Happy 85th Birthday to Paul Simon!
He is, of course, half of Simon and Garfunkel and went on to have a successful solo career. He has had plenty of hits and many are probably better than our featured song today – Loves Me Like a Rock.
I always liked the song, mainly because I always felt it has sort of a gospel feel to it. This is because the background vocals were provided by a popular gospel group called The Dixie Hummingbirds, which formed in the 1930s.
They released their own version of the song later in 1973 on their album We Love You Like A Rock, and toured with both Paul Simon and Stevie Wonder. A few years earlier, The Staple Singers made the transition from gospel to pop, but when The Dixie Hummingbirds tried, they didn’t catch on with a wider audience.
Songfacts.com states:
The line about the president and “the minute the Congress calls my name” seemed, however intentionally, to resonate with the big news story of the day – the Watergate investigation that brought down president Richard Nixon in disgrace.
Simon mentions his mother “rocks me like the rock of ages.” Throughout the Book of Psalms in the Bible, the rock is used as a metaphor for God’s strength and dependability. Psalms 91:1 refers to Him as “the rock of our salvation.” Jesus is the rock “Rock of Ages” in the Christian hymn about Jesus’ sacrificial crucifixion. Simon may have been inspired by the hymn or the Hebrew poem “Ma’oz Tzur,” which is traditionally sung during Hanukkah. The opening verse praises God as “My Refuge, my Rock of Salvation!”
Happy birthday, Paul Simon!!!
