Paul Simon – Nostalgia Central

After the 1970 breakup of the legendary folk-rock duo Simon & Garfunkel, Paul Simon launched a diverse, critically acclaimed solo career.

His self-titled 1972 debut album featured early elements of reggae fusion and world music, yielding iconic hits like Mother and Child Reunion and the samba-influenced Me and Julio Down by the Schoolyard.

Simon’s third solo album, There Goes Rhymin’ Simon (1973), brought a sunny, soulful touch with tracks like Kodachrome (banned from BBC radio in the UK for its reference to a brand of film) and the gospel-infused Loves Me Like a Rock, while the jazz-tinged Still Crazy After All These Years (1975) – containing the immortal single Fifty Ways to Leave Your Lover – was a critical and commercial success and won the Grammy for Album of the Year.

By 1985, Paul Simon was in the creative doldrums, battling middle age, poor sales and a bad hairpiece. But his fortunes changed after he heard a tape of the South African mbaqanga (“township jive”) group the Boyoyo Boys.

At the height of apartheid, he controversially flew to Johannesburg to record with them and other musicians, creating the basis of Graceland, an album that incorporated not just mbaqanga but zydeco, pop and Zulu choral arrangements.

Although initially mired in controversy, The Boy In The Bubble, You Can Call Me Al and Diamonds On The Soles Of Her Shoes became ubiquitous hits and put South African music on the world stage.

Simon followed the African musical diaspora to South America, integrating dense, complex Afro-Brazilian percussion rhythms into his songwriting on The Rhythm of the Saints (1990).

In his later years, Simon slowed his commercial output but kept pushing artistic boundaries, exploring musical theatre, avant-garde acoustic production, and deeply spiritual subject matter.

The Capeman (1997) was his highly ambitious, though commercially unsuccessful, Broadway musical, incorporating doo-wop and Latin rhythms.

Albums like Stranger to Stranger (2016) – his 13th solo LP – showed him experimenting with custom-made microtonal instruments and electronic textures.

Seven Psalms (2023) was a continuous 33-minute, seven-movement acoustic piece exploring faith, mortality, and the afterlife. Recorded despite Simon’s severe hearing loss in one ear, critics widely hailed it as a late-career masterpiece.

Spanning more than five decades, his solo achievements have earned him 16 Grammy Awards (including multiple Album of the Year wins) and a separate induction into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame as a solo artist in 2001.