“Nobody even close”: Paul Simon on the most important force in rock
In terms of the epitome of rock and roll, Paul Simon is never the first person that comes to mind. Sure, he may have some fantastic songs to his name, but some of the best moments of his career usually fall under the umbrella of dad rock for people who don’t know any better. It’s important to know that Simon was there at the inception of the genre, though, and he knew that the entire world was about to get knocked on its ass when this frontman first came onto television screens.
Because before rock and roll, everyone was either listening to folk music, blues, or the records that their parents had in their record collections. So even if some great bluesy licks were coming out of people like John Lee Hooker back in the day, there was a good chance that kids would have had to sit through the smooth stylings of Perry Como before they got a whiff of something with attitude.
Once everything started kicking into high gear, Chuck Berry became one of the founding fathers of what rock and roll was supposed to be. Armed with that huge guitar, Berry was the first guitar hero and frontman all rolled into one, delivering the kind of simple songs that took from blues while still having that relentless energy behind them.
Simon might not have been able to play the guitar the same way that Berry could, but he knew something was changing once Elvis Presley arrived at the world’s doorstep. Presley had been born and bred to play rock and roll, but once he arrived on television, he introduced the rest of the world to what the genre had to offer.
Aside from having the echo in his voice that could send chills down someone’s spine, Presley’s swagger whenever he sang was half the reason why he worked so well. People like to always talk about the voice, but if it weren’t for his moves, rock and roll might have still been populated by kids who wanted to stand perfectly still and play their guitars for the masses.
While most musicians of Simon’s generation would point to The Beatles as a turning point in rock, the folk-rock icon thought that no one could touch what Presley brought to the table, saying, “He was the most important force in rock ‘n’ roll, no question about it. Nobody [is] even close. It was his invention; he blended black and white music, and that’s the single most powerful idea that’s emerged from rock ‘n’ roll. Plus he had the voice, a great investment.”
But even if Presley was the one to bridge the gap between different styles of music, it all came back to what people did with it. While Simon was more in tune with what people like The Everly Brothers were doing with their twin harmonies, some of the more energetic Simon and Garfunkel tunes wouldn’t have made any sense if Presley hadn’t done his signature ballads first.
Simon was more than capable of carving out his place in the world as a songwriter, but without Presley, there’s a good chance that no one would have cared about having only one great song. The groundwork for rock and roll had been laid down, but Presley proved it was equally about the showmanship behind everything.
