Why I Went Crazy About Paul Simon's music


Back in the early eighties, when I was a little boy, I was largely unaware of the world around me. In this blissful state of ignorance, I would take pleasure from listening to a cassette my father used to keep in his car. Every time I went with my family to our summer cottage, I would nag and nag until they gave in and let me listen to that cassette. It was called Paul Simon: Greatest Hits, Etc..

Over the next ten years, I never grew tired of the music on that cassette. I was hypnotized by the haunting drum beat of 50 Ways To Leave Your Lover and the happy Dixieland climax of Take Me To The Mardi Gras. Although I scarcely comprehended the meaning of the lyrics, I was mesmerized by the beauty of the words of Something So Right and American Tune.

Then in the late 1994 I suddenly realized that Paul Simon was a real person, and that he had recorded more than just that one cassette. Since the sound quality of the cassette had gradually diminished by my frequent listening, I decided to by a CD with the songs I'd grown so fond of. I didn't have much money, but I invested most of it in another greatest hits compilation called Negotiations And Love Songs.

Lord, was I ever in paradise. My limited experience told me that an album might contain two or three songs that are really good and can be worth listening to over and over again, but on this album, not a single song was anything short of a masterpiece. I played that CD again and again for several weeks, until I realized I needed more. Since Christmas was coming and I was still a bit low on money, I told everyone I wanted a Paul Simon album.

I didn't get any album that Christmas, but my grandmother gave me some money so I could buy myself whatever I wanted. Ever an impatient young man, I couldn't wait until my birthday a week later, but went to purchase The Paul Simon Anthology immediately when the shops opened again on the 27th.

Again, I was taken aback by the consistent quality of Paul Simon's music. Neither this compilation contained any song unworthy to be called a masterpiece. I immediately fell in love with the dancing rhythm of Can't Run But and the wonderful harmonies of Further To Fly. The driving drums of The Obvious Child and the incredible live performance of The Cool, Cool River made me wonder if perhaps I had discovered the ultimate experience. I knew one thing: I had to get my hands on everything ever recorded by Paul Simon.

On my subsequent birthday, January 2nd 1995, my father gave me the album Parsley, Sage, Rosemary And Thyme. I was thrilled to discover that all the songs on that album were new to me, and that they all had that same sense of perfectionism to them that was the signature of all the Paul Simon songs I'd heard before. My eyes went misty when I heard the effective rendition of Silent Night with the terrible 7 o'clock news clashing with the peaceful song. The lovely harmonies of Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel singing together compelled me to collect the rest of their mutual production. About a week after my 19th birthday, I bought Wednesday Morning, 3 AM, Sounds Of Silence, Bookends, and Bridge Over Troubled Water, all at the same time.

I wasn't surprised to discover that every song on those albums lived up to my high expectations. Not one single tune left me disappointed. I would listen to those albums any time I got the chance, memorizing the lyrics and melodies. It was at this stage that I learned to play the songs on the piano. This added yet another dimension to my appreciation of the music. I could now visually see the ingenuity of the simple yet somehow painstakingly crafted harmonies. It also helped me evolve as a piano player. My insights in the theory of music making had been rudimentary at best, but now I began analyzing what it was that made the songs of Paul Simon so pleasing to listen to. I would compare it with the music of other artists to see if I could find out what was so unique with it.

At first I thought that the reason for my addiction to Paul Simon's work could be found within myself and not in the music. That perhaps my brain's musical center was in perfect sync with Paul Simon's. It wasn't easy to pinpoint anything in particular that separated his songs from those of other artists. To test this hypothesis, I played some of the tunes to my friends, to see if they too found them to a pace better than other songs. Almost everyone I introduced to the music was as enthusiastic as myself - there was definitely something special about the music of Paul Simon.

