly closely to how it was recorded and sometimes I don't. You probably take a similar approach.

Thanks very much for taking the time to comment here. It's very much appreciated.

- Glenn

[Dustinfurlow]

See you broke out the flatpick sounds good man. I’ve been thinking of doing “50 ways to leave your lover” soon.

[Glennwillow]

Originally Posted by Dustinfurlow

See you broke out the flatpick sounds good man. I’ve been thinking of doing “50 ways to leave your lover” soon.

Thank you Dustin!

You know, ... I have never tried to do "Fifty Ways to Leave Your Lover," but that would be a great song to do! You will probably beat me to that song since I am having hip surgery the day after tomorrow, so I am running out of time for at least the next couple of months.

- Glenn

[ColinB]

Excellent rendition, as always!

[Glennwillow]

Originally Posted by ColinB

Excellent rendition, as always!

Hi Colon,

Thank you so much for listening! I'm glad you thought this came out okay! I very much appreciate your comments here!!

- Glenn