WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:02.140 Welcome back to the Deep Dive. Today, we've got 00:00:02.140 --> 00:00:05.799 this huge stack of sources, interviews, articles, 00:00:06.339 --> 00:00:08.880 liner notes, and we're going to try and map out 00:00:08.880 --> 00:00:12.320 the career of, well, a true American genius, 00:00:12.699 --> 00:00:15.560 Paul Simon. And restless is the word we have 00:00:15.560 --> 00:00:17.039 to just keep coming back to. I mean, we're not 00:00:17.039 --> 00:00:18.739 just looking at a successful songwriter. That's 00:00:18.739 --> 00:00:20.960 that's underselling it. Yeah. We're talking about 00:00:20.960 --> 00:00:23.800 someone who kept changing the map of popular 00:00:23.800 --> 00:00:26.300 music. Yeah. over and over again from, what, 00:00:26.339 --> 00:00:29.899 1956 all the way to today. Exactly. So our mission 00:00:29.899 --> 00:00:31.960 here is to really get into how he managed that. 00:00:32.200 --> 00:00:35.479 How does a kid from Queens singing doo -wop become 00:00:35.479 --> 00:00:38.899 the voice of 60s folk? And then he pivots to 00:00:38.899 --> 00:00:41.219 become this global music synthesizer, pulling 00:00:41.219 --> 00:00:43.920 in sounds from South Africa, from Brazil. And 00:00:43.920 --> 00:00:45.439 that's the real question, right? What is that 00:00:45.439 --> 00:00:48.079 creative drive? Is he just restless? Is he constantly 00:00:48.079 --> 00:00:50.700 searching for something new or is he just allergic 00:00:50.700 --> 00:00:53.079 to repeating himself? And we should probably 00:00:53.079 --> 00:00:54.579 just lay out the credentials right away because 00:00:54.579 --> 00:00:56.439 the success is just staggering. We're talking 00:00:56.439 --> 00:00:59.880 16 Grammy Awards. And the big one album of the 00:00:59.880 --> 00:01:02.579 year. He's one of only, I think, eight artists 00:01:02.579 --> 00:01:04.519 to win it multiple times as the main artist. 00:01:05.239 --> 00:01:08.099 First for Still Crazy after all these years. 00:01:08.219 --> 00:01:11.459 That incredibly introspective New York kind of 00:01:11.459 --> 00:01:14.180 album. Right. And then for Graceland. which is 00:01:14.180 --> 00:01:17.319 this massive global explosion of sound. And you've 00:01:17.319 --> 00:01:19.200 also got the double induction into the Rock and 00:01:19.200 --> 00:01:21.560 Roll Hall of Fame. First with Simon and Garfunkel 00:01:21.560 --> 00:01:24.739 in 90, then solo in 2001. It's like two separate 00:01:24.739 --> 00:01:27.959 legendary careers. It really is. Okay, so let's 00:01:27.959 --> 00:01:30.640 try to unpack this. How does a 12 -year -old 00:01:30.640 --> 00:01:33.159 writing his first songs become this global force? 00:01:33.379 --> 00:01:36.519 And why does his newest work, Seven Psalms, which 00:01:36.519 --> 00:01:39.819 is so meditative, suggest that even now he's 00:01:39.819 --> 00:01:42.340 just... He's not done. Let's start at the very 00:01:42.340 --> 00:01:45.239 beginning. In Queens. So to get the foundations 00:01:45.239 --> 00:01:47.180 of Paul Simon, you really have to start in New 00:01:47.180 --> 00:01:49.060 York City. He was born in Newark, New Jersey 00:01:49.060 --> 00:01:51.980 in 1941, but the family moved to Queens in 45. 00:01:52.420 --> 00:01:54.900 Hungarian Jewish roots. And that background is 00:01:54.900 --> 00:01:58.099 so crucial. His family was musical, but a very 00:01:58.099 --> 00:02:00.760 different kind of musical. His dad, Louis Simon, 00:02:00.859 --> 00:02:02.739 was a professional bass player, a band leader. 00:02:03.019 --> 00:02:05.459 Lee Sims was his stage name. Right, Lee Sims. 00:02:05.640 --> 00:02:07.519 So he's coming from this world of big bands, 00:02:07.599 --> 00:02:11.020 dance music. And his mom, Belle, was a schoolteacher. 00:02:11.159 --> 00:02:13.840 But it's that move to Kew Gardens Hills in Queens 00:02:13.840 --> 00:02:16.439 that really shapes him. And there's this great 00:02:16.439 --> 00:02:18.819 observation we found from Donald Fagan of Steely 00:02:18.819 --> 00:02:22.020 Dan. He kind of grew up in a similar world. Yeah, 00:02:22.060 --> 00:02:24.259 and Fagan said that Simon's childhood was like 00:02:24.259 --> 00:02:27.060 that of a certain kind of New York Jew where 00:02:27.060 --> 00:02:30.479 music and baseball were just everything. Why 00:02:30.479 --> 00:02:32.520 those two things specifically? Well, Fagan's 00:02:32.520 --> 00:02:34.639 point, and Simon's basically agreed with it, 00:02:34.680 --> 00:02:37.370 was that for kids like them, Assimilating was 00:02:37.370 --> 00:02:40.629 complicated. So they gravitated to black music, 00:02:40.710 --> 00:02:43.949 you know, doo -wop, R &B and baseball as this. 00:02:44.360 --> 00:02:47.159 This alternative culture. A way to find an identity 00:02:47.159 --> 00:02:49.259 outside of the mainstream. Exactly. It was a 00:02:49.259 --> 00:02:51.800 place to belong that wasn't their parents' classical 00:02:51.800 --> 00:02:54.460 music world or the sort of white pop music of 00:02:54.460 --> 00:02:56.159 the time. Which totally clicks when you hear 00:02:56.159 --> 00:02:57.919 Simon talk about hearing early rock and roll 00:02:57.919 --> 00:03:00.280 for the first time. Songs like G by the Crows. 