SIMON & GARFUNKEL - KEEP THE CUSTOMER SATISFIED

Описание: BRIDGE OVER TROUBLED WATER / KEEP THE CUSTOMER SATISFIED (1970)

NOTE: The video here is the b-side KEEP THE CUSTOMER SATISFIED . In lieu of an 'official' video I've edited my own.

An upbeat, acoustic-driven pop song with rich harmonies and a Norman Rogers horn section, 'Keep The Customer Satisfied' aligned with other self-referential tracks on the album.

The song found Paul Simon bogged down by expectation: to keep the songwriting to a high standard whilst under constant pressure from record executives, fans and critics.

"Keep the Customer Satisfied" is as close to a country song as the duo ever recorded. It has the rangy guitars, the loping bass, and even a reference to the "deputy sheriff" typical of the country genre. The song is also a near sequel to "Homeward Bound." The train "stop [that] is neatly planned/ for a poet and a one-man band" is also a likely place to find the "shoe shine" boy. "I've been on the road so long" is surely a reference to touring, which the duo had done in support of five albums over a decade.

The song is likely a response by Simon to critics, both from Rolling Stone magazine and others who slandered him. "Everywhere I go, I get slandered, libeled," might be a response to misinterpretations of his songs, public statements, or politics, something Simon faced again when fighting apartheid through art during his Graceland years.

Simon is simply trying to keep his audience entertained, he pleads. He cares only for those who buy his records and tickets to his shows and those who enjoy his music. He closes the song much the way Robert Frost closes his poem "stopping by the Woods on a Snowy Evening." "I'm so tired/ I'm oh, so tired/ But I'm trying to keep the customer satisfied."

Aside from being a serious song, it is also funny. The upbeat songs mentioned above show that Simon is not only a serious songwriter, but a seriously humorous one. The line "I hear words I never heard in the Bible" is a great euphemism for being cursed at. But who is doing the cursing? It is those who hold the Bible to be sacred above all else.

The ultimate struggle is not between a man and his attackers, but between the world-weary traveler who longs to be "home" and the troubadour who trudges about trying to please audiences nationwide. Both happen to be the same man, and he would like to do his work and come home and rest, without having to deal with the criticism.
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