Paul Simon

Paul Simon stands just over five-foot-five, but his shadow over American songwriting is enormous. In 1964 he recorded Wednesday Morning, 3 AM, and the album was an absolute flop that sent him straight to the clubs in England. He had no idea a producer would add an electric beat to one of his acoustic songs behind his back.

In 1970 he decided that the most profitable duo on the planet no longer served to express what was on his mind. He ended his professional partnership with Art Garfunkel at the peak of their fame because he needed absolute control over the recording tape. And the public took a long time to forgive him.

He went to Jamaica to record Mother and Child Reunion when almost nobody in New York knew what reggae was. He was one of the first white musicians to understand that the rhythm was not just accompaniment but the engine of the song.

His instincts saved his career.

The Johannesburg Riot

In 1985, Simon was finished in the eyes of the critics. His album Hearts and Bones had sold next to nothing, and his marriage to actress Carrie Fisher had fallen apart. Then he heard a cassette tape of South African street music and decided to defy the UN's cultural boycott against apartheid.

He traveled to South Africa without the approval of the musicians' unions. He worked with local artists at the Ovation Studios in Johannesburg and recorded Graceland in 1986, an album that sold more than 16 million copies. But politics nearly swallowed him along the way.

He received death threats and fierce criticism from organizations that accused him of exploiting other people's talent. But he simply said that music doesn't recognize borders or government laws. The result was a mix of Zulu accordions and lyrics about the middle class that no one has managed to replicate.

He never looked back.

Deafness and the Final Silence

Unlike other artists of his generation, Paul Simon has not tried to chase eternal youth with plastic surgery or trendy duets. In 2018, he announced his full retirement from the stage because his body could no longer keep up. But the songwriting was still there, hidden in his dreams at night.

In 2023 he released Seven Psalms, a 33-minute piece recorded almost entirely with an acoustic guitar and soft vocals. The album grew out of a series of visions he had while asleep, and he recorded it while suffering an almost total loss of hearing in his left ear.

There are no catchy choruses or danceable beats on this record. It's a man in his eighties facing mortality without production frills or studio tricks. At this stage of the game, he doesn't have to prove anything to anyone.

The industry has changed so much that in 2021 he sold his entire song catalog to Sony Music Publishing. The deal was closed for 250 million dollars.