Is That Legal?

I'm thinking of two songs from the stunning "Hearts and Bones" album of 1983: the title track and "Train in the Distance." "Train" is about (in the words of the other song, "Hearts and Bones") "the arc of a love affair" -- a marriage that begins happily but soon falls apart as the spouses hear and follow "the sound of the train in the distance" and "think it's true" -- that sound being the refrain "that life could be better" somewhere else, in some other situation or relationship. "Hearts and Bones" is another achingly beautiful song about a failed marriage, but what reminds me of the current tune "Another Galaxy" is the music and the arrangement: "Another Galaxy" has nearly the same tapping percussion and nearly the same swirling triplet acoustic guitar figures adorning the main line of the song as does "Hearts and Bones," and the mood is very similar. It's as though Simon is directly quoting himself.

In one way, i's a bit surprising to see Simon, now (and for over a decade) in a happy marriage with Edie Brickell, still exploring the same theme about whether to trust the siren song of an imagined better life somewhere else. In another, I guess it's just a very human theme, maybe a timeless one, and therefore not suprising to see him still exploring.