Review of "Miracle And Wonder: Conversations With Paul Simon" by Malcolm Gladwell and Bruce Headlam

  

This book by journalists Malcolm Gladwell and Bruce Headlam is a 'musical biography' of Paul Simon (b. 1941), available only as an audiobook. The book is narrated by Malcolm Gladwell, and contains interviews and conversations with Paul Simon along with additional material.


Malcolm Gladwell (left) and Bruce Headlam

Gladwell and Headlam visited Simon in various locations around the country, and conducted nine lengthy interviews. The conversations usually began with a song. The journalists would suggest one or Simon would, and Paul would talk about the song, sometimes sing a little bit of it; or they would play the original recording and Paul would break it down as they listened, "like a color commentator on a football broadcast." The trio spoke about Paul's "songwriting, his craft, an examination of the sources of his extraordinary creativity."

The audiobook includes Paul singing live and playing recorded music. The songs are then discussed in depth, including things like inspiration, lyrics, sound production, instrumentation, percussion, rhythm, notes, chords, and so on.

Simon has had a notably long career, from the time he was a teenager in Queens, New York to now, when Paul is in his eighties.


Paul Simon

Gladwell and Headlam call Simon a musical genius, and note that - unlike older performers who rely on their former hits - Simon constantly produces new material, and continues to collaborate with fellow artists.

One of Paul's early hits was 'The Boxer' (1969), sung with Art Garfunkel when they were a singing duo.



The song begins:

I am just a poor boy though my story's seldom told
I have squandered my resistance for a pocketful of mumbles

Such are promises, all lies and jest
Still a man hears what he wants to hear And disregards the rest, hmmm ....."

In the middle, the song has the refrain:

"La la la

Li la li
Li la li
Li la li
Li la li
Li la li

Li la li
Li la li
Li la li
Li la li
La, la, la, la, la, la, la

Simon explains, "I always intended to write lyrics for that section. I just couldn't think of what the chorus should be. So I was just singing La la li as a space holder....and I kept it. And it's so fortunate that that's what I did because when I sing that song anywhere, all around the world, people sing La la li."

That's just a snippet of the conversation about 'The Boxer', and Simon speaks about the song in much more depth.

Paul also discusses many of his other songs. A hit that garners much attention is 'Bridge Over Troubled Water' (1970), which was originally sung by Art Garfunkel.



The song quickly became a huge success. In the following years, 'Bridge Over Troubled Water' was covered by singers around the world; high school and college choirs sang it as a choral piece; and bands and orchestras played it. One of the first covers, a gospel version sung by Aretha Franklin, became a giant hit. The audiobook contains snippets of all these versions of the song.



Simon talks a great deal about the intricacies of composing his songs, referring to slapback, echoes, elements of music, keys, instruments, his musical memory, and incorporating sounds from other traditions. In that vein, Simon speaks about collaborations with other musicians. As examples:

🔴 Simon collaborated with Reverend Claude Jeeter, the famous falsetto singer of 'The Swan Silvertones.' Simon and Jeeter recorded the song 'Take Me to the Mardi Gras' (1973) in Muscle Shoals, Alabama, with a New Orleans Band.


Claude Jeeter



🔴 In another illustration, Simon liked South African music he heard on a record. So in 1986, during Apartheid, Simon flew to South Africa to record songs with musicians from the black township of Soweto.

South African bassist Bakithi Kumalo relates several anecdotes about the experience, starting with the time he was working as a mechanic, and his boss said Paul Simon was looking for him in town. Kumalo says,"I was so scared because....once I hear the English name....it's either something that has to do with jail, maybe somebody said I did something, I didn't know." When Bakithi learned Paul Simon was the musician who sang 'Mother and Child Reunion' (1972) he was thrilled, and he and other Black musicians recorded music with Paul in a studio.


Bakithi Kumalo

Afterwards, a few Black musicians were flown to New York, and Paul sent stretch limousines with white drivers to pick them up. Bakithi recalls, "When we came to JFK it was crazy.....They call us to get in the limo, but it's like whoa, because we expecting the bus or like a taxi, but this long car, we got so excited, and then the guy, the white guy comes in, and oh my god (lots of laughing) America is crazy man."

