Paul Simon, You Can Call Me Al (live), Outside Lands Pop-Up Show, Fox Theater (Oakland), 8/9/19 (HD)
Paul Simon plays You Can Call Me Al live in concert during an Outside Lands Pop-Up Show at the Fox Theatre in Oakland, California on Friday, August 9, 2019. The song was originally released as the lead single from the Graceland album in 1986. Its title comes from an incident at a party where French composer Pierre Boulez mistakenly called Paul Simon and his wife Peggy “Betty and Al.”
Paul Simon played the final show of his “Farewell Tour” on September 22, 2018, but has come out of his retirement from touring to headline at the Outside Lands Festival this Sunday in Golden Gate Park in San Francisco. He has announced that he will contribute all proceeds from Sunday’s performance to Friends of the Urban Forest and the San Francisco Parks Alliance. After Outside Lands, Simon will play two shows in Maui on August 13 and 14 at the Maui Arts & Cultural Center, again donating all of his net proceeds to local environmental groups.
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You Can Call Me Al lyrics:
A man walks down the street
He says, “Why am I soft in the middle, now?
Why am I soft in the middle?
The rest of my life is so hard
I need a photo-opportunity
I want a shot at redemption
Don’t want to end up a cartoon
In a cartoon graveyard”
Bonedigger, Bonedigger
Dogs in the moonlight
Far away in my well-lit door
Mr. Beerbelly, Beerbelly
Get these mutts away from me
You know, I don’t find this stuff amusing anymore
If you’ll be my bodyguard
I can be your long lost pal
I can call you Betty
And Betty, when you call me, you can call me Al
A man walks down the street
He says, “Why am I short of attention?
Got a short little span of attention
And, whoa, my nights are so long
Where’s my wife and family?
What if I die here?
Who’ll be my role model
Now that my role model is gone, gone?”
He ducked back down the alley
With some roly-poly little bat-faced girl
All along, along
There were incidents and accidents
There were hints and allegations
If you’ll be my bodyguard
I can be your long lost pal
I can call you Betty
And Betty, when you call me, you can call me Al
Call me Al
A man walks down the street
It’s a street in a strange world
Maybe it’s the third world
Maybe it’s his first time around
Doesn’t speak the language
He holds no currency
He is a foreign man
He is surrounded by the sound, the sound
Cattle in the marketplace
Scatterings and orphanages
He looks around, around
He sees angels in the architecture
Spinning in infinity
He says, “Amen and Hallelujah!”
If you’ll be my bodyguard
I can be your long lost pal
I can call you Betty
And Betty, when you call me, you can call me Al
Call me
Na na na na, na na na na
Na na na na, na na na-na na-na
Na na na na, na-na na-na na na
Na na na na, na na na na
If you’ll be my bodyguard
I can call you Betty
If you’ll be my bodyguard
I can call you Betty
If you’ll be my bodyguard
Written by Paul Simon
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Paul Simon official bio:
During his distinguished career spanning six decades, musician and songwriter Paul Simon has produced timeless masterpieces, such as Bridge Over Troubled Water, Still Crazy After All These Years, and Graceland, all of which garnered GRAMMY Album of the Year.
Mr. Simon was awarded the inaugural Library of Congress Gershwin Prize for Popular Song, which recognizes the profound and positive effect of popular music on the world’s culture. Mr. Simon is also a recipient of the Kennedy Center Honors, and, in 2006, was named one of Time magazine’s “100 People Who Shape Our World.”
Of Mr. Simon’s many concert appearances, he is most fond of the two concerts in Central Park in New York (with his partner and childhood friend Art Garfunkel in 1981 and as a solo artist in 1991) and the series of shows he did at the invitation of Nelson Mandela in South Africa: the first American artist to perform in post-apartheid South Africa. In 1998, his performance on center field at Yankee Stadium celebrating the unveiling of Joe DiMaggio’s monument is a treasured memory for this lifelong Yankee’s fan.
Paul Simon’s varied philanthropic work includes the co-founding of the Children’s Health Fund, which donates and staffs 53 mobile medical units that bring health care to low-income children and their families around the United States, providing more than 3 million doctor/patient visits since its inception in 1987.
In a letter to fans announcing his Farewell Tour and retirement from touring last year, Mr. Simon said, “After this tour, I anticipate doing the occasional performance…and to donate those earnings to various philanthropic organizations, particularly those whose objective it is to save the planet, ecologically.”
