PAUL SIMON

Return of the great songwriter

By ANTHONY DECURTIS

Rolling Stone 2000

"Talk about my year?" says Paul Simon, his heart obviously sinking as he speaks on the phone from London, where he is on tour. "Say what were my personal high points for the year? Oh, boy, you know me -- I don’t feel like talking about any of that. You don’t want to make up something, do you?" I suggest that he talk about completing ‘You’re the One’, his first studio album of new songs since ‘The Rhythm of the Saints’ in 1990. The sound of his silence in response damns me. I mentally review my arsenal of interview strategies and choose one: persistence. It works.

So can you name a high point of the year?

The time I spent in Morocco in June. It was a festival of musicians from Morocco and Mali, two cultures that don’t normally mix, with a scattering of American jazz players. What struck me about it was the incredible power of music, that phenomenon of musicians becoming inspired by contact with other cultures. It confirms what I’ve felt for many years, which is: Everybody likes to play with everybody else. So that was extraordinary -- more extraordinary than finishing an album, which is, in its own tiny way, a bit of a disappointment.

Because you’re too aware of things you might have done differently?

No, not that -- the fun is doing it. When I’m finished, that’s the end of the fun.

What music did you listen to this year?

I enjoyed this album that George Harrison produced called ‘Chants of India’, with Ravi Shankar. I listened to that when I was working on ‘Quiet’ [on ‘You’re the One’]. I wanted to hear how they worked with drones. I also really liked that Sacred Steel series that Arhoolie put out, particularly the ‘Sonny Treadway’ album -- it’s called ‘Jesus Will Fix It’! I loved Ruben Blades’ most recent album [‘Tiempos’] -- that was masterpiece-level.

Anything you’re looking forward to?

Getting home and seeing my wife and kids. I miss them tremendously. And I’m looking forward to playing -- last night I did a concert that I enjoyed immensely.

In London?

Yeah. I really couldn’t have been happier. It came off the emotion of the day, actually. I saw a bunch of my old friends from when I lived in England before Simon and Garfunkel hit. To be sitting with the same tight group that once existed was very emotional. That, and the news that the woman who kind of housed us in East London when we were kids is terminally ill. I was unusually cognizant of the songs about my life at different ages. All that carried over into the show. The whole life story, whenever you really feel it, it’s awesome.