Paul Simon
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Paul Simon: There Goes Rhymin’ Simon
Review by Charlie Gillett, Let It Rock, August 1973
Paul: middle class rock, O.K.? ...
Audio interviews
Interview by Paul Zollo, Rock's Backpages audio, 1993
Concentrating on Hearts and Bones and Graceland, Paul Simon ruthlessly re-examines such songs as 'Allergies', 'Boy in the Bubble' and 'The Late Great Johnny Ace', covering such issues truth in songwriting, heroes as subjects and musical and lyrical influences. Oh, and he really dislikes 'Slip Sliding Away' as "too simple"!
File format: mp3; file size: 80.1mb, interview length: 1h 27' 27" sound quality: **½
Interview by Adam Sweeting, Rock's Backpages audio, 1993
In the context of his retrospective box set Paul Simon 1964/1993, the veteran singer-songwriter looks back over his relationship with Art Garfunkel; 'Bridge Over Troubled Water'; his artistic evolution in the shadow of the Beatles and Dylan; his black NYC influences; Graceland's success and controversy; accusations of cultural appropriation; his longevity and place in the world.
File format: mp3; file size: 59.7mb, interview length: 1h 02' 19" sound quality: ****
List of articles in the library
Two Views on Baez, by Paul Simon and Dana Gillespie
Interview by Keith Altham, New Musical Express, 30 July 1965
A SMALL, dark, intense man from Greenwich Village (home of his folkship, Bob Dylan) came to my office last week and talked about Joan Baez. ...
Paul Simon: Now They All Want Paul Simon Songs!
Interview by Keith Altham, New Musical Express, 22 April 1966
THE MOST SIGNIFICANT influence in popular music today, since the emergence of that well-known Lennon-McCartney firm, seems to be the mini-sized music-maker Paul Simon, who ...
Paul Simon: 'I Thought I Was a Has-Been at 19'
Interview by David Griffiths, Record Mirror, 30 April 1966
PAUL SIMON is the composer of 21 songs, most of which have been put to work for him very profitably. ...
Interview by uncredited writer, Melody Maker, 30 April 1966
The biggest thing Dylan has got going for him is his mystique ...
Inside The Mind of Paul Simon (part 1)
Interview by Jim Delehant, Hit Parader, August 1967
A LOT OF readers have been asking for an interview with Simon and Garfunkel. After much difficulty in tracing them down (it was impossible to ...
Inside The Mind of Paul Simon (part 2)
Interview by Jim Delehant, Hit Parader, September 1967
Last month, Paul Simon commented on current singers, songs and his own songwriting. He gets into it again this time along with a dash of ...
My Favorite Records: Simon & Garfunkel's Paul Simon
Interview by Jim Delehant, Hit Parader, October 1967
As told to Jim Delehant ...
Interview by Loraine Alterman, Rolling Stone, 28 May 1970
PAUL SIMON arrived wearing a blue loden coat with the hood pulled up. Beneath it he had on black trousers and a black shirt. He ...
Overview by Loraine Alterman, The New York Times, 4 February 1973
WHEN ANYONE mentions West Indian music, steel bands and calypso instantly echo in the mind, but Jamaica's most popular music is reggae (rhymes with old) ...
Paul Simon: There Goes Rhymin' Simon (CBS)
Review by Tony Stewart, New Musical Express, 12 May 1973
LISTENING TO an album twice through the No. 1 studio sound system at CBS is not the best way to hear a new set. Nor ...
Paul Simon: Here Comes Rhymin' Simon
Interview by Loraine Alterman, Melody Maker, 12 May 1973
MM EXCLUSIVE! Paul Simons — due to play British dates next month — talks to LORAINE ALTERMAN in New York ...
Interview by Jerry Gilbert, Sounds, 19 May 1973
There Goes Rhymin Simon is the title of Paul Simons new solo album, and last week he was in New York to talk about the ...
Paul Simon: Carnegie Hall; Alice Cooper: Madison Square Garden, New York NY
Live Review by Lillian Roxon, New York Sunday News, 10 June 1973
Paul Simon & Alice Cooper, So Differently the Same ...
Interview by Caroline Boucher, Disc, 16 June 1973
PAUL SIMON minus his famous side-kick Art, in part one of his interview with Caroline Boucher ...
Simon on the split... The Paul Simon interview — part two
Interview by Caroline Boucher, Disc, 23 June 1973
WHEN CONFRONTED with the inevitable questions about the split partner, Artie Garfunkel, Paul Simon always says now that it is three years since he made ...
Paul Simon: Not So Simple Simon
Essay by Dave Laing, Let It Rock, June 1974
Dave Laing surveys Paul Simon's ten years in music ...
