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One Trick Pony (album)

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Released
  
August 12, 1980

Label
  
Warner Bros.

Release date
  
August 1980

Genre
  
Rock music

Length
  
38:12

Artist
  
Paul Simon

Movie
  
One-Trick Pony

Producers
  
Paul Simon, Phil Ramone

One-Trick Pony (album) httpsuploadwikimediaorgwikipediaenthumb9

Recorded
  
1979–1980 A&R Studios, New York except "Ace in the hole" and "One Trick Pony" recorded live at The Agora Club/Cleveland, Ohio

One-Trick Pony (1980)
  
Hearts and Bones (1983)

Similar
  
Paul Simon albums, Rock music albums

One-Trick Pony, Paul Simon's fifth solo studio album, was released in 1980. It was Simon's first album for Warner Bros. Records, and his first new studio album since 1975's Still Crazy After All These Years. His back catalog from Columbia Records would also move to Warner Bros. as a result of his signing with the label.

Contents

Paul Simon's One-Trick Pony was released concurrently with the film of the same name, in which Simon also starred. Despite their similarities, the album and film are musically distinct: each features different versions of the same songs, as well as certain songs that appear exclusively on either the film or the album. The album is best known for the Grammy-nominated track "Late in the Evening" which was a hit for Simon in 1980, peaking at #6 in the United States. Two of the tracks (the title song and "Ace in the Hole") were recorded live at the Agora Theatre and Ballroom in Cleveland, Ohio in September 1979. The rest are studio cuts.

A few of the session musicians appearing on the album also appeared in the movie as the character Jonah's backing band: Eric Gale on lead guitar, Richard Tee on piano, Tony Levin on bass, and Steve Gadd on drums.

In 2004, One-Trick Pony was remastered and re-released by Warner Bros. Records. This reissue contains four bonus tracks, including "Soft Parachutes" and "Spiral Highway" (an early version of "How the Heart Approaches What It Yearns") both of which were featured in the film but were missing from the original album release. Also included in the re-release were the outtake of "All Because of You" (an early version of "Oh Marion") and "Stranded in a Limousine", which originally appeared on the 1977 compilation Greatest Hits, Etc..

Album title

The title is a colloquial American expression meaning a person specializing in only one area, having only one talent, or of limited ability.

Track listing

All songs were written by Paul Simon.

Side one
Side two
2004 re-release
  1. "Soft Parachutes" – 1:53
  2. "All Because of You" – 4:06
  3. "Spiral Highway" – 2:56
  4. "Stranded in a Limousine" – 3:10

Personnel

  • Paul Simon – vocals, nylon string guitar, electric guitar, percussion, acoustic guitar on "Stranded in a Limousine" (2004 reissue only), horn and string arrangements
  • John Tropea – acoustic guitar on "Jonah"
  • Patti Austin – vocals
  • Joe Beck – electric guitar on "Long Long Day"
  • Michael Brecker – saxophone on "Stranded in a Limousine" (2004 reissue only)
  • Hiram Bullock – electric slide guitar on "That's Why God Made the Movies"
  • Jon Faddis – flugelhorn on "Oh, Marion"
  • Don Grolnick – string synthesizer on "That's Why God Made the Movies"
  • David Sanborn – saxophone on "Stranded in a Limousine" (2004 reissue only)
  • Marvin Stamm – trumpet on "Stranded in a Limousine" (2004 reissue only)
  • Ralph MacDonald – percussion
  • Randy Brecker – trumpet on "Stranded in a Limousine" (2004 reissue only)
  • Dave Grusin – horn and string arrangements
  • Gordon Edwards – bass on "Stranded in a Limousine" (2004 reissue only)
  • Steve Gadd – drums on all songs, percussion on "Stranded in a Limousine" (2004 reissue only)
  • Eric Gale – electric guitar, nylon string guitar on "How the Heart Approaches What it Yearns"
  • Lani Groves – background vocals
  • Anthony Jackson – bass on "Oh Marion"
  • Tony Levin – bass on all songs except where noted
  • Irwin "Marky" Markowitz – trumpet on "Stranded in a Limousine" (2004 reissue only)
  • Hugh McCracken – acoustic guitar
  • Jeff Mironov – electric guitar on "Oh, Marion"
  • Richard Tee – Fender Rhodes electric piano, piano on "God Bless the Absentee" and "Stranded in a Limousine" (2004 reissue only), tambourine, background vocals
  • Bob Friedman – horn and string arrangements
  • Paul Simon, Phil Ramone - producers
  • Jim Boyer - recording engineer, mixing engineer
  • Ted Jensen - mastering engineer

    • Cover versions

  • The String Cheese Incident have covered the song "Late In the Evening" on numerous occasions, with drummer Michael Travis on vocals.
  • Peter Mulvey covered "Stranded In a Limousine" on his album Ten Thousand Mornings.
  • The album is mentioned on the thank you page of Douglas Adams' novel The Restaurant at the End of the Universe.
  • The Victoria, B.C. band Immaculate Machine takes their name from the lyrics of the track "One-Trick Pony".

    • Songs

    1Late in the Evening4:03
    2That's Why God Made the Movies3:38
    3One-Trick Pony3:54

    References

    One-Trick Pony (album) Wikipedia
    (Text) CC BY-SA