paul simon playboy interview

paul simon – 1984 playboy interview small black beetles: the overkill
example, is an electric-piano song. And Late in the Evening
has to have horns. So we got a band.
Playboy: Once you got onstage in Central Park, in front of
500,000 people, did your differences fade away?
Simon: Yeah. We just did what we'd done when we were
an act in the Sixties. We tried to blend our voices. I
attempted to make the tempos work. I talked a little bit,
too, but I found it impossible to hold a dialog with
500,000 people.
Playboy: How did playing for a crowd that size feel?
Simon: In a certain sense, it was numbing. It was so big,
and it was happening only once. I didn't have much time for
an overview while I was performing.
Playboy: And afterward?
Simon: Afterward, our first reaction was, I think, one of
disappointment. Arthur's more than mine. He thought he
didn't sing well. I didn't get what had happened - how
big it was - until I went home, turned on the television and
saw it on all the news, the people being interviewed and
later that night on the front pages of all the newspapers.
Then I got it.
Playboy: What made you decide to follow the concert
with a tour together? To what extent was it just a way to
make some easy bucks repackaging old material?
Simon: Well, hey it was old material. But it wasn't cynically
done. It wasn't hype. It was done because there was an
overwhelming demand. The thing that struck me was
that people seemed to like those songs, which I found to
be really surprising, because I felt they were dated.
Playboy: How do you feel about the record produced
from the concert?
Simon: I don't particularly like it. I don't think that Simon
and Garfunkel as a live act compares to Simon and
Garfunkel as a studio act.
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