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<strong>paul</strong> <strong>simon</strong> – 1984 <strong>playboy</strong> <strong>interview</strong> small black beetles: the overkill<br />
Woody Allen. I admire his tenaciousness, his talent, his<br />
integrity. I guess what bothers me about saying that is<br />
that he's so many people's hero. If I went a step further,<br />
I would say John Cheever. His work really touched me. And<br />
he seemed to have a very good heart, to have overcome<br />
enormous obstacles and achieved success quite late in<br />
life. He also wrote about a world that he made me feel I<br />
belonged to, even though it had nothing to do with<br />
me. That's a great achievement for an artist. I'd say the same<br />
about John Updike and Saul Bellow.<br />
Playboy: Who in the pop-music world is pursuing his own<br />
artistic vision?<br />
Simon: Well I'd say Bruce Springsteen. When I first heard<br />
Bruce, I thought, Well, he's like Dylan and Van Morrison. but<br />
somehow, he's grown. Somehow, he's made those south<br />
Jersey highways, the cars, into an archetypal, almost mythic<br />
American form of expression. He's found a vocabulary to<br />
talk about what's on his mind and in his heart. He's found<br />
his people. I don't think that Springsteen himself rides<br />
along on highways with a girl wondering where to go.<br />
But a part of him does, and always will, and so he's able to<br />
express himself very clearly in that vocabulary.<br />
Playboy: Are there any others you'd put in Springsteen's<br />
category?<br />
Simon: Yeah, Bob Seeger is able to express something<br />
about the Midwest, to put it into his music and make<br />
someone who doesn't come from there understand and be<br />
attractive to foreigners. To speak on a mythic level. Not<br />
terribly different from what Sam Shepard does in his play.<br />
Playboy: What about a current singer/songwriter such as<br />
Sting, of The Police?<br />
Simon: Well, I'm just beginning to be aware of him. Until<br />
now, their albums have seemed too smoothed down.<br />
There's a little too much fashion in it for me. Too much<br />
about haircuts. It's distracting to me. Not for what makes<br />
number one, mind you, because haircuts are fairly<br />
important for number one. Actually, I think it was very<br />
unusual about Simon and Garfunkel - their haircuts. We<br />
were never fashionable. We were incredibly popular, but<br />
we were always out of fashion in our hair and physical<br />
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