Bob's new biography Paul Simon: The Life
in stores May 8, 2018
Preorder at your favorite book store
(Lynn Goldsmith)
Paul Simon: The Life
A publishing event from music legend Paul Simon: an intimate, candid, and definitive biography written with Simon’s participation—but without editorial control—by acclaimed biographer and music writer Robert Hilburn.
Through such hits as “The Sound of Silence,” “Bridge Over Troubled Water,” “Still Crazy After All These Years,” and “Graceland,” Paul Simon has spoken to us in songs for a half-century about alienation, doubt, resilience, and empathy in ways that have established him as one of the most honored and beloved songwriters in American pop music history. His music has gone beyond the sales charts into our cultural consciousness. He was the first songwriter awarded the Gershwin Prize by the Library of Congress and is a member of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (twice) and the Songwriters Hall of Fame.
Deeply private, Simon has said he will not write an autobiography and has refused to talk to previous biographers. But he not only opened up to acclaimed biographer Robert Hilburn for what has amounted to more than 100 hours, he also urged those around him to speak. Independently, Hilburn also interviewed others who have been important in Simon’s life, including his first two wives, Peggy Harper and Carrie Fisher, as well as, for the first time, people close to Kathy Chitty, his long-reclusive first muse.
The result is a deeply human account of the challenges and sacrifices of a life in music at the highest level, including the courage to leave Simon and Garfunkel at the peak of the duo’s popularity to pursue more fully his expanding artistic goals. 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: The Life is an intimate and inspiring narrative that helps us finally understand Paul Simon the person and the artist, including new and absorbing insights into his most enduring songs. Exploring his successes and failures onstage and off, the book combines the scholarship, passion, and storytelling grace of biography at its best.
Through such hits as “The Sound of Silence,” “Bridge Over Troubled Water,” “Still Crazy After All These Years,” and “Graceland,” Paul Simon has spoken to us in songs for a half-century about alienation, doubt, resilience, and empathy in ways that have established him as one of the most honored and beloved songwriters in American pop music history. His music has gone beyond the sales charts into our cultural consciousness. He was the first songwriter awarded the Gershwin Prize by the Library of Congress and is a member of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (twice) and the Songwriters Hall of Fame.
Deeply private, Simon has said he will not write an autobiography and has refused to talk to previous biographers. But he not only opened up to acclaimed biographer Robert Hilburn for what has amounted to more than 100 hours, he also urged those around him to speak. Independently, Hilburn also interviewed others who have been important in Simon’s life, including his first two wives, Peggy Harper and Carrie Fisher, as well as, for the first time, people close to Kathy Chitty, his long-reclusive first muse.
The result is a deeply human account of the challenges and sacrifices of a life in music at the highest level, including the courage to leave Simon and Garfunkel at the peak of the duo’s popularity to pursue more fully his expanding artistic goals. 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: The Life is an intimate and inspiring narrative that helps us finally understand Paul Simon the person and the artist, including new and absorbing insights into his most enduring songs. Exploring his successes and failures onstage and off, the book combines the scholarship, passion, and storytelling grace of biography at its best.
BOB ON PAUL SIMON
When the Library of Congress established the Gershwin Prize in 2007 to salute contemporary songwriters who, in essence, best uphold the grand tradition of the Great American Songbook, its choice for the prize was Paul Simon—an honor whose significance was underscored by the list of subsequent honorees: Stevie Wonder in 2008, Paul McCartney in 2009, the team of Burt Bacharach and Hal David in 2010 and Carole King in 2011.
Simon was honored first and he deserved to be. His work, more than that of anyone else of the rock era, demonstrates a gift for beautiful melodies and seductive rhymes that best rivals the songs of such landmark writers as Cole Porter, Johnny Mercer and Harold Arlen. Simon has combined the discipline and craft of that Songbook tradition with the more individualistic sensibility and cultural commentary that is the foundation for the most distinguished music of the second half of the 20th Century. “Still Crazy After All These Years” is classic Songbook. “Homeward Bound” is pure rock. “Mrs. Robinson” blends both traditions. The Gershwin Prize is just one of many accolades for Simon, including an unsurpassed three Grammy Awards for albums of the year as well as nine other Grammys, the Kennedy Center Honors recognition, the Songwriters’ Hall of Fame’s Johnny Mercer Award and the internationally-focused Polar Award. He, too, has been inducted into the American Academy of Arts and Science, and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame twice—first in 1990 as a member of Simon and Garfunkel and in 2001 for his solo work. Yet the most persuasive way to describe Simon’s artistry and cultural reach is simply pointing to the nearly 200 songs he has written since entering the nation’s pop consciousness in early 1966 with a No. 1 single, “The Sound of Silence,” that reflected the restless alienation of young people who saw the nation’s core values tarnished by racial injustice and the escalating conflict in Vietnam: And in the naked light I saw Ten thousand people, maybe more People talking without speaking People hearing without listening People writing songs that voices never share No one dare Disturb the sound of silence. Simon continued in the 1960s to build upon that early promise—moving through such other cultural touchstones as “I Am a Rock,” “The Boxer,” “Mrs. Robinson” and, perhaps the most celebrated ballad of the pop-rock era, “Bridge over Troubled Water.” By 1970, when many of his peers were either losing creative steam or doomed to spend the rest of their careers recycling their early hits, Simon, 28, was just getting started. As he moved into his solo years, he not only expanded his subject matter to include the complexities of adulthood, but he also exhibited more striking melodies and more varied, aggressive musical textures. In “American Tune,” written in the early 1970s amid the disillusionment of Watergate and the continuing war, Simon captured the national mood, but with an underlying compassion that contrasted sharply with Bob Dylan’s early rage: |
HERE'S WHAT SIMON & SCHUSTER SAYS:
One of America's most beloved and respected singer-songwriters, Paul Simon is the recipient of twelve Grammy Awards. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2001 and named one of the "100 People Who Shaped the World" by Time magazine in 2006. In 2007, he was the first recipient of the Library of Congress's Gershwin Prize for Popular Song.