The collaboration between Simon and the South African musicians resulted in the album 'Graceland' (1986) which had Paul Simon's distinct exacting lyrics over jubilant African rhythms. The record won the Grammy for best album.



🔴 Later, Paul recorded a song in California, with Brazilian musician Milton Nascimento. Instead of just singing harmony, Paul sang phonetically in Portuguese. Paul then went to South America to work with Brazilian drummers, which led to the album 'The Rhythm of the Saints' (1990).


Milton Nascimento



🔴 Then in 2005, Simon teamed up with jazz icon Herbie Hancock to record Paul's song, 'I Do It For Your Love' (1975). Hancock recalls Paul was excited about a whole new approach to his song, and wanted to do it all in a minor key. Herbie was confounded until he thought of a way to do it by using one note as a pivot that everything would swivel around. Herbie laughs and says, "I chanted a lot for this record because it was a big big challenge. But I was very happy with the way it turned out. And I think Paul was too."


Herbie Hancock

Interviews with other musicians are scattered through the audiobook. For example:

🔴 British rock icon Sting talks about how much he likes Paul Simon's song 'America' (1968), because the words blur the line between lyrics and poetry. Sting observes, Paul's telling you a story. He deals with details: packs of cigarettes, Mrs. Wagner's pies, falling asleep on a Greyhound bus...and then the epic 'we walked off to look for America'....that's heartrending."


Sting

🔴 American singer-songwriter Roseanne Cash says she and her two-year-old grandson got teary-eyed listening to Paul Simon's song 'The Only Living Boy in New York' (1970) because it's beautifully and authentically anthemic.


Roseanne Cash

🔴 Record producer/sound engineer Roy Halee, who's collaborated with Paul for more than 60 years, talks about recording instruments; adding effects; and designing the sound and feel of Paul Simon records. Among other things, Halee says 'The Boxer' - which took over 100 hours to complete - is the greatest single ever made (he admits he's biased). The song required different locations, different microphones, different players, different parts, etc.


Roy Halee

For 'The Only Living Boy in New York' (1970), Halee put Simon and Garfunkel INSIDE an echo chamber. According to Halee, this resulted in a "a magical, magnificent, wonderful wonderful, full beautiful sound." Halee's interview is fun and informative.

🔴 Gospel artist producer and composer Aaron Lindsey explains how 'Bridge Over Troubled Water' became a beautiful gospel song. Lindsey says gospel music, like other genres, has almost a proprietary set of chord structures and movements. And Paul Simon, Art Garfunkel and Larry Knechtel (pianist) found a clever way to add one of those familiar movements to 'Bridge Over Troubled Water.' Then Aretha Franklin picked it up and made it a slam dunk gospel song.


Aaron Lindsey

🔴 American musician Jeff Tweedy said, if he was asked to cover a Paul Simon song, he would choose 'Rewrite' (2011) because he likes the guitar rhythms. Tweedy aspires to have a creative career like Paul, "who's aged into a songwriter who's still invigorated, still pushing himself to make something he hasn't made already."

\
Jeff Tweedy

🔴 Opera singer Renée Fleming, who sings Simon's song 'Love and Hard Times' (2011) on her Christmas album, admires Paul's vocal and artistic longevity. She says "we're lucky to have had him for this long, to have him continually thinking in a creative fruitful manner about what he wants to say to the world."


Renée Fleming

Throughout the book, Simon talks about his brilliant father Lou Simon, a gifted musician who went back to school in his fifties, to get a Ph.D. in linguistics. Lou's cancer diagnosis and imminent demise inspired several of Paul's songs.

Simon announced his retirement after the album 'Stranger to Stranger' (2016), but the retirement didn't stick. On January 15, 2019, the date Simon's father passed away in 1995, Paul had a prophetic dream. He recalls, "I dreamed that I was either working on a piece called seven psalms or I was supposed to go to work on a piece called seven psalms...And I thought okay, I'm supposed to make seven psalms. I don't know how to do it....but I guess instructions will follow."

