Birth and Family
Paul
Frederick Simon was born in Newark (New Jersey) on october 13 1941 being the
first son of a jewish family of Hungarian roots. His parents are Louis and Belle
Simon.
The father, who sometimes used
the stage name of Lee Sims, played the bass and was a band leader who used to
perform in the CBS TV programs of Arthur Godfrey, Jackie Gleason and Gary Moore.
Although directly he was not involved with the rock he did acted as a studio
musician in
the
recordings of some rock&roll bands, being among them Tico&The Triumphs, to which
Paul Simon himself belonged. Louis also wrote the song True Or False for Paul,
which the latter one recorded under the pseudonym of True Taylor. Long years
after Louis Simon would graduate in teaching and would end up teaching in the
New York Community College, passing away in 1995. He was the one who taugh Paul
playing guitar. The mother was a professor of English language in a school
before their children were born and, although very old now (being 90 years old),
is still alive.
The
only Paul´s brother, Eddie, born 14th December 1945, looks much like
Paul, not only physically, but also in the gestures and his speaking manners. At
the beginning of 60s Eddie cowrote with Paul a few of the songs that this one
recorded under the pseudonym of Jerry Landis. In 1968 he formed the band Eddie
Simon&The Gild Light Cage, with which he recorded the album “14th Annual
Fun&Pleasure Fair”, that it included a rendition of the song Cloudy writen by
Paul. Later he formed a duo named Ben&Crib. He is married and has a daughter.
During the Paul´s Live Rhymin´Tour (1974) Eddie played guitar because Paul could
not play properly because of an injury in his thumb. In the 70s he owned an
academy for the education of the guitar and music composition in New York, in
which Paul Simon has acted as a teacher sometimes. Also he is co-owner,
alongside his brother Paul and Lorne Michaels, of a radio station in Hamptons
(Long Island). Now Mr. Eddie Simon is dedicated to artists management being
co-owner of the firm OK Management, being one of his main customers his brother
Paul Simon.
Soon
after Paul´s birth his family moved to a new house placed in 70 street of Kew
Garden Hills, a middle-class suburb, with a wide Jewish community, belonging to
the di
strict
of Forest Hills. Here Paul would spend his childhood and part of his youth. He
attended to public school 164, where one of his greatest passions would awake:
baseball, which leaded him to belong to several school teams and to participate
in the child leagues. He was a bit shy and did not frequent the gangs, but the
company of some eccentrics boys. Being 9 years old, in 6th degree, he
became friend of another Jewish who lived three blocks away from his home, and
whom he already knew by his performances in the religious ceremonies of the
local synagogue. But Paul paid real attention to that guy after having listened
to him singing “They Tried To Tell Us We´re Too Young”
in a school event where he was attonished by the adoration that girls felt by
him because of his nice voice, so Paul decided to learn singing to impress the
girls. That boy of angelic voice was Art Garfunkel and their deep friendship began when played
together in a school play of Alice In Woderland, where Paul played the role of
White Rabbit and Artie was the Cheshire Cat. Paul´s first try with singing was
with a sound track of
Alice in Wonderland. When the father listened to Paul he encouraged him.
Nevertheless the first song that he tried seriously was ”Anywhere I Wander”. As it is
logical the friendship of Paul and Art took them to sing together on their free
times, when they also listened on the radio to their rock and doo-woop idols.
The Garfunkel´s parents had two tape recorders with which both pals did
experiments on mixing their voices and harmonizing. At the age of thirteen
years, Paul and Art being aimed by the Bronx Robert&Johnny´s hit named “(You´re
Mine And) We Belong Together”, they made their debut in a school event with a
rendition a capella of “Sh-Boom”. In just a short time they formed their own
street group of doo-woop which was named
“The Sparks”, formed with several boys of the district. Short after they changed
the name by the one of “The Pep-Tones”, but immediately they split. Nevertheless
Paul and Art began to be usual performers in events and balls at their school.
In 1955 they wrote their first song, titled “The Girl For Me”.
In 1957, while they attended a
course in the Parson Junior High, they dedicated their free short whiles to roam
by the offices of the musical promoters, although without success. But a song
that they wrote together and
that
they had already performed at some high school balls seemed to have good
acceptance, so they decided to risk and to make one cheap demo of it. So they
recorded it directly on acetate, without using tape in the Sander´s Recording
Studio. The song was “Hey, Schoolgirl”. Hanging around, while he looked for a
hollow in one of the rooms of recording, there was a songs hunter called Sid
Prosen, who listened the song and said to them they were the greatest from the
Everly Brothers and that he would become them stars. After contacting with their
parents and reaching an agreement, they signed a contract with Big Record, the
label owned by Prosen. Sid Prosen himself was who looked for the stage names for
them:Tom Graph for Garfunkel and Jerry Ladis for Simon. According to them it
seems Art took the Graph name because this was the name of the paper that he
used to follow hit records in the charts. On the other hand Paul used the Landis
last name because of Sue Landis, a girlfriend of his at high school. Under the
name of Tom&Jerry their firts single was released with Hey, Schoolgirl, on A
–Side and being B-Side Dancin´ Wild. The record climbed to Top 100 of the
Billboard, where it would remain 2 weeks, reaching position 57. In New York they
went up Top 10. Altogether they sold 100,000 copies and with the 2,000 dollars
of his royalties Paul bought a car, a red convertible Impala that finished
burning in front of the house of Artie. Their first performance as Tom&Jerry
took place in the Harford State Theatre, where they constituted the white touch
of the show, because they shared poster with La Vern Baker, Little Joe the
Thriller and Thurston Harris. Their own parents took them by car to there. They
were paid 400 dollars. The culminating point arrived on November 22 1957 when,
dressed in red jackets, they appeared in the famous program of TV America
Bandstand, where did play-back of Hey Schoolgirl after Jerry Lee Lewis had
performed Great Balls Fire. Later Sid Prosen paid 200 dollars in order to they
could sing his song in the show of Wing Freed.
Surprisingly in 1958 Paul Simon solo recorded a single for Big Record under the pseudonym of True Taylor, whose A-Side was True Or False, a composition of his father, and in the B appeared Teenage Fool. This fact was considered by Garfunkel like a treason by Paul and Artie never forgave him and it would mark very negatively their relations on forthcoming years. Later, throughout 1958, Tom&Jerry released the singlesOur Song/Two Teenagers, My Story/Don´t Say Good Bye and Baby Talk/Two Teenagers, all which were a flop, so the partnership was broken, although in 1961 and 1962 they released two more singles named I´ll Drown My Tears (on Mercury label) and Surrender, Please Surrender (with ABC-Paramount), which also happened unnoticed.