00:03:00.360 --> 00:03:02.439 Earth Angel, yeah. He said he tried to explain 00:03:02.439 --> 00:03:04.479 to his dad how powerful those sounds were. And 00:03:04.479 --> 00:03:06.280 his dad, this accomplished musician, just... 00:03:06.280 --> 00:03:08.729 He didn't buy it. That's how Simon put it. And 00:03:08.729 --> 00:03:11.009 that little rift, that's kind of the start of 00:03:11.009 --> 00:03:14.009 everything. He's rejecting his dad's sophisticated 00:03:14.009 --> 00:03:17.430 world for this raw energy he's hearing on the 00:03:17.430 --> 00:03:20.409 radio. And pretty quickly, he finds a partner 00:03:20.409 --> 00:03:23.349 in that search, Art Garfunkel. They meet when 00:03:23.349 --> 00:03:26.930 they're 11, 1953. They were in a school play 00:03:26.930 --> 00:03:30.360 together, Alice in Wonderland, by 13. They're 00:03:30.360 --> 00:03:32.919 singing together all the time. And writing. Simon 00:03:32.919 --> 00:03:35.000 wrote his first song, The Girl for Me, when he 00:03:35.000 --> 00:03:37.139 was 12 or 13. And he said it was a neighborhood 00:03:37.139 --> 00:03:39.620 hit. They played it everywhere. I love this detail 00:03:39.620 --> 00:03:41.979 from the sources because Simon didn't know how 00:03:41.979 --> 00:03:45.300 to write music down yet. His dad, Louie, wrote 00:03:45.300 --> 00:03:47.280 out the chords and the words for him. And that 00:03:47.280 --> 00:03:49.419 piece of paper is now in the Library of Congress. 00:03:49.680 --> 00:03:52.340 The first copyrighted Simon and Garfunkel song. 00:03:52.860 --> 00:03:55.219 written down by the very musician whose style 00:03:55.219 --> 00:03:57.039 he was rebelling against. That's incredible. 00:03:57.340 --> 00:03:59.259 So that leads to their first record, right? Hey, 00:03:59.280 --> 00:04:02.180 schoolgirl. 1957. Yeah. They're still teenagers. 00:04:02.400 --> 00:04:04.500 They call themselves Tom and Jerry. After the 00:04:04.500 --> 00:04:06.939 cartoon. Yep. And it actually charts. It gets 00:04:06.939 --> 00:04:09.259 to number 49 on Billboard. A little taste of 00:04:09.259 --> 00:04:11.439 success right out of the gate. But that Tom and 00:04:11.439 --> 00:04:13.900 Jerry phase, that whole period between 57 and 00:04:13.900 --> 00:04:17.319 64, he was working constantly. Oh, he was a hustler. 00:04:17.399 --> 00:04:19.879 He recorded over 30 songs under all these different 00:04:19.879 --> 00:04:22.970 names. Yeah. Jerry Landis. Paul Kane. He was 00:04:22.970 --> 00:04:25.370 trying on different identities. Completely. As 00:04:25.370 --> 00:04:27.410 Jerry Landis, he even had another small hit, 00:04:27.550 --> 00:04:31.089 The Lone Teen Ranger, which barely scraped the 00:04:31.089 --> 00:04:33.629 charts at number 97. He was just learning the 00:04:33.629 --> 00:04:35.990 craft from every angle. So the real beginning 00:04:35.990 --> 00:04:38.870 of Simon & Garfunkel, the brand, comes in 1964 00:04:38.870 --> 00:04:42.129 with Columbia Records. Right. They audition for 00:04:42.129 --> 00:04:45.389 Clive Davis. He signs them. And the label makes 00:04:45.389 --> 00:04:48.300 this decision to just use their last names. Simon 00:04:48.300 --> 00:04:50.060 says it was the first time that it happened in 00:04:50.060 --> 00:04:52.579 pop music. It made them sound serious. More like 00:04:52.579 --> 00:04:55.319 poets or authors than pop singers. Exactly. So 00:04:55.319 --> 00:04:57.680 they released their first album Wednesday morning, 00:04:57.860 --> 00:05:01.759 3 a .m. in late 64. It's a very traditional acoustic 00:05:01.759 --> 00:05:04.480 folk record. And it completely bombs. Totally 00:05:04.480 --> 00:05:08.040 tanks. Sells nothing. The sound of silence is 00:05:08.040 --> 00:05:10.339 on there, but it's quiet. It's acoustic. No one 00:05:10.339 --> 00:05:12.660 cares. And the failure is so bad it breaks them 00:05:12.660 --> 00:05:14.980 up. Garfunkel goes back to college. To study 00:05:14.980 --> 00:05:17.759 math, of all things. And Simon, who had done 00:05:17.759 --> 00:05:20.100 a bit of law school, decides he's done. He backs 00:05:20.100 --> 00:05:21.980 up and moves. And here's where it gets really 00:05:21.980 --> 00:05:25.379 interesting, because that failure leads to this 00:05:25.379 --> 00:05:28.199 U -turn that changes everything. He moves to 00:05:28.199 --> 00:05:31.939 London in 1965. And he finds his people there, 00:05:32.040 --> 00:05:34.879 in the folk clubs. He said there was no place 00:05:34.879 --> 00:05:37.019 to play in New York City for what he was doing. 