The song Paul Simon was forced to retire
A sad fact of life is that heroes get old. The music world is often rocked by the tragedy of young deaths, but even the idols who stick around – those still living and creating well into old age – can’t escape time. Paul Simon would be the first to tell you that.
Simon has had the blessing of a long career, though. Simon and Garfunkel’s first album came out when he was only 24, meaning that by now, in his 80s, he’s been sharing his art as one of music’s most respected names for decades upon decades. Even before that, though, his earlier collaborations with Art Garfunkel back when they were just two kids in Queens mean that number is expanded further with his entire life being lived in music.
It’s taken him from phase to phase; from Tom and Jerry, to Simon and Garfunkel’s global fame, through their breakup and into the success of his solo work, which endures today. It’s taken him through five albums as a duo and then 15 as a solo act. It’s taken him through countless timeless hits, numerous world tours and a seemingly endless stream of live shows as his artistry has taken him around the globe over and over with an ever-growing mass of fans, old and new.
It’s the kind of career people envy and aspire to, and for good reason. It’s the career of a true musical legend, but none of that can slow the hands of time or stop its impact.
There’s a downside to a long life in music, though. Sure, by now people are far more clued up on caring for aritst’s health during extended stints on the road or during shows, but back in the 1960s, I doubt anyone was bugging people like Jimi Hendrix to be like “hey, I know you’re about to play Woodstock but I’m just checking you’re wearing good ear protection?”
The consequence of a long career in music, standing in front of screaming crowds with a band blasting behind you and monitors blasting sound in front of you, is inevitably hearing loss. Even for an act like Simon, whose music was never all that raucous, the impact of long-running loudness, whether it be from gigs or even just having the music turned up during studio sessions, was always going to catch up with him.
And it has, forcing him to adapt. Anyone who catches Simon live now will notice omissions from his set. He still plays plenty of hits: ‘Graceland’, ‘50 Ways To Leave Your Lover’, ‘The Boxer’ and more. But then, there is one big one missing: ‘You Can Call Me Al’.
“I’m going through my repertoire and reducing a lot of the choices that I make to acoustic versions. It’s all much quieter,” he explained as a way to handle his hearing loss. But while some songs can work like that, others can’t and so have had to be sacrificed.
“That’s gone. I can’t do that one,” he said of ‘You Can Call Me Al’, his joyous 1986 hit. Not wanting to impact the energy of the track by having to downplay it, he simply made the tough decision to retire the track, accepting that some things have to be lost in order to keep playing.