In 1959, after their rupture
like pair and with the relations between both somewhat tense, Paul registered in
Queens University to graduate in English language, but unlike Artie (enrolled in
the University of Columbia, where he studied
mathematics), he remained bound to the record world and in Queens he met Carole
King (then named Klein) with whom he formed the duo The Cosiness, dedicated to
write songs and to do demos for stars of that timet like Dion or Fabian. Paul
used to play guitar and bass and Carole piano and drums. To Be With You,
recorded by the Passions in 1959, was their most important hit. The fundamental
thing of this period is that Simon became familiar with the work in the studio
to such an extent that he would get to become a virtuoso of the recording
techniques, which would mark in a substantial way all his later work. From 1959
Paul synchronizes his demos making with an erratic musical career, sometimes
like a soloist and other times being member of several bands. His solo work
begins that same year under the aka of Jerry Landis, writing songs, sometimes in
collaboration with his brother Eddie, all in the the sugar style that was
fashionable in this
period, and with the obsession to get again a new hit, but the closest he was of
it was in 1962 with The
Lone Teen Ranger, his best song of this period, a delirious parody of the famous
TV series Lone Teen Ranger, with which he reached nº 97 in the charts. One night
in 1960 Simon performed like Jerry Landis in a promotional event at the Jewish C
enter
of Forest Hill, where he met a band named The Crew Cuts, created in 1956 by
Michael Borack. They played I´ve Told Every Little Star and Paul was so
pleasantly amazed by them that he suggested they would play together at the end
of that summer. In September the group joined in Paul Simon´s home and they
rehearsed Motorcycle, later that song was released on single, acting Paul as
lead vocal and producer of the track which would get to reach position 99 in the
charts of 1961. In order to record this single the group decided to change the
name happening to be called Tico&The Triumphs, being Tico Marty Cooper, one of
the band members. Later other singles were an true flop and at the end of 1963
Simon left his collaboration with them. Also in 1960 a band named Th
e
Mystics proposed Paul to be their soloist. They gave Paul the chance to choose
his way of being paid: a percentage in the royalties that generated records
or by a fixed one of 100 dollars by collaboration. Simon chose
the last option and was his only success because all the records by The Mystics
were a flop. With them Paul recorded All Through The Night (1960); Tell The
Stars (1962) and Let Me Steal Your Heart Away, the former was writen by Paul.
In 1963 Simon approaches to the
folk scene and begins to sing songs of the American popular repertoire and to
write stuff of noticeable social thematic, moving away from
the
conventional love songs that characterized his previous period, becoming a
familiar face of the Village, the New York district epicenter of this musical
style. Thus it was usual to see Paul playing by the nights in some clubs
dedicated to this style like the Gerde´s Folk. At the end of year he reunited
again with Art Grafunkel, and they began to try a repertoire with traditional
and modern folk songs and some new songs that Simon had writen in this same way.
In September 1963 they made their folk debut as Jerry Landis&Tom Graph, acting
in the mentioned Gerde´s Folk City Club. Among the songs they played were
Sparrow and Bingo. At the end of 1963, after the Kennedy´s murder Paul Simon
begins to write The Sound Of Silence, his first materpiece.
Paul spent summer 1963 at Paris
(France) living a really bohemian life and busking in the streets and at
underground stations. There he contacted with Dave McCausland who ran a folk
club in England. He offered Simon to join to english folk club circuit what he
would do next two years
.
To the thread of his artistic activity Simon got graduated in Queens and to
please his parents he attended during six months to the Law College, but he
hated these studies and left them in February of 1964. The next month he took an
airplane to Paris and on April 11 he was at London, playing the next day in the
Brentwood Folk Club of Essex. The U.K. period of Paul was specially pleasant and
fruitful, in fact, in one recent interview, he declared that it was the best one
of his life. There he was protected and helped by Judith Piepe, a social
assistant with deep links in the bohemian musical scene who sheltered at her
flat many musicians like Al Stewart, Jackson C. Frank, Davy Graham and many
others, whose contact was stimulating for Simon. There he also met Kathy, a shy
and a little talkative girl from Essex with whom he fell in love and who was his
musa and his support during this time. Kathy inspired to him one of his most
famous songs. In this dynamic artistic atmosphere the creativity of Simon went
off and in his two U.K. stays he wrote most of the stuff that would appear in
the three first records by Simon&Garfunkel. In order to earn some money he was
dedicated to play in the english folk circuit, doing never ending tours of one
performance per night in clubs from London, Cambridge, Liverpool, Widness and
many other towns, what he reflected so well in his song Homeward Bound. He also
performed at Edimbourgh Folk Festival. Paul also recorded a single in the label
Oriole Record, still under the pseudonym of Jerry Landis, including the songs
Carlos Dominguez and He Was My Brother. This single would be released later in
US under the pseudonym of Paul Kane. In the summer Garfunkel joined him and also
was lodged at Piepe´s home. They both did several performances in some clubs.
After this summer minitour they both returned to US and there Tom Wilson
contracted them for the CBS, recording their first LP as Simon&Garfunkel:
Morning 3 A.M., released October 1964. The album contained versions of
traditional folk songs, Dylan´s song and part of the new stuff that Paul had
writen in England, including the acoustic version of The Sound Of Silence, but
commercially it was an absolute flop, so the pair separated and in January Paul
returned to London to Judith Piepe´s home. Judith got a work for him in the BBC
radio in a religious program called Five To Ten, where she herself did several
pitious commentaries to the thread of the Paul´s songs. Surprisingly the songs
pleased very much to the radio audience and many phone calls were received in
the radio station requesting the broadcast of more Simon´s songs and asking
information about the artist and his discography. That caused that the English
CBS would release, on May 1965, a record with the songs of the radio (except for
Bad News Feelin´), nowadays famous and hard to find: The Paul Simon Song Book,
which was recorded in a marathon session of studio work, all acoustic, just Paul
and his guitar. Simon also retook his performances in folk clubs, many times
accompanied by other Americans like Tom Paxton, Carolyn Hester and Buffy
St.Mary, and specially resumed his relations and collaborations with an English
composer who was mentioned previously: Al Stewart, being Simon lodged at his
home some time.
Simon & Garfunkel
Meanwhile in the U.S.A. a DJ of
radio station from Boston very popular among the university students began to
broadcast frequently The Sound Of Silence, and suddenly the college students
phoned in a great number requesting the song to be aired. The local agent of the
CBS phoned to CBS headquarters informing about the phenomenon and recommending
the launching of a single with this song. The producer Wilson, without counting
on Paul nor Art, added to the original recording a rythmical section and an
electrical guitar, following the wake of the folk-rock sound, then so
fashionable. The result was a so sweeping success that in November 1965 CBS
contacted with Simon so that he would return to US to be united to Garfunkel and
to initiate the single p
romotion.
In January 1966 The Sound Of Silence reached nº 2 of the sales charts in the
U.S, with over a million sold copies. In March 1966 Wednesday Morning 3 A.M.LP
was reissued reaching now position 30 in the charts. A new Simon&Garfunkel album
was released, having been recorded in a hurry to take advantage of the success.
