Paul Simon On His Lyrics & Songwriting

Coinciding with the release of a book collection of his lyrics to date, "Lyrics 1964-2008", Paul Simon sat down with Katherine Lanpher for a "ONE-ON-ONE" interview about his career, lyrics and songwriting. The interview took place Thursday, November 13th, 2008 at the Barnes and Noble bookstore located in Union Square, New York City, with a live audience present. Since I work in Manhattan, I had hoped to attend, but the timing (during work hours) proved inconvenient. Fortunately, Barnes and Noble (as well as enterprising You-Tubers) have recorded the whole interview on video.

If you're a Paul Simon fan (personally, he's my favorite songwriter, other than Paul McCartney) I think you'll find the interview fascinating and full of interesting details-- among other things, Paul tells funny stories about his early career, talks about his songwriting process, performs old songs like "The Only Living Boy in New York" and even a new song titled "Love and Hard Times". Great stuff!

You can watch a high quality video of the interview right here:



For videos put togther by fans, I've collected a bunch on this YouTube playlist: Paul Simon at Barnes and Noble in NYC- Nov 13, 2008.

Tags: Paul Simon, interview, lyrics, songwriting, Barnes and Noble, Katherine Lanpher