Mister Bump UK

Tick Tock Tuesday (28 April 2020) – Paul Simon

I thought I’d create a new challenge. It is a challenge primarily for me, because I’m new to this platform, and because you don’t really know me yet, nor I you. As my name suggests, I am recovering from a stroke, and I like to push myself in all kinds of little ways… including getting to know the Wonderful World of WordPress. Although this is something I will be doing, I invite you, if this idea takes your fancy, to play along with me and share with me some of your own selections.

My plan is: each Tuesday, until I run dry, I shall post some piece of art with which I have some connection – which has helped to mould me, which makes me tick. Okay, a piece of art is a bit vague – it might be a piece of music, a movie, a book, a painting, or ???? – so my phrasiology is deliberate. It might be anything – I will play this post by ear, so I’m not sure what I’ll think of each week. And, I’ll keep posting on the theme weekly until I run out of ideas.

My rules? Well, I’m not big on rules! My choice will be something with which I feel a connection. That’ll be the important thing, just having some kind of fleeting affection for something probably won’t be enough, unless I’m using my choice as an example of something bigger.

It will be one choice per week – I’m aware that long posts can be quite onerous to read, and I’m in no hurry to complete this so if I have two ideas, I’ll probably hold the second until the next week.

In that same vein, I’ve created this block as a Reusable Block, which I intend repeating for every post on this theme. The block ends with a full-width separator, so if you want to skip ahead each week it doesn’t really matter.

I probably won’t post any lyrics, or any kind of analysis – if you like my choice, the information will be out there for you. But I will try to briefly explain why I feel a connection to my choice, just to try and enhance readers’ understanding of what makes me tick.

I will tag my posts TTT and I will go looking for other posts with that tag. If you’d like to join in, please do the same, or comment, or pingback to this post, and feel free to reproduce my graphic. Lastly, I look forward to reading about what makes you tick.

Last week I mentioned U2 almost entirely because of the video of them. This week, I’d like to stay on the subject of videos. I am a child of the Eighties, I just about remember the birth of the pop video, and this week I’d like to introduce my favourite video. As it happens the song itself is also one of my favourites, and I’m sure that helps.

If somebody said Chevvy Chase to me, I’d have this in an instant. Would you?

If not, here’s another clue. Paul Simon?

It helps that my growing up was to a Simon and Garfunkel soundtrack, I guess. I love Art’s voice and have a few solo albums of his. But more prolific was Paul Simon, so inevitably I have accumulated many of his CDs.

One album, however, that I remember well was Graceland, and I still listen to it. It was also an introduction to South African music, and don’t forget, this was a good five years before apartheid fell. In fact there was a lot of merit in what Simon did – by giving these artists a stage he quite successfully undermined the regime.

My choice today was a big single from the album, and you will doubtless remember it. I’ll bet it still comes on your radio from time to time.

12 comments

      • Have you seen the National Lampoon Vacation Movies? I LOVED him in Caddyshack. Another really funny movie he was in is Under the Rainbow. Of course he got his start on Saturday Night Live, where one of his skits was to be a news anchor, where he says, “I’m Chevy Chase, and you’re not.”

        Liked by 1 person

        Reply

        • We never got Saturday Night Live here. I think there was something similar here, around 1980, but it was UK hosts and had a different name. Was it National Lampoon’s Wuropean Vacation? He gets stuck driving on a roundabout and is driving round it for hours?

          Liked by 1 person

          Reply

Leave a comment