Paul Simon's Process of Creation

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I enjoyed this interview principally for two reasons:

• The tender way these two men approach the art of song writing, which can be extrapolated to all writing, which can be extrapolated further into all making.
• Paul Simon's medieval haircut.

In it, the famed singer-songwriter breaks down the creation of arguably his most famous song, "Bridge Over Troubled Water". Clearly a deep thinker and a tinkerer, we are given a glimpse into the round about way Simon writes his songs.

Stuck-ness

Halfway through, Simon describes a feeling of being stuck. Cavett presses him on this, so he responds,

"well, everywhere I went led me to where I didn't want to be, so I was stuck.

Indeed for him, songwriting appears to be a mix of drawing inspiration from others (he almost directly takes a line from a Gospel singer he hears), and allowing the song to emerge from where it was hiding.

"That's how songs happen", Simon declares, "they piece themselves together."

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It is this style of art, where the creation flows out of you, which must connect somewhere to a deeper sense of who we are and what we want to say. It requires different inputs to achieve: patience and quiet sometimes, noise and disruption at others.

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