This new album was The Sound Of Silence, nourished essentially by good part of
the stuff appearing in the english Song Book of 1965, but this time with
folk-rock versions of the songs, including the hit Sound Of Silence. The new LP
would reach # 21 in US charts. In June of this year a new single named
I Am A Rock taken from this LP, reached #3 in US Top Ten. Most of the year the
pair was dedicated to tour through American colleges, with acoustic
performances. This tour had an European leg, visiting London, Paris, Amsterdam
and Stockholm. After the summer new studio recordings began, fruit of which
would be the singles The Dangling Conversation, in September, and A Hazy Shade
Of Winter, in December, all which reached respectively #25 and #13 in the charts. At the end of year a new
album was released: Parsley, Sage, Rosemary&Thyme.The tittle track was an
ancient traditional English song that Simon learned from Marty Carthy during his
London stays and it became golden record, reaching the #4 in Us Top Ten. The
PSR&T promotion was carried out in 1967 with a small tour focused on New York
and the environs and a brief leg to the United Kingdom, with perf
ormances
in London, Manchester and Birmingham. But the fundamental thing of this year for
Simon&Garfunkel was their involvement with the Monterey Pop Festival, which took
place on 16th June, being Paul Simon one of festival organizers.
There in a remarkableble performance, really amused and spontaneous, they
premiered Punky´s Dylemma. It is the time when Paul, who moved temporarily to
the psicodelic California, begins to experiment with some drugs, specially the
marijuana, becoming fond of it, but also the LSD. As much Punky´s Dilemma as
Fakin´ It, released as a single on August, were writen under the effects of
narcotics. Nevertheless the acid was something that Simon soon left, since their
effects got to scare to him, specially when a dawn, under the action of the same
one, he forced CBS to transfer a recording equipment to his home, where they
recorded for hours their bright star sound hallucinations. In 1971 Paul would
completely leave marijuana and tobacco, because he noticed that they affected to
his health and voice. At the end of 1967 Mike Nichols decided Paul Simon would
compose the soundtrack for his new film The Graduate. Paul was writing a song
named Mrs.Roosevelt, but when Nichols listened to it he thought that it
reflected very well the character of the central role in the film, so it was
renamed Mrs. Robinson, like the movie character and included in the soundtrack
The
Graduate sound track was released early 1968 reaching #1 in charts during 9
weeks and getting a new golden record for the pair. The vinyl contained old
Simon&Garfunkel songs and only Mrs Robinson as new stuff. On May a new record of
the duo was out: Bookends. The A-Side portrayed through several songs the
different ages and stages that human being passes through his lifetime, with its
consequent problems and hard situations. The B-Side included a new version of
Mrs. Robinson and a compilation of the most recent singles. The album sold over
1 million copies and was nº 1 seven weeks. In June the single Mrs. Robinson was
#1 in the charts for three weeks and sold over 1 million. In March and July
Simon&Garfunkel did a sweeping minitour through London, Edimburg and Manchester
and on August 23 they performed in Hollywood Bowl,L.A. At this moment the pair
was on the top of their vocal interpretation, being their harmonizing just
perfect. In summer 68 Paul begins to write The Boxer, being finished at the end
of this year. On 1969 Mrs. Robinson got two Grammy awards as Record of the Year
and Best Contemporary Pop Interpretation in the section of Duet or Band. On May
the single The Boxer was released and it would rise in the charts up to #7,
being another masterpiece by Paul Simon. This year the pair synchronized the
recording of a new LP with a marathon tour, but the studio workings were
repeatedly interrupted by the Garfunkel escapes who had often to be absented by
his role in Mike Nichols film Catch 22. Paul considered it a treason. At the
same time important tensions in the partnership arose. Simon´s tolerance to
Artie and producer Roy Halee decissions on his songs was already next to zero.
Paul did not believe right that his point of view was worth only one vote, in
equality of conditions, with the other two. The culminating point came with
Art´s refusal to record the Simon´s song Cuba Si, Nixon No, whereas Paul
reaction was not accepting a classic version of Feuille
s-Oh
intended by Garfunkel. So Paul recorded good part of the new disc by himself,
rerecording his voice several times on some tracks. Another tension element came
when AT&T firm proposed them to record a musical comedy for TV, what supposed an
extra work which added new trobles to their partnership. In the summer of 1969
Paul Simon got married to Peggy Harper, native from Tennessee and older than
him, who was Mort Lewis
wife, the Simon´s manager. On November 30 the special program of TV under the
title of Songs Of America was aired, although before that there was a bitter
controversy with AT&T, because the program finished being a hard liberal and
antimilitarist plea, with critics to American society. On February
1970 was released the album Bridge Over Troubled Waters that stayed nº 1 in the
charts during 10 weeks (single of the same title was 6 weeks) and which would
sell 11 million copies. It was needed over 800 hours of recording for its
elaboration and included a live rendition of Bye Bye Love, a hit of the Everly
Brothers, the pair S&G admired so much. In May of this year the single Cecilia,
taken from this LP, raised to #4 and sold 1 million, whereas the single El
Condor Pasa reached position #18 in October. The pair started a world-wide tour
that took them to Europe, but the tension between both them could
be
noticed in some performances. The tour ended on 18th July at Forest
Hill Tennis Club, in the district where they lived their early years.
Although there was no
formal declaration the pair split. The interest of Artie was focused on his
movie career and music seemed not to be interesting for him those days. On the
other side Paul did not want anybody would take decissions on his work anymore
and needed freedom so that his creative genius was not limited, because he was
interested on exploring new musical paths. Besides working together was not
amusing nor stimulating to them anymore, so it would explain this civilized
divorce, which happened on the top of their fame and success, and which was
carried out against the pressures, wishes and interests of their record label
and their fans.
Paul
Simon spent most year 1971 writing and recording the songs for his first solo
record after S&G break up. He travelled to Kingston (Jamaica) and Paris for
recordings. On 16th March 1971 S&G appeared together in Grammy Awards gala,
where they swept. Bridge Over Troubled Waters, LP and single, obtained six
awards. In August 1971 Paul participated in the No Nukes Rally at Shea Stadium,
but the noisy and thoughtless crowd caused that in the middle of Scarborough
Fair he stopped and left the stage. By these years Paul took several personal
decisions. First it was of financial order and it was he decided to invest his
money in values of the State, what he has maintained invariably all his life.
The other decision had to do with real estate. Thus he bought an apartment in
the east coast, a housefield in Bucks County (Pennsylvania) and a triplex in the
Upper East Side of NY, in front of Central Park, which had belonged previously
to the guitarist Andrés Segovia, being this last his usual residence during most
of his life. Years after he has bought a house next to the sea at Mountain View,
near NY and in 2002 year, because of sept 11 2001 sad happenings, he has moved
to Connetticut. Also he established his offices in the famous Brill Building of
NY, dedicated exclusively to the record industry, in memory of his frequent
rambling here during his adolescence and youth in search of an opportunity. In
February 1972 Paul Simon album was released, being first LP by Paul solo after
the S&G break up. It is a heterogenous disc in which the author plays in many
different musical styles, as
much
to point out a difference with the previous period as estimating his own
possibilities and to demonstrate that he was versatile. Thus here it appear
reggae, South American music, blues, jazz, country and calypso. It got golden
record, selling over 1 million copies and reaching position 4 in the charts. As
singles the most outstanding tracks were extracted: Mother&Cild Reunion (#4 in
the charts); Me&Julio Down By The Schoolyard (#22) and Duncan (#52). In April
1972 Simon&Garfunkel performed together again in the Madison Square Garden of NY
promoting the Mc Govern´s presidential campaign. On June 72 CBS released a S&G
Greatets Hits album which in July was golden record and according to RIIA is the
best ever sold album of PS or S&G reaching until 2002 year over 13 millions of
sales. In September 1972 his son Harper James was born. Paul has always felt
deep love for him and from his very early years Harper accompanied his father on
tours, soundchecks and recordings. Nowadays Harper has become a good guitarist,
having played as session musician in the album Songs From The Capeman and
performing frequently The Boxer with Paul during 1999, 2000, 2001 and 2002
Simon´s Tours. Harper Simon belongs to the band Menlo´s Park which played as
opener for Paul Simon in the venues of UK last 2002 year. To him Paul would
write
the
lullaby St. Judy´s Comet.