Instructions DID follow, because the album 'Seven Psalms', was released in 2023. For the recording, Simon started from scratch: he picked up a guitar and wrote guitar pieces, and after a year words started to come, also from dreams. Gladwell observes, "The seven psalms are songs of a sort, but it's hard to listen to them individually. The album wants to be listened to all in one go." The theme is spiritual. The music acoustical. It's just Paul, his guitar, and subtle undercurrents of percussion. Simon talks about using his guitar as an entire orchestra in the album, and adding subtle bells and gongs.



The chorus of the first track of 'Seven Psalms' - called 'The Lord' - goes like this:

The Lord is my engineer
The Lord is the earth I ride on
The Lord is the face in the atmosphere
The path I slip and I slide on

In Gladwell's opinion, the most beautiful song on the album is the sixth psalm, called 'The Sacred Harp', that tells the story of a couple driving a truck through a thunderstorm, and picking up two hitchhikers, a woman and a child. Paul sings the psalm as a duet with his wife, singer-songwriter Edie Brickell.


Paul Simon and Edie Brickell singing 'The Sacred Harp' on the Steven Colbert Show

Paul Simon is still writing songs and performing, which is good news for his fans.

There's much more in the audiobook, which you don't want to miss if you're a Paul Simon fan. I liked the book, listened to it several times, and highly recommend it.

Thanks to Netgalley, Malcolm Gladwell, Bruce Headwell, and Pushkin Industries for an ARC of the book.

Rating: 5 stars 

Review of "Bertie's Theory of Ice Cream: A 44 Scotland Street Novel" by Alexander McCall Smith

  

This is the 18th book in the "44 Scotland Street" series. It can be read as a standalone, but familiarity with the series is a plus.



In these affable, humorous books Alexander McCall Smith follows the lives of a group of people who reside in Edinburgh's "New Town" neighborhood. Many of the characters live in apartments at 44 Scotland Street - and others are their neighbors, friends and acquaintances.

*****

Portrait artist Angus and his loyal dog Cyril are taking a walk around their Edinburgh neighborhood for exercise and fresh air.



Angus and Cyril happen to meet Sister Maria-Fiore del Fiori di Montagna, a relative newcomer to Edinburgh. Sister Maria-Fiore, who wears an elegant tartan habit, is known for her trite original aphorisms and her rapid rise on the Edinburgh social ladder.



The nun is seen at every exhibition opening, attends the opening of parliamentary sessions, is at the national day celebrations of every consulate, is an honorary member of the Watsonian Society, is an honorary patron of both Scottish Opera and the Royal Scottish Museum, and is a trustee of the National Galleries of Scotland.

And to Angus's IMMENSE ENVY, Sister Maria Fiore has now been elected a member of the Honourable Company of Edinburgh Golfers. There is no higher peak to scale, with or without oxygen.



Later on, Sister Maria-Fiore tells Angus she has a piece of the Stone of Scone. This famous stone had been used in the coronation of Scottish monarchs before it was taken to England in 1296. In 1950 it was stolen back by Scotsmen, then returned to England. Somehow, the nun got hold of a piece, and she wants Angus to help her keep it secret and safe.



*****

Art gallery owner Matthew and his wife Elspeth are raising their 7-year-old triplets, Rognvald, Fergus, and Tobermory, in the suburbs near Edinburgh.



When Matthew goes over to welcome the new neighbors, Robert and Maureen, the couple are hoity-toity about their carbon-neutral vegan lifestyle, and suggest Matthew's family is irresponsible and wasteful. This annoys Matthew no end.



So when Robert and Maureen's unhappy dog Ralph - who objects to being a vegan - keeps coming over to play with the triplets and eat sausages, Matthew devises a plan to keep him.



*****

Bruce, an erstwhile surveyor, is proud of his spectacular good looks, which have always attracted rich girlfriends. However, Bruce knows he won't be gorgeous forever, and embarks on a money-making real estate scheme that has an unanticipated outcome.



*****

Affable Big Lou, who owns Big Lou's Coffee Shop, overhears a conversation between two patrons.



The men are the chairman and secretary of the Association of Scottish Nudists. The Edinburgh contingent of the nudist society is at odds with the Glasgow members, who want to move the association from Moray Place to new headquarters. The secretary resists, despite the fact he's cold-shouldered by Moray Place residents who don't like nudists in their midst - even though he offers them a cut-rate membership subscription.