I started listening more intently to the songs, trying to perceive subtle details that could account for the feeling of uniqueness. And then it struck me that it was the acute attention to detail that made the difference. I've always been a perfectionist and I believe caring for minute details make a huge difference in the whole. No crackling of microphones or misplaced notes can be perceived in the music of Simon and Garfunkel. It was obvious that they must have taken great measures to perfect every individual song. I've learned later that this is exactly what characterized their entire production - an unusually high threshold of satisfaction. Some people don't like music that is too perfect, but I do. It makes for a greatly enhanced enjoyment of the music when you know that every small sound bite is there on purpose.

When my personal economy had recovered from the intensive procuration of CDs, I began collecting Paul Simon's solo albums. At the time, my sole income was a monthly study allocation of 750 Swedish kronor. The January payment enabled me to buy all four Paul Simon albums I could find, namely Paul Simon, Still Crazy After All These Years, One-Trick Pony and Hearts And Bones. I'd heard many of the songs before on the greatest hits albums, and I was pleased to discover that the new songs were by no means less enjoyable than the ones on the collections. Every song had a certain unique quality, which is why I don't like to rate the songs, I like them all in different ways.

I realized I was still one album short of a full collection of Paul Simon's early solo work, since some of the songs on the greatest hits albums weren't on any of the new albums I'd bought. I looked in the Anthology booklet to learn that this missing album was called There Goes Rhymin' Simon. I went to look for it everywhere, but it wasn't available on CD in Sweden. Nobody I asked could tell me where to find it. This went on for several months, and I had grown discouraged in my hunt when I went with my highschool class on a trip to Prague, Czech Republic, and stumbled upon the album in a record store in a small alley. So thrilled was I to make this discovery that I gave the shop owner an extra hundred Czech korunas for making my trip such a happy one. He was such a joyful man, that shop owner. Many of the Prague natives weren't very nice to drunken tourists who didn't speak their language, but that shop owner was something extra. I'm sad to say I can't recall the name of the store, but I can recommend everyone to go there.

When I got home from Prague and was able to listen to my new CD, I came to think of a new property of Paul Simon's music that separated it from that of other artists: the wide variety of styles he uses. He seems to be ever curious to learn new the music of other cultures than his own. On There Goes Rhymin' Simon and Paul Simon, such different styles as reggae, blues, and dixieland appear. I hadn't reflected on this before, but the music of Paul Simon has a cultural variety unparalleled by any artist I've heard. This fact became even more apparent to me when I bought Graceland from my sister about a month after the Prague journey, and read in the album notes that the musical style on that album was South African, and that it was recorded during the Apartheid years. This was in May 1995.

One of the charming sides of the Paul Simon songs I'd heard so far were all the new subtle details you discovered every time you heard them. This was not the case with the compelling African music on Graceland. Although equally enjoyable, those songs felt more direct and casual in a perfectionist kind of way. I'd heard many of them before of course, on the collection albums, but I thought the new ones were as great as those chosen for the greatest hits albums.

Only one album short of a complete collection, I set out to find the last one. By then, CD prices in my home country had shot sky-high following our joining the European Union. As luck had it however, I stumbled upon The Rhythm Of The Saints in a used records store on my way home from school one sunny day. When I got home to listen to it, I came to think of a new element in the work of Paul Simon that I hadn't thought of before. Not being English-speaking of birth, I hadn't really listened to the lyrics of Paul Simon's songs before. By the time I got Rhythm, however, my English skills had improved enough for me to understand the words. I've realized later that this is probably the most important reason for my abnormal interest in Paul Simon's music.

Although I hadn't thought of it before, I've always enjoyed music where the lyrics are worth listening to in their own might. I don't need to understand the meaning of the lyrics, as long as I like the sound of the words. I've never actively tried to understand Paul Simon's poetry. The fact is that there are very few songs that I can claim to understand fully what they're supposed to say. I have no idea what a cross does in a ballpark, why someone would live like a mole in a motel, or even how decades look like when they're gliding by like Indians, but the phrases sound so natural when Paul Simon sings them that the importance of their meaning comes a distant second to their idiomatic perfection in my ears. I've read in a Paul Simon biography that he often writes lyrics he himself doesn't understand if he likes the way they sound. He doesn't have a clue as to who Julio might be, only that he has a funny name.

