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    Paul Simon: The Life
    Paul Simon: The Life
    Paul Simon: The Life
    Audiobook12 hours

    Paul Simon: The Life

    Written by Robert Hilburn

    Narrated by Dennis Boutsikaris

    4.5/5

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    About this audiobook

    A publishing event from music legend Paul Simon: an intimate, candid, and definitive biography written with Simon’s full participation—but without his editorial control—by acclaimed biographer and music writer Robert Hilburn.

    For more than fifty years, Paul Simon has spoken to us in songs about alienation, doubt, resilience, and empathy in ways that have established him as one of the most beloved artists in American pop music history. Songs like “The Sound of Silence,” “Bridge Over Troubled Water,” “Still Crazy After All These Years,” and “Graceland” have moved beyond the sales charts and into our cultural consciousness. But Simon is a deeply private person who has resisted speaking to us outside of his music. He has said he will not write an autobiography or memoir, and he has refused to talk to previous biographers.

    Finally, Simon has opened up—for more than one hundred hours of interviews—to Robert Hilburn, whose biography of Johnny Cash was named by Michiko Kakutani of the New York Times as one of her ten favorite books of 2013. The result is a landmark book that will take its place as the defining biography of one of America’s greatest artists.

    It begins in Kew Gardens Hills, Queens, where, raised by a bandleader father and schoolteacher mother, Simon grew up with the twin passions of baseball and music. The latter took over at age twelve when he and schoolboy chum Art Garfunkel became infatuated with the alluring harmonies of doo-wop. Together, they became international icons, and then Simon went on to even greater artistic heights on his own. But beneath the surface of his storied five-decade career is a roller coaster of tumultuous personal and professional ups and downs. From his remarkable early success with Garfunkel to their painfully acrimonious split; from his massive early hits as a solo artist to the wrenching commercial failures of One-Trick Pony and Hearts and Bones; from the historic comeback success of Graceland and The Rhythm of the Saints to the star-crossed foray into theater with The Capeman and a late-career creative resurgence—his is a musical life unlike any other.

    Over the past three years, Hilburn has conducted in-depth interviews with scores of Paul Simon’s friends, family, colleagues, and others—including ex-wives Carrie Fisher and Peggy Harper, who spoke for the first time—and even penetrated the inner circle of Simon’s long-reclusive muse, Kathy Chitty. The result is a deeply human account of the challenges and sacrifices of a life in music at the highest level. In the process, Hilburn documents Simon’s search for artistry and his constant struggle to protect that artistry against distractions—fame, marriage, divorce, drugs, record company interference, rejection, and insecurity—that have derailed so many great pop figures.

    Paul Simon is an intimate and inspiring narrative that helps us finally understand Paul Simon the person and the artist. “With train-wreck moments and tender interludes alike, it delivers a sharply detailed Kodachrome of a brilliant musician” (Kirkus Reviews).
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherSimon & Schuster Audio
    Release dateMay 8, 2018
    ISBN9781508259930
    Author

    Robert Hilburn

    Robert Hilburn was the chief pop music critic for the Los Angeles Times for more than three decades. Author of the bestselling biography Johnny Cash: The Life, which Michiko Kakutani of the New York Times selected as one of her top ten books of 2013, Hilburn has reported extensively on most of pop music’s giants, including Bob Dylan, John Lennon, Joni Mitchell, Leonard Cohen, Michael Jackson, Bruce Springsteen and U2. He lives in Los Angeles. 

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    Reviews for Paul Simon

    4.5/5

    72 ratings7 reviews

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    • 5/5
      A very good book on Paul Simon, his life and his music.
    • 5/5
      It was fun to appreciate many songs over again with a better understanding of process.
      What an amazing listen fe so far
    • 5/5
      An engaging and detailed book about one of the most
      important cultural figures of the last 60 years! I learned so much about Paul Simon and find myself reflecting on this book often while listening to his music.
    • 5/5
      An enjoyable historical account of the his evolving musical skills and contributions, along with substantial insight into the very human aspects of his personal journey.
    • 4/5
      A musical genius; difficult relationships with Art, with former wives, producers and with his own depressive and obsessive tendencies. Good to read while listening to his music on Spotify!
    • 5/5
      A thorough, if pedestrian, look at the famed singer and songwriter. Paul comes off as a man obsessed with excellence which meant his music, most of the time. Art ("Artie") Garfunkel comes off as petty and mean-spirited (mocking Paul's height right to the end). The best bits are the descriptions of his writing such famous songs as "Bridge Over Troubled Waters," "American Tune," and the curious wonderful thing that is The Capeman. For fans of S & G.
    • 3/5
      This book had a lot of interesting tidbits of information about Simon's journey from working at music labels as a basically a coffee boy and eventually searching for new artists to all the way to the top. His early time working behind the scenes at the labels gave him enough insight to beat them at their own games, allowing him more artistic freedom than most new talents. That was interesting. I was surprised to learn how in the 60s he was shunned by the NYC coffee shop scene for not starving enough and had to learn his craft in the coffee shops in England. What I didn't like about this book was too much written by an obvious fan and too little perspective from the artist. Yes there are quotes and some antidotes, but overall it is the author's view and he is an obvious big fan. Even Simon's flops like his movie and Broadway productions were described as genius that the public wasn't ready for. According to Hilburn Simon didn't have a single flop musically, rather they were varying degrees of brilliance. Hilburn also paints Garfunkel as a big baby that Simon had to either punish or cuddle like a child. Maybe this is so, but without a word from Garfunkel and with so much adulation for Simon, it becomes hard to believe that whole side of the story.