I laughed. Was that intentional?
I saw both these performances. I was appalled by the SNL show. I was very much worried when he was on Colbert, but did a far better job I think. Seemed okay, and the interview was much fun!
I think the way Simon treated Garfunkel (and probably others) was terribly unfair and disrespectful of his talents. And I am sure Simon has more than his share of ego and eccentricities. However, these attributes are far from rare in celebrities. And Simon really is a lyricist in the highest echelon.
Did he give fair credit and compensation to talented contributions from a Ladysmith Black Mambazo and others? How could I say? The music business in general is not known for its munificence.
I get it. I’m GenX and my mother was a fan of some popular music, so I grew up listening to Simon and Garfunkel. Although her all encompassing passion for Joan Baez never took hold for me (I could do with never hearing her version of Guantanamera ever again), them I liked. I think I have a five CD set somewhere and I liked a lot of Simon’s solo output. Heck, I’ve seen and sat through the entirety of One Trick Pony (the opening with the B-52s is probably the best moment in the film if you ask me). So it was discouraging to learn he was kind of a prick.
But I’ve gotten used to that over the years. Sadly many successful artistic people seem to be a bit difficult. Certainly not all of them, but enough that I’ve gotten used to being disappointed by people a la Neil Gaiman most recently. Graceland is still a great album and a remarkable achievement for someone who was arguably well past his peak. But yeah, at least partially built on the un- or undercredited work of others.
ETA: Drew Friedman’s satirical 1989 cartoon for Spy Magazine, poking fun at David Byrne of the Talking Heads and Paul Simon. I believe there was originally a pretty acid caption to go with it a la Byrne and Simon running into each other while competing to find more “musical inspiration.”
I came to say this. I remember liking his song “Wristband,” and feeling good that he was going out with a bang. (Hard to believe that was eight years ago). I admit I’m bummed he changed his mind. Same feeling as when Michael Jordan did that third act with the Washington Wizards.
Maybe he needs the money. Maybe he’s bored.
That’s not unusual. You see that very often with musicians. Their offspring usually are quite competent, but would not have been able to support themselves on music alone without their connection.
Yeah, I checked whether he was still alive after posting.
At his age, it makes perfect sense that he has retired. But I can confirm that he still had it in his mid-seventies, and how. And to think that for him it was just another Monday.
You’re not alone, don’t worry…
Of course !
Well, semi-intentional. I wrote this without thinking too much and on rereading found it too good to change.
A side note to my thread: I just watched Robert Plant (77) sing “Ramble On” with his new touring group Saving Grace. He can still bring it! Very impressive effort, and his use of Suzy Dian as an accompanying vocalist makes up for any loss of range he might have. He’s also touring this year.
In Turkey, Argentina, and…Toledo, Ohio. 
I go to a lot of shows featuring geriatric rockers and the quality for some vocalists varies from night to night. They still have the pipes, but sometimes they just can’t access them. A good example of this is every performance of the Who over the last 25 years. If you’re lucky, you get Woodstock Roger, other times you get Old Man Roger; it just depends what shape his vocal cords are in at the moment.
I’ve also caught on to the tricks older performers use to cover the deficit. Most common is someone else in the band who doubles the vocals and the sound guy rebalances the mics to compensate. Blondie hired a (male) keyboard player who had an uncanny ability to mimic Debby Harry (Debby doubled vocals on most of her records, anyway).
The other trick I see all the time is that the singer will get the crowd to sing along to cover the high notes in the chorus that they can no longer reach themselves. I saw this just a few days ago at a Buzzcocks show:
Plays a pretty mean blues harmonica in this.
Plant really seems to be enjoying his late career resurgence, first with Alison Krauss and now his newer collaboration. I hadn’t given any of it my full attention, but am enjoying listening to the former on YouTube.
They should be able to, shouldn’t they?
::whine::but it doesn’t sound the same!::end whine::
You try fingering “Fly By Night” on guitar in D-flat!
(I know, I know, these days you can process the signal before it comes out the amp…)
Serious answer, they do it all the time.
Fair enough, but then neither does not hitting the high notes.
But thinking about it, sometimes when I’m playing along with a song on a record, it can be in a different key than when they play it live. (Going from memory) I think Fastball’s ‘The Way’ is like that.
Tune the guitar down?
I just did a search on this and it says he doesn’t tour there this year.
Ha! Duh. But of course. Silly me.
I guess it’s more the keyboardist that can be more challenged, though only if it’s an acoustic piano (electronic ones almost always have a tuning adjustment, beyond just a whole tone). A more skilled keyboardist wouldn’t have trouble transposing, though.