Indicating a growing interest in world music that would flower in Paul Simon's solo career, Simon & Garfunkel's "El Condor Pasa" set a haunting, dramatic melody to enigmatic lyrics expressing preferences to be a hammer, not a nail; a sparrow, not a snail; and a forest, not a street. As Simon disclosed in Rolling Stone, he heard the song performed on a record by the Argentinean-Uruguayan group Los Incas. Recalled Simon, "I said, 'I love this melody. I'm going to write lyrics to it. I just love it, and we'll just sing it right over the track.'"