The one song Paul Simon wishes he could have written
There aren’t many artists who have created a singular writing style the same way that Paul Simon has.
There are plenty of tunes that have had a lot of heavy lifting done by some of the musicians that he’s worked with, but his ear for arranging some of his greatest tunes all came from wanting to hear something beyond what he could do on acoustic guitar. All the songs still sounded great on just one instrument, but he felt that some of his contemporaries had tunes that he felt could have come out of his songbook.
But when Simon and Garfunkel officially broke up, Simon wanted to do everything but go back to the folk-rock world. He had a lot of great hits with Art Garfunkel, but after spending time trying to chase after what was popular, he felt that there was a lot more that the rock and roll world had to offer. He could go in a lot of directions after that, but trying to hone his craft before anything else made the most sense once he tried his hand at making tunes like ‘Mother and Child Reunion’ and ‘Me and Julio Down by the Schoolyard’.
Because, really, any songwriter is going to want to search for that next great song the same way Simon was. No one should ever think that they are completely finished after they’ve reached the top of the mountain, and while Simon wasn’t going to get the massive royalties that Bob Dylan was whenever he released a record, he could still find ways to twist his music ever so slightly, like bringing in some of the best session musicians like Tony Levin and Steve Gadd.
He had already hit that sweet spot when Graceland came out, but by the late 1980s, the language of rock and roll had changed drastically. The focus was now on which stars looked the best on MTV and who could get the most traction on their music videos, but even in an age when no one wasn’t attuned to the music anymore, Sting was still giving audiences a lot more depth in his music and lyrics.
The Police were already one of the most forward-thinking bands of their generation, but Sting had already made plans to go outside of his comfort zone on his solo records. He had worked with some of the greatest jazz players of all time, so when he finally got the chance to work alongside Simon later on in his career, the duo were like two kindred spirits when they started performing each other’s tunes.
And while Simon had great admiration for some of the more adventurous Sting songs, he still felt that ‘Every Breath You Take’ was the perfect pop song, saying, “The one I love to sing is ‘Fragile’. I do sing it and I love to sing it, but I wouldn’t have minded writing ‘Every Breath’, either.” But when Simon is talking about those songs, it goes well beyond getting those massive royalty checks.
Sure, it wouldn’t have hurt to have one of the single most played songs of the 1980s under your belt, but the reason why it works is because of the mystery behind the tune. Sting wrote the tune from the perspective of a stalker, but even when it was treated as one of the single greatest love songs of all time, there was a tiny bit of darkness laced throughout the tune that no one really picked up on.
There’s no telling whether or not Simon could have made that work on his ow,n given how sincere he can come across, but it’s more about craftsmanship than being able to deliver the tune effectively. Each of them has made their living off of making the greatest tunes they can think of, and when you look at both of their songbooks, there’s hardly any tune that feels all that out of place.
