If you were to ask me to pick one single song as my favourite, I would choose Paul Simon's 'Rewrite', off his 2011 album 'So Beautiful or So What'. I deeply admire how it deftly packs so many layers of music into 3 minutes and 50 seconds. The way the music matches and interprets the lyrics is astounding. And the song came into my life at a moment when I deeply needed it. It sums up my attitude towards life.
I’ve long wanted to write about the track and parse out its meanings. Maybe I still will. But when my friends Matthew Linder and Zachary Dear invited me as a guest on their podcast Musicale Imperatives and asked which song I wanted to talk about, I knew the answer immediately. Each episode of Musicale Imperatives takes a song, pairs it to a beer, and analysis the song’s music and lyrics. It was the perfect fit.
The finished episode is a long, leisurely look at this song I so deeply admire. We discuss the music, the lyrics, and the stories of why the song speaks to us. Matthew has expertly edited the audio to include clips from the song and Paul Simon’s discography. I hope you enjoy listening and come to appreciate this song as much as I do. And I hope I get invited on more podcasts!
Learn more about Musicale Imperatives and this episode here, listen to the episode on Apple Podcasts through the button below, or stream it here. You can also get a taste for this episode by watching this short clip Matthew put together.
