Happy Friday with Simon and Garfunkel

Simon and Garfunkel might be my favorite group. I say "might" only because it's hard to top the Beatles or Led Zepplin, but Simon and Garfunkel are right up there at the top alongside those two greats. I first truly discovered Simon and Garfunkel in High School, with a live greatest hits CD. I still can't hear certain songs of theirs without thinking that applause is supposed to immediately follow. And my favorite song of all time, "America," is by Simon and Garfunkel. One of the most fun moments of Cameron Crow's film Almost Famous happens when Zooey Deschanel's character is caught smuggling the Simon and Garfunkel Record Bookends, on which the song "America" was released, into their home. (The idea that anyone would need to smuggle this record, which includes, alongside the gentle musings of the title track and "America," Garfunkel's artistic recordings of elderly people talking about their lives, is hilarious in itself). Defending the music to her mother, who insists that all rock music is about "drugs and promiscuous sex," Zooey's character yells, "Simon and Garfunkel is poetry!" "Yes," her mother replies, "It's the poetry of drugs and promiscuous sex." The mother then points to Paul Simon's puppy dog eyes on the iconic cover and insists that he is high on pot.

I, of course, side with Zooey on this one: Paul Simon is a poet, and the music that he and Art Garfunkel made together was poetry of its own sort. That's why I'm so excited to be joining with other performers in tonight's Dallas does the Music of Simon and Garfunkel at Opening Bell Coffee. The show starts at 7:30, it's $5, and you get to hear some of the greatest music ever. Bonus: I get to play my favorite song of all time. Here's a clip from Almost Famous featuring "America" to get you in the mood: