YLNT Presents: SongParts

The Uncoppable Lick

(From “You Can Call Me Al” by Paul Simon)

Strange coincidence: at least three people lived a significant portion of their adolecence with Paul Simon’s Graceland wedged inextricably in the family car’s cassette deck:

• Graham Clark
• Becky Johnson
• Scott Simpson

They know these two measures all too well.

From The Fretless Bass:

Three minutes and forty-four seconds into Graceland’s sixth cut is a two-bar bass break that has confounded as many bassists as it has inspired. “That was my idea,” says Bakithi of the wildly descending lick in the first bar. “We were recording that song on my birthday, and there was a space to fill, so Paul said, ‘Go ahead Bakithi. Do what you like.’ I just played—and they loved it. It was one take. Listening back, I didn’t know what happened; I thought it was from God, you know? I never planned it.’

Now for the tricky part: the second bar of the solo is actually the first part played backwards. Engineer Roy Halee simply flipped the tape over and spliced the two parts together. “People have tried to cop those licks,” shrugs Simon, “but it’s physically impossible.” So the next time your band covers “You Can Call Me Al,” forget about trying to duplicate Bakithi’s mutant solo and take a tip from Paul: just do what you like.

If you are a child or a cretin, it’s possible that you may never have seen the song’s video, a testament to understated delight.

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