00:05:37.339 --> 00:05:40.600 But in London, they got it. This wasn't just 00:05:40.600 --> 00:05:43.670 a break, though. This was like... His graduate 00:05:43.670 --> 00:05:46.069 school for songwriting. Totally. He said the 00:05:46.069 --> 00:05:48.990 experience was very powerful. He's soaking up 00:05:48.990 --> 00:05:52.389 all this English folk tradition. And crucially, 00:05:52.430 --> 00:05:55.250 he meets the guitarist Martin Carthy. And we 00:05:55.250 --> 00:05:57.129 really need to pause on Martin Carthy because 00:05:57.129 --> 00:06:00.209 this is a huge deal. It's everything. Before 00:06:00.209 --> 00:06:02.810 this, Simon was mostly a strummer. Carthy teaches 00:06:02.810 --> 00:06:04.850 him this complex finger -picking style where 00:06:04.850 --> 00:06:06.670 you're playing the melody, the bass, the rhythm 00:06:06.670 --> 00:06:08.730 all at once on one guitar. You can hear it all 00:06:08.730 --> 00:06:11.430 over their later stuff. Scarborough Fair. The 00:06:11.430 --> 00:06:14.189 boxer. It's the absolute foundation of that sound. 00:06:14.370 --> 00:06:17.649 It turns him from a songwriter into a true composer 00:06:17.649 --> 00:06:19.629 for the guitar. He's writing classics over there 00:06:19.629 --> 00:06:23.069 like Homeward Bound and I Am A Rock. He's basically 00:06:23.069 --> 00:06:26.649 building this new, sophisticated sound. But the 00:06:26.649 --> 00:06:29.009 thing that brings him back to America and to 00:06:29.009 --> 00:06:31.829 stardom happens completely without his permission. 00:06:32.110 --> 00:06:34.129 It's one of the great stories in music history. 00:06:34.329 --> 00:06:37.490 The Sound of Silence remix. So while Simon is 00:06:37.490 --> 00:06:40.410 playing to like... 50 people in a London club, 00:06:40.569 --> 00:06:42.850 some DJs back on the East Coast start playing 00:06:42.850 --> 00:06:44.870 the original acoustic version from the album 00:06:44.870 --> 00:06:46.870 that flopped. Yeah, in Boston and Florida, it's 00:06:46.870 --> 00:06:49.189 getting some traction. And their producer, Tom 00:06:49.189 --> 00:06:51.870 Wilson, he notices. And Wilson, who had worked 00:06:51.870 --> 00:06:54.029 with Dylan, he sees an opportunity. He takes 00:06:54.029 --> 00:06:56.470 their original quiet track. And just dubs a full 00:06:56.470 --> 00:06:59.310 electric band over it. Electric guitar, bass. 00:06:59.980 --> 00:07:03.420 drums. He turns it into a folk rock anthem. And 00:07:03.420 --> 00:07:05.300 the key thing is he does it without telling them. 00:07:05.339 --> 00:07:07.860 Can you imagine? Simon said he was horrified 00:07:07.860 --> 00:07:09.720 when he heard it. He thought it ruined the song. 00:07:09.939 --> 00:07:12.279 But it didn't matter what he thought. The single 00:07:12.279 --> 00:07:15.220 goes straight to number one in the U .S. in early 00:07:15.220 --> 00:07:17.779 66. And suddenly they're stars. They have to 00:07:17.779 --> 00:07:20.540 get back together. That one unauthorized remix 00:07:20.540 --> 00:07:23.680 launches their entire career. It leads to Sounds 00:07:23.680 --> 00:07:27.209 of Silence, Parsley, Sage. Rosemary in Time, 00:07:27.470 --> 00:07:30.029 Bookends, all those classic albums. They pretty 00:07:30.029 --> 00:07:32.589 much become the voice of the late 60s. I mean, 00:07:32.610 --> 00:07:35.410 Mrs. Robinson from The Graduate. And that title 00:07:35.410 --> 00:07:37.470 is another great story. Simon was apparently 00:07:37.470 --> 00:07:39.990 toying with calling it Mrs. Roosevelt. Seriously? 00:07:40.230 --> 00:07:42.310 Yeah. Until the director, Mike Nichols, just 00:07:42.310 --> 00:07:45.110 said, don't be ridiculous. It's Mrs. Robinson. 00:07:45.310 --> 00:07:48.350 It's that classic tension between Simon's, you 00:07:48.350 --> 00:07:52.500 know. literary ideas and the need for a pop hook. 00:07:52.680 --> 00:07:55.339 And then at the absolute peak of their fame, 00:07:55.500 --> 00:07:57.980 it all falls apart after Bridge Over Troubled 00:07:57.980 --> 00:08:01.379 Water in 1970. Which was a monster album. That 00:08:01.379 --> 00:08:04.959 title track alone, the influences are just incredible. 00:08:05.220 --> 00:08:06.899 The main line comes from a gospel song, Mary, 00:08:07.040 --> 00:08:09.019 Don't You Weep. By the Swan Silvertones, yeah. 00:08:09.300 --> 00:08:12.540 And the melody, the actual melody is based on 00:08:12.540 --> 00:08:15.040 a Bach chorale. It's this perfect synthesis of 00:08:15.040 --> 00:08:16.660 high and low culture. But even with all that 00:08:16.660 --> 00:08:19.060 success, the relationship was just done. They 00:08:19.060 --> 00:08:22.339 split. And our sources say that Simon told Clive 00:08:22.339 --> 00:08:24.439 Davis it was over at the urging of his first 00:08:24.439 --> 00:08:26.980 wife, Peggy Harper. Which, again, shows you how 00:08:26.980 --> 00:08:28.759 much his personal life was always tangled up 00:08:28.759 --> 00:08:30.560 in his professional one. It wasn't just an artistic 00:08:30.560 --> 00:08:33.820 split. So that's it. The duo is over. And now 00:08:33.820 --> 00:08:35.720 he has to figure out who he is all by himself. 00:08:36.159 --> 00:08:39.820 Right. And his first move is... Kind of surprising. 00:08:40.059 --> 00:08:42.399 Yeah, in 1970, he actually starts teaching. He 00:08:42.399 --> 00:08:44.539 taught songwriting for a little while at NYU. 00:08:44.820 --> 00:08:46.820 Which is pretty wild to think about. He's just 00:08:46.820 --> 00:08:48.799 come from being in the biggest band in the world, 00:08:48.860 --> 00:08:51.419 and now he's in a classroom. But he was very 00:08:51.419 --> 00:08:53.899 realistic about it. He said, you can't teach 00:08:53.899 --> 00:08:56.539 someone how to write a song. He was more interested 00:08:56.539 --> 00:08:59.019 in the process and helping students avoid the 00:08:59.019 --> 00:09:01.299 mistakes he made. He was always a student of 00:09:01.299 --> 00:09:02.840 the craft, even when he was the one teaching. 