Early 1973 Paul Simon returned to the studio spending 6 months to finish his new album, what, by now, is the album that Simon has ever recorded in less time. It was There Goes Rhymin´ Simon, released on June, being one of his most optimistic and best works, and where gospel is the king. Once again the collaboration with many musicians, as in the previous LP, was a constant. If in his first solo record they were Airto Moreira, Stephan Grappelli or Urubamba, in this new one they were Claude Jetter, the Rochetes or The Dixie Hummingbirds, to mention to some. Also this is the first Paul´s work in many years without the producer and sound engineer Roy Halee, (because he was busy recording the Garfunk solo record) so Phil Ramone was instead of him. Ramone was producer and engineer on Me&Julio and would become Simon´s usual collaborator in next records. The album reached nº 2 in the charts, winning a golden record. Two tracks from it were taken for singles having become great standards in Simon´s discography:Kodachrome and Loves Me Like A Rock, both got to be nº 2 in charts and sold over 1 million copies each one. In January of 1974 it was released American Tune as single which climbed to #35 and it was elected by Rolling Stone readers as Song of Year 1973. In May, one month before the album launch, Paul Simon began his first solo tour doing it in Boston. Urubamba and the The Jessy Dixon Singers performed with Paul who rearranged some old stuff from S&G years in gospel and southamerican style. In April 1974 a live record from this tour was released: Live Rhymin´, obtaining a #33 in charts. All over 1974 Simon was dedicated to write and to record his following album.
Year
1975 marked Simon deeply since he divorced of Peggy Harper. October was the
chosen month to launch an appetizer from his new LP, it was the single Gone AT
Last, an optimistic upbeat gospel sung with Phoebe Snow, and backed by the Jessy
Dixon Singers, which climbed to the #23 in the charts. On 18 in this month
Simon&Garfunkel appeared in the TV program Saturday Night Live, singing together
old songs and promoting their imminent new records in solitaire. In this same
year the TV program Parkinson Show dedicated a special to Paul, who performed
some of his new songs. In December Still Crazy After All These Years album was
released. It was made with the best session musicians of the moment and it was
deeply inspired by the jazz. It is a work of great maturity directed not to the
young public, usual fan to the pop music, but to an already mature generation,
like Paul himself, who until then had
stayed
away from the pop-rock.
With this work Simon got to contact totally with that new audience and to take
them back into pop music. From this record, pop music stopped being something
exclusively directed to the adolescent masses. The lyrics, except for incursions
in the Jewish genocide or baseball, were marked by the hard experience of his
recent divorce. The album was a great success, getting nº 1 on charts and
selling over 1 million copies. There it was included the song My Little Town,
which also appeared in Artie´s new album released simultaneously with Still
Crazy. My Little Town was sung by S&G, being the only piece that Paul would
write for the pair after their break up. It was also a big hit peaking #9 in US
charts. My Little Town was premiered by Simon&Garfunkel, reunited
circumstantially for it, in the month of July during the CBS convention
celebrated in Ontario
(Canada). On October 1 1975 Paul Simon started a tour to promote this album,
accompanying to him Toots Thieleman on the harmonica and The Jessy Dixon
Singers. It went to New York, San Francisco, Amsterdam, Birmingham, Manchester
and London. In this last city the concerts were tremendous, being despicted by
the press as Superb Simon. The Palladium Theater was sold out the four days. The
BBC recorded in Dec 31 a
wonderful special named Simon 1976 Live In Concert which was aired next year. In
som
e
of these shows Garfunkel went up to the stage to sing with Paul My Little Town
and several old stuffs. In February 1976 50 Ways To Leave Your Lover was
extracted from this album and released as single climbing to #3 in US charts and
selling over 1 million copies. Paul Simon obtained two Grammy awards for Still
Crazy After All These Years, corresponding to Álbum of Year 1975 and to Best Pop
Male Vocal of 1975. In May
the title track was
released as single and it would reach position #40. In November 20 Simon
appeared as star guest in Saturday Night Live, where he sang several songs with
George Harrison. In this year he also appeared with his son Harper, in Sesame
Street, the infantile TV program, where they both sang Get Me Back by the
Beatles and others.
On January 19 1977 Paul Simon
participated in the Jimmy Carter gala, whose candidacy he
had
supported. After so many solo hits Paul considered what more he could do to enrich
and to give amplitude to his career, because he began to be very bored of the pattern:
writing-recording-promotion and he wanted to do something different. Then his
friend Woody Allen proposed him to take part in his film Annie Hall (1978) where
he played the role of Tony Lacey, a producer with no scruples. This experience
opened his mind to movies world and he decided to make his own film. Thus he
started conversations with his label, CBS, in order to they would produce the
idea that he had in mind, but CBS executives refused at all. It disappointed
Simon deeply who was not very friendly
with the label boss after pressures he suffered from him for a S&G reunion to
record together again
because of the success of My Little Town. So Paul contacted with Warner label
who agreed to produce, to promote and to distribute his film, offering to him in
addition a record contract where they granted to Simon total and unlimited
freedom and power on his next albums. The decision was clear and Paul Simon
decided to break with CBS, for which they had hard conversations and finally it
ended with an agreement by means of which the songwriter became unlinked to the
label having
to pay to CBS 1.5 million dollars and being compromised to release a new and
last album in that label. At first it
was planned that Simon would record an album where he would do renditions of
other artists stuff and including some duets with other singers from CBS, that
album was planned to be named Blantant Hits.
Finnaly it was released Greatest Hits, Etc, containing his best solo stuff in
CBS and two new unreleased songs: Stranded In A Limousine and Slip Slidin´ Away,
becoming this last one into one of the classic ones in Paul´s repertoire and
reaching position #5 in the charts as single. On October 18 Simon joined
Garfunkel to receive an extraordinary award in the 25th anniversary
of the British record industry; the award
was granted to them by Bidge Over Troubled Waters as better non English single
and better LP of last the 25 years. During the recording of the show they were
forced to repeat six tim
es
the perfomance of Old Friends/ Bookends because of a failure in the TV cameras.
