Paul Simon

GW: Do you have some examples of what you think are perfect pop tunes?

JM: Oh yeah. There are so many perfect pop tunes in different… [pauses] See, I think pop is an incredibly vast idiom of music. I don’t see it as something confining. I can pick five pop tunes that I think are great and they would be from five different genres—R&B, hip-hop, adult alternative, hard rock and so on. You were talking about Paul Simon earlier, and I think his “Train in the Distance” [from 1983’s Hearts and Bones] is one of the most well-crafted songs I’ve ever heard in my life. It covers 40 years in four verses. His economy of verbiage is maybe the best ever in pop songwriting.

Favorite Paul Simon song and why?

‘Train in the Distance.” For several reasons, one being that it captures the entire “arc of a love affair” in one standard length song. It’s a movie. Perfectly written. Paul Simon is otherworldly.

I’m going to assume that I don’t have to tell you about Paul Simon’s songs like "You Can Call Me Al," and "Me and Julio Down By the Schoolyard," and Simon & Garfunkel. There’s an era, however, in the 70’s, of really mellow, cool, great, groovy Paul Simon records. And one of them is called, “Something So Right.” [sings part of the song] To be able to write like that and keep the lines going and it’s not just one line, one line, one line. He’s writing, like, a book. That’s hard to do. Boy, that’s hard to do.