Paul Simon: Still Crazy After All These Years
Review by Bob Woffinden, New Musical Express, 4 October 1975
INSTANT OPINION: BLOOD On The Tracks apart, Still Crazy is the best album you're likely to hear all year. ...
Paul Simon: Still Crazy After All These Years (CBS 86001) 35 mins
Review by Hugh Fielder, Sounds, 18 October 1975
THE WAIT has been worth it. If you exclude Live Rhymin' (and most people do) this is Simon's first record for more than two years, ...
Live Review by Bob Woffinden, New Musical Express, 20 December 1975
LAST TIME PAUL Simon toured in Summer '73, he used a South American group, Urubamba, and an American gospel quartet, the Jessy Dixon Singers (Jessy ...
Live Review by Penny Valentine, Street Life, 10 January 1976
PAUL SIMON is small and neat and nervous. His songs reflect him perfectly. They are small and neat and edgy. Paul Simon delivers his songs ...
Review by Mike Jahn, High Fidelity, February 1976
ROCK MUSIC, like basic black in fashion can hide a multitude of sins — such as poor lyrics. In rock that is played at any ...
Paul Simon, Phoebe Snow, Jimmy Cliff: Madison Square Garden, New York NY
Live Review by Chris Charlesworth, Melody Maker, 22 May 1976
Simon's magical living room ...
Dixon Spreading the Gospel with Paul Simon
Profile and Interview by Steve Turner, Melody Maker, 19 August 1978
Jessy Dixon, who plays London's Rainbow on September 2, talks to Steve Turner ...
Interview by Bruce Pollock, Playboy, 1980
PLAYBOY: Did Mrs. Garfunkel ever think of you as a bad influence on her son? ...
Paul Simon: What Do You Do When You're Not A Kid Anymore And You Still Want To Rock & Roll?
Profile and Interview by Dave Marsh, Rolling Stone, 30 October 1980
IN ONE-TRICK PONY PAUL SIMON LOOKS AT THE WAY THINGS MIGHT HAVE BEEN. ...
Review by Roy Trakin, Musician, November 1980
"YES, THE BOY'S got a voice/But his words don't connect to his eyes," sings Paul Simon, and I couldn't describe the problem with One Trick ...
Review by Mitchell Cohen, Creem, February 1984
ON HEARTS AND BONES, Paul Simon turns the basic philosophical pop question inside out. Instead of "Why do fools fall in love?" (or its variation, ...
Paul Simon: Hearts and Bones (Warner Bros.)
Review by John Swenson, Record, March 1984
THE ARTIST RETURNS ...
Paul Simon: Graceland (Warner Brothers)***
Review by Jack Barron, Sounds, 6 September 1986
GRACE UNDER PRESSURE ...
Review by Penny Reel, New Musical Express, 13 September 1986
OF COURSE Paul Simon has always been blessed with a remarkable facility for penning eminently hummable melodies, but since the heyday of his association with ...
Paul Simon: Graceland (Warner Bros.)
Review by Rob Tannenbaum, Rolling Stone, 23 October 1986
IN HIS TYPICALLY understated way, Paul Simon has been an ardent musical explorer since he went solo in 1972. His songs have incorporated almost every ...
Paul Simon: Graceland (Warner Bros.)
Review by Glenn O'Brien, Spin, November 1986
Graceland is a pilgrimage. On the title track the singer heads for the Presley estate in Memphis, filled with faith, trailed by doubt, led by ...
Paul Simon: Graceland (Warner Bros. 25447-4)
Review by Hank Bordowitz, High Fidelity, December 1986
SIMON SAYS, "JIVE!" ...
Paul Simon: Graceland (Warner Bros.)
Review by Richard C. Walls, Creem, January 1987
OUT OF AFRICA ...
Paul Simon: Still Mbaqanga After All These Years
Interview by RJ Smith, Spin, January 1987
For 20 years, Paul Simon whined and kvetched about the same things. Then he went to Africa and finally had fun. But he broke the ...
Report by Rob Tannenbaum, Rolling Stone, 12 February 1987
Says Graceland broke cultural boycott of South Africa ...
Paul Simon: The Boy in the Boycott
Report by Mark Sinker, Terry Staunton, New Musical Express, 4 April 1987
Is PAUL SIMON "a genius and a loathsome coward"? Does the lack of anti-apartheid statements on Graceland amount to condonation of Botha's regime? Or has ...
Paul Simon: Royal Albert Hall, London
Live Review by Len Brown, New Musical Express, 18 April 1987
LET'S NOT beat about the bush. This is a celebration of black South African music with an anti-apartheid spirit mixed into its magic. And it ...
