PAUL SIMON: Songs of A Thinking Man

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Simon, however, is not a man who carries a pocketful of loose change. "Rhythm is reflective of what's happened in the four years since Graceland," Simon says. "And then there are aspects of my personal life and my family's personal life that are more grave than they were four years ago. And that's in there. It was on my mind, it had to be in there. There's something about having a very big hit that's happy, like Graceland, that makes me think a little bit. I couldn't get more happy. That would really be manic." This is also, mind you, the author of that rueful piece of self- analysis with the memorable chorus, "Maybe I think too much." But that's it, after all. The essence of Simon's music, what makes it last and what makes it so directly personal. This is the soul of a thinking man.