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This documentary was the first time I had seen Art contribute as well. I'd seen lots of documentaries where he was absent. It seems they are friends again. They spoke in praise of each other.


It was interesting also that Bridge over Troubled Water was played against a background video of the funerals of JFK, Bobby Kennedy and Martin Luther King, and was once taken off the TV schedule as it was considered to be a protest song - something Paul Simon says he looks back on and is now quite proud of.

BBC4 Saturday Night, about 11:20pm. Man In Chair, with several guitars behind him (or his own modern art, or a mixing desk) ponders modestly on his lost genius. It could be Brian, or Paul, or the one off of Fleetwood, or perhaps the Genesis* guy on his houseboat.


"And then we really needed another verse because it was too short and we didn't have another verse and we only had another 15 minutes of studio time because of the unions in those days so I just wrote one out there and then in my head as I walked from the little boy's room to the mixing desk and even though it didn't fit the rest of the lyric it just sounded so right and Art/Mick/John/Stevie really got it first time for once and now of course that's the verse that everyone remembers but it wasn't even in the song when I wrote it."


I do like those programmes, though.


* Actually not Genesis, I'm thinking of David Gilmour, aren't I?

I like the old 'we set the drums up inside a tin bath in the elevator, halfway between floors 4 and 5' routine, but it has to come from the mouths of bald, old men with nicotine fingers and Reactolite sunglasses.


Someone from Radiohead explaining how they dangled a customised one-off microphone wrapped in vintage crinoline down a disused well to obtain an incredible and unique reverb has none of that charm.

"Anyway, accusing Paul Simon of plagiarism is as ridiculous as me claiming that Julien Temple nicked my book's title for his London documentary"


Paul Simon did nick Scarborough Fair by copyrighting what was an established UK folk song ! I think Martin Carthy can back that one up.

He's definitley the control type. Having said that I really like his music. But where would he be/have gotten to without Bridge over Troubled Water, who knows.


On one bit of old footage shown last night they were singing it and he shouted at the producer/sound man - "where's my mic, whats happened to my microphone", implying it was turned down. He realised it was on and backtracked, whilst the sound man and Art did nervous twitches, they were obviously scared of him.


He seemed to have a chip on his shoulder about the song that made him.


Having said that he's contributed a lot of good music over the years that I have enjoyed and I don't really care what type of person he is, its not like he's in our lives.

Bit he said, she said that Myth of Fingerprints story, isn't it?


I'm probably biased, though. And I do agree that since we choose our heroes for their uniqueness, their genius, their extraordinary talent it might be a bit much to hope that they might be warm, rounded, ethically sound people too.


Not sure I'll ever get over Gerald Durrell though.


Edited for punk, puncshoe, punctuateness, too many full stops.

The Boxer is another favourite of mine.


There was a documentary about the 25th anniversary of Graceland in which some black South Africans told Paul Simon that they'd been angered when he made it because it ignored the international cultural boycott against the apartheid regime. He seemed genuinely upset about it and I got the impression it had never dawned on him, he just liked the music and wanted to make an album with these musicians.

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