On November 12 Paul appeared again in Saturday Night Live singing You´re Kind
with the support of Toots Thieleman. His appearances in this comedy of cult
will be frequent all over Simon´s life because he is close friend of Lorne
Michaels, producer of SNL, who also lives in the same Simon´s apartments
building in NY. In March 1978 Garfunkel releases the album Watermark where
Paul sings alongside Artie and James Taylor in a remake of What A Wonderful
World. On 22 in this month the NBC airs the telefilm The Rutles, a Beatles
parodia where Paul Simon appears on a camaeo in an interview where he asserted
that the Rutles had not
influenced his work. In December NBC aired a special program dedicated to Simon
and named The Paul Simon Special, where he did splendid versions of some stuff
from his catalogue and where one
feels the fine jewish humor of this newyorker singer/songwriter and his capacity
to laugh at himself. In the show appeared among others, his friend Chevy Chase,
Art Garfunkel, Toots Thielemans and the Jessy Dixon Singers. At that time Eddie
Baskin, photographer of the Saturday Night Live, was Paul´s girlfriend. Also at
the end of this year Simon became co-owner of the basebal team Philadelphia
Furies.
In
February 1979 Paul Simon signed a new contract with the Warner label, after
having had to compensate to CBS with 1.5 million dollars but later Simon carried
out a long judicial litigation against this label because they refused
to pay him for his records royalties. This lawsuit would end giving reason to
Paul, who also would obtain that Warner took control and reissued all his solo
records previously released by CBS. He spent the rest of the year working on the
script and the soundtrack of his forthcoming movie. In 1980 Paul appeared in The
Muppets Show. Simon spent first half of 1980 dedicated to finish the filming of
One-Trick-Pony, although on March 15 he appeared again in SNL singing with James
Taylor. In August the soundtrack album named One-Trick-Pony was released with
the songs that he
wrote
for the movie and which would peak #12 in US charts. In September the single
Late In The Evening reached #6 in the charts. Although the album sales were good
it was pretty dissapointing in comparison with the great success of his previous
album Still Crazy. On September 12 a promotional tour for this record started
widespreading over U.S. and Europe, where it visited Vienna, Munich,
Paris, London, Amsterdam, Frankfurt and Brussels. Paul performed with a band
composed by the session musicians with whom he had recorded the album and who
also they were actors in the film. The performance of October 8 in the Upper
Darby Tower Theatre in Philadelphia was recorded and aired partially as a
special by Warner TV under the title of Paul Simon In Concert, also released
later as laser disc and home video and as a bootleg named Live In The Tower. In
the October 13 concert, his birthday, in Texas, Carrie Fisher, Paul´s new
girlfriend,
went
to the stage and sang with him Bye Bye Love. On November 6 at the Hammersmith
Odeon of London Simon spent 1.000 pounds to invite all the crowd to have a
drink, because when he asked at the end of the concert, after many encores, what
else he could do for them, one guy shouted to him to invite everybody some
drinks. One-Trick-Pony film was released the in the U.S on October 1. Simon
wrote the script and the sound track and reserved the main character for
himself. The movie is about Tony Levin, a musician tired of clubs circuit and
only remembered by his only ever hit in the 60s with an antimilitarist song and
who parallelly is involved in the divorce of a woman whom he loves but who does
not understand his way of life. Evidently the film reflects many experiences of
Simon himself, as well as many of his fears and obsessions. Disgracefully the
film welcome was very discreet, because it does not reflect the glamorous and
glittering side of the rock but its most cruel side, and for that reason the
movie tone is of a worthy pesimism. Finally the Warner decided not to include it
in the commercial circuits of theatres and to distribute it on the cable
television, what unpleased Simon. At the end of year his love affair with
Fisher, with whom he had practically been coexisting for two years, entered in a
stormy moment what caused him anxiety and depression, so by suggestion of a
friend Paul looked for help in a psychoanalyst at Los Angeles.
On
October 3 1981 Paul Simon performed in the Bread&Roses Benefit Concert at the
Berkeley Greek Theater where he did an acoustic concert, he invited Joan Baez to
sing with him The Boxer and did a premiere of Song About The Moon. By this time
Paul resumed his friendship with Art Garfunkel and they both attended together
to social events in NY, for that reason when Simon was proposed to do a benefit
concert in Central Park he asked Artie to join him at the end to sing together
some oldies but after realizing that their respective careers were in a bad
point about sales and acceptance they decided that it would become a
Simon&Garfunkel concert. The S&G Central Park concert, celebrated September 19
1981, was an astounding musical and sociological event of high success that
overflowed any kind of expectations with world-wide repercussion. They sang
together old so
ngs
and some Simon solo stuff and also each one did some numbers without the support
of the other. In April 1982 a double live LP of this concert was released and
they announced that they had decided, given the flattering economic perspective,
to do a world-wide tour of Simon&Garfunkel which would have a second leg in 1983
summer all over US. Nevertheless as the performances progressed the bad feelings
between both began again, so they did not speak one each other and they were
together only on stage. In the meantime, to take advantage of the hit, they
thought about releasing a new S&G album with the new stuff that Paul had writen
and it was intended to be named Think To
o
Much, but Simon said to Art that he would not allow any kind of interferences
from him on production, arrangements nor
recording: the old S&G patterns was buried, now Paul was the one who would
decide. Evidently this was unpleasant for Garfunkel who
spent 1982 and most 1983 checking his vocal contribution very slowly, so the
record release was delayed time after time. Finally Simon locked Artie in the
recording studio with Roy Halee to add his vocals on the tracks, but the day
before his wedding with Carrie, when inviting him to it by telephone, Paul let
him know that he had erased his voice from masters and that the album would be
released definitively like a new album by Paul Simon solo. It was clear for Paul
that it was not worthy, but by economic reasons, the participation of Artie.
Paul also believed that his new songs were very personal, about his love affair
with Carry Fisher, so he did not want them sung by other guy. On August 16 1983,
on a stop in the middle of the S&G American tour, Paul Simon married to actress
Carrie Fisher (they both were living together last 5 years), in his triplex by
Central Park, in a traditional Jewish ceremony, because they both are jews. In
October, after the tour ended and after the definitive S&G break up, Paul spent
his honeymoon with Carrie at the Nile, joining them later Garfunkel with his
girlfriend Penny Marshall, what was really surprising after having happened such
an unpleasant facts. The marriage, preceeded by a long engagement with multiple
disputes and ruptures, was a failure and nine months later, after Carrie
miscarried a baby, they divorced in April 1984. These hard relations were
described years later by Fisher in her novel Postcards From The Edge that it
would become a great success, as well as the film based on the book.
In November the new Simon solo
album,actually intended as S&G, was released now entitled as Hearts And Bones.
In spite of the title track is a masterpiece, it was a flop, reaching only up to
#35 i
n
US charts, whereas the single Allergies obtained a rickety #44. Evidently his
fans were disappointed by not having been the S&G
album, but also it was clear that the pessimistic tone that marks this record to
a lesser extent was not the suitable one to attract
the public. Simon´s troubles and ups and downs with Carrie Fisher and with Peggy
Harper are reflected here. Also music was irregular and in some songs Simon
seemed to be trying to update his music to the fashionable styles in those
years. This album includes several masterpieces and some of the worst Paul´s
songs. Definitively his life and his work seemed to be in an impasse. In August
1984 Simon started a small tour through U.S. with long
acoustic concerts, only accompanied by his guitar where he demonstrated his
wonderful skills like guitar player.