Robert Hilburn was pop music critic and pop music editor of the Los Angeles Times from 1970 through 2005. His memoir, Corn Flakes with John Lennon and Other Tales from a Rock 'n' Roll Life, was published in 2009. In 2013, Hilburn's definitive biography Johnny Cash: A Life was a national bestseller that was selected by New York Times book critic Michiko Kakutani as one of her ten favorite books of the year. Hilburn and Simon have known each other since the early 1970s, when Hilburn first interviewed him for the Los Angeles Times. Hilburn was the only journalist to accompany Simon to Zimbabwe in 1987 for his celebrated Graceland concerts. The two have already begun a series of extensive interviews in which Simon speaks candidly and in depth about both his work and his life. Simon is encouraging scores of key people in his life to open up to Hilburn, but the ultimate creative control remains with Hilburn. "Simon is the consummate songwriter," said Hilburn. "His music has spoken about our lives and times with such an intimacy, insight and grace that they share an important place in our cultural consciousness. The book will be a gripping, inspiring portrait of an artist, including the toughness and heart it requires to avoid giving in to the many factors-from rejection to self-doubt to writer's block and complacency-that have derailed so many pop artists. Decades after 'The Sound of Silence,' Paul is still in the studio making great music." "I thought seriously about writing my own memoir, but I'd rather devote my time to making music, which continues to hold my full attention," said Simon. "I'm confident Robert Hilburn will write an insightful book. I enjoyed and admired his biography of Johnny Cash and I think he'll tell my story well." Six publishers participated in an auction for rights to the book conducted on October 24 by Hilburn's literary representative, Luke Janklow of Janklow & Nesbit Associates. "When one of the greatest songwriters alive agrees to talk to one of the most respected music writers at work, that's an irresistible combination," said Jonathan Karp, President and Publisher of Simon & Schuster, who acquired World English rights to the work along with senior editor Jofie Ferrari-Adler. "For fifty years, Paul Simon has been a major cultural force. This book will be essential to anyone who wants to understand how he did it." No publication date has been set. Simon & Schuster, a part of CBS Corporation, is a global leader in the field of general interest publishing, dedicated to providing the best in fiction and nonfiction for consumers of all ages, across all printed, electronic, and audio formats. Its divisions include Simon & Schuster Adult Publishing, Simon & Schuster Children's Publishing, Simon & Schuster Audio, Simon & Schuster Digital, and international companies in Australia, Canada, India, and the United Kingdom. For more information, visit our website at www.simonandschuster.com. |
I don’t know a soul who’s not been battered
I don’t have a friend who feels at ease
I don’t know a dream that’s not been shattered
Or driven to its knees.
Oh, but it’s all right, it’s all right
For we’ve lived so well so long
Still, when I think of the road
We’re traveling on
I wonder what’s gone wrong
I can’t help it, I wonder what’s gone wrong.
Across the emotional spectrum, he wrote a song, “Something So Right,” that spoke about commitment in relationships with an openness and honesty that rivaled John Lennon’s most vulnerable admissions—but again with a sense of comfort, not confrontation:
Some people never say the words
“I love you.”
It’s not their style
To be so bold
Some people never say those words,
“I love you.”
But like a child, they’re longing to be told.
Through acclaimed albums, such as “Still Crazy After All These Years,” and great, but neglected ones, notably “Hearts and Bones,” Simon kept searching for new themes to express the nuances of the human condition, as well as new musical seasoning—from the lure of reggae to joyful lift of African rhythm—and it all came together in the wit and warmth and wonder of his “Graceland” album in the summer of 1986.
While these songs have spoken about our lives and times with such an intimacy and grace that they share an important place in our cultural consciousness, we know little about the composer.
That’s chiefly by Paul Simon’s design.
Through four decades of enchanting music and tens of millions of record sales, publishers and music fans have hoped for a quality book by or about Paul Simon, but he has turned down numerous offers to write his autobiography and has refused to grant interviews to those who attempted a biography. He, too, has discouraged people close to him from speaking with writers.
This blackout is now over.
Simon has given me his blessings for what will be his definitive biography.