Ladysmith Black Mambazo: "God sent Paul Simon to do this"
Profile and Interview by Vivien Goldman, Q, June 1987
With glorious results. Times have changed for Ladysmith Black Mambazo. ...
Hugh Masekela: Grazing in Graceland
Interview by Roy Trakin, Creem, October 1987
HUGH MASEKELA hasn't been back to South Africa since he left his homeland 27 years ago to study trumpet in London and New York, but ...
Paul Simon: Melancholy beat of a backpacking magpie
Report and Interview by Mark Cooper, Independent on Sunday, 1990
Mark Cooper on Paul Simon's latest borrowings and his lucrative flair for domesticating the alien ...
Paul Simon: Spirit Voices Vol. I
Interview by Paul Zollo, SongTalk, 1990
"There is a girl in New York City Who calls herself the human trampoline And sometimes when I'm falling, flying or tumbling in turmoil I ...
Paul Simon: Spirit Voices Vol. II
Interview by Paul Zollo, SongTalk, 1990
"Some stories are magical Meant to be sung Songs from the mouth of the river When the world was young And all of these spirit ...
Paul Simon, Billy Joel, Ladysmith Black Mambazo, Loup Garou: Indian Field Ranch, Montauk LI
Live Review by Gene Santoro, Musician, November 1990
Still Ethnic After All These Years ...
Paul Simon: Rhythm Of The Saints
Review by David Quantick, Vox, November 1990
FOUR YEARS AFTER GRACELAND and Paul Simon returns with another album of Third World inspired pop music, this time songs recorded with Brazilian musicians. Rhythm ...
Paul Simon: The Rhythm of the Saints
Review by Tom Graves, Rock & Roll Disc, November 1990
AFTER WORLD WAR I, Kenya became a refuge for rich, spoiled British expatriates who had dishonored their family name or provoked scandal – enough anyway ...
Paul Simon: The Rhythm Of The Saints
Review by Phil Sutcliffe, Q, December 1990
IN THE CHARTS The Rhythm Of The Saints has already proved itself an apt follow-up to Graceland with 'The Obvious Child' a sizable hit single ...
Paul Simon: Across The Tracks: The Rhythm of the Saints
Interview by Gavin Martin, Vox, December 1990
'Obvious Child' "I THOUGHT IF anything was going to be a single it would be that. I thought that as soon as we recorded the drums, ...
Paul Simon: Oakland Coliseum Arena, California
Live Review by Michael Goldberg, Rolling Stone, 7 March 1991
THE ENTIRE AUDIENCE at the Oakland Coliseum was dancing to Paul Simon's Graceland hit 'You Can Call Me Al'. ...
Paul Simon: Simon Reports Back To Base
Interview by Simon Reynolds, The Observer, 5 May 1991
PAUL SIMON'S management company has one client: Paul Simon. Based in Broadway's legendary Brill Building (where Simon and Garfunkel first attempted to sell their songs ...
Paul Simon: Concert In the Park
Review by Mark Cooper, Q, January 1992
TEN YEARS after Simon And Garfunkel crowned their short-lived reunion with a concert in Central Park, Paul Simon returned solo to claim the patch as ...
Paul Simon (1993) [transcript]
Audio transcript of interview by Adam Sweeting, Rock's Backpages transcripts, 1993
This is a transcript of Adam Sweeting's interview. Listen to the audio of this interview. ...
Paul Simon: Graceland; Warner Bros 925447-2, Released September 1986
Review by Chris Charlesworth, unpublished, 1997
IN THE SUMMER of 1984, as he faced the problem of furthering a critically successful but commercially waning career, Paul Simon received a gift from ...
Interview by Anthony DeCurtis, New York Magazine, 9 October 2000
After getting clobbered by critics for Capeman, Paul Simon returns to folk-rock form with You're The One, an upcoming tour, and a few choice words ...
Paul Simon: Life After The Capeman
Interview by Chris Ingham, MOJO, November 2000
PAUL SIMON AND I are alone in a large, dim, empty room in a Manhattan rehearsal complex and hes zippered up to his throat, ever-present ...
Interview by Chris Ingham, MOJO, November 2000
PAUL SIMON and I are alone in a large, dim, empty room in a Manhattan rehearsal complex and hes zippered up to his throat, ever-present ...
Paul Simon: You're the One (Warner Bros.)
Review by Eric Weisbard, The Village Voice, 22 November 2000
PAUL SIMON has an image you wouldn't wish on a real estate developer. ...
Mike Ross-Trevor: "Are We Rolling?"