00:09:03.159 --> 00:09:05.379 His first solo album, just called Paul Simon, 00:09:05.639 --> 00:09:08.559 comes out in 72, and the critics love it. It's 00:09:08.559 --> 00:09:10.500 the moment he proves he can do it alone. And 00:09:10.500 --> 00:09:12.559 right away, he starts pushing the boundaries. 00:09:13.299 --> 00:09:15.759 This is where you see the first real hints of 00:09:15.759 --> 00:09:18.779 his interest in world music, the song Mother 00:09:18.779 --> 00:09:21.100 and Child Reunion. Which was a top five hit. 00:09:21.259 --> 00:09:24.299 He recorded that in Kingston, Jamaica, with Jimmy 00:09:24.299 --> 00:09:27.559 Clips Band. That's a huge deal for a mainstream 00:09:27.559 --> 00:09:31.159 folk rock guy in 1972. It was a clear signal 00:09:31.159 --> 00:09:32.899 that he wasn't going to just make another folk 00:09:32.899 --> 00:09:35.580 record. The album also had Mean Julio, Down by 00:09:35.580 --> 00:09:38.080 the Schoolyard, another big hit. He was on a 00:09:38.080 --> 00:09:41.139 roll. Yeah, and then there goes Ryman Simon in 00:09:41.139 --> 00:09:44.919 73. Keeps it going. You get Kodachrome and Loves 00:09:44.919 --> 00:09:47.669 Me Like a Rock. That one also had something so 00:09:47.669 --> 00:09:49.690 right, which was a really open tribute to his 00:09:49.690 --> 00:09:51.850 wife, Peggy. He was putting his whole life into 00:09:51.850 --> 00:09:54.169 these songs. He was. And that's why the next 00:09:54.169 --> 00:09:56.789 album feels so different. The mood just darkens. 00:09:56.830 --> 00:10:01.169 Still crazy. After all these years, 1975, this 00:10:01.169 --> 00:10:03.350 comes right after his divorce from Peggy. And 00:10:03.350 --> 00:10:05.009 you can hear it all over the record. It's cynical. 00:10:05.149 --> 00:10:08.730 It's full of this midlife New York anxiety. The 00:10:08.730 --> 00:10:11.269 music is really slick and polished, but the lyrics 00:10:11.269 --> 00:10:14.950 are, they're bruised. But it was huge. It's his 00:10:14.950 --> 00:10:17.269 only solo number one album on the Billboard charts, 00:10:17.330 --> 00:10:19.169 and it wins the Grammy for Album of the Year. 00:10:19.330 --> 00:10:21.789 It proved his strength was turning that personal 00:10:21.789 --> 00:10:24.789 pain into these incredibly sophisticated, relatable 00:10:24.789 --> 00:10:27.830 pop songs. And the biggest hit from it, 50 Ways 00:10:27.830 --> 00:10:29.809 to Leave Your Lover, is like the ultimate example 00:10:29.809 --> 00:10:31.990 of that. It's this jaunty, catchy tune about 00:10:31.990 --> 00:10:34.330 the end of his marriage. A total breakup anthem 00:10:34.330 --> 00:10:37.740 disguised as a pop song. Classic Simon. So in 00:10:37.740 --> 00:10:40.720 the late 70s, he starts branching out even more. 00:10:40.879 --> 00:10:43.700 He gets into acting. Yeah, he has that great 00:10:43.700 --> 00:10:46.399 role as the sleazy record producer Tony Lacey 00:10:46.399 --> 00:10:49.899 in Annie Hall, Woody Allen's movie. He was great 00:10:49.899 --> 00:10:51.940 in that. And he started hosting Saturday Night 00:10:51.940 --> 00:10:55.200 Live a lot. He was a fixture on early SNL. But 00:10:55.200 --> 00:10:56.879 the one everyone remembers is the Thanksgiving 00:10:56.879 --> 00:10:59.860 show in 1976. Did the turkey suit. The turkey 00:10:59.860 --> 00:11:02.179 suit. Yeah. He comes out to sing, still crazy 00:11:02.179 --> 00:11:04.820 after all these years, wearing this giant, ridiculous 00:11:04.820 --> 00:11:07.759 turkey costume. And he just, he can't do it. 00:11:07.840 --> 00:11:11.299 He stops mid -song. He stops, tells the audience 00:11:11.299 --> 00:11:13.200 how embarrassing it is, and then walks off stage 00:11:13.200 --> 00:11:15.700 yelling at Lorne Michaels. It's this perfect 00:11:15.700 --> 00:11:17.899 moment of this serious artist clashing with the 00:11:17.899 --> 00:11:20.039 absurdity of television. Then he dives into making 00:11:20.039 --> 00:11:23.240 a movie himself, One Trick Pony, in 1980. He 00:11:23.240 --> 00:11:25.259 wrote it, starred in it, and did the soundtrack. 00:11:25.639 --> 00:11:27.620 It was a very personal project about a musician 00:11:27.620 --> 00:11:30.019 struggling in the industry. The album had a great 00:11:30.019 --> 00:11:32.379 single late in the evening, but the whole thing. 