{"id":1143510,"date":"2026-08-12T01:11:19","date_gmt":"2026-08-12T01:11:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/1143510\/"},"modified":"2026-08-12T01:11:19","modified_gmt":"2026-08-12T01:11:19","slug":"the-personal-1997-album-paul-simon-was-always-hurt-by","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/1143510\/","title":{"rendered":"The “personal” 1997 album Paul Simon was always hurt by"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Paul<\/p>\n

Credit: YouTube Still<\/p>\n

Tue 11 August 2026 21:15, UK <\/p>\n

Paul Simon<\/a> was never someone who claimed to be immune to criticism every now and again.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Any songwriter who puts themselves up on that pedestal is going to have those few moments where they don\u2019t hit the mark like they\u2019re supposed to, and they have to be ready when their musical baby is something that the rest of the world isn\u2019t really ready to embrace. But even with as many classics as Simon has had, there were a few times when he felt like he was personally getting attacked for some of his masterpieces.<\/p>\n

Then again, the public wasn\u2019t necessarily wrong when picking out some of the greatest tunes in his catalogue. It didn\u2019t take a fine musical scholar to explain that \u2018The Sound of Silence\u2019 hit the nail on the head for just about everything that the 1960s generation was going through, and even later on in his career, Graceland was the kind of second wind<\/a> that no one would have expected to love so much, especially with a guy like him singing over top of various world music beats.<\/p>\n

Simon was used to going in many different directions if he could help it, but not everything was meant for the same pop audience he always catered to. Still Crazy After All These Years\u00a0did have some phenomenal songs on it, but there were also a few people who probably weren\u2019t going to be as interested\u00a0in the massive musicians<\/a>\u00a0that he had playing alongside him, like Steve Gadd or Tony Levin.\u00a0<\/p>\n

But if the world music on Graceland worked so well, Songs from the Capeman didn\u2019t feel too far outside of his wheelhouse. He was ready to make music that tested the boundaries of what he could now focus more on the rhythmic aspect of everything. It seemed like it would be perfect, but the entire premise felt like too much too soon for most people, especially considering what happened with the production.<\/p>\n

Because if the actual album was already hard to internalise, the Broadway show that went along with it was going to be even more tricky. The Capeman seemed to have everything going for it when it started, but after the album underperformed, the entire operation started to fall apart, which ended up costing Simon over $10million when looking at the diminishing returns of each performance.<\/p>\n

The public wasn\u2019t biting this time, and Simon didn\u2019t hide the fact that he was more dejected about the project failing than ever, saying<\/a>, \u201cThat hurt a lot. Not because the play failed but the criticism of it was vindictive and it was personal. I was surprised that so many people thought I was such an asshole. Maybe we\u2019re all assholes and we just don\u2019t know it. I mean, yeah, it\u2019s rough when they come at you personally. But six months later, it\u2019s gone. In any career, you have to have failures. That\u2019s how you learn.\u201d<\/p>\n

Further reading: From The Vault<\/strong><\/p>\n

And that learning came in what he would do on his next few records. The worldbeat aspects were still around on records like You\u2019re the One, but somewhere along the line, Simon found that perfect balance that allowed him to keep things experimental while still reminding people of the kind of songwriter that he had always wanted to be.\u00a0<\/p>\n

People didn\u2019t necessarily hate Simon on principle for the album or anything, but when you look at the way he was presenting these things, it\u2019s not like he was the best person to put his voice forward. He wanted to make the best tunes that he could, but The Capeman was a case where he had all of the knowledge to make a great record, but didn\u2019t have the tools that he needed to make the ideas land.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

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