Paul Simon On His Writing Process for 'Bridge Over Troubled Water' | The Dick Cavett Show

there may not be any other American composer who's had quite the continued success that my next guest has he's it's a rare television appearance for him he seldom appears and this is even rarer because he's without his partner and it's a great privilege privilege or privilege if you prefer to welcome on one of his rare TV appearances Paul Simon of Simon & Garfunkel [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] I got to say this is Garfunkel soror what is it yeah he's spending his time these days on a farm in Scotland Oh was this enforced or is he the owner fireman no he doesn't know in the farm he leased the farm he went after we finished our last album he got on a freighter and sailed around and I heard from in Tangiers and then he went to London and now he's in Scotland yeah but you're still in touch I mean there's no there's no problem I assume well no no problem I'll see him in a couple of weeks we're gonna yep do a concert in London yeah so he's becoming a film actor now he wasn't catch-22 yeah I mean but he seems to be going on with it and you're with Jack Nicholson yeah you know Jules Feiffer play carnal knowledge right sometime in May sometimes yeah does this bother you that he's becoming an actor and you're merely one of the world's most successful composers and songwriters no I think in many ways it's very good that that he does that it's a he was had this strain that he labored under which was that I wrote the songs and so it became awkward she said one would say well if Paul writes the songs then what do you do and it's difficult to explain that he does many things mm-hmm am i speaking too softly is that why they Mike just know am i speaking too often no no you know I don't know I don't really know what kind of a background you have and oh were you were you poor all the sons at least on the latest album the one that's like isn't it the number one selling album in the country there has been I think it was bridge over troubled water yeah there's a lot of writing the rails and and the sears and roebuck again at them and all that kind of thing is your background that were you a poor kid yeah I grew up here in New York the Queens rhetoric but there seems mean an awful lot of in the lyrics a lot of unfaithful girls and girls who've never write and never answered letters and dudn't bad things do you did you have an unusual number of problems like that or is that not your soon to be outlined I assumed a person you know I wasn't I pretended to be someone else I wonder if it's hard when somebody like yourself makes so much success you know and makes all that money and that kind of I ever find it hard to get back to the things that inspired you it at first I mean once you've become part of a world of riding around in limousines and being terrifically famous and having people asking for your autograph and all it it would be hard to write I would think the original stuff that made you start in the first place well your world changes and what you write about changes I suppose it's not very interesting to write a song about a limousine no I'd avoid that those type songs alright so maybe it would be you think would be easy I mean maybe you could write it but not everybody who read you in limousines is happy and you could read it I talked to my driver of your limousine coming here really the the yellow one with those off-duty signer in town he said you were he said you were a hell of a nice guy brilliant I said really yes he's not well do you think of yourself as anybody's leader every time anyone has it you know big success in the music business they get a great following of people who really worship them no doubt about it do you like that feeling of being possibly the hero or the leader of a lot of people I'm not really conscious of that feeling I get that no people write about that they say that that happens I don't think really music is music is music and you doesn't leave you anywhere yeah I don't think it's a this may be an impossible question but anybody who can really create something the source of mystery of how does it happen I mean there was a moment in time when bridge over troubled water didn't exist at all and then there was another moment when it did or when it started to where does it come from what actually happens were you in the shower one day and some of the lyrics came to you or was it I could tell you that could you take me a minute though do you have to are you gonna break it go ahead we made great but go ahead no we won't let's see now you're looking for oh it's right here we just happened to put it behind there I wasn't planning on doing this I'll show you how how it actually started [Music] so it started out with that me singing a song the beginning of the song I had [Music] now this part [Music] that comes from a bar piece that comes from about corral [Music] did so that was in my mind so that's how that part slipped in then [Music] I was stuck there that was that was all I had of that Melanie what what makes you stick I don't know well everywhere I went led me where I didn't want to be stuck [Music] the best definition of being stuck I've heard no life and then how do you when you get a block like that how do you break well as it happens at this time I was listening to some music by a gospel group called The Swan Silvertones and I heard this I kept playing this it was the music that was in my mind most of the time and every time I come home I'd put that record on and I'd listen to it and I think that that must have so consciously influenced me because as I started to go to gospel changes [Music] and that's how that fell in and then there was this one song it was it was a very up-tempo thing and the lead singer was phenomenal as tremendous lead singer in this group and he was scat singing and at one point he shouted out I'll be a bridge over deepwater if you trust in my name and I really I guess I stole it actually that's what I've been leading you to that man is in the wings now with the subpoena perhaps this will refresh your memory that's that's really something though because you always wonder how that's how songs happen they they piece themselves together and then you sit around and sometimes they come very fast sometimes you write a song that's a few lines and that's really the end the end of the song and you can't go further I have it back from it I have one song that's I just have the line and I've had it for about a year and I can't go further with it I keep changing melodies but [Music] we go together [Music] ba-ba-ba-ba-ba both laugh about Hey Jude don't let me down maybe then women will be back in a minute I I'm nothing any ill [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] you

Channel: The Dick Cavett Show

Views: 533,301

Rating: 4.9433937 out of 5

Keywords: The Dick Cavett Show, Talk Show, Musician, Celebrities, Dick Cavett, United States, Chat Show, Interview, paul simon, simon and garfunkle, art garfunkle, bridge over troubled water, song writing, mrs robinson, the sound of silence, paul simon interview, paul simon bridge over troubled water, paul simon live, music, paul simon dick cavett

Id: qFt0cP-klQI

Length: 10min 45sec (645 seconds)

Published: Mon Jan 27 2020

Reddit Comments

[u/lolstaz]

A lesser songwriter wouldn't have a career with a haircut like that

It's nice to see somebody I look up to as an artist talking about stealing from other musicians. I'm a big proponent of "good artists borrow, great artists steal". It's easy to feel ashamed of taking chord progressions and phrases from stuff you love but it's comforting to know they probably stole it from something they loved

[u/stuntobor]

Man, I love hearing this tale as much as I hate watching that combover.

[u/ImTheBasketball]

A brilliant mind under an awful haircut.

[u/SeymourWG]

There's another video of Paul with Dick Cavett and where he plays a partially written Still Crazy and sort of shows his songwriting process which is a really inspiring video to watch. Paul Simon is a treasure.

[u/hyene]

"Everywhere I went led me where I didn't want to be, so I was stuck"

<3

[u/BodyLooter]

This is great stuff. There's another clip of a later appearance in Cavett's show where he plays a work-in-progress version of Still Crazy After All These Years.

Regarding the "stealing" but. It reminds me of the grievance against him that the dudes from Los Lobos still harbor since they claim he did not properly credit their substantial contributions to Graceland. More here https://ultimateclassicrock.com/los-lobos-steve-berlin-labels-paul-simon-a-jerk-alleges-graceland-snub/

[u/chunter16]

I think the Martin "O" style is the only thing on that video that isn't out of style, but

It's a very nice peek at how lifting ideas and plugging them into your own works. My understanding is that the falsetto singing he demonstrated is literally how he taught Art the song.

[u/ejanuska]

My takeaway was that it took awhile for that song to come together. He got stuck and let it simmer, came back to it with a different way of thinking.

Also, using excellent music as inspiration is always a good idea.

I like recording little song ideas on my phone, or in the DAW if its handy. Sometimes when you come back to it the rest of the song falls together. Sometimes you say "thats shit, move on."

[u/maxedonia]

Dick would have been so on point if he referenced “Her Majesty” instead of “Hey Jude” at the end there. I SO get having that perfect line or stanza for years with no place to put it. It wasn’t until I heard that track on Abbey Road that I realized that kind of song was even allowed in pop. Love it all.