Buffalo Tom returned this month with a new album, Quiet And Peace, their first new record since 2011's Skins and ninth studio album overall. The trio regrouped last year to celebrate and tour the 25th anniversary of Let Me Come Over, then when their schedules allowed, they returned to the studio to record a new set of guitar-based rock much to the delight of fans and critics. The album was released last week and is available through Amazon and Pledge Music or stream on Spotify.
One of the songs on the album is a cover of the Simon and Garfunkel song "The Only Living Boy In New York," which has been in the works for many years according to Belly's Tom Gorman. Gorman revealed on Facebook that he joined Buffalo Tom for a short period after Belly broke up in the 90s and had suggested recording the cover:
"At some point in the week it was suggested that we all come up with a cover song to record. There are very few cover songs that stick in my head... they're there, then they disappear. But for whatever reason, I had Only Living Boy in NY in my brain- probably the only cover song I had in my brain at the time. So that was my suggestion, and we recorded a version of it. I'm pretty sure I didn't have the arrangement or the lyrics right- no iPhones/google to immediately check such things back then... but I think we did a decent version of it.
Since then, the tune has always been near the top of my list of cover-songs-to-record. Alas, BT beat me to it (and my own fault for bringing it in on the demo session with them so many years ago..!)! And it's a truly fantastic version- beautifully done!"
[These days Gorman is once again busy with Belly - the band reunited last year and will be releasing Dove, their first new album in over 20 years, on May 4th. Stream their new single "Shiny One" here.]
Buffalo Tom will be releasing a 7" version of "The Only Living Boy In New York" backed with a cover of The Who's "The Seeker" for Record Store Day, plus they're releasing a special edition of Big Red Letter Day on red vinyl.
Stream Buffalo Tom's "The Only Living Boy In New York" below and catch up with the band here.
Published March 11th, 2018
