Paul Simon

This is an article I wrote for the music service KKBox a little over a year ago, just before Paul Simon came to play several concerts in this part of the world. It's basically a career overview.

From “The Sounds of Silence” and “Bridge over Troubled Waters” to “50 Ways to Leave Your Lover” and “You Can Call Me Al”, the songs of Paul Simon have entertained millions for half a century. One of the few artists whose music appeals to audiences of all ages, Simon has received numerous accolades over the years, and he is highly respected by his fellow musicians, with people as diverse as Randy Newman and the late Joe Strummer of the Clash praising his work. Now he is bringing the songs which made him the first recipient of the Gershwin Prize for Popular Song to East Asia for concerts in Taipei on March 20 and in Singapore in March 22.

Paul Simon has been making and recording music since he was a teenager in New York. He first gained fame as a member of Simon & Garfunkel, a folk rock duo he formed with his friend Art Garfunkel. Simon wrote the vast majority of the pair’s songs, including such timeless classics as “The Sounds of Silence”, “Homeward Bound”, “Mrs. Robinson”, “The Boxer”, and “Bridge over Troubled Water”, as well as the lyrics for their adaptation of the Peruvian melody “El Condor Pasa”. Due to his poetic lyrics and the duo’s classification as folk rockers, Simon was sometimes compared to Bob Dylan, but Simon & Garfunkel had an even broader appeal than artists like Dylan or rock bands like the Rolling Stones. Together they were one of the biggest acts of the 1960s, and many of their songs are still staples of radio play today. Their songs have also frequently been covered by other artists, particularly the gospel-flavored “Bridge over Troubled Water”, which was performed by luminaries such as Aretha Franklin and Elvis Presley.

After the release of their biggest album of all, 1970’s Bridge over Troubled Water, the duo split and Simon embarked on a solo career, writing and performing an even more eclectic variety of songs than he had with Garfunkel. He had numerous hits in the 1970s, including “Mother and Child Reunion”, “Me and Julio Down by the Schoolyard”, “Kodachrome”, “Loves Me Like a Rock”, “50 Ways to Leave Your Lover” and “Slip Slidin' Away”. He was less prolific in the late 1970s and the early 1980s and his work was less successful commercially. But he staged a spectacular comeback in 1986 with Graceland, an album inspired largely by the music of South Africa and mostly recorded in South Africa with South African musicians. Featuring songs such as “You Can Call Me Al”, “Diamonds on the Soles of Her Shoes”, “The Boy in the Bubble” and the title track, it became Simon’s biggest commercial success as a solo artist and won him a Grammy. It still is commonly included in lists of the “best albums of all time”. The subsequent tour helped bring South African musicians like Ladysmith Black Mambazo (who had also performed on the album) and Miriam Makeba to greater prominence.

After Graceland, Simon released the Brazilian-influenced The Rhythm of the Saints, featuring the UK top 20 “The Obvious Child”. This album was another commercial and critical success. While his releases no longer have much chance of matching the sales records achieved by Simon & Garfunkel or Graceland, his albums have continued to be well-received. His most recent album, So Beautiful Or So What, released in 2011 and featuring meditations on mortality such as “The Afterlife”, reached the top 10 in both the US and the UK and got excellent reviews from critics, and he continues to perform frequently, as well as contribute his money, time, and music to different causes. Back in the 1960s, Simon once sang “how terribly strange to be seventy”. Now he is already passed that milestone, but he is still going strong. Paul Simon’s concerts in Asia offer people in this part of the world a rare chance to see a living music legend in person.