00:11:33.309 --> 00:11:35.190 It didn't really land commercially. And that 00:11:35.190 --> 00:11:37.669 kind of dip in his career sets the stage for 00:11:37.669 --> 00:11:41.830 something massive. The reunion, the 1981 concert 00:11:41.830 --> 00:11:44.490 in Central Park with Garfunkel. A huge, huge 00:11:44.490 --> 00:11:46.889 event. The live album, the TV special, it was 00:11:46.889 --> 00:11:49.190 everywhere. And it immediately got them talking 00:11:49.190 --> 00:11:51.409 about making a new studio album. Which is where 00:11:51.409 --> 00:11:53.809 it gets complicated again. That reunion album 00:11:53.809 --> 00:11:56.330 was supposed to be Hearts and Bones. But it didn't 00:11:56.330 --> 00:11:58.889 end up that way. No. They start recording, the 00:11:58.889 --> 00:12:01.870 old tensions flare up, and Simon eventually just... 00:12:03.179 --> 00:12:05.379 erases Garfunkel's vocals from the tapes and 00:12:05.379 --> 00:12:08.480 releases it as a solo album. Wow, that's a bold 00:12:08.480 --> 00:12:11.299 move. And it had huge consequences. Artistically, 00:12:11.460 --> 00:12:13.360 Hearts and Bones is now seen as a masterpiece. 00:12:13.620 --> 00:12:15.820 It's incredibly well -written, confessional. 00:12:16.340 --> 00:12:18.740 A lot of critics call it one of his best. But 00:12:18.740 --> 00:12:20.740 at the time? At the time, it was his biggest 00:12:20.740 --> 00:12:22.860 commercial failure. People were expecting a Simon 00:12:22.860 --> 00:12:25.600 and Garfunkel reunion, and they got this very 00:12:25.600 --> 00:12:29.240 intense personal solo record instead. It just... 00:12:29.480 --> 00:12:32.120 It confused everyone. That album had the late 00:12:32.120 --> 00:12:34.700 great Johnny Ace, which is this tribute to Johnny 00:12:34.700 --> 00:12:36.879 S. and John Lennon. And it features this haunting 00:12:36.879 --> 00:12:39.279 orchestral piece at the end by the composer Philip 00:12:39.279 --> 00:12:41.659 Glass. Which is another example of him pushing 00:12:41.659 --> 00:12:43.980 boundaries, right? Bringing in this avant -garde, 00:12:43.980 --> 00:12:46.899 minimalist composer into a pop song. Absolutely. 00:12:47.080 --> 00:12:48.940 It shows he was still reaching, still trying 00:12:48.940 --> 00:12:51.419 to blend these really different worlds, even 00:12:51.419 --> 00:12:52.899 if the audience wasn't quite there with him. 00:12:52.980 --> 00:12:55.100 And so much of that album was about his relationship 00:12:55.100 --> 00:12:57.830 with Carrie Fisher. Yeah. Their whole story is 00:12:57.830 --> 00:13:00.629 woven through it. They got married in 83, divorced 00:13:00.629 --> 00:13:03.190 in 84, but were on again, off again for years. 00:13:03.769 --> 00:13:07.049 The title track, Hearts and Bones, is about them. 00:13:07.799 --> 00:13:10.980 The song Graceland started as a reflection on 00:13:10.980 --> 00:13:13.419 their relationship. She later said She Moves 00:13:13.419 --> 00:13:15.919 On was about her too. He was just constantly 00:13:15.919 --> 00:13:18.440 processing their life through his art. He was. 00:13:18.519 --> 00:13:20.840 And you could argue that the commercial failure 00:13:20.840 --> 00:13:23.679 of that brilliant personal album is what freed 00:13:23.679 --> 00:13:25.639 him up to do something completely radical next. 00:13:25.740 --> 00:13:28.659 He had nothing to lose. Which brings us to Graceland. 00:13:28.879 --> 00:13:31.629 Yeah. By the mid -80s, his career was kind of 00:13:31.629 --> 00:13:33.629 in a weird place. Hearts and Bones was a critical 00:13:33.629 --> 00:13:35.590 gem, but a commercial dud. He needed something 00:13:35.590 --> 00:13:37.330 to shake things up. And he found it on a cassette 00:13:37.330 --> 00:13:39.610 tape. A bootlegged cassette, yeah. It was South 00:13:39.610 --> 00:13:42.850 African street music, Wimbaconga. And he was 00:13:42.850 --> 00:13:45.970 just completely captivated by the rhythms. So 00:13:45.970 --> 00:13:47.929 he doesn't just borrow the sound. He goes all 00:13:47.929 --> 00:13:50.909 in. He goes all in. He travels to Johannesburg 00:13:50.909 --> 00:13:54.389 to record with the musicians there. People like 00:13:54.389 --> 00:13:58.370 Ladysmith Black Mambazo, the bassist Bakithi 00:13:58.370 --> 00:14:02.250 Kamalo. he immerses himself completely. And the 00:14:02.250 --> 00:14:04.230 way he wrote the songs was different for him, 00:14:04.230 --> 00:14:05.730 right? Totally different. He didn't show up with 00:14:05.730 --> 00:14:08.470 finished songs. He would just improvise melodies 00:14:08.470 --> 00:14:11.190 over these amazing rhythm tracks they were laying 00:14:11.190 --> 00:14:14.070 down. He said the word Graceland just came to 00:14:14.070 --> 00:14:15.570 him, even though he wasn't planning to write 00:14:15.570 --> 00:14:17.789 about Elvis. He was letting the music lead the 00:14:17.789 --> 00:14:21.370 word. Exactly. The result was this. This incredible 00:14:21.370 --> 00:14:24.570 fusion. You have this very literary New York 00:14:24.570 --> 00:14:27.950 sensibility layered over these joyful, complex 00:14:27.950 --> 00:14:31.230 African rhythms. One critic called it a double 00:14:31.230 --> 00:14:33.029 vision. That's a perfect way to put it. It's 00:14:33.029 --> 00:14:34.769 pop music you can dance to, but it's also got 00:14:34.769 --> 00:14:37.090 all this depth and complexity. And it was a monster 00:14:37.090 --> 00:14:39.529 hit. It sold, what, 16 million copies worldwide. 