Paul Federic Simon is a famous American rock singer, composer and poet. Three-time winner of the prestigious Grammy Music Award in the category "Best Album of the Year".
Biography
The future musician was born in October 1941 on the thirteenth in the city of New Jersey. Almost immediately after the birth of the son, the family moved to New York, and Paul spent all his childhood in the Queens area. After graduation, Simon entered Columbia University, where he studied for several years.
Back in school, Paul began to get involved in music and ultimately, after studying at the university, he decided to connect his life with creativity. He and his friend Art Garfunkel created the Tom and Jerry band back in school, but at first they performed mostly for their friends.
Simon and Garfunkel
In late 1957 and until February 1958, Simon and Garfunkel recorded the first single - Hey Schoolgirl, which became very popular among teenagers in the city of New York, and eventually even hit the national chart. The performer of the songs in the duet was Garfunkel, in turn, it was Simon who acted as the author of texts and music. Almost the entire repertoire consisted of his creations.
The duo also gained a new wave of popularity thanks to YouTube bloggers, reviewers and other popular personalities on streaming platforms. Their little-known work The sound of silence was regularly used to ironically emphasize irretrievable loss and other sad moments, thanks to which it quickly became a kind of “meme” in the Internet community.
Solo career
In 1972, Simon released his first solo album. Here he allowed himself to experiment with Latin American motifs, and this interesting experience was accepted by the musician’s fans very ambiguously.
However, the eminent edition of the Rolling Stones came to the conclusion that this album is the best work of the musician for all the time of his work. The next record Still Crazy After All These Years in 1975 hit the first place on the American chart, and eventually Simon received a Grammy for this album.
In 1980 and 1983, Simon recorded two more solo albums. In 1986, he went to South Africa, where he recorded a Graceland record. Local black musicians took a lively part in the work, and this contributed to the mad success of the collection. Ethnic music for some time captured the American market, and Paul's work topped all possible ratings. Graceland was the most commercially successful work and in addition brought the third Grammy figurine to the composer.
In the 90s, Simon became interested in Brazilian music and recorded the next album The Rhythm of the Saints. In 1991, he organized a free concert in New York, where he performed compositions from his new collection. The live concert was later released as a separate record. After he recorded four more albums, the last of which was released in 2016.
