Paul Simon

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ENGL 102-007

Paul Simon

November 1st, 2005

Paul Simon single-handedly changed the world of song writing. His songwriting is among the best, if not the best, of all time. It changed the life of millions of young teenagers who felt more connected with Simon’s introverted style of music rather than with Bob Dylan’s protest music. Simon was the first to use poetry as a style of songwriting, which has been a prominent feature of current songwriters.

This style started to develop at a young age when Simon teamed up with high school friend, Art Garfunkel. Garfunkel was an excellent writer of songs also, and very well complemented Simon’s style. Simon was heavy into doo-ops, teen songs, Elvis Pressley, and harmonicizing. He was also deeply into grass roots types of music, and he is the reason that Lady Smith Black Mambazo ever became quasi popular with their type of African tribal when he put them on the album Graceland.

Paul Simon first picked up a guitar at the age of fourteen, and by the age of sixteen, both Simon and his friend Garfunkel were constantly going to their make-shift studio in Simon’s basement. The pair constantly did this until they had mastered mixing and finally put together a demo tape.

Then, finally, the break Simon and Garfunkel had been waiting for had finally come. One song the boys had written together and tried out at school events had been well received, so they decided to lay it down on track for a demo of it. One day at a local studio the pair recorded the song, “Hey, Schoolgirl.” In the studio waiting for the next recording spot was a song-plugger named Sid Prosen who had overheard the song and saw great potential in it. He told the boys that he would make “great stars out of them!”

(Humphries, Patrick. Paul Simon: Still Crazy After All These Years. New York: Doubleday, copyright 1988. Page 6) “Hey, Schoolgirl,” was quickly released and it was on the Billboard 100 for a couple of months, with its peak at Number 54 and selling 100,000 copies. This got Simon into the mindset that this was what he was going to do with his life, and therefore made his songwriting a thing that he devoted himself to and practiced, and swore that he would not sell out in his songwriting like so many acts of the 50’s and 60’s. In this oath to himself, he basically set the path for his songwriting because he would be writing songs that meant something to him on a personal level rather than just write songs that were made for airplay and this was a major milestone in his songwriting.

Simon’s songwriting is phenomenal, to say the least. He has a crazy style of writing that the only word that can describe is poetry to the ears. Let’s take the gorgeous and moving song, “Bridge over Troubled Water.”

“When you’re weary, feeling small,

When tears are in your eyes, I will dry them all;

I’m on your side. When times get rough

And friends just can’t be found,

Like a bridge over troubled water

I will lay me down.

Like a bridge over troubled water

I will lay me down.

When you’re down and out,

When you’re on the street,

When evening falls so hard

I will comfort you.

I’ll take your part.

When darkness comes

And pain is all around,

Like a bridge over troubled water

I will lay me down.

Like a bridge over troubled water

I will lay me down.

Sail on silvergirl,

Sail on by.

Your time has come to shine.

All your dreams are on their way.

See how they shine

If you need a friend

I’m sailing right behind.

Like a bridge over troubled water

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