Where do musicians get their inspiration for some of their most famous songs?
It turns out Paul Simon’s best work comes to him during the night while he’s sleeping. The singer-songwriter revealed his latest album and possibly even some of his earlier work was revealed to him in a dream.
“The dream said, ‘You’re working on a piece called ‘Seven Psalms,'” he told CBS News.
“Seven Psalms” is Simon’s latest album, released in May 2023.
But Simon didn’t know Seven Psalms was to be the name of his new album.
“Since it came to me in a dream with someone or some things telling me to do this, I said, Well, look, it’s not my idea anyway. So I’ll just wait ’til there’s clarification of what I’m supposed to do.“
He revealed his fifteenth album came to him in pieces. First it was the guitar pieces than the lyrics.
“I would start to wake up two or three times a week between 3:30 and 5:00 in the morning, and words would come. I’d write ’em down and start to put it together,” Simon said in an upcoming documentary that showcases the entire creative process of his latest album.
The words continued to come to Simon in his dreams and he never questioned them. He still hasn’t, and he’s not sure that he ever will.
“I don’t even know if I wanna know,” he said. “It’s just, it’s there, and I’m grateful for it. It’s been there most of my life. When I wrote ‘The Sound of Silence’ and I was 23 years old, that was probably the same kind of phenomenon. But at that time, I just thought, Oh, this is kind of my best song at the moment. And the same thing with ‘Bridge Over Troubled Water’ where I thought, Hmm. Better than my usual. This is good.“
Those anticipating a tour might be disappointed.
In 2018 Simon announced via social media that he was retiring from touring, and in May 2023 he revealed he had been dealing with significant hearing loss in his left ear.
“Quite suddenly, I lost most of the hearing in my left ear, and nobody has an explanation for it,” he told The Times. “So everything became more difficult.”
As of today he believes his hearing is at eight percent.
“It’s upsetting. I can still hear well enough to play guitar and write. But I can’t hear well enough to play with five or six musicians. Maybe that’s fine. Maybe there’s something to be learned from that?”
Imagine having such incredible songs come to you in a dream!
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