Steve Berlin of Los Lobos remembers working with Paul Simon...and it was NOT good.

He strikes me as someone who has a lot of time on his hands.

 

One more thing: Didn't he erase Artie's vocals from "Hearts and Bones?" That was an extremely mean thing to do to the whole planet IMO.

 

I met Paul Simon in 2006 on the "Surprise" tour. He was very nice to me as I complimented him on his 'great new album' and he was keen to hear what I thought of it. He was cool with me but would not sign a copy of the Sounds Of Silence LP cover for another fan. He walked away...

 

Oh, man - I try not to read stories about Paul like this... but I've heard too many.

A friend of mine (years ago) was working at a CVS or whatever and "Bridge Over Troubled Water" was playing on the overhead. Not a good line to say, but my friend said, "This songs sounds familiar..." while Paul was checking out.

Paul coldly said, "It should. I wrote it." And he walked out.

My friend only called me about that because he knew how much I loved the guy's work.

Lenny W. asked Randy Newman to play synth on "The Late Great Johnny Ace" so he did - from LA he recorded it. The synth was never used, but I always assumed it was because that's just the way Paul worked - especially after dumping all the recordings with Art.

Who knows?

My mom knew Paul a little bit back in the day, and she was constantly asked out by his brother (who was also incredibly short). His brother wouldn't leave her alone.

When I became obsessed with "Graceland" at 11 years old, my mom told me never to play the tape near her. She said she hated Paul Simon - not his music, just him.

Apparantly she was invited to one of his small concerts by his brother and when the small crowd asked for an encore, he just left the stage and didn't come back.

This is one hero I'd rather not meet...

Jeff

 

Interesting story. I interviewed Los Lobos in 1985 when I was in college, and Louie Perez and Steve Berlin did not participate. That always struck me as kind of odd, but as David Hidalgo and Cesar Rosas were there I wasn't going to complain. But it always gave me the impression that Steve Berlin perhaps was not a nice guy even if I know that is not based on anything but my own experience on that one day.

 

Artie wrote the English muffin verse in "Punky's Dilema" and was uncredited.

Is Paul Simon a jerk? Quite possibly. But there's no way he stole all his stuff. I think he legitimately wrote much more than he ever stole. He's truely an original and one of the best songwriters ever. Just not a nice guy, apparently.

 

It's pretty much the story the Lobos were telling back then.
Even though I'm a big fan of many of Simon's records, I'd put big money on its being true.

 

Al Stewart told me years ago that Simon 'nicked' some ideas from him (they were flat-mates in England in 65 or so) It was Al who turned Paul onto Davy Graham, hence the song "Anji" on the "Sounds Of Silence" album.
Al was not fondly remembering Paul...

 

One of my Dad's best friends was a childhood friend of Art Garfunkel in Queens, and he always referred to Paul Simon as the little twerp.

 

Yes, I remember hearing back at the time "Graceland" came out or shortly thereafter that Los Lobos were unhappy about not being credited for the song (or David Hidalgo anyway; they don't credit their songs jointly). It's not a new revelation, though I've never heard them discuss it in such depth (or with such venom!)

 

I recall reading accounts of Frank Zappa hearing various musicians playing
their stuff while working with him, and he would "incorporate" it into his
own - after showing little interest in it.

 

Which even more substantiates the story, since they started to complain and then was told to stop since it wasn't good for The Partridge Family or The Manson Family or some family.

 

How do you know they weren't just busy or tied up doing other things?

 

He'd also tape their conversations and turn them into his lyrics IIRC.
Pretty funny really.

 

Hidalgo and Rosas are the band's principal songwriters and singers so it's not surprising they'd do the interview.

The bit where Berlin talks about Louie Perez being upset about having to play drums is amusing -- he's the band's drummer! But I don't think he's played on their records since the early 80s.

 

Wow, Mark - I thought the same thing. Totally ruined the arrangement for me and everyone I went with.

 

Makes me wonder who really wrote Hey, Schoolgirl.

 

I know I'm just being silly. But it was right before the concert and there couldn't have been anything to do really. Alejandro Escovedo of the True Believers came in a couple of times to get a beer, and that was just minutes before he went on.

 

In my (limited) experience with Los Lobos, Louie does most of the interviews; Cesar and David either too shy or just not wanting to be bothered. Maybe this time Louie was doing another interview? In any case, getting the other guys was something of a coup.

Steve, obviously, is a bright guy who will talk your ear off. But his background is totally different from the rest of the guys, so he'd have a hard time talking about growing up in East L.A.

 

Yes, I looked around at the crowd and everyone looked exactly like this:

 

That's what I have seen also. I was surprised that he didn't participate, but since Conrad Lozano was there I figured they just didn't want to participate.

David is shy and he did not speak very much, but Cesar is definitely not shy. He's quite a character.

 

Bach himself stole the melody from the Matthew Passion from a 15th century piece, I can't remember the name of the composer. I don't really care, but just give the original composer some credit. I wonder if old Johann himself has done that when doing the Matthew Passion?

 

History repeats itself:

Matthew Passion: Johann, you have stoleth my melody.

Bach: Sue-eth me!

 

Which part of the song did he sing?

Simon has a real bee in his bonnet about that song. I remember him complaining in an interview that he would stand at the side of the stage and watch Art sing it thinking "Hey, I wrote that." This quote made Garfunkel furious; he couldn't understand how Paul could be so ungracious about it and not let Art have his moment.

 

He sang the whole second verse and chorus. Torturous knowing the man who does it right was standing 3-4 feet away.

I still want to remind anyone reading my comments- Paul Simon is one of my BIG favs (pre-80s). I even enjoyed One Trick Pony.

BTW Artie still got a standing ovation on that last note.