October 1, 2001. Copyright, 2001, Graphic News. All rights reserved

Still crazy after 60 years
By Mark Samms

LONDON, October 1, Graphic News:  NEUROTIC, driven, self-doubting, self-critical, stubborn and insecure. These are just a few of the descriptions Paul Simon has used about himself over the years. Yet he has come to regard them as a blessing as much as a curse.

This is because they are some of the traits that have helped him become one of the most popular and successful songwriters of the past 35 years. They have infused so many of his most memorable songs, such as Bridge Over Troubled Water, Homeward Bound and The Sound of Silence.

It is interesting that these were written during the late sixties and early seventies when many would say Simon was in his prime as a composer, and it seemed that he may have peaked early in his career. The man himself also feared this was the case, and when inspiration was drying up he travelled far and wide to seek its renewal.

It was a method he had already employed, when he came to England in the early sixties and is said to have written the haunting Homeward Bound after a particularly bleak night at Wigan railway station!

In the mid-eighties, with his private life in a mess and his career merely ticking over, he proved yet again that while success may be transient, class is permanent. His album Graceland, strongly influenced by the South African rhythms he had come to love, restored his reputation and propelled him to the forefront of popular musical innovation.

Artists like Peter Gabriel and Sting also embraced the South African influence, but it was Simon who knew instinctively how best to deploy the sounds produced by musicians like Ladysmith Black Mambazo. A few years later he borrowed heavily from Brazilian rhythms as he sought to expand his repertoire.

As he approaches his 60th birthday, Simon knows his name will always be irretrievably linked with that of his long-time performing partner, Art Garfunkel. Such is the ambivalence of their relationship, that they have drifted apart and back together many times in the 40 years they have known each other.

Another reunion concert is not out of the question, after all, 500,000 people flocked to New YorkÕs Central Park in 1981. In the meantime, Simon will continue to travel and perform with friends like Bob Dylan, secure in the knowledge that his place in the pantheon of popular music greats is assured for ever.
/ENDS

Sources: www.mrshowbiz.go.com; www.rollingstone.com