paul simon playboy interview

paul simon – 1984 playboy interview small black beetles: the overkill
Playboy: Why not?
Simon: In terms of performing, I've never really been
comfortable being a professional entertainer. For me, it's
a secondary form of creativity. I'm not a creative performer.
I'm a reproducer onstage of what I've already created. I
guess everyone who goes on the stage is exhibitionistic,
but there are limits to what I'll do to make a crowd
respond.
Playboy: What did you expect creatively from a Simon and
Garfunkel tour?
Simon: Nothing. I thought I was going to get an emotional
experience from it. I felt I wasn't really present for Simon
and Garfunkel the first time around.
Playboy: Where were you?
Simon: I wasn't home, the same way that I wasn't present
for the concert in the park when it was happening. I mean,
a phenomenon occurs and it's recognized as a
phenomenon. But because you're in the middle of it, you
just think that it's your life - until it's over. And then you
look back and say, "What an unusual thing happened to me
in the Sixties." So there it was. A chance to go and reexperience,
to a certain degree, what I hadn't really
experienced the first time. Some of those hits from the
Sixties I just had no interest in anymore, musically. But I
had an interest in experiencing what it was like being the
person who wrote and sang those songs.
Playboy: How was the experience?
Simon: I liked it. And I began to think about the songs. I
remember playing a concert somewhere in the middle of
Germany. It's strange enough to be in Germany, and when I
finished playing, I was thinking, I hate Homeward Bound.
And then I thought, Why do I hate it? I said "Oh, I hate the
words." So I went over them. And then I remembered
where I wrote it. I was in Liverpool, actually in a railway
station. I'd just played a little folk job. The job of a folk
singer in those days was to be Bob Dylan. You had to be a
poet. That's what they wanted. And I thought that was a
drag. And I wanted to get home to my girlfriend, Kathy in
London. I was 22. And then I thought, Well, that's not a
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