Paul Simon on his early days in England, 1993

I first went over in 1963, briefly, but I lived in England for most of '64 and '65. The English folk scene was a big influence on my playing. Davey Graham was one of the guys who influenced everybody--he influenced Bert Jansch and John Renbourn, who were probably the leading blues folk players. And Martin Carthy was probably the best player, the most musical of the players. That arrangement of "Scarborough Fair" is sort of how I remembered how he did it. Everybody did "Scarborough Fair," and everybody did "She Moved through the Fair"--those were two really big songs.

From the book Rock Troubadours.

Check out clips and a few full tracks from Surprise, Paul Simon's new collaboration with Brian Eno, at paulsimon.com.