Interview by Paul Gorman, The Word, May 2004
In forty years of recording everyone from Dylan and Hendrix to Abba and Lena Zavaroni, a studio engineer sees a lot of strange things. ...
Guide by Nicholas Jennings, Inside Entertainment, September 2004
1. The Last Waltz THE BAND'S elegant swansong is the ultimate rock concert movie. Director Martin Scorsese's discreet camerawork and superb sound captures inspired performances from ...
Paul Simon: Bloomsbury Theatre, London; Allen Toussaint: Bush Hall, London
Live Review by Mark Pringle, Rock's Backpages, 3 June 2006
LET'S LOOK at what Paul Simon and Allen Toussaint share. They both wrote songs that helped shape this thing of ours, this culture we've shared ...
Interview by Bill DeMain, Performing Songwriter, September 2006
"THE TRUTH is flexible and complex," says Paul Simon. On the eleven songs that make up his latest album Surprise, the legendary songwriter sizes up ...
Paul Simon: The Sound Of America
Interview by Richard Harrington, The Washington Post, 18 May 2007
PAUL SIMON'S first encounter with the Library of Congress came in 1956, when, as a 14-year-old, he sent his first song to the Library's Copyright ...
School of Rock Study Guide: Singer-Songwriters
Guide by Barney Hoskyns, iTunes, October 2008
"WHERE DO YOU have left to go but in?" It was a question posed by Joni Mitchell, the brilliant Canadian blonde who specialized in intensely ...
Paul Simon: "He is a foreign man. He is surrounded by the sound"
Retrospective by Graeme Thomson, Uncut, October 2010
25 years ago, PAUL SIMON was going nowhere, until a bootleg cassette from Soweto inspired him to set off on a fantastic South African adventure. ...
Interview by Phil Sutcliffe, MOJO, February 2011
A GREAT SONGWRITER'S imagination knows no bounds. Take Paul Simon. His 70th birthday is coming up in October and his musical and verbal cornucopia of ...
Paul Simon: So Beautiful Or So What
Review by David Hepworth, The Word, April 2011
After a 70-year emotional odyssey, Paul Simon offloads his hard-won black humour and shrugging folk wisdom. ...
How does Paul Simon deal with his compulsive side?
Interview by David Hepworth, The Word, September 2011
THE MEASURE OF Paul Simon's output first came home to me over 20 years ago when I went to see him perform at Wembley Arena. ...
Interview by Alan Light, MSN.com, October 2011
"CAN YOU IMAGINE us years from today?" wrote Paul Simon in 'Old Friends', from Simon and Garfunkel's 1968 album Bookends. "Sharing a park bench quietly/How ...
Paul Simon: Stranger To Stranger
Review by Jamie Atkins, Record Collector, July 2016
2011's So Beautiful Or So What was an unheralded marvel from Paul Simon. It was a poised, wise set of songs that hinged upon Simon's ...
Interview by Alan Light, MOJO, December 2016
"YOU GOTTA stop making hits at a certain point," says Paul Simon, 74. And yet, when his thirteenth solo album, Stranger to Stranger, was released ...
Peter Ames Carlin: Homeward Bound – The Life Of Paul Simon
Book Review by Chris Charlesworth, Just Backdated, December 2016
IF EVER A career in music was pre-ordained, it is that of Paul Simon, the ambitious, gifted and ever-so-scrupulous first son of a professional double-bass ...
Kate Mossman on Paul Simon's Rhythm of the Saints
Memoir by Kate Mossman, New Statesman, 16 December 2017
WHEN I WAS TEN, we entered a raffle at an ice rink and won a holiday to the south of France. ...
Review by Wayne Robins, Rock's Backpages, September 2018
THE FLUSHING Meadow Park concert area is a stout walk from both the Citi Field parking lots and subway stations. ...
Paul Simon and the Road to Redemption
Retrospective by Mitchell Cohen, Music Aficionado, June 2019
YOU COULD ARGUE whether Paul Simon's Still Crazy After All These Years deserved its trophy for Album of the Year when the Grammys were handed out in ...
Simon & Garfunkel and the battle of Central Park: Inside the concert that tore them apart
Retrospective by Ian Winwood, Daily Telegraph, 3 June 2020
IN THE SUMMER of 1981, Paul Simon received a call from the Long Island concert promoter Ron Delsener. The 44-year-old Tri-State impresario was speaking on ...
How Graceland saved Paul Simon — and offended the anti-apartheid world
Retrospective by Ian Winwood, Daily Telegraph, 10 June 2020
Forged in South Africa, the 1986 masterpiece drew accusations of 'cultural appropriation', offence and theft. What were Simon's intentions? ...
see also Simon & Garfunkel
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