Paul Simon and Such

I recently read a biography on Paul Simon. I bought it at Dollar Tree, of all places. I bet he'd love to hear that a book about his career ended up on a dollar store shelf...

I have a renewed admiration for him. Actually, I never knew all that much about his personal history,
but I've been a fan of his music since junior high, when I became unimpressed with the current music and turned my attention fully to oldies. My ears melted in a good way when I heard "The Sound of Silence", "Bridge Over Troubled Water", and many more of Simon & Garfunkel's hits. I loved the songs' sentiments and lovely harmonies.

My junior year in high school I dated a senior, who was a fan of Paul Simon; but not so much the
 "& Garfunkel" part. I've been known to immerse myself in the music my loved ones like. It just makes me feel connected to them in a strange (but totally not obsessive) way. =)

Hey, here's a picture of us from the girl-ask-guy dance. It was jungle-themed, and my mom took our group's photos at our house to save us all from buying the over-priced packages available at the dance. Just FYI.

He (whose name was and still is Adam) and I listened to Paul Simon tunes in his red Ford Bronco as we drove to and fro movies, and our houses, and other in-town destinations. This familiarized me with Paul's solo career.

I was in a girls' choir that year in school, and Mrs. Schmidt gave her students opportunities to perform songs in front of the class as part of our grade. I wanted to share a Simon & Garfunkel number. It was a toss-up between "Old Friends" and "Song For The Asking".  I had Adam decide for me, and he voted for the latter. He came to choir class that day to watch me (and likely wished he'd left his ears at home). =)

Enough about me and high school. Let me share some of the things I learned when reading this Paul Simon book.

I had no clue how long Paul and Artie had to work before they finally made success. Then again, they did start in their mid-teens. But roughly 7 years of almost-ups and many downs eventually paid off. Yay for them! Yay for the world!

The two didn't originally call their duo by the name we all know. They at one point called themselves Tom Graph and Jerry Landis (Tom & Jerry for short). Landis was the last name of one of Paul's girlfriends. They also briefly used the name Kane & Garr. It's no wonder they floundered in the industry for a while. ;)

The line "hello, darkness, my old friend" came from the fact that Paul would write songs in the dark of his bathroom due to the good acoustics.

I had forgotten that Paul was briefly married to Carrie Fisher. Carrie apparently cheated on him with Dan Aykroyd. =/

Paul at one time lived in George Harrison's former home on Blue Jay Way. George also encouraged Paul in his solo career. =)

The Grammy for record of the year in 1969 went to "Mrs. Robinson", beating "Hey Jude".  I never knew! For some reason it's so weird to think of the Beatles mingling and "competing" with Simon & Garfunkel.

"Bridge Over Troubled Water" got record of the year in 1971 over "Let it Be".  That would have been a tough decision to make. But "Bridge" is such a beautiful, meaningful song, so I'm not mad it won. =)

I didn't realize how inseparable Paul and Art were. It seemed they couldn't keep away from each other for too long before one of them would come crawling back, either to produce a more profitable album, put on "one last concert together", or just because they secretly missed each other. (I'm adding that last interpretation of things.)

Anyway, Paul Simon rocks. He has some of the best songs to sing and whistle along to. It totally inspires me to want to write songs. Of course nothing as beautifully poetic as his work. Songs can be anything. I'm working on several sets of lyrics, but I need to "find the time" to work out some tunes and such. Seems such a daunting task. It would help if I had a bunch of professional studio musicians at my disposal to accompany me, like Paul had. =)