We have already begun a series of extensive interviews in which he speaks candidly and in depth about Simon the artist and Simon the man. He is so committed to this biography that he is encouraging scores of key people in his life to finally break their silence—all with no strings attached.
Simon’s importance rests in his artistry—and that artistry will be the centerpiece of the book, but the songs take on an even more evocative edge once we know the personal journey that produced them. Simon’s music is so eloquent and accessible that it feels effortless, but we will learn of the struggle behind the songs and the stardom.
In his music, Simon has shared the darker moments of his journey in several of his songs, never perhaps more nakedly than in “The Boxer,” which came early in his songwriting career as he conveyed the burdens he’d carried and burdens he knew were yet to come:
In the clearing stands a boxer
And a fighter by his trade
And he carries the reminders
Of every glove that laid him down
Or cut him till he cried out
In his anger and his shame,
“I am leaving, I am leaving”
But the fighter still remains.
In the book, we will convey the resilience and resolve of a man who withstood those punches and emerged triumphant, not only with one of the most prized collections of songs in the history of American popular music, but with a personal life that in the long run has brought him the comfort he so sought when writing “Bridge over Troubled Water.”
As chief pop music critic for the Los Angeles Times for more than three decades, I have known Paul Simon ever since his early solo days. I’ve interviewed him at various points in his life, even accompanied him to Zimbabwe in 1987 for his celebrated “Graceland” concerts. We have talked during times of great success for him and severe disappointment.
Meanwhile, Paul’s journey continues.
His latest album, “So Beautiful or So What,” contains some of the loveliest music of his career. It was named one of the five best collections of 2011 by the New York Times’ Jon Pareles. He’s now working on another album and continues to tour.
In the end, Simon’s story will be an inspiring and illuminating look at personal struggle and artistry.
I don’t have a friend who feels at ease
I don’t know a dream that’s not been shattered
Or driven to its knees.
Oh, but it’s all right, it’s all right
For we’ve lived so well so long
Still, when I think of the road
We’re traveling on
I wonder what’s gone wrong
I can’t help it, I wonder what’s gone wrong.
Across the emotional spectrum, he wrote a song, “Something So Right,” that spoke about commitment in relationships with an openness and honesty that rivaled John Lennon’s most vulnerable admissions—but again with a sense of comfort, not confrontation:
Some people never say the words
“I love you.”
It’s not their style
To be so bold
Some people never say those words,
“I love you.”
But like a child, they’re longing to be told.
Through acclaimed albums, such as “Still Crazy After All These Years,” and great, but neglected ones, notably “Hearts and Bones,” Simon kept searching for new themes to express the nuances of the human condition, as well as new musical seasoning—from the lure of reggae to joyful lift of African rhythm—and it all came together in the wit and warmth and wonder of his “Graceland” album in the summer of 1986.
While these songs have spoken about our lives and times with such an intimacy and grace that they share an important place in our cultural consciousness, we know little about the composer.
That’s chiefly by Paul Simon’s design.
Through four decades of enchanting music and tens of millions of record sales, publishers and music fans have hoped for a quality book by or about Paul Simon, but he has turned down numerous offers to write his autobiography and has refused to grant interviews to those who attempted a biography. He, too, has discouraged people close to him from speaking with writers.
This blackout is now over.
Simon has given me his blessings for what will be his definitive biography.
We have already begun a series of extensive interviews in which he speaks candidly and in depth about Simon the artist and Simon the man. He is so committed to this biography that he is encouraging scores of key people in his life to finally break their silence—all with no strings attached.
Simon’s importance rests in his artistry—and that artistry will be the centerpiece of the book, but the songs take on an even more evocative edge once we know the personal journey that produced them. Simon’s music is so eloquent and accessible that it feels effortless, but we will learn of the struggle behind the songs and the stardom.
In his music, Simon has shared the darker moments of his journey in several of his songs, never perhaps more nakedly than in “The Boxer,” which came early in his songwriting career as he conveyed the burdens he’d carried and burdens he knew were yet to come:
In the clearing stands a boxer
And a fighter by his trade
And he carries the reminders
Of every glove that laid him down
Or cut him till he cried out
In his anger and his shame,
“I am leaving, I am leaving”
But the fighter still remains.
In the book, we will convey the resilience and resolve of a man who withstood those punches and emerged triumphant, not only with one of the most prized collections of songs in the history of American popular music, but with a personal life that in the long run has brought him the comfort he so sought when writing “Bridge over Troubled Water.”
As chief pop music critic for the Los Angeles Times for more than three decades, I have known Paul Simon ever since his early solo days. I’ve interviewed him at various points in his life, even accompanied him to Zimbabwe in 1987 for his celebrated “Graceland” concerts. We have talked during times of great success for him and severe disappointment.
Meanwhile, Paul’s journey continues.
His latest album, “So Beautiful or So What,” contains some of the loveliest music of his career. It was named one of the five best collections of 2011 by the New York Times’ Jon Pareles. He’s now working on another album and continues to tour.
In the end, Simon’s story will be an inspiring and illuminating look at personal struggle and artistry.
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