“One of my best songs”: The moment Paul Simon discovered simplicity
Graham Nash was one of the first people in the world to hear The Beatles ‘A Day In The Life’, a song which is often celebrated as one of the Fab Four’s very best. “It’s one of the greatest songs ever written. It’s one of the most adventurous songs ever written and recorded,” he said when discussing the first time he heard the song, “I don’t think there’ll ever be another Beatles; I think that the universe put those four kids in the right place at the right time and gave them the right talent, to be able to move the hearts, minds and spirits of billions of people, and continue to this day.”
When he spoke more about the band, he touched upon what truly is so special about the Beatles. It’s not just that they are a good band but that they managed to do so much with so little.
“Their incredible simplicity and their incredible melodic structure is stunning to this day,” he said. “With all due respect, within this western scale of music, there’s what? Twelve notes? Are you kidding me? The Beatles were unbelievable, and I think we all knew it.”
This is an important element of music which is often overlooked. You can create complicated backdrops for songs, and it’s very exciting when people do that. When tracks are layered and mind-altering, they can create an incredibly unique listening experience that people tend to love. However, there is more to it than that. The basics of the song need to be perfect before anything more experimental can happen, and many people forget this.
If you can get the fundamentals of songwriting nailed down, the track will work. You can see this because the most straightforward songs that are well-written sound just as good as the most complicated tracks in the world. Sometimes, if you get the basics right, keeping that simple style of music is much better than layering and adding a lot of effects to a song. The saying “less is more” has withstood the test of time this long for a reason.
One artist who will undoubtedly attest to this is Paul Simon. Simon is widely recognised as one of the greatest songwriters ever, and it’s easy to see why. He understands the complex nature of music, which means he knows when a track should be kept simple, stripped down to the bare bones, and when it needs something more. He was always striving to perfect simplicity, constantly looking for how he could use the fundamentals of songwriting to give his listeners a lot with very little. You can hear this on numerous occasions throughout his discography, but a prime example is on the track ‘Darling Lorraine’.
The song is about the history of a relationship between a singer and his partner, all the way up to her death. It’s a fictitious song, but it feels incredibly heartfelt as Simon focuses on the fundamentals of songwriting: melody, storytelling and instrumentation. He excels in all these fields, meaning what is a fairly simple song packs a bigger punch than other tracks of a similar elk but amplified.
“We tried to make the arrangement a bit simpler so that the story would come through,” he admitted when discussing the track, “I always thought ‘Darling Lorraine’ was one of my best songs.” Simon showcases the power of simplicity in this gorgeous song.