I spent the summer holiday of 1995 studying Astronomy at the university, and I would often listen to my Paul Simon CD collection. I learned to play most of the songs on piano, and I learned many of the lyrics by heart. Today I can play most of Paul Simon's songs on command. I borrowed a book from our local library called Simon and Garfunkel, written by John Swenson. I learned the fascinating story of how the two men had worked their way into the music business.

I the early fifties, Paul Simon and Arthur Garfunkel went to the same school, PS164 in New York. Art Garfunkel was an acknowledged talented singer who would perform in the synagogue. Paul Simon realized that Art Garfunkel's singing was a way for him to impress the girls, and always searching for popularity, Paul approached Art and they began associating. Since both boys were talented singers, they started singing together. Their idols were the Everly Brothers with their characteristic harmonies, and the two young boys tried to imitate them. They would sit and stare into each others' eyes, striving to make their voices blend together like their role-models. They got very good at harmonizing and started performing together. They wrote songs and went to the infamous Brill Building to get a record contract.

In 1957 a man named Sid Prosen heard the two boys sing a song they had written called Hey Schoolgirl. He was very impressed and said he'd make stars of them. Simon and Garfunkel were not the ideal names to have in the ethnically tense society of the fifties, so they took the names Jerry Landis (Paul Simon) and Tom Graph and performed together as Tom and Jerry. Hey Schoolgirl made it to number 54 in the Billboard Hot 100 and sold a full 100.000 copies. Tom and Jerry 's next three songs and their album Tom and Jerry flopped, so the two boys went back to school.

While Art Garfunkel was set on a career as a math teacher, Paul Simon continued to work in the studio while studying at the University. He would record minor hits like Lone Teen-Ranger, Anna Belle and Play Me A Sad Song, using a fair number of different pseudonyms. However, his mother didn't think music to be a good way to make a living, so on her request, Paul Simon went to study law after finishing University. Law wasn't for Paul Simon though, music was his life. He quit after six months and began singing with Art Garfunkel again.

By virtue of the success of Bob Dylan, folk music was growing in popularity in USA at this time. Paul and Art joined this movement and started performing on folk-clubs, making their debut as Simon and Garfunkel in 1964. But the atmosphere in the States was growing unpleasant following the assassination of president Kennedy, so Paul Simon moved to Europe and Paris in early 1964. In Paris, Simon lead a bohemic life, sleeping by the Seine and singing his songs in the streets. In April, he moved to England and London to take part in the English folk movement. It was at this time that he met his girlfriend Kathy, who inspired several future songs. In the British folk clubs, Simon performed his growing repertoire of folk songs, including The Sound Of Silence, He Was My Brother, and A Most Peculiar Man. Despite his positive impact on the British folk scene, it wasn't long until Simon returned to New York.

Having had an unsuccessful singing career, Art Garfunkel was now teaching mathematics. When Paul Simon returned from England, however, they started singing together again and produced Wednesday Morning, 3 AM. The album contained five original Paul Simon songs and seven other tracks. It was a small failure, but Simon had anticipated this and was back in England before its release. Again Paul Simon toured the London folk clubs singing his songs. By the end of 1964, Paul Simon went back to the States to go to college. When his good friend Judith Piepe learned this, she urged him to come back to England to record an album with his songs which were so popular in the London folk circuit. The Paul Simon Song Book was recorded in the scope of an hour and contained twelve Paul Simon original songs, which were to make the platform for the two next Simon and Garfunkel albums.

Paul Simon stayed in England for the better part of 1965, and in November, Tom Wilson, Simon and Garfunkel's producer, added an electric background to their acoustic version of The Sound Of Silence from Wednesday Morning, 3 AM. It became Simon and Garfunkel's first major hit and reached No 1 on the Billboard chart by December 1965. Paul left England for New York and recorded Sounds Of Silence in a period of three weeks to cash in on the success of the title song. The album boasted two more top ten hits, Homeward Bound and I Am A Rock. During 1966, Simon and Garfunkel travelled around the States and in Europe performing their repertoire. By the end of the year, Simon had written enough new material to record a new album.

Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and Thyme was released in November 1966. This time, they took the time to arrange the songs more carefully. It is a big improvement from the hastily put together tracks on their previous album. The album became a moderate success, with eleven original Paul Simon compositions, four of which were previously available on The Paul Simon Song Book. The album sold moderately. In the next year, 1967, Simon and Garfunkel got their real breakthrough when they wrote the soundtrack for Mike Nichols' blockbuster movie The Graduate. Although the songs used consisted largely of already available material, the success of the movie made for big sales of the soundtrack. Mrs Robinson became their best-selling song to date. By the middle of 1968, The Graduate was the best-selling album in America.

Following the success of The Graduate, Simon and Garfunkel's subsequent album Bookends sold very well. For the first time, they took all the time they needed to perfect the arrangement of each individual song. Simon and Garfunkel became America's most popular artists. Later that year, Paul Simon met his wife-to-be Peggy Harper, who was married at the time. Simon dealt with this dilemma in his song Train In The Distance on the Hearts And Bones album in 1983. Simon and Garfunkel only released one new song in 1969, The Boxer, but it became a blockbuster hit and was their perhaps finest song ever. It was at this time that Art Garfunkel began exploiting another big interest of his, movies. While Paul Simon was recording songs for their new album, Art Garfunkel was in Mexico, shooting Mike Nichols next film, Catch 22. This was one of the main factors for the breakup of Simon and Garfunkel about one year later.

In early 1970, Paul Simon wrote a number of new songs for an album to cash in on the tremendous success of Bookends. Bridge Over Troubled Water was released in February 1970 and became the duo's most successful achievement. With its over ten million copies sold, it's still one of history's best-selling albums. In a stroke of luck, the Simon and Garfunkel partnership was beginning to deteriorate, partly due to Garfunkel's absence during the recording of Bridge, so they never had to make a follow-up on the album, a follow-up which almost certainly would have turned out a let-down - it would have been very hard to top the enormous sales of Bridge. Instead, they went separate ways.

Garfunkel continued his acting career in Carnal Knowledge, another Mike Nichols movie, and went on to lead a mediocre singing career. Paul Simon allowed himself one year of repose from the hectic Simon and Garfunkel time before he started off his career as a solo artist with Paul Simon, released in 1972. Although it soon hit no 1 on the US album charts, it didn't sell nearly as good as Bridge. The important thing, however, was that Paul Simon was developing his own identity as a solo artist. The musical style was far away from the lush Simon and Garfunkel sound of which Paul Simon had never been very fond. He experimented with both reggae and blues. Mother And Child Reunion was one of the first reggae songs performed by a white artist, allowing for the syncopated Jamaican music to be a widely acknowledged and appreciated style. Boasting songs like Duncan and Me And Julio Down By The Schoolyard, Paul Simon's first (not counting the Song Book) solo effort was an effective demonstration of his ability to stand on his own.

Later that year, Simon and Garfunkel reunited on a single concert, coinciding with the release of Simon and Garfunkel: Greatest Hits. The concert was arranged by democrat senator George McGovern as a protest statement against the Vietnam War. For Simon and Garfunkel, the concert was painful evidence that a full scale reunion was impossible. Their performance had none of the atmosphere that was the hallmark of the Simon and Garfunkel concerts of the sixties. Again, they went separate ways and Simon released his second solo album, There Goes Rhymin' Simon in May 1973. For the first (and to this date last) time, Simon's songwriting was dominated by happy lyrics. Alienation had been the signature of the Simon and Garfunkel music, and Paul Simon consisted largely of songs dealing with problems in his relationship with his wife Peggy. The release of Rhymin' Simon was preceded by the birth of Simon's first son, Harper James, and this period is perhaps the happiest yet in Paul Simon's life. American Tune, based on a section of Bach's Matthew Passion, was voted Song of the Year by Rolling Stone and the album is considered by many to be Simon's finest effort ever. Short of judging its quality in comparison to his other albums, one has to admit that this is Simon's most culturally diversified production, and he proved to be skilled in adapting his songwriting to new musical styles.

