Paul Simon: A Life - Hardcover

by Marc Eliot (Author)

The definitive biography of legendary singer-songwriter Paul Simon.

Paul Simon, one of the country's most popular musicians, has been a dynamic creative force for more than half a century. Now New York Times bestselling biographer Marc Eliot draws on extensive research and original interviews to trace the incredible life and career of this iconic musician. Along the way Eliot examines Simon's early struggles to succeed as a singer-songwriter, the ups and downs of his decades-long collaboration with Art Garfunkel, his at-times obsessive admiration and competitive drive with Bob Dylan, his musical triumphs such as Still Crazy After All These Years and Graceland, the spectacular failure of his Broadway musical The Capeman, and much more.

• The first comprehensive biography of Paul Simon and his music
• Explores the complex relationship between Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel through years of their musical breakups and reunions
• Reveals personal details, with interviews, of Simon's life away from music
• Includes dozens of exclusive photographs, several published for the first time

Whether you grew up listening to classic Simon and Garfunkel songs or came to love Paul Simon's music through his solo albums, this highly entertaining biography will give you a new understanding of this talented artist and the many surprising twists and turns of his life and work as a songwriter, a performer, and an icon of Boomer Generation.

Front Jacket

How did a young doo-wop singer and Brill Building wannabe transform himself into a giant of the tumultuous rock revolution of the 1960s? What did Paul Simon's idol Bob Dylan do to earn Simon's enduring ire? And what is it that makes Paul's friendship with Art Garfunkel the longest, most successful, most complicated, and weirdest relationship in modern music history?

In "Paul Simon: A Life," "New York Times" bestselling biographer Marc Eliot presents the most detailed and comprehensive account to date of the incredible life and career of this multitalented, dynamic, and influential music icon.

This definitive biography reveals how Simon's immigrant parents encouraged his musical development from an early age, how he became friends with a tall gangly schoolmate who threatened to steal his musical thunder in a grade-school production of "Alice in Wonderland," and how their pattern of breaking up and reuniting began long before they became "Simon & Garfunkel."

Drawing on extensive interviews with many of Simon's friends, fellow musicians, and collaborators, Eliot relates how the duo was discovered at Gerde's Folk City in 1963, what exactly Paul was doing in England while the re-engineered recording of "The Sound of Silence" was becoming a monster hit back home, and how a song that he hadn't even finished writing became one of the biggest of Simon & Garfunkel's many huge hits.

You'll find a detailed review of the crucial role Paul played in the Monterey Music Festival, how Art Garfunkel's acting career delayed the recording and release of the "Bridge over Troubled Water" album, and how that landmark and last Simon & Garfunkel record documents their long and contentious friendship.

You'll also discover the enormous efforts Paul made to ensure that his first solo album would sound completely different from Simon & Garfunkel; the long and complex process that led to the creation of Graceland, the album that reinvigorated his career in the 1980s; and the whole story behind "The Capeman," his disastrous 1998 attempt at a Broadway musical.

Complete with more than two dozen photos, many never before published, this highly entertaining biography will give you a new understanding of this talented artist.

Back Jacket

The definitive biography of legendary singer-songwriter Paul Simon

In this definitive biography, Paul Simon's glamorous and brilliant life is set against the backdrop of five decades of rock 'n' roll history. "New York Times" bestselling biographer Marc Eliot draws on extensive research and original interviews to pull back the curtain on one of the world's modern musical masters and cultural icons and shares: How a shoe store stockboy rose to the top of the music industryHow young Paul Simon struggled to emerge from the powerful shadow of his idol, Bob DylanStories from Paul's inner circle about the creatively brilliant but often troubled partnership with Art GarfunkelThe first and best chronicle of Paul's early, influential years in London, prior to "The Sound of Silence"Paul's women, his marriages, his girfriends, his difficult divorceHow Paul pushed rock 'n' roll forward by going back to his roots, finding inspiration and redemption in Africa, and creating his masterpiece, "Graceland"The real story of the stormy saga of "The Capeman"Tales of Paul's rock 'n' roll road, from the '50s to the present

Author Biography

MARC ELIOT is the "New York Times" bestselling author of more than a dozen books on popular culture, among them the highly acclaimed biography Cary Grant, the award-winning "Walt Disney: Hollywood's Dark Prince," and "American rebel: The Life of Clint Eastwood," plus the music biographies "Down Thunder Road: The Making of Bruce Springsteen," "To the Limit: The Untold Story of the Eagles," and "Death of a Rebel," about Phil Ochs. Visit him at marceliot.net.