Paul Simon

If you know more information about Paul Simon help us to improve this page

Birthday:

13 October 1941, Newark, New Jersey, USA

Birth Name:

Paul Frederic Simon

Height:

157 cm

Born on October 13, 1941 in Newark New Jersey, Paul Simon is one of the greatest singer/songwriters ever. In 1957, he and high school pal, Art Garfunkel, wrote and recorded the single, "Hey Schoolgirl", under the name "Tom and Jerry". After some failures, they broke up. Simon still wrote and recorded music as "Tico and The Triumps" and "Jerry Landis". He also attended Queens College and got a B.A. in English. He also studied law but quit to pursue a music career in 1964.He and Art Garfunkel got back together as Simon & Garfunkel and recorded "Wednesday Morning 3 a.m.". After the commercial failure of the album, they broke up again. Simon left America to go to England, where he played in folk circuits and he made a solo album. Back in America, the producer of their first album, Tom Wilson, dubbed bass, electric guitar, and drums to the all-acoustic song, "Sound of Silence", which propelled them into the folk-rock scene. Simon & Garfunkel were back and, in 1966, they had popularity with the album, "The Sound of Silence", which features songs such as "I am a Rock", "Richard Cory" and "Kathy's Song". Their next album, "Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and Thyme", had songs such as "Homeward Bound" "The 59th Bridge Song (Feelin' Groovy)".In 1967, Mike Nichols asked Simon to write a score for his upcoming movie, The Graduate (1967). Their next album, "Bookends", which is considered one of the greatest albums of the sixties, featured songs such as "Mrs. Robinson" from The Graduate (1967), "Hazy Shade of Winter", "At The Zoo", "America". Their last album, "Bridge Over Troubled Water", featured songs such as the title song, "The Boxer", "Cecilia".In the seventies, Simon emerged as a singer/songwriter with albums such as "Paul Simon", Still Crazy After All These Years", "Hearts and Bones", "Graceland", and "Songs from the Capeman". Aside from music, he wrote and starred in the movie, One-Trick Pony (1980), and reunited with friend, Art Garfunkel, in 1981, to give a concert in Central Park. Show less «

The public hungers to see talented young people kill themselves.

I don't see much truth in laurels, period. The forces of habit make you go on. There's an internal engine that's been running since I was 14...Show more »

I don't see much truth in laurels, period. The forces of habit make you go on. There's an internal engine that's been running since I was 14; I keep an ear out to see if it's still purring and it is. It chronically purrs. Music making is who you are and it doesn't go away. If you love to play music, you're lucky. Show less «

Dylan [Bob Dylan] frequently reinvents himself, and at a very sophisticated level. Nobody ever did it better. That's his real genius. He's s...Show more »

Dylan [Bob Dylan] frequently reinvents himself, and at a very sophisticated level. Nobody ever did it better. That's his real genius. He's still interesting. "Love and Theft" is a fascinating record. Show less «

Brian Wilson is a couple of years younger than I am - but not many - and his stuff is still interesting. The same goes for Tom Waits. There ...Show more »

Brian Wilson is a couple of years younger than I am - but not many - and his stuff is still interesting. The same goes for Tom Waits. There are other people doing interesting work, but the people doing it aren't coming from the same history of enormous popular success that I've had. There's a certain expectation that I'm going to reach the level I was at back when I was enormously successful. That may be impossible to do at this point. Show less «

If a song lives for a couple of years, it's a pretty good thing.

[on recording "Graceland" in South Africa] I did not set out to make a political statement. I was making a cultural statement with political...Show more »

[on recording "Graceland" in South Africa] I did not set out to make a political statement. I was making a cultural statement with political implications. Show less «

I started to build the albums around rhythms in response to my frustration with the album that preceded "Graceland", which was "Hearts and B...Show more »

I started to build the albums around rhythms in response to my frustration with the album that preceded "Graceland", which was "Hearts and Bones". I felt with that album that I had written some songs that were better than the tracks that went on the album. I couldn't get things to fit together, so I ended up changing the songs to fit the tracks and then I thought, "My demo was better than this". So with "Graceland" I thought I'll just make tracks that I really like and then I'll write the songs, the words, and if I don't like what they sound like set to the music I'd throw things out and start again, which on a couple of occasions I did. Show less «