After this, for Paul Simon, uncharacteristic burst of creativity, he took two years off from songwriting prior to the release his next album. Two years during which he studied classical guitar and listened a lot to different styles of music. He also produced a couple of albums by other artists and taught songwriting to would-be stars. He wrote the soundtrack for Warren Beatty's movie Shampoo, and a live album from his tour with Urubamba, formerly known as Los Incas, was released in 1973. By the coming of 1975, Simon's life took a turn for the worse. His marriage with Peggy ended in a divorce, and Simon found himself writing songs about it. Still Crazy After All These Years was released in 1975.

Not as experimentive as Rhymin' Simon, Still Crazy After All These Years is still a nice piece of work with some new elements to Simon's music. Gone At Last is one of Simon's best gospel songs and Some Folks' Lives Roll Easy is a personal favourite of mine. Most songs on Still Crazy are sentimental ballads about his marriage, all very nice songs of course, but the album is perhaps the least interesting one in Paul Simon's career. It was very appreciated at the time, though, and it won the author a batch of Grammys, something which Simon attributed to the fact that Stevie Wonder hadn't release any album that year. 50 Ways To Leave Your Lover became Paul Simon first No 1 hit since Bridge Over Troubled Water.

Following the release of Still Crazy, Simon wound up in another creative down. He appeared occasionally on Saturday Night Live, and recorded one song, a cover of What A Wonderful World. Greatest Hits, Etc. was released in 1977 and contained two new songs, Slip Slidin' Away and Stranded In A Limousine. In 1978, Simon started dating actress Carrie Fisher, who was later to be his wife for a year. Apart from that, little was seen of Paul Simon until 1980, when his next work, the motion picture One-Trick Pony was released, both script and soundtrack written by Paul Simon. The production of the movie had been time-consuming, since this was something Simon had never done before, and the result was not great. Although the movie has its points (personally, I like it a lot), it became a minor flop. Never even released in Europe, One-Trick Pony died almost before its birth. Consequently, the soundtrack, although containing some of Simon's finest rock songs, sold poorly.

After the flop of One-Trick Pony, Simon went touring in America and Europe to promote the album. Frustrated by the lack of interest shown by his fans, he began considering a reunion with his old friend Art Garfunkel, who had even appeared on one show on the tour. Simon had been approached to give a free concert in Central Park in 1981, and he invited Garfunkel to join him. However, their musical histories since the breakup were too divergent for them to be able to work creatively together. They toured the world together in 82-83, hardly even speaking to each other. Simon's consequent album Hearts And Bones, was originally intended to be a Simon and Garfunkel piece, but it didn't work, and Simon erased Garfunkel's part and released it as a solo album in 1983.

Although Heart And Bones was Simon's best album to date, it flopped. Simon had lost momentum following his long lapse after the Still Crazy album, and his new album sold worse than any other he had released in the past twenty years. The album is Simon's most personal statement ever, and most of the songs deal with his relationship with Carrie Fisher. It is perhaps also his saddest album ever, eclipsing even the deliberately tragic songs on One-Trick Pony. Not a single song on Hearts And Bones is truly happy. That is perhaps why it sold so poorly - the history of hits is one with almost exclusively upbeat, happy songs. And upbeat, happy songs are exactly what characterizes Simon's next album.

The flop of Heart And Bones left Simon at a total short of self-confidence. He felt he had lost his touch, and found himself with yet another writer's block. It was two years before he began writing songs again, but the songs he wrote made all the more impact. He had been given a cassette with South African music, called Gumboots, which he would listen to frequently. Finally he decided to record next album in that compelling style. He took the controversial decision to go to Apartheid South Africa in 1985 to meet with the musicians behind Gumboots. Once again, Simon showed his unique ability to work creatively in any musical environment, and Graceland, released in 1986, became his biggest selling solo album ever. It was voted Album of the Year by the Rolling Stone and won the author his third grammy in addition to a batch of other prizes.

