The artist James Taylor called “one of our best” songwriters
The end of the 1960s marked the golden age of the singer-songwriter. As much as artists may have been tuning in, dropping out, or rocking out depending on which flavour of rock and roll you were listening to, there were just as many wayward rock fans donning acoustic guitars or pianos trying to make a song that would tug at that extra heartstring. While James Taylor was among the finest of his generation, he knew there was something special about Simon and Garfunkel whenever he heard their songs.
Then again, it takes a special kind of talent to get the attention of The Beatles when Taylor was first starting out. After the Fab Four started putting together their record label enterprise with Apple, Taylor would be one of their first major signings, helping him get his first album off the ground, and Paul McCartney even volunteered to play bass on the record.
While Taylor was being whisked away to England to make his masterpieces, Simon and Garfunkel barely had a penny to their name a few years before. After folding their duo after no one had an interest in their first album, the folk-rock makeover of ‘The Sound of Silence’ resulted in millions of people adopting it as a protest song for the times.
Even though Taylor had much to say when he got behind the microphone, he and Paul Simon seemed on fairly parallel tracks. Compared to artists willing to preach about their feelings or discuss the great problems with society, both Taylor and Simon had a more pointed approach to their craft, writing songs reflecting the sounds of those around them and the feelings they had inside.
Looking back on Simon’s approach to music, Taylor still thought that he was one in a million of his generation, telling Rolling Stone, “Paul Simon has just always been one of our best songwriters. Paul’s breakthrough came at a time when there was so much in the air, and many of his songs were picked up as anthems. He creates an unusually rich and full world, and he has such a broad palette, from basic and elemental folk music”.
However broad a palette that Simon claimed to work with, though, his future may have been too bright to sustain both him and his partner. After Art Garfunkel began clashing with Simon during the making of Bridge Over Troubled Water, the pair fractured, leading to Simon making even grander creative leaps on albums like Still Crazy After All These Years.
Even in an era that should have killed most singer-songwriters, Simon was still looking to push the envelope, eventually travelling to South Africa during apartheid to work with various world musicians to put together all of the sonic textures for the album Graceland. Taylor had even started expanding beyond his horizons as well, bringing in huge bands behind him to turn songs like ‘Your Smiling Face’ into one of the most infectious love songs he had ever written.
While songwriting can seem like a chore for artists who have been around the block, Taylor knew that Simon saw his craft very differently. This was a lifestyle, and for years, the muse has called on Simon to come up with songs outside of his usual comfort zone.
