So Here’s To You, Mrs. Robinson.
Every week my guitar teacher asks me to name a song to work on for the following week. For the first few weeks I would draw a complete blank, but now I’ve started showing up to my lesson prepared with a song. Now keep in mind, we are not simply learning the song for song’s sake - it is meant to be an exercise in transposition. Meaning he teaches me the chords for the song in the original key, but also 4 other keys - and my practice for the week involves learning the song in all 5 keys.
Here’s the rub. In the universe of songs that I “know”, I don’t really have a sense of which ones are simple open-chord strummers and which ones are intricate fingerpickers with fancy substitution chords. And so my fate for the week hangs precariously on my song choice. No, I don’t cheat by trying to figure out the complexity of the song beforehand. After all, if the exercise is too easy, it’s only myself that I am cheating. If it’s too hard - well - I’m in the process of finding out this week.
You see the song for this week is Mrs. Robinson. I should have guessed that this would be of the more difficult variety given that Paul Simon is known for fingerpicking - but the song sounds strummy enough so I went for it. Oh boy. While the chords look easy on Ultimate Guitar - E, A, D, G, C, Am etc. - the version my teacher showed me involves playing not just the chords, but also the lead riffs that are sprinkled throughout (originally played on a second guitar by the way), AND the vocal melody on top. Watching him do it is simultaneously thrilling - and when I think of what lies ahead for me this week - chilling. At least he doesn’t want me to learn it in 5 keys this time.
Anyway, let’s get to why I started this post in the first place. As I started to listen to the song in preparation for practice, I was immediately struck by the album art.
Photo by Richard Avedon
It’s just perfect. Why didn’t I guess that it was taken by Richard Avedon right way? Likely shot with a Rolleiflex on medium format Kodak Tri-X film. How does it succeed in being so intimate? Looking at it more closely now, even the font choice and overall cover design is just so understatedly beautiful. And heartening to see that even Avedon didn’t always get both subjects precisely in focus - unless leaving Garfunkel slightly blurry was intentional :P
Okay I’ve wasted enough time. Back to practice.