*****

Seven-year-old Bertie Pollock is the star of the series.



For all his young life, Bertie has been the project of his mother Irene, who made Bertie go for psychoanalysis, subjected him to a sensory-deprivation tank, and made him take saxophone lessons, yoga classes, Italian lessons, and more. Irene also gave Bertie a little brother, who suspiciously resembles Bertie's psychoanalyst, Dr. Fairbairn.



Luckily for Bertie and his father Stuart, Irene went off to study for a Ph.D. with Dr. Fairbairn. Irene then fell in love with a fisherman in northern Scotland, and moved in with him.



Now Bertie is being raised by his father and his grandmother Nicola, with occasional visits from Irene.



Irene hasn't completely abandoned project Bertie, though, and makes plans to get Bertie an Irish passport, preceded by tutoring in Irish culture.



In the meantime, grandma Nicola has a 'meet cute' with a nice-looking cyclist named David, whose bag of potatoes breaks and litters the street. Later on, when David suggests he and Nicola see a Scottish opera together, Nicola is excited about the date, which doesn't go as expected.




Meanwhile, Bertie is still being tormented by his classmate Olive.



Olive insists she's Bertie's fiancée and bosses him around mercilessly. This time, Olive makes Bertie join her bookclub, so his mind doesn't dwell on things that are bad for him. By this Olive means Bertie's friend Ranald Braveheart Macperson, whom Olive doesn't like. (I'd love to see Bertie tell Olive to get lost....maybe in a future book.)



Regardless, Bertie and Ranald go off and have an unexpected adventure.

*****

The story winds up when Angus and his wife Domenica have a buffet dinner party for their friends, and Angus reads a lovely poem.



As always, it's a pleasure to visit with the folks in Edinburgh and its suburbs. I look forward to the next installment in the series.

Thanks to Netgalley, Alexander McCall Smith, and Vintage for an ARC of the book.

Rating: 4 stars 

Review of "The Vanishing Family: A Story of Fate, Love, and the Disappearing Mind" by Robert Kolker

  

I previously read journalist Robert Kolker's book Hidden Valley Road: Inside the Mind of an American Family, about the Galvin family of Colorado Springs, Colorado. Six sons (out of twelve children) were diagnosed with schizophrenia, and Kolker tells the Galvins' story, including the search for genetic markers for the disease, and the family's contribution to the study of mental illness.


The Galvin family

In 'The Vanishing Family', Kolker relates the story of another family that carries the gene for a hereditary illness, in this case frontotemporal dementia. It took decades for the clan to understand their plight, and Kolker relates their tale step by harrowing step.

For privacy, Kolker uses only first names.

Irish-Catholic couple Ollie and Jean were born in the late 1920s, married in 1950, and settled in a Missouri suburb called Webster Groves. Over the next 15 years, Jean became the stay-at-home mom of seven children, and Ollie worked at a series of engineering jobs, hoping to start his own business some day.



By 1967, financial difficulties and job opportunities led Ollie and Jean to settle in Pleasant Hills, Pennsylvania, and they eventually had a total of nine children: Kathy, Christy, Sue, Dutch, Mary, Peggy, Scott, Jenny, and Barb.



Kolker writes, "Jean was something of a wonder, filled with optimism and energy, reading, gardening, and playing bridge with Ollie and their friends. She shopped for the food on a strict budget, making the calculations and lists in her head, and cooked everything for the family. She made her own donuts and pizza from scratch, and served up enchiladas when they were still considered an exotic foreign dish."



By her late forties, however, Jean became increasingly withdrawn and depressed. As time passed, Jean stopped dressing up every day like she used to to; quit going to the hair salon; neglected her hygiene; became silent; drank heavily; didn't pay bills; played solitaire and watched game shows all day; paid little attention to the children; said yes to every sales call, resulting in multiple subscriptions to the same magazines; and generally made poor decisions.



The changes were obvious to Ollie, the children, and the neighbors, who usually attributed Jean's behavior to Ollie's flagrant cheating.



Jean continued to decline for two decades, until she neglected her breast cancer for so long she couldn't be successfully treated. Jean died in 1990.

