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Proof
Apr-20-2009, 16:59 GMT
USA - United Staates America

The relationship between artist and "fans" is an interesting one. With some, there is an outpouring of affection. For example, at Stones shows when Keith Richards is introduced the responsive is incredibly warm. With Paul Simon, the vibe is different. There is a respect of craftsmanship and connection through music, but the energy from the audience is not one of connection. If there is one thing missing from live shows, it is that sense of connection with the audience. He doesn´t speak much to the crowd, or introduce songs to give casual fans a sense of where they are, musically speaking, but it goes deeper. I suppose people or simply different. In any case, I am here and so the music obviously means a great deal to me.

mog
Apr-20-2009, 20:42 GMT
Canada

Excellent analysis Proof ! I agree 100%.

I would need to reflect on the reasons though.

Maybe Paul´s music is perceived as more inner-oriented, introspective + celebral...maybe it attracts a certain type of audience ? Also, his audience is aging.

You are right...Paul does not say much to ignite connection.

At the Montreal show in 2006, I felt the connection...Paul got a standing ovation as soon as he entered the stage. Then, I went to NYC later that year. Complete, different and boring atmosphere.

Proof
Apr-20-2009, 21:05 GMT
USA - United Staates America

Perhaps the key is a difference between "here is my music" versus "let´s have an interactive musical/spiritual experience together - I am interested in you also (or at least this phenomena of shared experience).

nancy
Apr-21-2009, 06:03 GMT
USA - United Staates America

I have been to three of his concerts,and the audience response to Paul was almost ecstatic.

Gerard
Apr-21-2009, 12:24 GMT
New Zealand

I think the connection is maybe with Paul´s songs rather than himself. And i suspect that´s the way he likes it.

I must say sometimes I wish he would engage and say more, and with Artie I wish he would say less.

Ian, do you remember his story from 1983 concert (assuming it was repeated at other concerts)? I can´t remember it fully, but I remember being surprised by it. It was something along the lines that Richard Tee was his brother in a former life and they grew up in Wellington, NZ (the concert I was at - my first).

The other surprises for me that night were the inclusion of MY LITTLE TOWN and SOMETHING SO RIGHT (I had written to him at Brill Building 2 months prior and specifically requested these), and they great little medley of Rock n Roll cover songs including Rip It Up.

Here´s hoping we get a couple of surprises in the June 2009 concerts.

Ian
Apr-21-2009, 13:14 GMT
USA - United Staates America

Hi Gerard,I remember all the episodes you recalled. The Richard Tee story was very funny,and came right in the middle of ´Allergies´ Yes,I remember Rip it up etc,and Something So Right with Artie singing the first verse alone with Paul´s beautiful Guitar Accompaniment. They also did All I have to Do Is Dream,sitting on two stools,attempting,and largely succeeding to make the large crowd feel like they were in a much more intimate setting,and not a football stadium. Wonderful night! The sound was extremely well mixed and LOUD. The front page of a Brisbane newspaper ´The Courier Mail´,the next day exclaimed ´The Not So Silent Sound Of The 60´s!!!´ Wonderful night!

Ian
Apr-21-2009, 13:19 GMT
USA - United Staates America

Hi Gerard,I forgot to ask-Did you get a reply from Paul´s office to your letter? I also wrote a letter to Paul that same year,and still have the reply and envelope that it arrived in!

Nikki
Apr-21-2009, 15:19 GMT
Australia

I think Paul´s connection with the audience has changed over the decades. There were times when he was more open, confident, relaxed - from my impressions I´d say probably the 80s and that seems to be the case from Gerard and Ian´s stories. Now he´s more distant and aloof, but certainly not at every concert. I think now his mood really fluctuates with the audience´s mood - if he senses that they´re into it, he´ll have fun too, he´ll fool around of stage and smile and laugh. If he senses that they´re not into it, then he won´t be either. Which is understandable as he seems to be a very sensitive guy.
The other thing is, I think you really need to be in the first few rows of a concert to have feel some sort of connection (with him as a person rather than with his music alone). That´s because he doesn´t shout out comments or make jokes all that often, and he´s even stopped most of his dancing onstage (which tended to alienate rather than draw people anyway). But from my experiences last summer, if you´re in say the front row, it´s amazing. I felt a connection deeper than I´d ever felt before because you can watch the expressions on his face and in his eyes, and as I think someone said in another thread recently, up close he´s extremely and touchingly expressive. I remember that in the days following the concerts I listened to his music in an entirely different way.