In 1984 her friend Heidi Berg gave him a bootleg named Gumboots: Acordion Jive Hits No.2 and Paul Simon was amazed by South African music so he spent that year looking for more South African artists records. On January 25 1985 the record We Are The World was released to benefit USA For Africa. Paul collaborated there alongside other first class singers. On February 1985 Simon traveled to Johannesburg where he spent 17 days recording at Ovation Studio, doing later recordings in NY, Louisiana, London and L.A.: a new album was in the way. In September 1986 the Graceland album was launched becoming a world-wide phenomenon of deep repercussions. The LP reached #3 in the charts and it got platinum disc. It is a fusion of the South African mbaqanga and mbube rythms with the American pop appearing collaborations by South African Ladysmith Black Mambazo, Ray Phiri and others alongside the americans Linda Rondstadt, Everly Brothers, Los Lobos and others. It meant the entrance of ethnic music into the pop-rock mainstream. Also it was the world-wide consecration of Simon like one of the greatest singer/songwriters. At the same time it was a success of sales with over 8 millions sold copies. In October the single You Can Call Me Al reached #4 and was promoted by an original videoclip with Chevy Chase and Paul Simon. In December the single The Boy In The Bubble reached #33 in UK also promoted by another surprising videoclip where 3D animation effects by computer were used by first time for this propose. The single with the album titletrack reached #81 in the charts. Nevertheless the ANC and the UN blacklisted Simon because they considered Paul had broken the world boycott to South Africa apartheid by using Southafrican musicians. Finally both organizations understood that the punishment to the regime of the apartheid did not have to suppose a penalty added to its victims and what Simon had done was to promote the black South African culture giving it a world-wide chance of being well known, so in January 1987 Paul had a press meeting in London where he could announce that these organizations had erased him from such black lists.
In
February 1987 an universal phenomenon of masses started in Rotterdam with the
Graceland Tour which would take Simon all over the world during next two years.
Alongside him Ray Phiri, Hugh Masekala, Miriam Makeba and the Ladysmith Black
Mambazo. The most memorable moment was without a doubt the performance in Harare
(Zimbawe) that was filmed by Warner in a video that swept both on audience and
sales. The black point were the radical Antiapartheid groups shouting in front
of the Royal Albert Hall during the London performances in the month of April.
In 1986, while Paul Simon was recording the blockbuster "Graceland" album in Manhattan everyday, on his way to the recording studio, he passed a homeless woman. Over time, the two became friends. Struck by this woman's plight, Paul asked Irwin Redlener, M.D., a pediatrician and colleague from the "USA for Africa" project, to help him do something tangible for New York City's homeless population.
Together, they toured the squalid now-defunct Martinique Welfare Hotel. To their horror, they found more than a thousand hungry, homeless children living amidst squalor and poverty. Few of these children were receiving any basic health care. Determined to change this appalling situation, Paul and Irwin decided to do something that would make a difference. In 1987, they created The New York Children's Health Project, The Children's Health Fund's first mobile medical program. Medical teams aboard specially designed vans used state-of-the-art equipment and a computerized patient tracking system to bring much needed pediatric care to New York City's homeless children.
On
3rd December 1987 Paul Simon organized a beneficial macroconcert in
the Madison Square Garden of NY to benefit the Children´s Health Fund. In that
concert alongside Simon performed, among others, Bruce Springsteen, Joel, Dion,
Lou Reed, Chevy Chase and James Taylor. On 2nd March 1988 Paul Simon
performed Diamonds On The Soles Of Her Shoes with the Ladysmith Black Mambazo in
Grammy gala while Graceland album got one award as Record Of The Year. On
September 13 Simon appeared in the NBC TV program Coca Cola Presents Live: The
Hard Rock, where he performed with John Cougar Mallencamp. In November the
Warner released the Negotiations And Love Songs album, a kind of greatest hits
intended to take advantage of the Graceland hit. The cover showed a magnificent
photo of Paul made by the brilliant Mapplethorpe. In 1989 Graceland single got a
Grammy award as Record Of The Year.
On
January 1990 Simon&Garfunkel were inducted into Rock&Roll Hall Of Fame. In
February Paul did a fleeting appearance on stage in the benefit festival for the
Rainforest Foundation and in August he organized a benefit concert in the Deep
Hallow Ranch at Montauk, NY, near where he has his mansion, to raise funds to
protect this last remnant of a formerly extensive grassland and to restore and
maintain the health of maritime grasslands in Montauk and to protect Montauk
lighthouse and its environment. This benefit concert was also celebrated in
1991, 1992, 1993, 1994, 1995 and 1999 and alongside Paul also
featuring during these years Billy Joel, Willie Nelson, Mary Chapman Carpenter, Allman Brothers, Eddie
Brickel, Phoebe Snow, Jose Feliciano, James Taylor and Chris Botti among many
others. In 1994 funds from these concerts were used to purchase 45 acres of
Montauk Moorlands.
In
September 1990 The Rythm Of The Saints album was released. There Simon continues
exploring ethnic music, this time from Cameroun and Brazil, and incorporating it
to the American pop music; if something characterizes this record they are the
percussions and obscure lyrics. As in Graceland musicians from several countries
collaborate in this LP, like Olodum or Vincent Nguini. The record was a success
with over 4 million copies sold. A Videoclip of The Obvious Child song, picked
as single to promote the album, was recorded in Bahia (Brazil) with a street
perfomance by Olodum. This videoclip was imitated later by artists as Michael
Jackson. Another videoclip, the one for Proof, would show Paul with his friends
Steve Martin and Chevy Chase in an amused parody. On 2nd January 1991
the Born AT The Right Time Tour started in Tacoma, being a long world tour to
promote the album. On August 15 of a very crowded concert in Central Park was
celebrated, attending about 750.00 to 1 million people and it stays as a record
in pop-rock history because untill now this crowd has not ever be
en
overpassed. This concert would be aired by PBS and later it would be released as
home video. In 1991 Paul
published a book for children titled At The Zoo including illustrations by
Valerie Michaut.
On March 4 1992, sponsored by the MTV, Paul Simon did an acoustic concert with all the band from the Born AT The Right Time Tour, following the fashion of unplugged concerts from those days; it would be released later as bootlegs named Paul Simon Unplugged and Out Of Africa. Also in 1992 a PBS program based on his biography was aired and later released as a home video named Born AT The Right Time.
On May 30 1992 Paul married to singer Eddie Brickell (from The New Bohemians) in Montauk, NY. They met in music world by means of a friend. She is 24 years younger than Simon and with her Paul seems to have found happiness, quiet and serenity. They have had untill now three children: Adrian Edward (born in December 1992 in NY); Lulu (born in April 1995) and Gabriel Elijah (born in May of 1998). Among them Adrian seems to love music and has a beautiful voice. He has done back vocals on Father And Daughter, the song that Paul Simon has writen for The Wild Thornberrys movie in 2002. Adrian also attended to the first venues of 2002 tour where he played some percussions and took many pics of his father perfomances.
