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michael
Aug-23-2006, 17:56 GMT
IP:
USA - United Staates America

I´ve read quite a bit of Simon´s view on the new album, but has anyone seen any commentary from Eno´s perspective. I´ve searched that quite a bit and found almost nothing. Although I did find some cool videos in YouTube about his past projects. He´s definately an interesting guy.

I want to hear what Eno thought while making Surprise.

matthewsemple 
Aug-23-2006, 20:03 GMT
IP:
United Kingdom

I suspect he was honoured to be finally working with the greatest singer-songwriter to have ever walked the planet after working with wannabes like Bowie and U2 ;)

matthewsemple
Aug-23-2006, 20:04 GMT
IP:
United Kingdom

Bodo
Aug-23-2006, 20:58 GMT
IP:
Austria

I did not find a commentar from Eno about the album or the music , but this interview appeared a few months ago

There was tension of a different kind when Eno and Paul Simon spent their first day in the studio together, working on the pieces that became Simon´s new album, Surprise. The two had met at a London dinner party. Eno´s feelings towards Simon had been affected by his reaction to the success of Graceland, the album in which Simon used African musicians. Eno, who had pioneered the absorption of African rhythms in his work with Talking Heads and their leader, David Byrne, found it hard to suppress a feeling that his space had been invaded.

"I realise now that what I was feeling was envy," he says, briefly collapsing with laughter. "It was like I´d found this wonderful private beach, and suddenly Paul Simon moved in and brought all these people along with him. I was sort of annoyed, but whenever I happened to hear something from Graceland, I found myself liking it. And I found out from one of the percussionists who´d worked with him that, contrary to my initial suspicions, he hadn´t exploited the musicians at all. In fact, he´d treated them extremely well."

Looking for a new approach, Simon invited Eno to work with him. The first session, however, began unpromisingly. "There´s a bit of trepidation the first time you work with somebody. It may be the chemistry just doesn´t work and then it´s embarrassing, like having a date with someone and after five minutes you discover that you don´t have anything to say to each other. It wasn´t like that. But what happened was that when I got there he was trying a guitar overdub on a drum track, over and over and over again, and I couldn´t hear the difference between one take and the next. I thought, gosh, how long are we going to be doing this? The way we´d planned it, I wasn´t supposed to be spending long on this record. But on we went with the guitar overdub. He´d occasionally say, ´What do you think of that?´ I´d say, ´I don´t know - I don´t know what it belongs to.´"

"It was like going into a field with someone who wants to build a house there, and all they´ve got is a single brick in their hand, and they keeping moving the brick around and saying, ´What do you think?´ You have no picture of what the house is, so you can´t make any useful comment.

"I explained this to him, and one of the really nice things about Paul is that he has absolutely no ego at all, in the sense of being completely willing to change direction. He doesn´t insist on a position. It´s really very surprising - on the one hand he´s so controlling and so anxious to get everything exactly right, but if you say to him, ´Well look, I think you´re wrong about that, why don´t we try it this way?´ he´ll say yes and do it with complete commitment. So after this moment he said, ´OK, you work on it, you play something.´"

"I set one of my keyboards up, and I said, ´OK, roll the tape.´ I was standing there with my hands poised above the keyboard, and Paul was standing right next to me, and suddenly he said, ´That´s not going to work.´ I said, ´Why don´t you just wait and listen to it?´ He said, ´It´s not going to work. It´s a D9 over an E7,´ or something like that. I thought, I´m not going to get anywhere like this.

"So then I had a brilliant idea. I said, ´Isn´t it Mother´s Day next week?´ He said, ´Yes.´ I said, ´This is quite a good neighbourhood for shopping...´ We both knew what was going on. Off he went and while he was out I just worked like a pig to get something that was really substantial. So he came back and heard it and he said, ´That´s fantastic - I think I´ve got an Old song that would work with that.´ He played it and suddenly we had a whole new piece. So this became the working pattern. And he´s got a very good sense of humour. That night he said, ´Any time you want to send me out shopping...´ It became a very good relationship after that."

The most anticipated of this wave of collaborations

matthewsemple
Aug-23-2006, 21:13 GMT
IP:
United Kingdom

Yes I read something similar somewhere about Eno sending Paul out to get some shopping. Paul obviously knew what was going on because I don´t even think that Mothering Sunday is the same day in the UK as it is in the US!

I cannot imagine that working with Los Lobos - imagine:

Paul: Hey guys, I am off to do some shopping. While I am out, can you can write a track, something Tex-Mex, perhaps?

michael
Aug-23-2006, 21:51 GMT
IP:
USA - United Staates America

Bodo, thanks for that. The interview was exactly what I was looking for.

I find it amazing at how much of a perfectionist he is and think Eno really summed it up when he said:

"It was like going into a field with someone who wants to build a house there, and all they´ve got is a single brick in their hand"

I hope that Simon and Eno do more work in the future. By the way I think Simon and Eno sounds more modern interesting than Simon and Garfunkel.

I wish that there was more commentary on the evolution of his songs since there is SO much work that goes into them.

I´ll bet if Simon tried he could write a great book. It´s been done before. Kinky Friedman is a singer songwriter that quit to write mystery novels, pretty funny.

