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<strong>paul</strong> <strong>simon</strong> – 1984 <strong>playboy</strong> <strong>interview</strong> small black beetles: the overkill<br />
Playboy: How did you get on American Bandstand?<br />
Simon: Well, Sid probably paid off for that too. We were<br />
pretty big in the neighborhood after American Bandstand.<br />
The record was top ten in New York City. So, yeah, we<br />
were quite a big deal. We made about $2000 each. That<br />
was nice. I was able to buy a car, put money away. By<br />
the time I was 15, I was essentially independent. But<br />
nobody thought anything was going to come of it, and<br />
nothing did. We put out three or four records, and they<br />
were all flops. Then I started working for music publishers,<br />
making demos. I'd be paid $25 for singing a song for an<br />
hour in the studio. And I'd get three or four demos a week.<br />
That's really how I learned to be a recording artist: how to<br />
stand in front of a microphone, sing background parts, learn<br />
about control room, mike technique, how musicians<br />
treated one another. My father always had a great<br />
respect for musicians, and he passed that on to me. I've<br />
always been at home with musicians. I have this attitude<br />
of semireverence. They're all my father. Artie's father was a<br />
traveling salesman, and he has very pleasant memories of<br />
trips he took. And now he likes to travel.<br />
Playboy: After Tom and Jerry flops, did you and Garfunkel<br />
stop singing?<br />
Simon: Well, there is a significant thing here that I<br />
purposely refrained from mentioning, which is that<br />
during this time we were singing together, I made a solo<br />
record. And it made Artie very unhappy. He looked upon<br />
it as something of a betrayal. That sense of betrayal has<br />
remained with him. That solo record that I made at the age<br />
of 15 permanently colored our relationship. We were<br />
talking about it recently and I said, "Artie, for Christ's sake, I<br />
was 15 years old! How can you carry that betrayal for 25<br />
years? Even if I was wrong, I was just a 15-year-old kid who<br />
wanted to be Elvis Presley for one moment instead of<br />
being the Everly Brothers with you. Even if you were hurt,<br />
let's drop it." But he won't.<br />
Playboy: Why not?<br />
Simon: He said, "You're still the same guy." And I think he<br />
thinks I am.<br />
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