I think 1970-Paul would like 2011-Paul just fine. The improvised percussion that gave “Cecilia” its groove has several tracks that are more than worthy successors on the new album.

The author of “At The Zoo” would enjoy hearing the antelope and the zebra waft through the lyrics of “So Beautiful.”

The author of “Song For The Asking” would recognize (and probably be reassured by) the sentiment at the end of “Love and Hard Times”– “Thank God I found you in time” although he would surely be disconcerted to discover that the woman addressed in the lyrics is his THIRD wife (and undoubtedly his last wife– 19 years, three children, and they seem very happy).

“Bridge Over Troubled Water” was inspired, at least in part, by the Swan Silvertones’ “I’ll be a bridge over deep water if you’ll trust in my name” so the appearance of the Golden Gate Jubilee Quartet is a continuation of a musical interest that was already in place then, just as Los Incas on “El Condor Pasa” could be seen as a foretaste of all the other ethnic musics that would be integrated into his music later.

And I think that 1970-Paul might appreciate the subtle lyrical use to which 2011-Paul put the doowop choruses beloved of 1957-Paul, who first charted with his friend Artie on “Hey Schoolgirl” and actually got to appear on American Bandstand.

What I would really love to have heard is what 1970-Paul would have said if you’d told him that as of that point, he had ahead of him at least another 40 years’ worth of a musical career that would be of worldwide interest. When he wrote in “Old Friends” “Can you imagine us years from today, sharing a park bench quietly? How terribly strange to be seventy” I’m sure he never imagined that at almost-70 he’d still be touring internationally– and coaching his 13-year-old’s Little League team. Doesn’t sound like such a quiet existence to me.