Nikki
Apr-21-2009, 15:21 GMT
Australia

But in response to Proof´s original question - I think we all Love the guy right :) ? It´s not just detached admiration.

And Something So Right, what a gorgeous song, it would be awesome if he played it again in this tour.

Scaaty
Apr-21-2009, 17:43 GMT
Ireland

The Grace land concert there was so much connection going on on the stage that it was difficult NOT to feel the "Love". The BATRT tour it was just intro´s and I remember feeling a bit disappointed, that there was very little else except intros and songs. The YTO concert was great, not much said but the body language, the joy, the connections were all there. (esp coming on straight after grumpy Van Morrison.
The S&G tour? talked too much and all repeats. The 1st Surprise tour again like YTO and when he sang Wartime Prayers just him and the guitar well... you could hear a pin drop! Last years concert in the Marquee grand but the audience was chattering a lot.

and you´re right Nikki - there´s al ot more than detached admiration going on!

Ian
Apr-22-2009, 01:34 GMT
USA - United Staates America

I have only seen Paul in concert 3 times. Once with S&G,twice solo,and all 3 times the audience response (including my own) was ecstatic. This adoration had little to do with his loquaciousness on stage in my opinion. It´s true,that the audience hangs on every spoken word by Paul,but it is hardly the thing that makes or breaks a concert. The one trend that does more to dilute the overall audience response to an artist,is the practice of selling,or holding the best tickets for local dignitaries,businessmen and woman and the affluent,who only attend because it´s the ´big thing´ in town that night. These are the types that sit on their hands for everthing but the hits,the same people who complain when a real fan wants to dance,yet don´t mind talking loudly among themselves or on their mobile phones,reducing everbody´s enjoyment. This is something that almost destroyed the last big act I saw in concert. And I have this uneasy feeling I may see a repeat of this at the S&G show in June. I hope I´m VERY wrong.

mog
Apr-22-2009, 02:05 GMT
Canada

Hey ! Good point Ian...

I had never thought about the influence of these best tickets holders.

Strange all this...I guess it depends on several factors, for instance, the mood of the performer and the crowd, etc.

I might have a theory actually that I would like to confirm or infirm: would it be possible that in smaller cities, there might be a better reaction to Paul´s concerts ?

With the difference I observed between Montréal and NY shows the same year, I said to myself: "oh well, it was a big name for Montréal and he had not come to the city for 15 years, so it was an event; in New York, they have the best shows in the world, every concert from every stars. A Paul Simon show had nothing to get excited about. These people are spoiled with the cream all the time".

There are some cultural differences as well, some nations being more naturally reserved than others.

Mimi
Apr-22-2009, 07:31 GMT
Austria

I agree with Ian, that the first rows have a big influence on a concert. When it is standing only (like last year in Lörrach) it guarantees, that the "real" fans are in front (because the causal fans would not try to be there early enough) and these people are much more supportive. The performer and the band get a lot of response and everbody who has played in front of an audience can tell, how important it is, that you have the feeling that the people like what you are doing.

The worst thing that can happen is, when a company buys the best seats and gives away the tickets for free. Than you get the crowd, that knows only some of the songs and will destroy it for everybody else, because they don´t pay attention to the artist. They got the tickets for free, why should they care? This is frustrating for the artist and for the fans because it is very hard to play a really good show, when you see some bored people in front of you.

It reminds me of the televised concert Paul gave for the BBC in 2006 and the people where told before, that they must not stand up and dance or cheer or something like that. Paul didn´t know that and was a bit frustrated because the audience was so "polite".

Ian
Apr-22-2009, 11:30 GMT
USA - United Staates America

Thanks Mimi,you put it exactly the way I had meant to,but didn´t. It has got to have an effect on a performer when he or she looks out to the first rows to see a line of emotionless faces staring back. Worse still maybe are the seats,left empty by people so disinterested in the performer,that they don´t even bother to turn up to use their free tickets. In 1991 when I saw Paul on the BART tour,I had seats very far from the stage. It didn´t matter though,because the sight of the throng of fans dancing in front of the stage and cheering loudly (and appropriately)must have ignited Paul´s enthusiasm,and he in turn put on a fantastic show. A concert is co-performance in a way. We all have our part to play,and when everyone is ´on´ it almost guarantees that a good night is had by all.

