paul simon playboy interview

paul simon – 1984 playboy interview small black beetles: the overkill
Playboy: Did you feel sad about it?
Simon: It's too bad, because everybody wanted to have
two guys who had their differences and split up and then
came back together and resolved them and lived happily
ever after. It was really a bitch to say, "Well, we didn't'
really get back together." The truth is, we were always able
to sing and blend well together; that's our gift. And that was
always a turn-on for both of us. But aside from that, we're
really two different guys. As much as we wanted to be a
partnership, we're not.
Playboy: Much of this comes down to your
protectiveness about what you've written. How have you
managed to find the popsong form- which seems on the
face of it fairly limited - continuously challenging?
Simon: It's not at all limited. It's the universe. I see a
correlation between short stories and songs, because of
their length and for what they're meant to evoke. What
the song form has that the short-story form doesn't is
melody. Melodies are inexplicable; they're magic. Combine
certain words with melodies and it all becomes very
moving. Separate the words and the melodies and it's not
so moving.
Playboy: Can the lyrics stand alone?
Simon: Maybe on this new album, where the lyrics are my
best. It's hard to say. I have very little comparative basis for
judging, because although I was able to study music with
teachers, I never studied lyric writing. I read poetry, and I
read other lyricists. But they were never writing in the style
or the form that I was interested in. They were very clever
rhymers, but I don't find that to be most intriguing. To
me, the person who wrote the most moving lyrics was Bob
Dylan, in the early days. Boots of Spanish Leather, Girl from
the North Country. Don't Think Twice, It's All Right. Blowin' in
the Wind. It's funny to hear myself saying that. It may be
the first generous thing I've ever said about Bob Dylan. In
the early days, I was always too angry about being
compared with him. And then, he's hard to be generous
to, because he's so ungenerous himself. I never felt
comfortable with him. He didn't come at you straight. It's
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