Paul Simon Born: Songwriter Who Bridged Musical Worlds

Paul Simon wrote "The Sound of Silence" at twenty-one, sitting in the dark in his bathroom with the water running because he liked the way the room held sound. He and Art Garfunkel had recorded it for an album called Wednesday Morning, 3 A.M. that sold three thousand copies and got them dropped from their label. The partnership seemed over before it had begun. Two years later, without telling either of them, producer Tom Wilson overdubbed electric guitar, bass, and drums onto the original acoustic recording and released it as a single. It reached number one. Simon, who was in England at the time, learned about his own hit from a newspaper. The reunion album, Sounds of Silence, went gold, and Simon and Garfunkel became one of the defining acts of the 1960s. "Mrs. Robinson," written for the soundtrack of The Graduate, reached number one in 1968. "Bridge Over Troubled Water" became the best-selling album in the world in 1970 and won six Grammy Awards. The duo split that same year, undone by creative differences and personal friction that had been building since their teenage years in Queens. Simon's solo career proved even more adventurous. Graceland, recorded in South Africa with local musicians in defiance of the cultural boycott, sold fourteen million copies and won the Grammy for Album of the Year in 1987 despite controversy over the collaboration's political implications. His subsequent albums explored Brazilian, West African, and Puerto Rican musical traditions. His songwriting consistently pushed the boundaries of what popular music could contain, blending literary sophistication with melodic accessibility in a way that made each album sound like nothing that had come before.