Last night, for probably the last of many times, the legendary Paul Simon was a guest on Stephen Colbert's Late Show. He did an interview and performed "Something So Right," off his third solo album There Goes Rhymin' Simon from 1973, for the first time in 33 years. The last time he performed it, according to setlist.fm, was on October 23, 1993 at Madison Square Garden.
With Colbert, Simon chatted about starting his new tour next week. His first series of shows will take place in Europe, starting in Prague, and then he'll be back to play shows in the States this summer. Colbert asked about Simon's experience living in Europe when he was first starting out. Simon talked about moving to London in 1964 and the effects that that folk scene had on his own music.
He recalled busking in Paris, and then he told a very charming story about when he learned that "The Sound Of Silence" was moving up the charts. "I'll never forget this, I said, 'My life is irrevocably changed.' It was," he said when he discovered that it was ranked 59 in the old music trade magazine Cashbox.
Simon also had some great quotes about songwriting. He talked about how a song can exist in a variety of contexts while still maintaining its original integrity. It's harder to make a song better so many years later. "The thing that I found that I can't change are the lyrics," he said. "I'll look at a song that's 10 or 15 years old and that could have been a good song if I had written the last verse that should have been written, but that's wrong. A couple of times, I've tried to put a new last verse, but it doesn't work."
Simon and Colbert have always had a great rapport, and it's charming to watch them riff on each other. Check it out below.
