Top Inspirational Artists - Number 2

2./ Paul Simon - The Boy in the Bubble

'It was a slow day and the sun was beating on the soliders by the side of the road.' / 'The way we look to a distant constellation that's dying in the corner of the sky.'

Just a couple of lines from a song that is filled with phenomenal lyrical power and which proves that more often than not great songs are made before a chord has even been struck or its words been sung. It is remarkable to think that Paul Simon has improved as a songwriter from the days of Simon and Garfunkel and that he still had the lyrical and musical power to make a major influence on a musical world heading into the nineties. His influence and inspiration can be found everywhere where there's a heart in people's music. Graceland's philosophical and cultural importance has been the inspiraton for the arrival of world music as a force to be reckoned with as more and more artists experiment with their choice of sound and culture within their music. Its ripeness of current affairs and storytelling as song can be seen in the lyrcis of U2 and REM among others and the poetic beauty of his music and lyrics is at the core of songs that broaden the mind and deepen the soul. Paul Simon has helped to popularise world music as a genre and still whilst losing none of his mainstream and critical appeal.
'The Boy in the Bubble' is a great example of how music can represent itself as much more than a tune but rather a slice of life in a coming age, a document of a world that is forever changing and which provokes the thoughs of its listeners. This is what great music does best. Paul Simon at his best sounds like vocals set to the classical sound of Bach.