00:14:39.929 --> 00:14:42.429 It won the Grammy for Album of the Year. It completely 00:14:42.429 --> 00:14:44.730 resurrected his career on a global scale. But 00:14:44.730 --> 00:14:47.450 this massive success immediately gets tangled 00:14:47.450 --> 00:14:50.110 up in a huge political controversy. Oh, yeah. 00:14:50.669 --> 00:14:52.889 This raises that really important question about 00:14:52.889 --> 00:14:55.789 art and politics. How do you separate the creation 00:14:55.789 --> 00:14:58.909 from the context it was created in? So the issue 00:14:58.909 --> 00:15:01.470 was the cultural boycott against South Africa's 00:15:01.470 --> 00:15:04.049 apartheid regime. Right. The world was trying 00:15:04.049 --> 00:15:06.710 to isolate South Africa to pressure them to end 00:15:06.710 --> 00:15:10.559 apartheid. And by going there to record. Simon 00:15:10.559 --> 00:15:13.340 was seen by many as breaking that boycott. People 00:15:13.340 --> 00:15:15.740 like Billy Bragg were very critical. The African 00:15:15.740 --> 00:15:18.720 National Congress, the ANC, they protested it. 00:15:18.779 --> 00:15:21.840 It was a serious high stakes debate. And Simon's 00:15:21.840 --> 00:15:24.120 defense was very specific. He argued he wasn't 00:15:24.120 --> 00:15:26.799 there to make money for the regime. He paid the 00:15:26.799 --> 00:15:28.779 black artists extremely well, gave them royalty 00:15:28.779 --> 00:15:31.220 points. He saw it as collaboration, not exploitation. 00:15:31.779 --> 00:15:34.269 Exactly. He was amplifying their voices on a 00:15:34.269 --> 00:15:37.190 global stage. And it was so complicated that 00:15:37.190 --> 00:15:39.809 even anti -apartheid groups were divided. The 00:15:39.809 --> 00:15:41.769 UN's committee actually supported the album in 00:15:41.769 --> 00:15:43.990 the end because it did so much to showcase black 00:15:43.990 --> 00:15:46.450 South African musicians. But the ANC still held 00:15:46.450 --> 00:15:48.389 that he broke the protocol, which was a big deal. 00:15:48.570 --> 00:15:51.789 It was. He was even briefly put on a UN blacklist. 00:15:51.929 --> 00:15:54.090 It was a real firestorm. So how did it all get 00:15:54.090 --> 00:15:56.149 resolved? Well, the ultimate resolution came 00:15:56.149 --> 00:15:59.669 a few years later in 1992. Apartheid was ending. 00:16:00.110 --> 00:16:02.789 Nelson Mandela was free, and Mandela himself 00:16:02.789 --> 00:16:05.149 invited Simon and his band to come play in South 00:16:05.149 --> 00:16:08.029 Africa. Wow! An endorsement from Mandela himself! 00:16:08.490 --> 00:16:10.690 That pretty much ended the controversy. It was 00:16:10.690 --> 00:16:12.950 an affirmation of the album's positive cultural 00:16:12.950 --> 00:16:15.870 legacy. And he didn't stop there with the world 00:16:15.870 --> 00:16:20.450 music exploration. No way. In 1990, he released 00:16:20.450 --> 00:16:22.889 The Rhythm of the Saints, and this time he was 00:16:22.889 --> 00:16:25.059 diving into Brazilian music. The sound on that 00:16:25.059 --> 00:16:26.720 album is a bit different though, right? A little 00:16:26.720 --> 00:16:29.440 more introspective. Yeah, it's darker, more rhythmically 00:16:29.440 --> 00:16:32.259 complex. He's working with these incredible Brazilian 00:16:32.259 --> 00:16:34.679 percussion groups like Elodum, the lead single. 00:16:34.820 --> 00:16:38.159 The Obvious Child is just driven by these massive 00:16:38.159 --> 00:16:40.519 drums. And it was another big success. It proved 00:16:40.519 --> 00:16:43.000 Graceland wasn't a fluke. This was his new direction. 00:16:43.240 --> 00:16:46.220 It was. And all that success led to another huge 00:16:46.220 --> 00:16:49.360 concert back in Central Park in 1991. But this 00:16:49.360 --> 00:16:53.309 time, no Garfunkel. No. This was his show. Him 00:16:53.309 --> 00:16:55.529 and his huge band of African and South American 00:16:55.529 --> 00:16:58.409 musicians, half a million people showed up. He 00:16:58.409 --> 00:17:01.129 said later, that concert was the most memorable 00:17:01.129 --> 00:17:04.289 moment in my career. It was the ultimate validation 00:17:04.289 --> 00:17:07.109 of this whole global journey. Yeah, moving into 00:17:07.109 --> 00:17:10.529 the mid -90s, he takes what might be his biggest 00:17:10.529 --> 00:17:13.509 risk ever. And it leads to his biggest failure. 00:17:13.730 --> 00:17:16.769 Broadway. He decides to write a musical. The 00:17:16.769 --> 00:17:19.069 cake man. And he collaborates with a Nobel Prize 00:17:19.069 --> 00:17:22.049 winning poet, Derek Walcott. I mean, the pedigree 00:17:22.049 --> 00:17:24.250 was insane. It was this passion project he worked 00:17:24.250 --> 00:17:26.450 on for years. What was the story about? It's 00:17:26.450 --> 00:17:29.650 the true story of Salvador Agron, a Puerto Rican 00:17:29.650 --> 00:17:31.769 teenager who committed two murders in New York 00:17:31.769 --> 00:17:35.690 in 1959. So I'm going to remember this story 00:17:35.690 --> 00:17:37.569 from when he was a kid. It was about immigration, 00:17:37.930 --> 00:17:41.750 youth, crime. Very heavy themes. And it was a 00:17:41.750 --> 00:17:44.029 disaster. A complete commercial disaster. The 00:17:44.029 --> 00:17:45.690 critics hated it. It closed almost