In March 1993 Paul sponsored a
new benefit concert for The Children´s Health Fund in the Dorothy Pavillion,
L.A., where Simon
&Garfunkel
sang together. Next monthes Simon participated in The Big Six-O, a tribute in
the Willie Nelson´s 60 anniversary,
when they both sang Graceland, a performance that they would repeat in Saturday
Night Live. In June Paul performed in the Farm Aid Concert and in September
Warner released a 3CD boxset to celebrate his 30 years career, including a new
song titled Thelma and one demo of Bridge Over Troubled
Waters. During the month of October Paul Simon celebrated this anniversary doing
several concerts at NY in the Paramount Theater. In the first part of the show
he performed with Garfunkel singing along their old hits as duo, and in the
second one he performed alone doing a retrospective of his solo career, being
supported by Ladysmith Black Mambazo. All proceeds went to The Health´s Children
Fund. In November Simon&Garfunkel would act in benefit concerts for the Bridge
School and for the The United Way (Can Concert) and in December this ephemeral,
circumstantial and nostalgic meeting of S&G would have an minitour to Singapour
and Japan.
On September 8 1995 Simon performed in the commemorative program of Oprah Winfrey show 10th anniversary where he premiered a brief version of the song Ten Years that he wrote to celebrate this anniversary on Oprah request . This song, true masterpiece, would be recorded later by Paul in its definitive and extended version to benefit the Rainforest Foundation which would release it included in its Carnival album. This same year Paul sang with Annie Lennox the rendition she did of Something So Right included in her album Medusa. In 1996 Paul Simon appeared in Go-Cat-Go album released as tribute to Carl Perkins, where, along his Harper son, he played in some songs and sang with Perkins the song Rockabilly Music, writen by both them and arranged and produced by Simon. In April 1997, to commemorate Graceland album 10th anniversary Warner reissued it as CDROM, including pics and video of the making of. In September Paul performed in the American Academy of Poetry and in November Sony launched a 3 CD boxset titled Old Friends, a compilation of Simon&Garfunkel´s work, with remastered songs and unreleased live perfomances and demos. Simon expressed his disagreement to this compilation because he was not consulted at all.
At
the end of 1997 Simon appeared in VH1 TV Storytellers, where he sang live
several songs from his forthcoming album Songs From The Capeman which was
launched on November 18 and included a selection of the songs that Simon had
been writing from 1991 for his musical The Capeman. According to Paul he began
to think about the history of the Capeman as musical in 1989, while he was
working in the The Rythm Of The Saints album. He declared it seemed a very New
York history with a very powerful musical potential and it offered the
opportunity to examine the changes of musical styles as the story progressed in
the time, between Puerto Rico and New York. He said he loved to write songs in
the style of 50s and also t
o
do them in Latin style, which at that time was a kind of exotic subculture in
New York. He said: “.... Since I have worked with Brazilian drums and
guitars of Western Africa, it was not a too great jump to think about Puerto
Rico music..”. The musical is based on the life of Salvador Agrón, a portorican
with hard childhood and marginal youth who being 16 old years was sentenced to
capital punishement after killing two white boys whom he confused with members
of a rival gang. After many pressures he was conmuted to life inprisonment. In
prision Agrón was redemtioned and he degreed in spite of the hostile atmosphere
and after 20 years of imprisonment he got freedom. For the lyrics Paul was
helped by the honored Nobel Derek Wilcott.
The
result, after almost eight troubled years of work, was a large set of songs that
recreate 50s doo-woop, the early rock and widely the portorican music, all in a
high musical quality being in this sense widely praised by the critics. The main
characters were done by Marc Anthony (young Agrón), Rubén Blades (adult Agrón)
and Ednita Nazario (Emerald).
Nevertheless the assembly of the musical show for Broadway suffered of important
failures on stage and the relatives of the assassinated ones by Salvador Agrón
tried to boycott the theatric perfomances. In this way the reviews were really
hard for the show. By disgrace some critics went too far and attacked Simon in a
really cruel way, they seemed to burst out a hatred to Simon that they had
been keeping inside from
long time. So after 59 anxious previews off-Broadway
including the replacement of Mark Morris by Jerry Zacks as director, the musical
Capeman opened on January 29 1999 in Broadway at the Marquis Theatre
but it was a flop and it closed in March 28 after hardly 68 shows with losses
over 11 millions dollars. Equally the Songs From The Capeman album also flopped
selling only 69.000 copies all over the world. An intended cast album was
undefinitively posposed.
In 1998 Paul was inducted into the Songwriter Hall Of Fame .
On april 25 1999 Simon did a lovely acoustic version of Mrs. Robinson in the Yankees Stadium of NY in the course of the tribute to Joe DiMaggio about whom Simon published an interesting article in the New York Times .
Paul Simon healed the injuries of those
undeserved reviews from The Capeman with the love of his family. Though it was
rumoured that he would leave music forever he was soon recuperated and he began
to think what would he do.
Then a concert promoter
approached him and proposed him to tour with Bob Dylan what he accepted. In this
way during july and september of year 1999 a really historic tour of high
success crossed all over US. His repertoire was based strongly on the albums
Graceland and The Rythm Of The Saints and including Trailway Bus from Capeman.
They
both had individual shows alternating for the opening, but there was a common
central show where Dylan and Simon
performed together some of their hits like Sound of Silence and Knocking On The
Heaven´s Door and also additioning other singers hits renditions like I Walk The
Line, Blue Moon Of Kentucky or That´ll Be The Day.
On november Sony Legacy released a CD named The Best Of S&G being intended as a comprehensive hits collection. On December 1999 Paul sang The Boxer at Sports Illustrated Gala and performed in the Telefood 99 Concert and Paul Giffin Tribute and in this same year, to pay tribute to The Dixie Hummingbirds career, he recorded with these ones and with Stevie Wonder a new rendition of Loves Me Like A Rock released in the tribute album named Magic In The Air. The all did a live perfomance of it in SNL. From March he was writing and recording for his forthcoming new album.
After so many years of stupid critics and after the cruel Capeman reviews it seems from year 2000 like if almost everybody had agreed it was time to honor Paul Simon as he deserves for his long musical and philantropist career plenty of the best music and of the best actions. In this way he seems having reached the status of loved pop icon, what is simply the truth. As we say in Spain it is never late for the good things.
After
having played in september in the Democratic Party Fundraiser Gala and in Jose
Felicano´s birthday concert Paul Simon released on October 3 2000 his new album
named You´re The One, a really nice collection of songs where he leaves ethnic
explorations to comeback to his songwriting roots. The lyrics, surprisingly
writen in 1 or 2 days, are the reflections of a mature wise man about love,
ageing, children or world, always in a quiet and optimistic mood. The
music
is really sophisticated and delightful, being guitars the stars in the tracks.
The only but one would say about this work is it does
not include any masterpiece in the Simon´s usual
standards. Though Paul started a frantic promotion of this album going in person
to TV shows and doing a terrific tour over Europe and US it was not properly
supported by Warner and radio stations did not pay any attention to it, because
these intelligent songs are, fortunately, far away from stupid commercial music.
