The Paul Simon Songbook

Paul Simon The Paul Simon Songbook Lyrics
1.I Am A Rock

Lyricist:P. Simon

A winter's day
In a deep and dark December;
I am alone,
Gazing from my window to the streets below
On a freshly fallen silent shroud of snow.
I am a rock,
I am an island.

I've built walls,
A fortress deep and mighty,
That none may penetrate.
I have no need of friendship; friendship causes pain.

It's laughter and it's loving I disdain.
I am a rock,
I am an island.

Don't talk of love,
But I've heard the words before;
It's sleeping in my memory.
I won't disturb the slumber of feelings that have died.
If I never loved I never would have cried.
I am a rock,
I am an island.

I have my books
And my poetry to protect me;
I am shielded in my armor,
Hiding in my room, safe within my womb.
I touch no one and no one touches me.
I am a rock,
I am an island.

And a rock feels no pain;
And an island never cries


2.Leaves That Are Green

Lyricist:P. Simon

I was 21 years when I wrote this song
I'm 22 now, but I won't be for long
Time hurries on
And the leaves that are green turn to brown
And they wither with the wind
And they crumble in your hand
Once my heart was filled with the love of a girl
I held her close, but she faded in the night
Like a poem I meant to write

CHORUS

I through a pebble in a brook
And watched the ripples run away
And they never made a sound

CHORUS

Hello hello hello hello
Goodbye goodbye goodbye goodbye
That's all there is
And the leaves that are green turn to brown


3.A Church Is Burning


4.April Come She Will

Lyricist:P. Simon

When streams are ripe and swelled with rain;
May, she will stay,
Resting in my arms again.

June, she'll change her tune,
In restless walks she'll prowl the night;
July, she will fly
And give no warning to her flight.

August, die she must,
The autumn winds blow chilly and cold;
September I'll remember.
A love once new has now grown old.


5.The Sound Of Silence

Lyricist:P. Simon

Hello darkness, my old friend,
I've come to talk with you again,
Because a vision softly creeping,
Left its seeds while I was sleeping,
And the vision that was planted in my brain
Still remains
Within the sound of silence.

In restless dreams I walked alone
Narrow streets of cobblestone,
'Neath the halo of a street lamp,
I turned my collar to the cold and damp
When my eyes were stabbed by the flash of
a neon light
That split the night
And touched the sound of silence.

And in the naked light I saw
Ten thousand people, maybe more.
People talking without speaking,
People hearing without listening,
People writing songs that voices never share
And no one deared
Disturb the sound of silence.

'Fools' said I,'You do not know
Silence like a cancer grows.
Hear my words that I might teach you,
Take my arms that I might reach you.'
But my words like silent raindrops fell,
And echoed
In the wells of silence

And the people bowed and prayed
To the neon god they made.
And the sign flashed out its warning,
In the words that it was forming.
And the signs said, The words of the prophets
are written on the subway walls
And tenement halls.
And whisper'd in the sounds of silence.


6.A Most Peculiar Man

Lyricist:P. Simon

He was A Most Peculiar Man.

That's what Mrs. Riordan said and she should know;

She lived upstairs from him

She said he was A Most Peculiar Man.


He was A Most Peculiar Man.

The lived all alone within a house,

Within a room, within himself,

A Most Peculiar Man.


He had no friends, he seldom spoke

And no one in turn ever spoke to him,

'Cause he wasn't friendly and he didn't care

And he wasn't like them.

Oh, no! he was A Most Peculiar Man.


He died last Saturday.

He turned on the gas and he went to sleep

With the windows closed so he'd never wake up

To his silent world and his tiny room;

And Mrs. Riordan says he has a brother somewhere

Who should be notified soon.

And all the people said, 'What a shame that he's dead,

But wasn't he A Most Peculiar Man


7.He Was My Brother

Lyricist:Paul Simon

He was my brother

Five years older than I

He was my brother

Twenty-three Years old the day he died


Freedom writer

They cursed my brother to his face

Go home outsider

This town's gonna be your buryin' place


He was singin' on his knees

An angry mob trailed along

They shot my brother dead

Because he hated what was wrong


He was my brother

Tears can't bnng him back to me

He was my brother

And he died so his brothers could be free

He died so his brothers could be free


8.Kathy's Song


9.The Side Of A Hill

Lyricist:Paul Simon

On the side of a hill
In a land called somewhere
A little boy lies asleep in the earth
While down in the valley a cruel war rages
And people forget what a childs life is worth

On the side of a hill a little cloud weeps
And waters the grave with its silent tears
While a soldier cleans and polishes a gun
That ended a life at the age of seven years

And the war rages on in a land called somewhere
And Generals order their men to kill
And to fight for a cause theyve long ago forgotten
While a little cloud weeps on the side of a hill


10.A Simple Desultory Philippic(Or How I Was Robert McNamara'd Into
Submission)


11.Flowers Never Bend With The Rainfall

Lyricist:P. Simon

Through the corridors of sleep
Past the shadows dark and deep
My mind dances and leaps in confusion.
I don't know what is real,
I can't touch what I feel
And I hide behind the shield of my illusion.

So I'll continue to continue to pretend
My life will never end,
And Flowers Never Bend With The Rainfall.

The mirror on my wall
Casts an image dark and small
But I'm not sure at all it's my reflection.
I am blinded by the light
Of God and truth and right
And I wander in the night without direction.

So I'll continue to continue to pretend
My life will never end,
And Flowers Never Bend With The Rainfall.

It's no matter if you're born
To play the King or pawn
For the line is thinly drawn 'tween joy and sorrow,
So my fantasy
Becomes reality,
And I must be what I must be and face tomorrow.

So I'll continue to continue to pretend
My life will never end,
And Flowers Never Bend With The Rainfall


12.Patterns

Lyricist:P. Simon

The night sets softly
With the hush of falling leaves,
Casting shivering shadows
On the houses through the trees,
And the light from a street lamp
Paints a pattern on my wall,
Like the pieces of a puzzle
Or a child's uneven scrawL

Up a narrow flight of stairs
In a narrow Little room,
As I lie upon my bed
In the early evening gloom.
Impaled on my wall
My eyes can dimly see
The pattern of my life
And the puzzle that is me.

>From the moment of my birth
To the instant of my death,
There are Patterns I must follow
Just as I must breathe each breath.
Like a rat in a maze
The path before me lies,
And the pattern never alters
Until the rat dies.

And the pattern still remains
On the wall where darkness fell,
And it's fitting that it should,
For in darknesss I must dwell.
Like the color of my skin,
Or the day that I grow old,
My life is made of Patterns
That can scarcely be controlled.


13.I Am A Rock


14.A Church Is Burning