Guitar Tricks Insider February/March Digital Edition | Page 36
COVER STORY
ACOUSTIC
FEATURE
PAUL
SIMON’S
MASTER
CLASS
By his mid-30s Paul Simon had come to terms
with Simon & Garfunkel. “It was really a good
run,” he told me in 1976. “We got knocked, but
the overwhelming majority of people treated us
with great affection. We had far more success
than we ever anticipated. If I felt at a certain
time that I wasn’t getting enough credit for
writing the songs, I don’t feel that way now. In
the middle of things you can get competitive or
petty. I know there were a lot of demands on
me – pressure to put out records, self-induced
pressure to write when it was difficult, drug
stuff clouding up my brain, tensions between
myself and Artie as our careers grew. There
were times when it seemed pretty miserable.
But looking back on it, it wasn’t miserable at
all.”
He never had the hair for the sixties. It was
too thin and curled a little at the ends when
he let it grow past his ears, as seen in the
photograph on the cover of Simon & Garfunkel’s
sou