PAUL SIMON TINKERS WITH HIS CLASSICS 1/1

Which are your favourite Paul Simon songs? How would you describe the musician?
Listen to the first part of the report and answer these questions:
1 How old is Paul Simon and what is he talking about as regards his career?
2 What has he done on his new album?
3 What adjective has been used to describe Paul Simon and does he agree with the description?
Paul Simon has tinkered with some old songs on his new album. Listen to the next part
of the report and make notes on the differences you hear between the old and new
versions of Some Folks’ Lives Roll Easy, and say which one you prefer.

Listen to the next part of the report and note down why Paul Simon changed the song
and why he thinks the listener is the final composer.

Listen to the next part of the report and make notes on what the song Rene And Georgette
Magritte With Their Dog After The War is about, and how the old and new versions differ.

Why do you think Paul Simon removed the doo-wop from the latest version? Listen to
the next part of the report and check your ideas.

Listen to the next part of the report and note down the interviewer’s question.

How do you think Paul Simon is going to answer? Listen to the final part of the report
and check your ideas while making notes below.

Which songs from this decade do you think will still be listened to in 100 years?
PAUL SIMON TINKERS WITH HIS CLASSICS
teacher’s notes: page 1 student pages: 1
Transcript
1 RACHEL MARTIN, HOST: Nearly 60 years after writing his first
song, Paul Simon is winding down his farewell tour. He is 76 years
old and talking about retiring from music. But first, the famously
meticulous songwriter has some unfinished business. On his new
album “In The Blue Light,” Simon has rerecorded and, in some
cases, partially rewritten 10 songs he feels weren’t quite up to
snuff the first time around. He talked with David Greene.
DAVID GREENE, BYLINE: You’ve been described as a
perfectionist when it comes to your songs and your music. Is that
a word you like?
PAUL SIMON: I have nothing against the word. It just doesn’t
apply to me.
GREENE: Really?
2 GREENE: Well, I want to - let me talk through some of the songs
in this album because that’s exactly what you seem to be doing.
SIMON: Oh, yeah. The album’s a good example of fixing things
that I thought could be fixed.
GREENE: Well, this is the original recording from 1975 of “Some
Folks’ Lives Roll Easy.”
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, “SOME FOLKS’ LIVES ROLL EASY
(1975)”)
SIMON: (Singing) Some folks’ lives roll easy as a breeze drifting
through a summer night.
3 SIMON: I thought it was a really good song that didn’t pay off
correctly in the last verse. This is the original version going back to
the ‘70s. I thought the song would be a powerful song if I rewrote
the last verse and made a point, which I didn’t do the first time.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, “Some Folks’ Lives Roll Easy (2018)”)
SIMON: (Singing) The sunlight written in a scroll, the gift that God
intended for us all. I prefer this version.
GREENE: Well, I mean, you’re the one in charge. So it’s - if you
4 GREENE: Huh. I want to play another song. So this is the opening
line of a song from 1983.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, “RENE AND GEORGETTE MAGRITTE
WITH THEIR DOG AFTER THE WAR (1983)”)
SIMON: (Singing) Rene and Georgette Magritte with their dog
after the war...
GREENE: And so in this song, you have this famous Belgian
surrealist artist and his wife, and they’re big doo-wop fans. And
we hear that. Let’s listen here.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, “RENE AND GEORGETTE MAGRITTE
WITH THEIR DOG AFTER THE WAR (1983)”)
SIMON: (Singing) They dance by the light of the moon to The
Penguins, the Moonglows, The Orioles, The Five Satins - the
5 SIMON: When I wrote the original, I found this group of doo-wop
singers from the ‘50s. I had a part that I wanted them to sing. But
they came in with this whole part they wrote. But I didn’t have the
heart to tell them, don’t do that because they - obviously, they’d
