Billy Boy

Hardly a new track, the source I have says it was made "circa 1973," around the time of There Goes Rhymin' Simon. So perhaps the correct term would be "newly unearthed." According to Jay from South Africa, it appeared on YouTube "for the first time ever" in May of 2023. 

Here is the link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RUhruae-9JE

The real question is... is it even a song? "Billy Boy," more than six minutes of it, seems more of a melody in search of a lyric, which itself seems very much a rough draft. The result is nothing one could be expected to release, except on a compilation of demos and out-takes.

Another question is... what is Simon even singing? Since the vocals seem only to be placeholders for something else, much of the vocals are mumbled and garbled, with only the meter and melody being prioritized.

An early draft of the song "Yesterday," by the Beatles, was called "Scrambled Eggs"; those two utterances share nothing but their meter (a dactyl), but that is all that was required at that point. 

What we have here is even less... a series of cliches that meet the requirements for the meter: "you've been gone so long," "I've been down in the morning," "I've been waiting for the light to come," ... and variations on "sun don't ever shine," made to rhyme with "my heart, my valentine." The rest is-- to me, at least-- unintelligible.

There is no other instrumentation beyond Simon's guitar, but there are backing vocals, a small chorus of women (sounds to me like three). They sing "I believe it, I believe it" over and over. It's a close harmony, presaging the backing vocals on "I Know What I Know." 

As to the likely source of this exercise, "Billy Boy" is the title of an old folk tune, structured as a duet. The song is often used to teach a beginner to play the guitar. 

The song begins with the speaker asking Billy where he has been. He says he found a girl he'd like to marry but, sadly: "She's a young thing, and cannot leave her mother." The first speaker asks several follow-up questions-- but after answering each, Billy adds that same line, resigned to have to wait until she is old enough for courtship. 

Here, Simon seems to be trying to update this folksong. He addresses a "Billy Boy" who has returned, and there seems to be a heartbreak theme-- "valentine" is repeated often. So some of the elements are similar to the old song.

In his time with Garfunkel, Simon explored many earlier folksongs, which resulted in the well-known "Scarborough Fair" but also lesser-known recordings of versions of "Barbara Allen" and others (for a comprehensive list, see the Page on this blog tilted "Songs Mistakenly Attributed to Simon"; the traditional numbers are near the top of the list). 

I have a whole album of rock songs, from "Midnight Special" to "Sloop John B," that were based in old folksongs, collected by Alan Lomax for the Smithsonian Institute's Folkways album series. Many other  songwriters sought similar inspiration in traditional American, British, or other folksongs.

So it is not unlikely that, around the time of his second (post-S&G) solo album, Simon went back to the well of traditional folksong for inspiration, came upon "Billy Boy," and thought, "Let's see what I can do with this."

The answer? Not a whole lot. Oh, well. Failed experiments are necessary, on the road to successful ones.  

This blog aims to be comprehensive, while acknowledging the technical unlikelihood of that result (thence the * in its title). Still, in the name of completeness, I am including it here, on Every Single Paul Simon Song... while also acknowledging that it may not even be, technically, a "song" as such.

Note to readers upon my millionth pageview

I only check my statistics once a week, so I don't know exactly when, earlier this month (January 2024), it happened... but this blog has received its one-millionth pageview.

So I wanted to thank you all, you "viewers" of these "pages." I have received comments from all over the world. I should not be that surprised, since Simon is a globally beloved talent. I was worried that, this being the Internet, the comments would be savage. But I am very pleased to report that Simon's fans are decent, polite, and personable, even when dissenting (if anyone needs proof that you can disagree without being disagreeable, they should read my comment sections!).

Thank you all for reading this blog. Thank you for your lovely compliments, and your lovely corrections and criticisms. Your knowledge, pushbacks, personal anecdotes, and other insights have turned what might have been a lecture into a conversation. I have learned as much as I have shared. 

I had no idea, of course, when I started this blog back in 2001, that this would happen. But I wanted the blog to grow organically. I did no promotion or marketing for it whatsoever-- I didn't even mention it on my own Facebook page. I wanted people to find it when they needed it, when they really wanted to know, about one of these songs, just what Simon was likely getting at. That this happened a million times? I am shocked, but not surprised. 

Like most mad pursuits, I began doing this for myself, to look deeply at Paul Simon's work and see what meanings and messages I could find there. I was certain they were there for the finding. 

And spending an hour listening to a Paul Simon song, reading and re-reading the lyrics, and thinking about them, was certainly a worthwhile-- both relaxing and rewarding-- way to pass a Sunday afternoon.

When I started writing down what (I thought) he meant, I often found myself correcting and editing myself. "What is this song about? What does it mean? What is it trying to say?" was followed by "Ah!" and then "No...." and then, "Oh, wait!" and then "Hmmm..." and so on.

I knew that this meaning could be anything from "I have begun to doubt all that I once held as true," to "the thought that 'life could be better' is woven into our hearts," to "have a good time." And I knew it wasn't usually spoon-fed like that! But I also knew that if I really looked, there would be something substantial there.

My fantasy was that, once I had created this template, others would follow the example, and start 'every-single-song blogs' about their own favorite songwriters. I can admit now that this had a semi-selfish motive-- I was hoping someone would give this treatment to Sting or Springsteen or one of my other favorite songwriters, so I could read that blog. If this has happened, no one had thought to tell me about it... ahem...

In writing my other blogs, I have experienced what most bloggers do-- not much. Writing on the Internet is like whispering into the Grand Canyon-- you might not even hear your own echo. 

But this-- my first!-- blog seems to have resonated, and for that, I am grateful.

I know that, for too many artists, the accolades come too late, and are only flowers laid at a gravesite. How heartening to know that this is not true for Simon, and that he can see and hear the adulation he so deeply deserves while he is on this side of the grass, as they say. I would like to count this blog alongside, if far below, his other honors.

I have no idea if Simon knows this blog exists, but I hope he does. Naturally, I hope he likes it-- but even if he thinks my takes on his songs are way off base, he should be heartened by its readers. Gratified to know that people care this much about his work. That they think his work is lasting and substantive, able to withstand deep analysis-- and worthy of analyzing. That it resonates with listeners' minds and their hearts, both. 

So, thank you, readers of this blog. Just so you know, Simon has said that he is working on more material. So keep checking back! When he does release it, I will add it as soon as I can. After all, 1 million is just a number-- not a place to stop, but something to wave at as we "scoot down the road."