I love things like this. It’s so rare to see a songwriter answer the question “how did you write this?” without resorting to slightly hostile grunts (largely because, you suspect, they either haven’t the faintest idea how they did it and don’t have the language to describe it, or else are a bit embarrassed by some of the stimuli: “actually, I’d just done a poo and was reading the Dandy, and the combination of the two made me think…”)
But this is Paul Simon, and if ever a man knew exactly what he was doing, and how and why he was doing it, it’s old Chuckles McFrivolous.
Credit where it’s due: got this from Helen Lewis’s unmissable Friday newsletter, The Bluestocking (link in comments).
https://twitter.com/carlquintanilla/status/1377566415348187140?s=21