Anyway the album reached #19 in US charts and it became gold, what is really
good. The tour venues from Paris were recorded by PBS and aired as a special TV
and later released as home video and DVD by Warner.
On February 20 2001 Simon was
honoured as People Of The Year by Musicares because of his wide charity works.
The next day Paul performed in the Grammy Awards gala the title track from his
new album which wa
s
nominee for Record Of The Year Award, though finnaly it did not get it. On March
19 Paul Simon was inducted into Rock&Roll Hall Fame as solo singer-songwriter. On March
29 he performed
Surfer Girl in The Brian Wilson Tribute Concert. Later he proposed Wilson to
tour with him all over US next summer what this one accepted, though they did
not have
any
perfomance together in the shows. In May Paul performed at New Orleans
Jazz&Heritage Festival and on June 14 he did it in Adopt A Minefield Benefit
Concert where he sang I´ve Just Seen A Face with Paul McCartney. On August it
was released the whole S&G remastered discography with bonus tracks also on a
special boxset edition entitled The Columbia Studio Recordings. On September 21
Paul performed in America: A TributeTo Heroes, a multinetwork fundraising for
fallen NYC servants during Sep 11 attacks, where he did a touching rendition of
Bridge Over Troubled Water. On 29 he appeared at SNL opening season playing The
Boxer. In Octuber he played in The Tercentennial Yale University Gala and in a
Children´s Health Fund benefit concert.
On
January 2002 Paul wrote a touching article in Rolling Stone remembering the late
George Harrison and took part in Muhhamed Ali´s Tribute where he sang a special
rendition of Diamonds On The Soles with new lyrics dedicated to this one and
being supported by Ladysmith Black Mambazo. On February 5 he did a new concert
for the Childrens Health Fund and on July he did a really wonderful tour in
Europe with highlights in Rome (where over 50.000 people attended), Montreu
x
Jazz Festival (where he was so well received) and in Liverpool were crowd was
really terrific singing along Paul in a really moving
show. Also on July Sony-Legacy label released the
first official live record by S&G named Live From NY City 1967, a really worthy
recording where Paul shows his best skills with the guitar and which received
very good reviews. On november 5 The Paul Simon Collection album was released.
It is a greatest hits record including songs from YTO and Capeman and some live
unreleased recordings. This album is thought as a kind
of promotion of the forthcoming new album by Simon planned for spring 2003 and
it is only distributed in US unlike the Shining Like A National Guitar, another
greatest hits released in 2000 year only in Europe. Both include different
remasters from Paul´s songs. On nov 26 The Wild Thornberrys Soundtrack is
released including the song Father And Daughter, writen by Simon for this movie.
On December he was honored by the Kennedy Center.
2003 – 2004: S&G FAREWELL TOUR
Father
And Daughter song got nomination for Oscars as best original song and Paul
performed it at 2003 Oscars Gala, but finally the prize went to Eminem. To
promote that nomination Paul performed the song on Good Morning America and on
David Letterman Show.
In
2003 S&G received a Grammy Award for their lifetime achievement and they both
performed an acoustic version of Sounds Of Silence in the Grammy Gala, being
their first appearance together in 10 years. The reaction from public, fans and
medias was so great that in a press meeting at Bottom Line Club in New York on
Sept 9 2003, Simon & Garfunkel announced in front of over 200 journalists they
would embark on their first concert tour in 20 years beginning on October 18 at
the Palace of Auburn Hills, Michigan. The “Old Friends: The 2003 Concert Tour”
visited arenas in approximately 30 cities across North America, concluding in
mid-December. The Simon & Garfunkel tour hit nº 1 in US 2003 year top 10
concerts.
In
2004 year they decided to do a second leg of this tour which started on June 10
at Albany and later brought them to Europe where S&G performed in 10 crowded
venues ending this tour on july 31 at Rome in front of 600.000 people in a
really wonderful event. Meanwhile in a radio interview to npr S&G declared that
a new song (their first one in 30 years) named Citizen Of The Planet would be
released, though it seems to be an outtake from the intended S&G´s 1983 Think
Too Much album recording sessions, an album later released in 1984 as Hearts And
Bones by Paul Simon solo.
From
2002 year Paul Simon is crossing a new block writing period, so his intended new
album is progressing very hardly. In 2004 he declared that new album was half
recorded (only 6 songs). Paul performed live a new song from that stuff named
Wartime Prayers on VH1 “In Tune”, where he sang along John Mayer some delightful
acoustic versions of Homeward Bound, The Boy In The Bubble, Slip Slidin´ Away
and Late In The Evening. The show was taped on May 14 2004 at the Rock and Roll
Hall of Fame and Museum and later aired on June 15, though the new song was
deleted.
Along
2003 and 2004 years Simon has been working in some TV projects. So in January
29, 2004 he travelled to Indian northern hill station of Dharamsala to interview
to exiled Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama for a documentary about Nobel
peace laureates. Also in 2004 Paul appeared on ''Three Sisters: Searching for a
Cure'', an enormously moving film by Jenifer Estess a 35-year-old theater and
film producer who was diagnosed with lateral sclerosis amyotrophic in 1997. Just
one of the memorable moments from this terrific film: Paul Simon serenading
Jenifer, by then in a wheelchair, with ''Diamonds On The Soles Of Her Shoes''
during his performance at a Project A.L.S. fund-raiser. The film was aired on
May 19, 2004 by HBO.
On May 17, 2004 Paul Simon received
the prestigious Joe DiMaggio Award in a gala dinner which took place at Waldorf
Astoria Hotel, N.Y. Simon was introduced by Phil Ramone and he performed Mrs.
Robinson along Garfunkel. The Joe DiMaggio Award
was established in 1999 in memory of baseball legend, Joe DiMaggio. Mr. DiMaggio
was a friend and generous supporter of Xaverian High School and was the first
individual to receive Xaverian's highest honor, the Concordia Award, in 1997.
Upon his death in 1999, Xaverian's Concordia Award was renamed the Joe DiMaggio
Award to memorialize Mr. DiMaggio's life-long commitment to the health,
education, and well being of America's youth. Short after on May 19 Paul Simon &
Art Garfunkel received a special honour from the Children's Health Fund because
of their a million bucks donation to CHF. They were honoured in a special
ceremony hosted by NBC's Al Roker at the fund's annual gala dinner.
The Paul Simon Studio Recordings Boxset was released on June 30, 2004. It contains all Simon’s solo albums digitally remastered with many bonus tracks: demos, work-in progress and alternate versions and unreleased songs. A really great and worthy box. Other important releases on these years were:
- The Paul Simon Song Book digitally remastered with bonus tracks
- The 1981 S&G´s concert in Central Park on DVD
- The PS 1980 Live At The tower show on DVD
On December 4, 2003 the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) certified 1972's "Simon & Garfunkel's Greatest Hits" (Columbia) notched the 14 million copies. In addition, 1999's "The Best of Simon & Garfunkel" was certified platinum last month for 1 million copies shipped. "Simon & Garfunkel's Greatest Hits" is the best ever sold PS or S&G album.
© Jose Maria Escudero 2004
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