The song’s production is ambitious, showing that Simon is not someone to rest on his laurels following his 1987 Grammy win for Album Of The Year. “The Coast” is a gem on an album that should be as loved by the culture as its predecessor, Graceland. Sure, he put out great music in the time after The Simpsons premiered its second season, but none of it is top-10 material. To me, the golden era of Paul Simon is roughly from 1966-1990, ending with his last true masterpiece, The Rhythm Of The Saints.

Feel free to disagree (that’s what the comments are for), but remember, one man’s ceiling is another man’s floor. Summing up Paul Simon’s 14-album solo career in 10 tracks was as fun as it was painful. His music is spiritual and it shines like a National guitar. He’s sophisticated, curious, and sanguine. His style in this era can best be described as numinous. His solo career came next, and has persisted - on and off - for nearly half a century. By the time they released swan song Bridge Over Troubled Water, in 1970, Simon had shed the world-weariness of his younger years and matured into an artist capable of anything. As the creative force behind the act, Simon wrote a number of all-timers and some sophomoric stuff that sounds like high school poetry. They broke up, got back together, and formed Simon & Garfunkel, the most successful musical duo of the 1960s. The two cut a track called “Hey, Little Schoolgirl,” an Everly Brothers rip-off that made them local celebs at their high school in Queens. Simon began his career as a teenage hitmaker with erstwhile partner Art Garfunkel. Today, after becoming one of the 20th century’s greatest songwriters, he turns 80. Fifty years ago, Paul Simon wondered how terribly strange he’d feel at 70.

Paul Simon Hearts and Bones zip