immediately 00:17:45.690 --> 00:17:48.269 and it lost something like $11 million. And the 00:17:48.269 --> 00:17:51.009 album of songs from the show was the first solo 00:17:51.009 --> 00:17:53.230 album of his career to not even make the top 00:17:53.230 --> 00:17:55.950 40. It was a brutal flop. But what's interesting 00:17:55.950 --> 00:17:58.970 is even then, some critics praised the music 00:17:58.970 --> 00:18:02.460 itself. One called the score Bewitching. It was 00:18:02.460 --> 00:18:05.180 this blend of doo -wop and Latin rhythms. Just 00:18:05.180 --> 00:18:07.279 maybe too complex for a Broadway audience at 00:18:07.279 --> 00:18:09.440 the time. So how does he bounce back from a failure 00:18:09.440 --> 00:18:12.059 that big? He goes back on the road. And not just 00:18:12.059 --> 00:18:14.980 any tour. In 1999, he tours with Bob Dylan. Two 00:18:14.980 --> 00:18:17.420 absolute legends on one stage. Exactly. It was 00:18:17.420 --> 00:18:20.500 a huge event. And it just instantly changed the 00:18:20.500 --> 00:18:22.750 narrative. The failure of the Cape Man started 00:18:22.750 --> 00:18:25.269 to fade and he was back to being Paul Simon, 00:18:25.329 --> 00:18:27.990 the icon. And he keeps experimenting. In 2000, 00:18:28.170 --> 00:18:30.490 he releases You're the One, which has these North 00:18:30.490 --> 00:18:33.329 African grooves. Then in 2006, he works with 00:18:33.329 --> 00:18:36.069 Brian Eno on the album Surprise. And that Eno 00:18:36.069 --> 00:18:38.230 collaboration is really key. Eno brings in all 00:18:38.230 --> 00:18:40.490 these electronic textures, this ambient sound. 00:18:40.690 --> 00:18:43.170 It's a very modern sounding record with songs 00:18:43.170 --> 00:18:45.950 about 9 -11 and the Iraq war. It shows he's still 00:18:45.950 --> 00:18:48.150 engaged, still trying to find new sonic talents. 00:18:48.250 --> 00:18:50.390 Always. And he's still listening to new things. 00:18:50.539 --> 00:18:53.900 His 2016 album, Stranger to Stranger, has him 00:18:53.900 --> 00:18:56.339 working with an Italian EDM artist called Clap. 00:18:56.519 --> 00:19:00.119 How did he even find him? His son, Adrian, introduced 00:19:00.119 --> 00:19:03.279 him to the music. It just shows he's never stopped 00:19:03.279 --> 00:19:05.839 being curious, never stopped searching for that 00:19:05.839 --> 00:19:09.059 next sound. So in 2018, it really felt like the 00:19:09.059 --> 00:19:11.599 end of the road. He announces his farewell tour. 00:19:11.839 --> 00:19:14.180 Yeah, the Homeward Bound tour. He said he was 00:19:14.180 --> 00:19:16.480 tired of being away from his family and his longtime 00:19:16.480 --> 00:19:19.200 guitarist Vincent Nguini had passed away, which 00:19:19.200 --> 00:19:21.660 hit him hard. He played his final show in Queens. 00:19:21.920 --> 00:19:24.599 It felt like a perfect bookend. But you can't 00:19:24.599 --> 00:19:27.000 really retire the creative impulse, can you? 00:19:27.099 --> 00:19:30.240 Apparently not. That same year, he releases an 00:19:30.240 --> 00:19:32.799 album called In the Blue Light. And it's not 00:19:32.799 --> 00:19:36.109 new songs. What is it? It's re -recordings of 00:19:36.109 --> 00:19:38.730 his own lesser -known songs. He went back into 00:19:38.730 --> 00:19:41.089 his own catalog and reimagined them with new 00:19:41.089 --> 00:19:43.089 arrangements, new harmonies. It's like he was 00:19:43.089 --> 00:19:45.589 curating his own legacy. And then just last year, 00:19:45.609 --> 00:19:48.910 in 2023, something else entirely. Seven Psalms. 00:19:48.930 --> 00:19:52.369 This one is just, it's on another level. It came 00:19:52.369 --> 00:19:54.789 to him in a dream. A dream. Yeah, he said a voice 00:19:54.789 --> 00:19:56.869 in a dream told him, you were meant to be working 00:19:56.869 --> 00:19:59.930 on a piece called Seven Psalms. So he did. It's 00:19:59.930 --> 00:20:02.369 this 33 -minute continuous piece of music. It's 00:20:02.369 --> 00:20:05.430 acoustic, meditative. It feels like a prayer. 00:20:05.750 --> 00:20:08.890 It's so far from pop music. And the sounds he 00:20:08.890 --> 00:20:11.250 used. I read he was using amplified wine glasses 00:20:11.250 --> 00:20:14.289 to create a sound like church bells. Just always 00:20:14.289 --> 00:20:17.789 experimenting. But with the release of that album 00:20:17.789 --> 00:20:21.230 came some really tough news. His hearing. Yeah, 00:20:21.250 --> 00:20:23.250 he revealed that he lost most of the hearing 00:20:23.250 --> 00:20:27.019 in his left ear. Which, for a musician, I mean, 00:20:27.039 --> 00:20:28.759 that's just devastating. You would think that 00:20:28.759 --> 00:20:30.720 would be it. You would think. But he said the 00:20:30.720 --> 00:20:32.819 creative spark from Seven Psalms was so strong, 00:20:33.000 --> 00:20:35.339 he's now planning a duets album with his wife, 00:20:35.539 --> 00:20:37.880 Edie Brickle. And he's even working on another 00:20:37.880 --> 00:20:40.000 musical. He just can't stop. And he's going back 00:20:40.000 --> 00:20:42.460 on tour. Back on tour. He announced the Quiet 00:20:42.460 --> 00:20:46.539 Celebration Tour for 2025. But this time, it's 00:20:46.539 --> 00:20:49.559 all smaller venues, intimate spaces. It's impossible 00:20:49.559 --> 00:20:51.240 to talk about his work without talking about 00:20:51.240 --> 00:20:53.299 the people who inspired it. His personal life 00:20:53.299 --> 00:20:56.039 is all over the songs. Absolutely. His three 00:20:56.039 --> 00:20:58.279 marriages are like a roadmap through his catalog. 