"Duncan" by Paul Simon.

OK, boys and girls, back to the 70s: After splitting with Art Garfunkel, Paul Simon taught songwriting at NYU. Among his students were Maggie and Terre Roche as well as Melissa Manchester. It took him 2 1/2 years to release his first solo album "Paul Simon" in 1972. The 2nd cut is a poignant minor-chord coming-of-age ballad about a fisherman's son (hint, hint!). Between the verses we hear two flutes (tenkana and quena), charango and percussion interludes by Los Incas, an Andean group also featured in "El Condor Pasa". It peaked at #52 on the Pop charts in '72.

Answer: "Duncan" by Paul Simon. A testament to the genius that is Paul Simon. Can you imagine taking a songwriting class from him?! After "American Tune" this has to be my fave Simon solo tune.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LgMTDeYgDuU
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FNg3jjmVQDQ

This is a comment on the word "poignant" by my dear friend Dr. Dan Rogers, may he rest in peace.  I miss our breakfast discussions at Zakeer's!:

‎"Poignant:" what an interesting word You know, don't you, that it is derived from a rather sad (thus the modern usage of the word) French fairy tale. The first part of the word comes from the French "pois" (pronounced pwah) or pea; natu...rally, we have changed the pronunciation to sound like the Hawaiian word for lutefisk. Anyway, the story is about a small sand fly, a gnat, which was the insect that pollinates all French pois verts. This gnat (thus pois + gnat = poignant) was a real fan of round, plump behinds of the girl bugs, so when it saw the shape of a pea in one of the pods he became smitten! Just hung around that round shape and ignored the alluring girl gnats. When the pea shriveled and fell to the ground, our little gnat was heartbroken, devastated, and himself wasted away. This tragic folk tale has come, in French Valentine's Day tradition, to represent the feeling of deep loss and sadness that comes from having your Valentine card rejected by one's love. It is also the reason why the French never, ever eat green pea soup on Valentine's Day, although the British do.

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