Late In The Evening

Album

One-Trick Pony

Label

Warner Bros. Records

Genre

Stage & Screen

Duration

3:00

Composer(s)

Paul Simon

Entered Chart

Aug 9, 1980

Peak Date

Sep 27, 1980

Released

Unknown

Recorded

Unknown

Catalog #

Warner Bros. 49511

B-Side

How The Heart Approaches What It Yearns

With a rhythmic salsa beat and distinctive horns, this song has become a fan favorite. It describes a dream sequence that Paul Simon had when he was a teenager of being a rock star (he's "under age in this funky bar"). It's late at night (evening) and he's hearing the radio as he falls asleep and the next then he knows he's dreaming about walking down the street and then playing lead guitar in a band. Smoking a "J" obviously refers to a joint (marijuana) which when he was a teen in the 1960s would be typical for a rock band. >> Simon wrote this song for One-Trick Pony, a semi-autobiographical movie he wrote and starred in. The song plays at the beginning and end of the film. When Simon & Garfunkel played a free concert in New York's Central Park on September 19, 1981, the throngs of fans kept cheering, even after the encore. To appease them, the duo returned to the stage and reprised "Late in the Evening," which they had played earlier in the show.

First thing I remember
I was lying in my bed
I couldn't have been no more than one or two
And I remember there was a radio
Coming from the room next door
And my mother laughed
The way some ladies do
When it's late in the evening
And the music's seeping through

The next thing I remember
I am walking down the street
I'm feeling all right
I'm with my boys, I'm with my troops, yeah
And down along the avenue
Some guys were shooting pool
And I heard the sound of a cappella groups, yeah
Singing late in the evening
And all the girls out on the stoops, yeah

Then I learned to play some lead guitar
I was underage in this funky bar
And I stepped outside to smoke myself a "J"

And when I come back to the room
Everybody just seemed to move
And I turned my amp up loud and I began to play
And it was late in the evening
And I blew that room away

First thing I remember
When you came into my life
I said I'm gonna get that girl no matter what I do
Well, I guess I've been in love before
And once or twice I been on the floor
But I never loved no one the way that I love you
And it was late in the evening
And all the music seeping through