Paul Federic Simon is a renowned American rock performer, composer and poet. Three-time winner of the prestigious Grammy Music Awards in the Best Album of the Year nomination.
Biography
The future musician was born in October 1941 on the thirteenth in New Jersey. Almost immediately after the birth of their son, the family moved to New York, and Paul spent his entire childhood in the Queens area. After leaving school, Simon entered Columbia University, where he studied for several years.
Back in his school years, Paul began to get involved in music and ultimately, after studying at the university, decided to connect his life with creativity. He and his friend Art Garfunkel created the Tom and Jerry band back in their school years, but at first they performed mainly for their friends.
Simon and Garfunkel
At the end of 1957 and until February 1958, Simon, together with Garfunkel, recorded the first single - Hey Schoolgirl, which became very popular among teenagers in New York City, and eventually even hit the national chart. The performer of the songs in the duet was Garfunkel, in turn it was Simon who was the author of the lyrics and music. Almost the entire repertoire consisted of his creations.
The duo have also taken on 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 irreparable loss and other sad moments, which 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 motives, and this interesting experience was received by the musician's fans rather ambiguously.
However, the eminent edition of The Rolling Stones came to the conclusion that this album is the best work of a musician in all his career. The next album, Still Crazy After All These Years, hit # 1 on the US charts in 1975, 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 the album Graceland. Local black musicians took an active part in the work, and this contributed to the frenzied success of the collection. Ethnic music conquered the American market for a while, and Paul's work topped all possible ratings. Graceland became the most commercially successful work and also brought the composer a third Grammy.
In the 90s, Simon became interested in Brazilian music and recorded another 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 recording was later released as a separate LP. Then he recorded four more albums, the last of which was released in 2016.
Personal life
Like many creative people, Simon was an amorous and changeable man. He has been married three times and has four children. In 2017, the famous composer still toured and performed from the stage, but in 2018 the 76-year-old musician announced that he was stopping his concert activity and devoting his life to his family.
