I couldn't have been as articulate about it then, but looking back on it now, I think he was somewhat paralyzed creatively, because he felt that he would be attacked no matter what he did. I think he was trying to find a way back to the sort of free and easy and instinctive way he had written when he was younger and not so scrutinized by himself and by others. I remember one day when I was waiting for him to start working, and I was working on a song I was writing for Pippin . First of all, by not reading anything that's written about you. I mean that.
Reviews are extremely destructive to artists, good reviews as well as bad.
Any kind of judgment of your work that makes you look at what you do through someone else's eyes is extremely destructive. You must be a good judge of your own work. And that's very easy to say, and very hard to do.