worked so hard at it. So I just left it there. But it’s not the way I
wanted it to be. Again - you know, I don’t know whether you would
6 GREENE: Is there a song that you’ve never heard a flaw in, a
song where you’ve listened back and you’ve said, like, you know,
7 SIMON: Maybe. But as time goes by, you change your mind
anyway about what a flawless performance is. Some of the songs
are effective and last in a way that’s, you know, very gratifying.
For example, I wrote “The Sound Of Silence” when I was 21 or 22
years old, which - I have no idea how I possibly wrote that song at
that age. But that song has lasted all of these years.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, “THE SOUND OF SILENCE”)
SIMON: (Singing) And the vision that was planted in my brain
still remains within the sound of silence. I think the big measuring
thing is, you know, will something last a hundred years? If you
write a song and it lasts a hundred years, I’d say, well, that’s a
hit. It’s a...
GREENE: You’ve done something...
SIMON: Yeah.
level: B2+ week of: 08.10.18
SIMON: You can’t be perfect. It’s either musical or it’s not musical.
The ear goes to the irritant. When I hear something that I don’t
think is right, I want to change it.
GREENE: Isn’t that what a perfectionist does? Isn’t that the
definition of someone striving for perfection?
SIMON: If you like. But it’s not that I’m looking for the flaws. They
search you out. And eventually, you can’t ignore them. At first,
there’s a lot of denial. And you say, this part is good, this part is
good, this part - until finally, that all falls away. And you say, I can’t
stand this...
GREENE: It’s gnawing at me.
SIMON: ...This part. Right.
GREENE: OK. And here is your new version.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, “SOME FOLKS’ LIVES ROLL EASY
(2018)”)
SIMON: (Singing) Some folks’ lives roll easy as a breeze drifting
through the summer night.
GREENE: You know, Paul Simon, I’ve got to admit - I kind of like
them both. What was wrong...
SIMON: Well, here’s...
GREENE: ...with the first version?
fixed it and you have it out, I would assume that’s...
SIMON: No, not really. It’s the listener who’s in charge. And it’s the
listener who’s the last composer. They write, in their heads, what
they like. Sometimes when I hear people sing my songs, they
sing a different lyric. And so I think, well, their brain hears this,
and that’s the lyric that they like. So they’re the final composer
because that’s what they’re singing.
deep, forbidden music they’d been longing for.
GREENE: And so in the original, I mean, I could almost see them
dancing to the music. And then the doo-wop comes in, and it
seemed like this lovely touch. And then this is your new version
of it.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, “RENE AND GEORGETTE MAGRITTE
WITH THEIR DOG AFTER THE WAR (2018)”)
SIMON: (Singing) ...To The Penguins, The Moonglows, The
Orioles and The Five Satins - the deep, forbidden music they’d
been longing for.
GREENE: So you really lose what, to me, was a fun aspect of the
original, the doo-wop. But it’s beautiful in its own right. So what
were you trying to bring out instead?
say this was being a perfectionist or whether this was coming
closer to expressing what it is that I felt or intuited about the song.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, “RENE AND GEORGETTE MAGRITTE
WITH THEIR DOG AFTER THE WAR (2018)”)
SIMON: (Singing) For now and ever after, as it was before, Rene
and Georgette Magritte with their dog after the war.
there are no little flaws there that - I’m OK with just how it sounds?
GREENE: ...Something right.
SIMON: And I have a couple of songs that have a shot at it, you
know? “Bridge Over Troubled Water” is over 50 years old now.
And...
GREENE: Halfway there.
SIMON: Yeah, halfway there.
(SOUNDBITE OF SIMON AND GARFUNKEL SONG, “BRIDGE
OVER TROUBLED WATER”)
GREENE: It’s been such a pleasure talking to you, Paul Simon.
Really an honor. Thank you.
SIMON: Thanks. Thanks for having me.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, “BRIDGE OVER TROUBLED WATER”)
SIMON AND GARFUNKEL: (Singing) Like a bridge...