In a way it's got an "end credit" quality too, but it's this kind of ending that wakes you up from a long meditative movie and lead you to come up for air and hope. The way to love this song is completely different from the way to love the other songs on this album (if that makes sense, I'm struggling to express this idea). The arrangement is really cool, with a good melody and an independant contrapuntal guitar line that works great together and with the smooth rhythm track. Simon tends to favor the "end credits" type of closer over the grandiose finale or the great melodic joyful one. Oh, there's "The Great Late Johnny Ace" too.
To me it's one of the best closers on a Paul Simon album so far, maybe the best since "Silent Eyes". I love this song, it's got this immediate appeal of the perfect song - though I haven't heard it enough times to know if it will stand the test of repetition. Would love to hear the instrumental version. But I do love an earnest, unironic song right here, and this is a beautiful one. I confess I don't really like Adrian's contribution (though obviously we're a long way out of James Garfunkel on Good Luck Charm territory). Lyrically, it's almost a rewrite of Born At The Right Time actually addressed to the now-somewhat-older child. The song is lovely and touching, and if it can verge on the sugary-sweet, it has just enough oddness (a postcard of a golden retriever?) to avoid becoming cloying (plus, at this point in the album-or equally on a children's cartoon-surely we've earned a little cotton candy). So, while I can see why some folks think this should be a bonus track or that it doesn't fit with the album, I'm grateful it's right where Paul put it. Nguini improves basically everything he touches, but never have I been happier to hear him than in the opening notes of the song at this point in the album: after ten tracks worth of a sometimes beautiful but also seriously cold and clinical "soundscape," that warm, lush, human tone is like the sun shooting out through the clouds.
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