00:20:58.660 --> 00:21:01.440 His first wife, Peggy Harper. Something so right 00:21:01.440 --> 00:21:03.759 is about the good times. And then a later song, 00:21:03.900 --> 00:21:06.559 Train in the Distance, is this incredibly poignant 00:21:06.559 --> 00:21:08.849 look back at their divorce. And then of course 00:21:08.849 --> 00:21:12.329 Carrie Fisher. That whole tumultuous iconic relationship. 00:21:12.769 --> 00:21:15.349 I mean their road trip inspired the song Graceland. 00:21:15.630 --> 00:21:18.630 She confirmed that She Moves On is about her. 00:21:18.809 --> 00:21:21.529 He turned their chaos into art. And his current 00:21:21.529 --> 00:21:23.710 wife, the singer Edie Brickell, they've been 00:21:23.710 --> 00:21:26.049 married since 1992. And it's this incredible 00:21:26.049 --> 00:21:28.190 musical family. All four of his kids are musicians. 00:21:28.589 --> 00:21:31.470 And now he and Edie are finally planning to make 00:21:31.470 --> 00:21:33.809 a record together. It's a beautiful full circle 00:21:33.809 --> 00:21:36.029 moment. Beyond the music, though, he's also built 00:21:36.029 --> 00:21:39.349 this incredible philanthropic legacy. Yeah. The 00:21:39.349 --> 00:21:41.109 Children's Health Fund, which he co -founded. 00:21:41.190 --> 00:21:43.450 Yeah. It started with this idea of putting medical 00:21:43.450 --> 00:21:46.190 clinics on buses to bring health care to kids 00:21:46.190 --> 00:21:49.289 in underserved areas like the South Bronx. And 00:21:49.289 --> 00:21:51.200 that's grown into a. huge national organization 00:21:51.200 --> 00:21:53.940 now. It has. And what's really interesting is 00:21:53.940 --> 00:21:57.259 his philosophy behind giving. He became a big 00:21:57.259 --> 00:21:59.339 supporter of something called effective altruism. 00:21:59.500 --> 00:22:02.420 Which is basically the idea of using data and 00:22:02.420 --> 00:22:04.299 evidence to figure out where your charitable 00:22:04.299 --> 00:22:06.539 donation can have the biggest possible impact, 00:22:06.759 --> 00:22:09.339 right? Exactly. It's not just about giving. It's 00:22:09.339 --> 00:22:11.579 about giving smart. And that is so perfectly 00:22:11.579 --> 00:22:15.160 Paul Simon, applying that same restless analytical 00:22:15.160 --> 00:22:17.920 genius he brings to music to the act of doing 00:22:17.920 --> 00:22:20.329 good in the world. So when you try to sum all 00:22:20.329 --> 00:22:22.529 this up, you have this career that starts with 00:22:22.529 --> 00:22:24.750 an accident. I mean, if Tom Wilson doesn't remix 00:22:24.750 --> 00:22:27.690 the sound of silence, who knows what happens? 00:22:27.789 --> 00:22:29.690 Who knows? He might have stayed a folk singer 00:22:29.690 --> 00:22:32.349 in London. That moment just throws him into the 00:22:32.349 --> 00:22:34.809 pop machine. And the rest of his career is this 00:22:34.809 --> 00:22:37.630 constant negotiation between his own artistic 00:22:37.630 --> 00:22:40.240 instincts and the pressures of fame. He goes 00:22:40.240 --> 00:22:43.180 from being this very American folk voice to becoming 00:22:43.180 --> 00:22:46.200 a pioneer of global music with Graceland. He's 00:22:46.200 --> 00:22:48.740 always chasing a new sound, terrified of repeating 00:22:48.740 --> 00:22:51.420 himself. And now in this latest phase, he's chasing 00:22:51.420 --> 00:22:53.640 something else, something more spiritual, more 00:22:53.640 --> 00:22:56.599 internal, with seven psalms. It's almost like 00:22:56.599 --> 00:23:00.000 he's gone from a global rhythm to a cosmic one. 00:23:00.140 --> 00:23:02.500 It all comes back to his process, which he's 00:23:02.500 --> 00:23:04.700 always said is music first. The rhythm and the 00:23:04.700 --> 00:23:06.960 melody come, and then he has to find the words 00:23:06.960 --> 00:23:10.210 to fit inside it. The music leads the way. It 00:23:10.210 --> 00:23:12.569 always has. So that brings us to this final thought. 00:23:12.730 --> 00:23:15.289 He's coming back to the stage in 2025 with this 00:23:15.289 --> 00:23:18.529 quiet celebration tour. Small venues, intimate 00:23:18.529 --> 00:23:20.829 shows. And this is the guy who played to half 00:23:20.829 --> 00:23:22.769 a million people in Central Park. He's deliberately 00:23:22.769 --> 00:23:26.690 trading that massive scale for intimacy. So what 00:23:26.690 --> 00:23:28.390 does that tell us about the end of this journey? 00:23:28.849 --> 00:23:31.250 Is the ultimate goal for the Restless Explorer 00:23:31.250 --> 00:23:34.670 not to conquer the whole world, but to find one 00:23:34.670 --> 00:23:37.730 perfect quiet room? Something to think about. 00:23:38.109 --> 00:23:40.190 We'll catch you next time for the deep dive.