"Becker and Fagen, like Paul Simon, are among the few rock artists who have joined poetic lyrics to great music with almost Sondheimesque skill. (Honorable mention: Talking Heads.)"

"I find a lot of comedy from this period to be dated, but I never feel that way about Annie Hall. Somehow even references to psychoanalysis and Marshall McLuhan feel vital. And you’ve got to love Paul Simon as the most unlikely lothario in film history."

"There was a PBS special on Sondheim, and I got steeped in “Company,” and “Barcelona” really stuck out. It was like the third character in that scene was Bobby’s emerging soul. Beneath this lilting back-and- forth, push-and-pull of the song was the strong current of what was pulling Bobby to “Being Alive.” It was as rich as any Paul Simon or Neil Young song that I was starting to fall in love with."

"It was the mid-'80s, I was in my early teens and Simon & Garfunkel came into play. A lot of the acoustic side to my playing comes from Paul Simon. He’s one of the greatest guitar players that ever lived and he’s done so many seminal guitar parts that I just fucking worship! “I first heard them very early in life because my parents had three Beatles records and Bridge over Troubled Water, but that’s not so much a guitar album. The album that changed my life as a guitar player was Sounds Of Silence, and it sort of opened the door into folk and folk-rock and then Bob Dylan. “Anji, the Davy Graham cover, is one of the first tunes I learned to play on acoustic, and it’s an amazing tune. I challenged myself to learn it and got my head round it. That whole album is full of really, really cool guitar playing"

"This is such a great record, and it's so overlooked. It's sneered on, too. It's got some really great jazz musicians on it, doing such brilliant, subtle performances. And the lyrics are fantastic. Listen to 'I'd Do It For Your Love': "The sting of reason/The splash of tears/The Northern and the Southern Hemispheres/Love emerges and it disappears." How great is that? 

This record was played a lot when I was growing up, so it's one of those records I've taken with me. I also love the story of what Paul Simon said when it won the Grammy for Best Album: "I'd just like to thank Stevie Wonder for not releasing anything this year."