The release of Graceland was filled with controversy. The international climate was growing increasingly unfriendly towards the apartheid regime of South Africa, and Paul Simon's going there to record with black artists was showered with criticism. Although at the time it wasn't explicitly illegal (the 'black list' hadn't been established yet), Simon found himself in the scarcely enviable position of being obliged to defend his every love, every ending to the world. Many of the accusations were little more than rantings of people with an eyesight spanning less than one second of arc, others more serious. He was accused of being a racist, abusing and underpaying the black musicians. Simon decided to lighten his heart in an interview with Glen Baker in 1987, in which he claims innocent on all charges. Which, of course, he was. There was no malice in the heart of Paul Simon when he went to work with the South African musicians, merely an incurable musical curiosity. If anything, Graceland served to open peoples' eyes to the situation in South Africa, and to open their ears to their music.

In 1987, Paul Simon toured the world with his South African friends. The tour was perhaps the most controversial one ever executed by an artist. People weren't sure whether or not Simon's collaborating with South African musicians was good or bad. They just had some dim idea of not wanting to have anything to do with anything related to the racist regime of South Africa. Some people objected strongly against the tour, but by and large, it was a success. The official video from the tour, Graceland: The African Concert, was recorded in Harare, Zimbabwe, as close to the South African border they could get. People came from South Africa to see it, and the black and white audience made a very effective statement against apartheid in that concert when they joined in on the ANC anthem. All in all, I think it's safe to say that Graceland was not a hindering factor in the South African liberation process that was already boiling hot by the time of it's release - rather the opposite.

In the three years following the success of Graceland, Paul Simon did some producing and toured some more with the Graceland staff. He took two years researching and writing songs for his new album, The Rhythm Of The Saints, released in 1990. Not as upbeat as Graceland, Rhythm wasn't as big a success as it's predecessor. Again, Simon chose to expand his musical horizon with the percussive music of Brazil, and again, he proved himself to be the capable of writing any kind of music. Paul Simon has always been a great lyricist, but he outdoes himself on Rhythm. It takes a little getting used to, but Rhythm is in my eyes undoubtedly the best Paul Simon album, both musically and lyrically. Following it's release, Simon again toured the world with his Born At The Right Time tour. To prove that reality is most often better than fiction, the tour ended in 1992 with a concert in a South Africa awakened from the nightmare of the Apartheid system. A semi-biographical video, Born At The Right Time, was released to document Paul Simon's life with special emphasis on the 1991-92 world tour.

After 1992, little has been heard from Paul Simon. He has married singer Edie Brickell with whom he has two children, and has helped to produce her music. Another greatest hits compilation, Paul Simon 1954-93, and its Europe equivalent The Paul Simon Anthology, were released in 1993 and contained one new song, Thelma, much in the same style as the songs from Rhythm. He is currently working with Nobel Laureate Derek Walcott on a musical called The Capeman, scheduled to open on Broadway in the fall of 1997. It is a project originating back in 1980, but other things have come in the way. It will be exciting to learn what style he'll use this time.

In the fall of 1995, I began studying at Uppsala University and got free access to the Internet with its unlimited possibilities. I found a few Paul Simon websites, and in a stroke of acute recklessness, I decided to write my own, and here I am today.

In a futile attempt to summarize what I consider to be Paul Simon's genius, I think I would say his poetic lyrics is his strongest quality. I've never heard any poetry more beautiful than the song lyrics on Rhythm Of The Saints.
Another greatness is his acute awareness of the sound of his own voice. I don't know if this is a fact, but it seems to me that Paul Simon's songs have all been written to be sung by himself. I've heard a few covers of his songs, but I think Paul's own versions are always the best. This might also be due to the often very personal content of the lyrics, but I think he has a strong sense of what kind of melodies are suitable for his voice.
Yet another unique property of Paul Simon is his seemingly endless zeal to incorporate new styles in his work. No other artist I've heard of comes close to mastering such a diversified set of cultures as Paul Simon. As long as he doesn't start doing techno, I'll always admire him for his almost paranoic fear of repeating himself.



Erik Ström 96-12-26