Posted on: July 6, 2011 Posted by: James McQuiston Comments: 0

It was late last year when these reissues were first mentioned, and I immediately became excited. This is due to the fact that Sony Legacy always attempts to dig deep with their reissues, coming out with different versions of tracks (demo, live, mono), crazy rare efforts, and a cleaning up of the sounds that originally impacted listeners all those years ago. Sony Legacy is one of the few companies that showcases the value of these earlier discs, rather than only slapping their label on the effort.

Each of the releases in the Paul Simon / Legacy Recordings combination contains a number of extra tracks, further increasing the value of these releases. For example, the Legacy version of “There Goes Rhymin’ Simon” contains an in-progress version of “Let Me Live In Your City”, an acoustic version of “Take Me to The Mardi Gras” and “Loves Me Like A Rock”, and an unfinished version of “American Tune”. For those listeners that have not been familiarized to Paul Simon in a live setting, make sure to pick up a copy of the “Live Rhymin’” reissue. Along with eir hits, the previously unreleased versions of “Kodachrome” and “Something So Right” further flesh out this effort.

I feel that the care taken on each of these releases should be continued whenever a big star like Simon takes eir business to Sony. Keep an ear firmly planted to the ground in regards to Simon’s tour in support of eir new album, April’s “So Beautiful or So What”. The second wave of Simon’s reissues should occur in September, so make sure to set aside another $50 or so to get the definitive versions of another part of Simon’s lengthy career.

Rating: 8.5/10

Paul Simon – There Goes Rhymin’ Simon / Still Crazy After All These Years / Live Rhymin’ (CD) / 2011 Sony Legacy / http://www.legacyrecordings.com

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