I'm generally enthusiastic when I'm working and when I immediately finish I'm enthusiastic. Shortly after that I don't want to hear it. It's...Show more »

I'm generally enthusiastic when I'm working and when I immediately finish I'm enthusiastic. Shortly after that I don't want to hear it. It's always been my way. It's such an intense process for me and the process itself can take so long, and I get into it so completely, that by the time I've finished a piece of work I'm really finished with it. I'm done. What happens then is I don't do anything for usually a year or so. Show less «

What I'm thinking about now and what I'm talking about is really not for a huge audience. It would be unusual to find anybody at my age who ...Show more »

What I'm thinking about now and what I'm talking about is really not for a huge audience. It would be unusual to find anybody at my age who is selling enormous amounts of records to the record-buying public. Show less «

The public will always find the artists it needs.

I'm just an artist, because that's my personality trait, a characteristic of how my brain works. I can't figure out a lot of things, I'm not...Show more »

I'm just an artist, because that's my personality trait, a characteristic of how my brain works. I can't figure out a lot of things, I'm not a computer scientist. This is who I am. This is what I do. I make up songs and I try to make them as interesting as possible. Show less «

I like to reinvent the old material, take the songs somewhere they maybe haven't been.

Nobody says you should stop painting when you're 60. Nobody says you should stop writing novels when you're 60. Nobody says that B.B. King s...Show more »

Nobody says you should stop painting when you're 60. Nobody says you should stop writing novels when you're 60. Nobody says that B.B. King should stop playing the blues. So The Rolling Stones go out there and people call them dinosaurs and they say, "What are you talking about? We're reinventing what you can do at our age and if you don't like it, OK, but don't try to stop us." Show less «

I think if you have the gift of writing a political song, like those early Bob Dylan songs that were political, it's a gift to be able to wr...Show more »

I think if you have the gift of writing a political song, like those early Bob Dylan songs that were political, it's a gift to be able to write that kind of song. Phil Ochs had it, too. But most other people really couldn't. So you get "Eve of Destruction" or other imitations of those really good songs and it makes it seem like it's frivolous. So you stay in your own world. Somebody said, "If I went to South Africa I certainly wouldn't come back and write a song like 'You Can Call Me Al'." But "You Can Call Me Al" was a pretty interesting song. It starts off and it's about somebody who's completely self-involved and travels to a place where he becomes aware of the universe and the whole world from the experience he has. And essentially that was the gift of "Graceland", as opposed to it tearing down the walls of apartheid. It showed people, it was inspiring without being didactic. And the criticism was, "You have a responsibility to be didactic." Show less «

When I listened to what popular music was in South Africa, it wasn't political music.

I think "Graceland" was remarkable in two different ways. One, it was a very interesting artistic leap that combined cultures in a way that ...Show more »

I think "Graceland" was remarkable in two different ways. One, it was a very interesting artistic leap that combined cultures in a way that was accessible and gave people great joy and insight into another country. It was very successful as a marriage of different cultures, which is not easy to do. The other thing is it provoked a really interesting political discussion, which really came down to how effective is a cultural boycott if the people that it's affecting most are the people who are being oppressed? And that eventually turned people away from the cultural boycott as a tool of fighting that particular kind of oppression, because it wasn't an efficient tool. It didn't do the job. It did the opposite. "Graceland" was the catalyst that got people into that discussion. It was really Hugh Masekela who focused that discussion and said, "Hey, this is a good thing for South Africa. We want our music out there." Show less «

I really wanted to get off Warner Bros. I didn't think they understood what I was doing on the last couple of albums. They just wanted me to...Show more »

I really wanted to get off Warner Bros. I didn't think they understood what I was doing on the last couple of albums. They just wanted me to make hit singles, which is not really possible for me. It would be a fluke if I had a hit single. I don't make that kind of music anymore. Show less «

Look at what we did to the planet. We ruined the planet. Take away the human beings and all their inventions and all the stuff we've made an...Show more »

Look at what we did to the planet. We ruined the planet. Take away the human beings and all their inventions and all the stuff we've made and the mess we make and you've got a much cleaner planet. It would be a lot healthier than it is right now. Would life be better for a zebra without mankind? Absolutely. Would it be better for the trees? Absolutely. Show less «