Bodo
Aug-23-2006, 22:22 GMT
IP:
Austria

I´ll bet if Simon tried he could write a great book. It´s been done before. Kinky Friedman is a singer songwriter that quit to write mystery novels, pretty funny.

I hope not.. I hope he continues to make music, that is what he is best in. Making movies, or writing musicals, everything he did wasn´t as great as his music alone (while the music was alwas great, One Trick Pony and the Capeman too)


I would like to know how much of the songs on Surprise is really written by Eno, and how much by Paul. Eno only get´s credits for sonic landscapes...but in that interview he said to Simon he should go shopping while he will do the work...?

michael
Aug-23-2006, 22:32 GMT
IP:
USA - United Staates America

That´s a great question. I´ve also wandered that and wish I could here the tracks that only Eno was responsible for, to get a feel for what is Simon and what is Eno.

Eno doesn´t get much credit in my opinion, but that´s because he didn´t write any of the words.

I´ve always thought the Capeman album was brilliant (especially Bernadette and Trailway Bus (or someithing). I wish I could see the musical on DVD.

You´re right though, he needs to stick to music, that is what he clearly does best.

Although I really admire the Capeman after hearing the Charlie Rose interview. He tackeled some amazing questions, and did it gracefully.

Bodo
Aug-23-2006, 22:43 GMT
IP:
Austria

I never saw the Capeman (although I know that a self-made video exists from one of the performances, I never found one who was willing to trade it)

I only say the documentation about it, and realized that Paul was a control freak on that thing. He changed the producers 3 times, changed the cheography, stage designers - everything was in his hand - but he never made a musical before and does not know much about ´what would work out well´. In the end I think the audience was bored a little bit because there were too much lyrics (no instrumental breaks) - too much story packed into it.



Also the article Klausi posted today was very interesting - about OTP and why Paul had to take the main role. He said because he already had sung and recorded the soundtrack no one else could play his character (and lip - sync to the songs...) I think that was a lame excuse - while his acting was good(for a SNL hobby-actor), the movie would maybe have become a bigger hit with a star like Richard Dreyfuss (and real actors, not his own band). But again Paul wanted to control everything - he wrote the story, the music, recorded the music, played,... no one can do that.

michael
Aug-23-2006, 22:56 GMT
IP:
USA - United Staates America

Wow, I had no idea about him being a control freak, yet Eno personally said that he doesn´t have an ego about his ability.

The persona kind of reminds me of that movie Amadeus (about Mozart). I guess he´s like that because he´s so brilliant...

Is the making of the Capeman available to buy. I´d definately like that. I did notice in the Charlie Rose show he did hog the conversation, but I guess he´s entitled to do that since the making cost 11 million of his own money. It was a gutsy move...

Bodo
Aug-23-2006, 23:23 GMT
IP:
Austria

Well, Eno said he thought that Simon is a control freak - but then he wasn´t. Maybe it is another thing on musical collaborations...or he has changed after the Capeman ( he finally also repaired his friendship with Garfunkel)

Richard USVI
Aug-24-2006, 15:06 GMT
IP:
USA - United Staates America

In my opinion, the fact that PS wants his songs to be the best they can be should NOT result in him being called a "control freak". I think that term is absurdly harsh and derogatory. His name is on the album, he has a right to make sure it is exactly what he wants. He has a legacy to protect.

Isn´t it better that he really cares about the quality of his music? If he churned out an album in two weeks like Dylan or Neil Young, then people wouldn´t insult him by calling him a "control freak" but on the other hand the music would certainly suffer.

Why do people have so little respect for craftsmanship? Of course he does not know where to put the single brick-- that is called creativity. He is taking sounds and turning them into original, moving, thoughtful pieces of art. Obviously that process can be painstaking.

I would rather have to wait 6 years for Surprise than have a lame knock off album every year.

If PS is a "control freak" then the world could use a few more "control freaks".

Bodo
Aug-24-2006, 15:43 GMT
IP:
Austria

Hello Richard

No no, you did not understand what I meant - he should absolutely do anything on his songs, albums a.s.o. do alone - exactly what he wants and how he wants it.

The problem was that when he made a musical, he had to control everything - the cheography, the production, the stage design a.s.o. - things he did not knew enough about

And when he made his movie OTP, he also controled everything, wrote the book, played the main role.

He is the best in making music - and while he maybe wants to explore other kinds of medial art, I personaly think he wasted a lot of time in those things. A musical could have been made much faster when you give away the work you do not know about to other people. Best example: Queen made the musical We will Rock you - and it is one of the most successfull musicals, playing on 4 continents, since years sold out. And Queen made only the music - what they can do best.

Scaaty 
Aug-24-2006, 17:16 GMT
IP:
Ireland

I like it I like it!! from an Irish non-U2 fan.

atthewsemple wrote on Aug-23 at 20:03
I suspect he was honoured to be finally working with the greatest singer-songwriter to have ever walked the planet after working with wannabes like Bowie and U2 ;)

Scaaty
Aug-24-2006, 17:23 GMT
IP:
Ireland

I´ve often thought that if OTP was produced and directed by Woody Allen and acted by dustin Hoffman (has to be a little man), it would have been a great film - though it was nice to see Paul in the bath!!

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