As it turns out, Jean was the first victim (in the immediate family) of frontotemporal dementia. This wasn't diagnosed until the late 1990s, however, after Ollie and Jean's daughter Christy developed symptoms similar to those of her mother. Christy was a successful marketing executive, wife, and mother before she fell ill, but her life fell apart afterwards.

Frontotemporal dementia (FTD) is an illness in which the brain's frontal and temporal lobes gradually degenerate, causing people to lose their personality, judgment, language, and self-control. Symptoms usually begin in a victim's forties, and unlike 'old-age' dementia, patients don't lose their memories.



Over time, five of Ollie and Jean's nine children developed FTD. Some family members submitted blood/saliva samples for genetic testing, and researchers found their FTD resulted from an autosomal dominant gene called V337M, which causes tau mutations (tangles) in brain proteins. An autosomal dominant gene means there's a 50:50 chance a victim will pass the gene to their children.


Tau mutations caused by V337M

In Ollie and Jean's clan, Jean had the genetic defect, which she passed to five of her children, who then passed it to some of their offspring. The exact number of victims isn't known, since some family members haven't been tested (by their own choice).

Kolker provides mini-biographies of all nine siblings, most of whom went on to college; got married and had children; and had successful careers. The victims who developed FTD couldn't work (or lost their jobs) after they fell ill, and were unable to take care of themselves. Sibling Sue, who remained healthy, stepped up and took care of some family members, especially Christy.

Kolker describes a typical day for Sue and Christy in their later years. 'Sue helps Christy with everything, coaxing her to the toilet and then the shower. Laundry is a constant. Christy wears adult diapers, but has accidents that call for a change of clothes, about five or six changes a day. Christy's favorite spot in the house is an easy chair in the TV area. The chair has a big leather belt, to keep Christy from roaming when Sue isn't watching. Because of Christy's compulsive overeating, Sue has to padlock the refrigerator, lock the pantry, and make all the meals. Sue is on constant alert, whether she and Christy are inside the house, outside taking a walk, or doing other things.



There's no cure for FTD, and until recently, minimal research about the condition. Kolker describes the formation of 'The Association for Frontotemporal Degeneration' (AFTD), whose members - including youngest sibling Barb - lobby politicians, scientists, pharmaceutical companies, etc. to support studies of FTD, with the aim of finding a treatment or cure.




In addition to telling the story of Ollie and Jean's family, Kolker writes about doctors and scientists who added to our knowledge of the brain, and provided information about the causes of psychiatric syndromes and dementia.

Examples include:

➽ Dr. Arnold Pick - In the early 20th century, Pick was the director of the psychiatric hospital at the University of Prague in Czechoslovakia. During autopsies of patients with language and/or behavior problems, Pick observed atrophy of the brain's frontal and temporal lobes. For many years, this was called Pick's disease. It's now known to be a type of FTD (but not the kind in Ollie and Jean's family).



➽ Dr. Alois Alzheimer - Also in the early 20th century, Alzheimer was a German psychiatrist and brain researcher. Alzheimer had the opportunity to study the brain of Auguste D., a woman who lost her memory, forgot her way around her apartment, thought someone was trying to kill her, and descended into total delirium. When Auguste D. died, Alzheimer found 'plaques and tangles' in her brain, and this type of dementia was named Alzheimer's disease.



➽ Sir John Hardy - Hardy is a British neurogeneticist, currently at the National Institutes of Health. Hardy identified a mutation associated with Alzheimer's disease.


Sir John Hardy

Kolker also provides anecdotes about unusual neurological cases. One of the most famous is Phineas Gage. In 1848, at the age of 25, Gage was a dependable construction foreman working on a job site. After an explosion, a long iron rod sliced through Gage's brain, and he became impulsive, profane, unreliable, and unable to plan ahead. The brain injury changed Gage's personality, and showed that specific parts of the brain control behavior.


Phineas Gage

The book is informative, interesting, and draws attention to an illness that might be treatable with a DNA tweak. Highly recommended.

Thanks to Netgalley, Robert Kolker, and Doubleday for an ARC of the book.

Rating: 4 stars