Gerard
Apr-22-2009, 12:41 GMT
New Zealand

Scatty, The YTO concert you mention with Van Morrison, isn´t that the July 2002 Kilkenny music festival?

I was there and probably the best concert experience of all my 20 plus. Well worth the trip from New Zealand just for this night.

Reviews in Dublin papers on the Monday captured the magic of the night in a uniquely Irish way:-

By Siobhan Long, in Kilkenny
The Irish Times, Monday July 29, 2002
Paul Simon?s Old hits has crowd in his hands

GRADUATE students don?t come with much better credentials than Clarence Fountain and company. The Talladega Institute for the deaf and blind 2sure knew how to coax and cajole the best out of The Blind Boys of Alabama, and they in turn did just that with the crowds stageside at Nowlan Park on Saturday.
The Ens, Menlow Park, John Spillane and Kila struck the flint in the early afternoon sunshine, but it was those Alabama boys who lit the flame in earnest.
Ebbing sound quality might have hindered performers of lesser experience, but Jimmy Carter?s fluorescent vocals shimmied like songbirds soaring atop murky floodwaters.
After that, the Fun Lovin? Criminals? Huey "DiFontaine" Morgan, loped on stage, suitably louche, armed with little more than a guitar and a hooded smile that would be the envy of any self-respecting lounge lizard, and brewed up a mini-storm with a swathe of home favourites, including Love Unlimited and Party Dress.
Van Morrison proved for once and for all that he?s creatively bankrupt, with too many road miles and a tad too many snide sidelong glances at his audience to make us care anymore. Gone are the enchanted moments when he jousted with Pee Wee Ellis on sax, or fenced with Georgie Fame?s double-jointed keyboards. Having outlawed the use of the big screens, maybe Van at least spared the bac2k rows his unrepentant scowl. Misery shouldn?t come with such a high price tag, (for the audience, at least) should it?
And so to the showstopper. Paul Simon, the polymath of rhythm, of melody and of lateral thinking lyrics, stretches, bends and cajoles his audience effortlessly. Bridge Over Troubled Water eased him into what was a magnificent ticker-tape parade through his back catalogue: Graceland, 50 Ways To Leave Your Lover, Call Me Al and Mrs Robinson, revisited and reinvigorated by his dazzling 11 piece band. Some 40 years on the road and Simon is simply rising to a gallop. Most of us skipped with Nureyevian grace (or so we thought) into downtown Kilkenny, buoyed by his sheer exuberance.


Reviewer Niamh Hooper
Irish Independent, Monday July 29, 2002
Rhymin? Simon still simply superb

HE may be only the size of a stick of dynamite but Paul Simon is equally effective.
Most of the 20,000 fans at Kilkenny?s Nowlan Park went in search of a lazy, sunny afternoon and evening. But the 60-year-old American singer/songwriter had different ideas.
Dressed in black Levis and baseball cap red top with a blue acoustic guitar,. the 5ft 3in musical giant walked out onto an Irish stage for the first time in 12 years and proceeded to wipe the floor with support act Van Morrison.
He opened with the Simon and Garfunkel classic Bridge Over Troubled Water and his supremely talented 10-piece band rocked for the next two hours and 15 minutes through his back pages from the pre-1970 Simon and Garfunkel era to Graceland and Rhythm Of The Saints.
Simon was a man with nothing left to prove. And pulsating through many of his songs are African, Brazilian and Latin rhythms -created by a cornucopia of unusual instruments. Smiling cherubically throughout, we may have benefited from the gig being the last of his European tour.
Songs included ?Fifty Ways To Leave Your Lover?, ?Me And Julio Down By The Schoolyard?, ?Homeward Bound?, ?Graceland?, ?I Am A Rock?, ?Diamonds On The Soles Of Her Shoes?, ?The Sound of Silence?, ?You Can Call Me Al?, ?The Boy In The Bubble? and ?Late In The Evening?. Encores included ?Slip Slidin? Away?, ?Mrs Robinson?, ?The Boxer? and ?Still Crazy After All These Years?.

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