You Can Call Him Happy

Brushing off the disappointment of his “Capeman,” the $11-million musical that was savaged by New York theater critics and closed in early 1998 after just two months on Broadway, Paul Simon returns this week with an album that is filled with the craft and imagination that have characterized his most distinguished work.

It’s a recovery reminiscent of the mid-’80s, when Simon responded with “Graceland” after two of his projects were poorly received. “One-Trick Pony,” the 1980 film that Simon wrote and starred in, was a dud at the box office, and “Hearts and Bones,” a 1983 studio album, went largely unnoticed.

The setbacks left Simon wondering if he hadn’t lost touch with his audience. Further shaking his confidence was the breakup in 1984 of his brief marriage to actress-writer Carrie Fisher.

But Simon warns against making too much of a parallel between his state of mind during the making of “Graceland” and his new “You’re the One,” which will be released Tuesday by Warner Bros. Records.

The New Yorker says he was in good spirits even after the failure of “Capeman,” partly because he was proud of the musical and he is in a rewarding marriage to singer Edie Brickell.

The musical textures in “You’re the One” aren’t as distinctive as the exotic South African ones that ran through much of “Graceland,” but the songs themselves are illuminating and mostly upbeat reflections on life and love.

Simon, 58, may mock the crazy twists and turns of relationships in the peppy “Darling Lorraine,” the opening track, but mostly he toasts their comforts and rewards on the album. He also deals on the album with questions of aging and faith.

Simon will showcase the new music in a PBS special this fall, and he expects to begin a concert tour Oct. 16 in Sweden. The U.S. itinerary includes Nov. 16-18 stops at the Wiltern Theatre in Los Angeles. Tickets go on sale Monday.

In an interview, he spoke about “Capeman,” his marriage and his new album.

*

Question: How crushing was the “Capeman” failure?

Answer: I didn’t feel it was crushing. It was a disappointment, to be sure. A lot of time went into it and we got shut down, but I thought it was a good piece of work with an exceptional cast. I thought at the time that it was likely to return in a few years--and that is already happening. There were six performances over in England recently, and there are two companies in the U.S. that are planning on doing it, so we’ll see.

Q: Isn’t there also a cast album on the shelf? Is that ever coming out?

A: There is a cast album on DreamWorks that is still unreleased. We are waiting for a time when it can be released with some attention so that it won’t just vanish. I didn’t record some of the best songs from “Capeman” for my [“Songs from ‘The Capeman’ ”] album because I didn’t want to give away all the really good songs. My guess is we won’t wait any more than another six or nine months [to release it].

Q: Do you think it was too ambitious going straight to Broadway, rather than trying to open it on a smaller scale or out of town?

A: We miscalculated that we would be reviewed immediately. We also liked the idea of going straight to Broadway. That was part of the fun for everybody, including [cast members] Marc Anthony and Ruben [Blades]. It wouldn’t have been the same if we were going to play for two weeks at the Brooklyn Academy of Music. Broadway was exhilarating.

Q: Did you feel you had to prove yourself again after “Capeman” like you did after “Hearts and Bones”?

A: I wasn’t thinking anything like that. The play closed and everybody was exhausted from the turmoil around it. But about a month later, Edie and I had our third child, and that was wonderful. So I was in a much different place [emotionally] than after “Hearts and Bones.”

It wasn’t long until I started hearing music in my mind and decided to put a band together to make a new record. The only thing that came into that equation was the tour with Bob Dylan.

Q: How did the tour come about?

A: I wanted to perform and I didn’t know if I could do a two-hour concert again because it had been years since I had been on the road. I thought this kind of tour would be easier. I’d only have to do an hour and 15 minutes. As it turned out, we could have done a two-hour concert. We didn’t have any energy or voice problems.

I also like Bob and I like his band, and I thought it was an interesting pairing. We make different kinds of music, but there’s a certain thing that links us, no question about it. It was a nice tour. I enjoyed it a lot.

Q: How did you decide which songs you wanted to do together in the show?

A: We came in and we rehearsed some interesting stuff, just the two of us playing acoustic guitar, singing old folk tunes. Hearing Bob on acoustic guitar and singing traditional ballads is incredible. That’s what we started out to do, but as we got closer to the performance, it became apparent that we were going to have to sing each other’s hits because that was more appropriate to what the show was. We were playing 15,000-seaters and people were out there dancing and drinking beer, and they wanted to hear our music.

Q: How did the new album develop once you got back in the studio?

A: As I get older, the music for me is more and more about sound. Everything seems to start with sound. Once I get the sound right, that tells you the melody and the melody [leads you] to the words. When I begin an album, I keep a book and I write down phrases and thoughts that might work in a song.

I’ll then look through the book to see if there’s a phrase that fits with the melody in a way that tells a story. On this album, the words came so fast that most of the songs were written in a day or two. It’s like that old songwriters’ cliche: “I didn’t write it. I was just taking dictation.” But that’s how it felt. That’s very different for me. It’s usually like a couple of months of working on the lyrics.

Q: Have there been other songs over the years that came out in a rush like that?

A: “Bridge Over Troubled Water” came that fast, and I had the same feeling I had with some of these songs, “Where did that come from?” I had no idea that I knew that melody or those chord changes or that I was going to say [those lyrics] at all. I wrote the first two verses in an evening. I wrote the third in the studio.

Q: How do you account for the upbeat tone in the album? You seem to be in a very good place in your life.

A: It’s the first time that I ever had domestic bliss.

Q: Did you sometimes wonder if that was something that would ever come into your life?

A: Yes I did.

Q: So how did it feel?

A: Hard to believe. Then you start to wonder if it was going to last. Could something really be this good? Is something bad going to happen when things feel this good?

Q: Do you think you just found the right person or that you are better able to be in a relationship? Do you work at it?

A: I think I’ve definitely matured, but I’ve also definitely found the right person. I’m really fortunate.

Q: What effect did that bliss have on the album?

A: There’s not too much writing about the relationship in the record.

Q: But surely the relationship colors your outlook on things, right?

A: I guess it does, but it has always been my instinct to be optimistic in my music. There’s some hint of melancholy or sadness here and there, but very little overt anger or hostility. I really don’t believe philosophically that’s my job. If all I have to say is how disappointed I am about whatever there is in life, then I don’t see what the contribution is. There’s already plenty of it out there. But I’m not lying when I go the other way. Love is amazing and it’s like I say on the album, it’s something you want so desperately, and it can make you laugh out loud when you get it. It’s like medicine for us.

Q: Did you ever worry that you might have trouble writing if you were in such a happy state? There is the old tortured-artist theory, you know.

A: I’ve never worried about that. I don’t think it matters if you are happy or tortured. What I’ve observed about the creative process is that periodically I’ll make up things, and then I’ll have a period where I don’t make up things and I start to wonder if I’m finished making up ideas. I’ll have no ideas. Then, they’ll start coming again and you act on it.

*

Robert Hilburn, the Times pop music critic, can be reached at robert.hilburn@latimes.com.