Paul Simon

Simon, Paul, 1941-, American singer, songwriter, and guitarist, b. Newark, N.J. A polished and intelligent folk-rock lyricist and performer, he first gained fame as half of Simon and Garfunkel. Not long after their highly successful album Bridge over Troubled Water (1970), Simon split with Garfunkel and pursued a solo career, releasing the album Paul Simon in 1972. In his solo work, Simon has used a startling variety of national and international styles, mingling them with an idiosyncratic and highly personal content. His folk-inflected and often introspective songs of the 1970s are typified by the album Still Crazy after All These Years (1975). Simon broadened his themes in Graceland (1986), one of the most popular albums of the decade, which featured several African musicians, including the South African choral group Ladysmith Black Mambazo. His next album, The Rhythm of the Saints (1990), explored Afro-Brazilian music. After the failure of his Latin-themed Broadway musical The Capeman (1997, written with Derek Walcott), Simon toured (1999) with Bob Dylan. Later albums include You're the One (2000) and Surprise (2006).

(born Oct. 13, 1941, Newark, N.J., U.S.) U.S. pop singer and songwriter. Simon began performing with Art Garfunkel (b. 1941) in the 1950s, using the name Tom and Jerry. After a break, the two reunited in 1964 as Simon and Garfunkel. Their first hit single was “Sounds of Silence” (1966); others over the next six years included “Mrs. Robinson” (for the film The Graduate) and “Bridge over Troubled Water.” After the two parted company, Simon released several hit albums, including Still Crazy After All These Years (1975). His Graceland (1986) album, recorded with African musicians, became the most successful and influential of the new genre of world music. Both African music and Brazilian music informed his album The Rhythm of the Saints (1990). With the West Indian poet Derek Walcott he wrote the Broadway musical The Capeman (1998).

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The Paul Simon Songbook is an album by Paul Simon. It was recorded in London and released in the United Kingdom in 1965 and was supposedly deleted in 1979 at Simon's request. It was made available in the USA as part of the LP box set Paul Simon: Collected Works (1981). The album was produced by Reginald Warburton and Stanley West as CBS Records LP 62579; remastered CD Columbia/Legacy 90281.

Album background

The Paul Simon Songbook was recorded while Paul Simon, who had previously worked in the rock-'n-roll genre, was in Europe trying to make a living as a folk singer in the mid-1960s. Simon made several trips to England in 1964 and 1965, spending most of his time performing in small clubs and theaters. During 1965 he is known to have played in Paris and Copenhagen, along with London and numerous other locations in the United Kingdom.

In 1964, Simon and Art Garfunkel had recorded a folk-inspired album for Columbia Records in the United States called Wednesday Morning, 3 A.M., as Simon & Garfunkel. While Simon was touring and appearing on radio shows in England in 1965 (sometimes with Art Garfunkel), he began to receive attention from fans. At the time Wednesday Morning, 3 A.M. had not yet been released in Britain (and would not be until 1968). Simon's other recordings then available in Britain consisted of about three 45 rpm singles released on various labels, two of which were rock-'n-roll-inspired recordings with Garfunkel under the name Tom & Jerry. The other was representative of his experiments in folk, but had been released in 1964 under the pseudonym Paul Kane. He was still under contract to Columbia, so he could record for their British label, CBS Records, and therefore decided to record a set of tracks for release to his folk audience. The Paul Simon Songbook was the result.

Recording and Releases

Simon recorded the album over several dates in June 1965. Most of the songs required several takes. He only had one microphone for both his voice and his guitar, which is why he can be heard stamping his feet to the rhythm on "The Sound of Silence" as well the alternate take of "I Am A Rock."

There is nothing on the album that seems to immediately point to the producers, Warburton and West, having anything major to do with it, musically. It seems that almost nothing is known by the general public of Simon's relationship with either one.

The album was released along with the single "I Am A Rock"/"Leaves That Are Green," CBS 201797. The latter is the same version as that found on the Songbook, but the version of the A-side is clearly not. On the A-side, one can plainly hear Simon tapping his foot to keep a beat, a feature not heard on the album's kickoff track. It has been speculated that the version of "I Am A Rock" on the single is actually the alternate take included with the 2004 re-release of the Songbook.

Album cover and notes

The liner notes to the album, found on the back cover, are somewhat bizarre, consisting of a few scripts for skits that Simon wrote, one of which parodies his writing of the songs on the LP itself. At the end, he almost repudiates his efforts, saying that "there are some I would not write today," and saying that they "played a role in the transition" to where he is currently (summer 1965) as a musician. At the end he closes simply by saying of the liner notes, "I won't reread them."

It's possible that Simon's flippant attitude towards the album continued for much of his career, and could give credence to the notion that he eventually requested that it be deleted.

The album cover shows Simon and his then-girlfriend, Kathy Chitty, sitting on "narrow streets of cobblestone" in London, the city Simon had adopted as his home. In the 1970s, the album art was altered: the picture of Simon and Kathy was flipped horizontally, and the red script-like lettering eliminated in favor of an album title in white block print at the top.

Subsequent history

The Songbook was rereleased in 2004 by Columbia/Legacy on CD. The quality of the recordings indicate that a copy of the original recordings was used to master these songs since quite a lot of background noise can be heard in all of the songs. The CD features two bonus tracks, alternative versions of "I Am a Rock" and "A Church is Burning" which were not part of the 1965 LP release.

The lyrics for the anti-war song "The Side Of A Hill" were incorporated into the Simon and Garfunkel arrangement of "Scarborough Fair" on Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and Thyme.

Later in 1965 and in early 1966, following the success in the USA of "The Sounds Of Silence" as a single, Simon & Garfunkel re-recorded several of the songs featured on The Paul Simon Songbook and released them on their albums Sounds Of Silence and Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and Thyme.

Track listing

All songs written by Paul Simon unless otherwise indicated.

1. "I Am a Rock" -2:52
2. "Leaves That Are Green" -2:41
3. "A Church Is Burning" -3:38
4. "April Come She Will" -1:55
5. "The Sound of Silence" -3:19
6. "A Most Peculiar Man" -2:26
7. "He Was My Brother" (Paul Kane*) -2:58
8. "Kathy's Song" -3:42
9. "The Side of a Hill" (Paul Kane) -2:28
10. "A Simple Desultory Philippic" -2:25
11. "Flowers Never Bend with the Rainfall" -2:27
12. "Patterns" -3:13

CD Bonus tracks (2004)

1. "I Am a Rock" Alternate Version -2:44
2. "A Church Is Burning" Alternate Version -3:10

* Paul Kane was a pseudonym used by Simon at this time, because of his fondness for the film Citizen Kane.

Other recordings

• For earlier recordings of tracks 5 and 7: Wednesday Morning, 3 A.M..
• For later recordings of tracks 1, 2, 4, 5, 6, and 8: Sounds of Silence.
• For later recordings of tracks 10, 11, and 12: Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and Thyme.

Bibliography

Patrick Humphries, Paul Simon: Still Crazy After All These Years (New York: Doubleday, 1989). ISBN 038524908X.

External links

• www.paul-simon.info
• www.paulsimon.com
• www.simonandgarfunkel.com