Paul Simon biography

Synopsis

Simon and Garfunkel

One of the most paradoxical figures in rock-and-roll history, Simon exemplified many of the principles against which the music initially reacted. From his first big hit, “The Sounds of Silence,” in 1965, Simon aspired to a self-consciously elevated poetic tone in his lyric writing that was the antithesis of rock-and-roll spontaneity. Infatuated with teenage street music in the mid-1950s, he returned throughout his career to the wellspring of dreamy doo-wop vocal harmony for inspiration and refreshment. But his approach to the style that enraptured him was analytical, as though he wanted to enshrine under glass a sound that his surreal 1983 song “René and Georgette Magritte with Their Dog After the War” described as “deep forbidden music.”

As a teenager Simon teamed up with his classmate from Queens, New York, Art Garfunkel, to form (first known as Tom and Jerry). Beginning with “The Sounds of Silence,” they were the most popular folk-pop duo of the 1960s and the musical darlings of literary-minded college-age baby boomers. In 1967 their music was a key ingredient in the success of the hit film The Graduate, and in 1970 they reached their zenith with Simon's inspirational gospel-flavoured anthem “Bridge over Troubled Water,” which showcased Garfunkel's soaring, semioperatic tenor.

Simon's best early songs tend to be bookish, angst-ridden reveries with simple folk rock melodies and earnest, poetically ambitious (but often mannered) lyrics, some influenced by Bob Dylan. Simon's best narrative song from this period, “The Boxer” (1969), is the streamlined dramatic monologue of a down-and-out prizefighter.

Simon's fascination with pop vocal sound quickly expanded to include the sparkle of English folk music, the ethereal pipes and voices of Andean mountain music, and the arching passion of gospel. After he and Garfunkel broke up in 1970 (they reunited briefly in the early 1980s for a tour and a live album), Simon pursued a successful career as a singer-songwriter of whimsical, introspective songs with tricky time signatures. His biggest solo success came in 1975 with Still Crazy After All These Years, a collection of wistful ruminations on approaching middle age.

When his popularity began to ebb, Simon jumped on the emerging world-music bandwagon. On a visit to South Africa, he met many of the musicians with whom he made Graceland (1986), an exquisite, multifaceted fusion of his own sophisticated stream-of-consciousness poetry with black South Africa's doo-wop-influenced “township jive” and Zulu choral music. Although some accused him of cultural thievery—i.e., the appropriation and exploitation of another culture's music—the album was one of the most critically acclaimed and commercially successful of the decade and helped put South African music on the world stage.

Simon made a similar pilgrimage to Brazil to record Rhythm of the