Pitchfork Forkcast: Video: Jens Lekman: "You Can Call Me Al" (Live in Dallas; Paul Simon cover)

Video: Jens Lekman: "You Can Call Me Al" (Live in Dallas; Paul Simon cover)

Jens Lekman has masterminded an Arthur Russell covers EP, dug up all kinds of obscurities for a Pitchfork "Guest List" feature, and recently covered one of the best songs by too rarely discussed sadsacks Red House Painters. But the Swedish crooner's fervent love of pop extends well beyond the blasé security of the indie canon. Last time we spoke, he was recommending 1980s power ballads. Lekman has made no secret of his admiration for Paul Simon, an artist whose lyric-driven folk-pop echoes faintly through indie pop acts from Belle & Sebastian to the Clientele, but too rarely gets acknowledged. The Swede has even said that his gorgeous new Night Falls Over Kortedala was a failed attempt at a globetrotting album the likes of Simon's 1986 Graceland.

Lekman covers Simon's "Homeless" on the Kortedala bonus disc, and, in recent months, he's taken to doing a spirited rendition of Graceland hit "You Can Call Me Al". In this recent performance at Dallas' Granada Theater, Lekman explains: "As a kid, I always hated the chorus of this song. And I always hated Chevy Chase's stupid, grinning face in the video... but I realized how amazing the words and the verses were, this kind of abstract, weird poetry. I realized that I have to sing this song, but cut out Chevy Chase and the chorus." Sounds like a plan, Stan. (Thanks to Bill Mullally for the tip.)