The two classic songs Paul Simon would’ve been embarrassed to write: “It’s not in my life anymore”
Paul Simon is a man of certain words: some witty, some acerbic, and all of them one hundred per cent truthful.
It’s a mantra which has remained a cornerstone of his life and career right from the very first moment he met Art Garfunkel as a child in elementary school. Everything he has ever done has seemingly always come directly from his soul, and in the very second when this no longer felt right for him, he has moved on to try something new.
Of course, it goes without saying that this hasn’t always made for the smoothest of rides. Indeed, his relationship with Garfunkel perhaps wouldn’t be so tumultuous if they each weren’t so stubbornly hellbent on following their own paths, but equally, it is the factor that has made them bona fide solo stars just as much as a co-existence in a duo.
In short, Simon’s commitment to the truth could be seen, on the outside, as a double-edged sword. In his eyes, however, it is simply a fact of life – he can only see what lies around him, and subsequently only write about that as he interprets it, too. To this end, his songs are definitively his, and other people’s songs… well, that’s their problem.
It might seem like an obvious thing to say, but where other artists can often fall into a trap of jealousy for tracks they wish they had written, Simon is perfectly satisfied with his own buck. There are many reasons for this, but one of the most refreshing is a plain and honest acceptance of reality: he’s no longer some young rocker.
Again, that’s pretty much stating a plain fact, but beyond the immediate remits of the 1960s, it was the case that Simon wasn’t the new kid on the block any longer. He saw the music landscape change around him as a result, but knew that, along with it, he also had to keep moving with the times. It would’ve been embarrassing to try to keep up.
Subsequently, as the ‘70s beckoned, you would never catch Simon writing songs like ‘Saturday Night’s All Right for Fighting’ or ‘Born to Run’. “It’s not in my life anymore,” he said. “Somebody’s gonna write that and write it well,” he added, but that person was not going to be him.
“I think that those guys, those songwriters who grew up in rock and roll and were prominent in the 1960s, have to keep writing about their lives as they reach their 30s. There’s no need.”
Paul Simon
While it was obviously a sly dig, of sorts, towards bands such as The Beatles, whose members were still somewhat dining out on the ‘60s dream long after it had passed, you have to commend Simon for his nobility and honesty on that one. He was not going to pretend to be someone he wasn’t – or, more to the point, someone he used to be.
It was all about living in the here and now. That has clearly been Simon’s view on life ever since the ‘60s and beyond, and for better or worse, it is something that he is never going to let go of now. There would be no glam shocking or stadium rocking for him; just a stage, a guitar, and himself. The truth is that there isn’t anything else to it.
