Considering his whole long career, I’d have to say The Boxer or maybe Bridge Over Troubled Water. Some lighter ones I like are: Me and Julio Down by the Schoolyard, 50 Ways to Leave Your Lover, Loves Me Like a Rock, and Cecilia. But the one I’m grooving on lately is this one. It’s about as political as Simon ever gets:


WRISTBAND
As recorded by Paul Simon on “Stranger to Stranger” (2016)

VERSE 1: I stepped outside the backstage door to breathe some nicotine
And maybe check my mailbox, see if I can read the screen;
Then I heard a click, the stage door lock, I knew just what that meant:
I'm gonna have to walk around the block if I wanna get in.

CHORUS 1: Wristband, my man, you've got to have a wristband.
If you don't have a wristband, my man, you don't get through the door.
Wristband, my man, you've got to have a wristband.
And if you don't have a wristband, my man, you don't get through the door.

VERSE 2: I can't explain it; I don't know why my heart beats like a fist
When I meet some dude with an attitude saying: "Hey, you can't do that, or this,"
And the man was large, a well-dressed six-foot-eight,
And he's acting like Saint Peter standing guard at the Pearly—

CHORUS 2: Wristband, my man, you've got to have a wristband.
If you don't have a wristband, you don't get through the door.
And I said: "Wristband? I don't need a wristband!
My axe is on the bandstand! My band is on the floor!"

BRIDGE: I mean it's just...
[Scat] (Wristband)
[Scat] (Wristband) [etc.]

VERSE 3: The riots started slowly with the homeless and the lowly.
Then they spread into the heartland towns that never get a wristband—
Kids that can't afford the cool brand, whose anger is a shorthand
For “You'll never get a wristband,”
And if you don't have a wristband, then you can't get through the door.
No, you can't get through the door.
No, you can't get through the door.
Say, you can't get through the door, no.