Paul Frederick Simon
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Paul Simon, born October 13, 1941, in Newark, New Jersey, co-founded Simon & Garfunkel and wrote songs such as ‘The Sound of Silence’ and ‘Bridge Over Troubled Water. His 1986 album Graceland brought world music to a global audience. He has won 11 major awards including the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award and the Gershwin Prize.
Names, aliases, and relatives of Paul Simon — birth name, kin, and personal ties.
Paul Simon by the numbers — life, work, and family.
Paul Simon — early life, career, personal life, and legacy.
At Forest Hills High School in Queens, Paul Simon met Art Garfunkel. In 1957 they recorded Hey Schoolgirl as Tom and Jerry. Simon was born on October 13, 1941, in Newark, New Jersey, to Belle and Louis Simon, and grew up in Queens. He studied English at Queens College and briefly attended Brooklyn Law School before leaving to pursue music in 1964.
Simon and Garfunkel reunited in 1964 to record Wednesday Morning, 3 A.M., but after initial failure, Simon moved to England. Producer Tom Wilson overdubbed The Sound of Silence with electric instruments, launching the duo into folk-rock fame. Their 1966 album Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and Thyme included hits like Homeward Bound. In 1967, Mike Nichols asked Simon to score The Graduate, leading to Mrs. Robinson. The 1970 album Bridge Over Troubled Water was their final record. Simon pursued a solo career, releasing Paul Simon 1972 and Still Crazy After All These Years 1975. His 1986 album Graceland, incorporating South African mbaqanga, won a Grammy and sold millions. He also wrote and starred in the 1980 film One-Trick Pony.
Paul Simon married Peggy Harper in 1970; they divorced in 1975 and had son Harper born 1972. He married Carrie Fisher in 1983; they divorced in 1984 but dated until 1991. He married Edie Brickell in 1992; they have three children: Adrian 1992, Lulu 1995, and Gabriel 1998. Simon has a brother, Eddie Simon, and his parents were Belle and Louis Simon.
Paul Simon was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame twice: as a member of Simon & Garfunkel in 1990 and as a solo artist in 2001. He received the Kennedy Center Honors in 2002, the Gershwin Prize in 2007, and the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award. His incorporation of world music on Graceland and Rhythm of the Saints broadened pop music’s horizons. He is remembered for his poetic lyrics and melodies.
Browse the complete filmography of Paul Simon — every film, TV show, and documentary credit, ranked by popularity.
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Every award, honor, and recognition received by Paul Simon — Grammys, hall-of-fame inductions, civic honors, lifetime achievements.
A wall of memorable lines from Paul Simon — lyrics, interviews, and off-the-cuff remarks captured over a lifetime.
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; 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.
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.
If a Song Lives for a Couple of Years, It’s a Pretty Good Thing.
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.
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.
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.
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 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.
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 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.
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.
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 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.
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.
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.
Little-known facts about Paul Simon — origins, oddities, and behind-the-scenes details from a public life.
Among his generation, Paul Simon is one of the few artists to own the rights to all the songs he has written.
Even after divorcing Carrie Fisher in 1983, he continued to date her for eight more years until 1991.
Although left-handed, Paul Simon plays guitar right-handed.
After his breakup with Carrie Fisher, he was depressed for two years; his 1985 comeback album Graceland included songs about her.
In 1974, Simon attended a recording session with Art Garfunkel, John Lennon, and Harry Nilsson; Lennon directed the session, but Simon walked out after a clash on a cue, with Garfunkel apologizing.
He and Art Garfunkel wrote and sang songs as Tom and Jerry in the late 1950s.
The song Scarborough Fair/Canticles from the 1966 album Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and Thyme contains a counterpoint melody with antiwar lyrics; the alternate verse was removed from the single version, though the original appears in The Graduate soundtrack.
When asked if he regrets any recorded songs, Simon said no, but he would hate to be remembered for Feelin Groovy’.
Simon opened the first Saturday Night Live episode after 9/11 with The Boxer, followed by the exchange between Rudy Giuliani and Lorne Michaels about being funny.
He has collaborated multiple times with Chevy Chase, including on Saturday Night Live, The Paul Simon Special, and music videos You Can Call Me Al and Proof with Steve Martin.
Inducted as a solo artist into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2001.
He once co-hosted Saturday Night Live with Senator Paul Simon.
Despite hosting Saturday Night Live only four times, Simon is an honorary member of the Five-Timers Club.
A long-time friend of Lorne Michaels, Simon and his songs have appeared in numerous Michaels productions including Saturday Night Live, The Rutles: All You Need Is Cash, and Coneheads.
Elected to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of Simon & Garfunkel in 1990.
Before fame, Simon released minor hits under pseudonyms: Jerry Landis with Tom and Jerry, and later Tico as part of Tico & The Triumphs.
Simon generally considers his solo work, especially Graceland and The Rhythm of the Saints, superior to his Simon & Garfunkel output.
He did not want to return from England, where his solo album was successful, but Columbia Records invoked his contract with Art Garfunkel; his UK album went out of print until 2004.
Inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1982.
Simon admits to being highly competitive, which affected his relationship with Bob Dylan; he later became more friendly, even touring with Dylan.
He and Peter Gabriel were recognized for using their popularity to bring world music to a wider audience in the 1980s; Simon covered Gabriel’s Biko for a 2013 tribute album.
Simon has four children: Harper Simon b. 1972 with ex-wife Peggy Harper; and Adrian Edward Simon b. 1992, Lulu Simon b. 1995, and Gabriel Elijah Simon b. 1998 with wife Edie Brickell.
He released non-charting singles as True Taylor 1958 and Paul Kane 1963, and wrote for other artists as Jerry Landis; he also had minor hits as Tico & The Triumphs.
Simon & Garfunkel were voted the 40th Greatest Artists in Rock n Roll by Rolling Stone magazine.
He was in the fraternity Alpha Epsilon Pi with Art Garfunkel at Queens College.
Simon was designated a Kennedy Center Honors recipient in 2002, replacing Paul McCartney who withdrew due to a niece’s wedding.
The sleepy boy in his song ‘St. Judy’s Comet’ is his son Harper; the line child of my first marriage in Graceland also refers to Harper.
He is a life member of the Alpha Epsilon Pi fraternity.
Graduated from Queens College of the City University of New York.
Former son-in-law of Eddie Fisher and Debbie Reynolds; former brother-in-law of Todd Fisher; former half-brother-in-law of Joely Fisher and Tricia Leigh Fisher.
Awarded the first Gershwin Prize for Popular Music in 2007 by the Library of Congress.
Graduated from Forest Hills High School in Queens, New York in 1958.
He was slated to play Dunbar in Catch-22 before the character was dropped.
Like Steve Martin, Lorne Michaels, and Mike Nichols, Simon has had his portrait painted by artist Eric Fischl.
He is mentioned in the song Haiti by Caetano Veloso and Gilberto Gil.
Quick answers to the questions readers ask most about Paul Simon.
Celebrities similar to Paul Simon — same craft, ranked by reach.
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