(Credits: Far Out / Alamy)
Sat 24 January 2026 20:30, UK
In the world of rock and roll, Paul Simon was never meant to be the all-star frontman that his contemporaries were meant to be.
As much as he loved listening to the greatest rock and rollers that he could get his hands on back in the day, it wasn’t like he was going to earn his keep being one of the most charismatic frontmen that the world had ever seen or anything. His strong suit was always in writing the best songs that anyone had ever heard, but there were more than a few times when he saw songwriting taking a back seat to people who wanted to put on a show half the time.
Granted, that’s not always a bad thing, either. Most people would tell you that not all of Elvis Presley’s tunes are absolute landmarks in musical history, but it all comes down to the way that he sings all of them. He was loved by all because he could belt to the rafters, and the reason why someone like Simon would even name a song ‘Graceland’ is because of the pure emotion that he had in his voice whenever he sang.
But before The Beatles had even invaded American shores, it was possible for a songwriter to get their foot in the door as long as their songs were great. Bob Dylan was never going to be the most engaging frontman of all time if he only had an acoustic guitar in his hands, but when listening to his music, the words could really beat people up throughout the course of three minutes. He could get to the heart of anything he was talking about, and Simon knew that was where he fit in best.
When the British invasion eventually did make its way across the Atlantic, though, The Beatles managed to do both at the same time. There were a lot of sophisticated chords in the songs they played, but even if they were throwing in the odd jazz chord or doing crazy experiments in the studio, they never stopped being those same lovable moptops whenever they got up onstage. They were out there to have fun, but Mick Jagger seemed like he was battling the audience half the time.
The Rolling Stones were already being looked at as the antithesis of The Beatles, but if Lennon and McCartney were already a bit rebellious, Jagger seemed to be out for blood whenever he performed. He was following in the footsteps of old bluesmen who attacked every single song that wrapped their voice around, but when looking at him perform every single night, Simon was far from impressed with him every time he sang.
Jagger did have a lot of charisma, but Simon felt that his moves didn’t really add much to rock and roll, saying, “He’s not very interesting to me as an artist. I know how difficult it is to keep your energy and keep growing, and he has. I guess I don’t like what he stands for. I mean, you can see his influence on almost every lead singer – a certain androgyny, or bisexuality, flaunted. But what he really contributed was something of little value – the pose of anger or rebellion.”
Granted, it’s not like that kind of pose couldn’t go a long way in rock and roll. Jagger could take his music to new heights whenever he started performing tunes like ‘Paint it Black’ and ‘Satisfaction’ in a live setting, and when you listen to some of the biggest albums that have ever released, it wasn’t like there wasn’t a few moments where they had legitimately great songs at their disposal like ‘Wild Horses’ and ‘Ruby Tuesday’.
That just wasn’t how Simon thought about his music, though. A lot of people may have earned their spot on the charts by being the greatest entertainers the world had ever seen, but in his eyes, the art of being a great musician always came from how the audience reacted to their technique rather than their dance moves.
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