Paul Simon on the biggest difference between him and Bob Dylan
Despite being born and raised in Minnesota, Bob Dylan rose to fame as a folk artist under the bright lights of New York City. In the late 1950s, Dylan’s teenage infatuation with rock ‘n’ roll icons like Little Richard and Buddy Holly made way for more word-dense, acoustic folk stylings, courtesy of Woody Guthrie.
Sadly, by the early 1960s, Guthrie had been taken ill with the debilitating and congenital Huntington’s disease. The pioneering anti-fascist protest singer wasn’t without good company, though. Guthrie was joined at his bedside by his number one fan, who would play some of his folk covers and originals while gleaning as much wisdom as he could from the master.
Dylan subsequently migrated from the strict folk music traditions as he pioneered folk-rock through the mid-60s. However, his early acoustic stylings struck a chord with countless aspiring musicians throughout the ’60s and beyond. Among Dylan’s most prominent early disciples was fellow New Yorker Paul Simon, who exhibited much of his early work alongside Art Garfunkel.
Despite Simon’s early affections, he soon paved his own path and became somewhat irritated by Dylan’s dominion. “I usually come in second to [Dylan], and I don’t like coming in second,” Simon told Rolling Stone in 2011. “In the beginning, when we were first signed to Columbia, I really admired Dylan’s work. ‘The Sound of Silence’ wouldn’t have been written if it weren’t for Dylan. But I left that feeling around The Graduate and ‘Mrs Robinson’. They [my songs] weren’t folky any more.”
“One of my deficiencies is my voice sounds sincere,” Simon continued, identifying the difference between his and Dylan’s styles. “I’ve tried to sound ironic. I don’t. I can’t. Dylan, everything he sings has two meanings. He’s telling you the truth and making fun of you at the same time. I sound sincere every time.”
In 1966, Simon and Garfunkel recorded ‘A Simple Desultory Philippic (Or How I Was Robert McNamara’d Into Submission)’, a cut from Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and Thyme, as a parody of Dylan’s vocal idiosyncrasies.
In his Dylan-inspired voice, Simon derides his former idol, who had recently frustrated the folk community by “going electric”. “Not the same as you and me, he doesn’t dig poetry / He’s so unhip when you say Dylan / He thinks you’re talking about Dylan Thomas, whoever he was,” Simon sings.
Listen to ‘A Simple Desultory Philippic (Or How I Was Robert McNamara’d Into Submission)’ by Simon and Garfunkel below.
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