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The song begins with male a capella voices singing in African. Paul Simon then joins in, and the voices weave in and out harmonically for a few beats. The rhythms are mostly syncopated and fairly similar to the natural rhythms of speech. The choir then fades out, the key modulates, and Simon continues singing solo, accompanied by several instruments, mostly percussive and guitar elements. However, these, too, are African-influenced; they don't sound like traditional rock drums or guitars.
As the song continues, it follows a more traditional song format (verse, chorus, verse, chorus, with maybe a bridge in there somewhere.) However, you can still hear the African influence in the way that Simon plays with rhythms and words, fitting extra beats and syllables into verses, inserting "Oooooo, oooo"s here and there, and using obviously non-English nonsense syllables (ta na na na, where most English people would say something like da da da, or sha na na.) Later in the song we hear either a harmonica or a saxophone (my ear isn't good enough to distinguish the two, although it sounds more like a saxophone.) If you listen closely, you can also hear the choir from the beginning, which has been joined by a group of women singers. (Or maybe that's Paul Simon, who had- and probably still has- an impressive falsetto.)
Interestingly, despite the obviously African rhythms, Simon's lyrics are set in a city (probably New York) with "lights on over Broadway" and bodegas (small convenience stores; if you've ever been to New York, you've seen them- the ones on every street corner that sell food, paraphernalia, and knock-off electronics.)
--Hannah Brown
I posted this on a separate blog, because I couldn't figure out how to post on Musica, and kind of figured I wasn't supposed to. I hope you can find it.
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