One of the 100 People Who Shaped Our World
Paul Simon is a member of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame both as a solo artist and as one half of one of the most famous duos the world has ever seen. In 2006, Time magazine named him one of the 100 people who shaped our world.
His catalogue of hits is vast:
There’s Homeward Bound, The Sound of Silence, Scarborough Fair, You Can Call Me Al, The Boxer, Cecilia, Mrs. Robinson, Bridge Over Troubled Water, Diamonds on the Soles of Her Shoes, El Condor Pasa, Still Crazy After All These Years, Mother and Child Reunion, Me & Julio Down by the Schoolyard, 50 Ways to Leave Your Lover and Graceland.
But what interests me most about Paul Simon isn’t simply the number of famous songs. It’s the fact that he kept developing.
Many artists find a formula that works and spend the rest of their careers repeating it. Simon did the opposite. He kept looking for new sounds, new rhythms, new harmonic ideas and new musical traditions to absorb. That makes his catalogue particularly interesting.
From Simon & Garfunkel to Paul Simon
Of course, Paul Simon first became famous as half of Simon & Garfunkel. The duo created some of the defining songs of the 1960s, including The Sound of Silence, Homeward Bound, Mrs. Robinson, Cecilia, El Condor Pasa, Bridge Over Troubled Water and The Boxer.
Their story deserves its own investigation though, so I’m not going to repeat it all here.
If you want the story of the partnership, the albums, the harmonies and the songs they created together, see Simon & Garfunkel | Tunes + Guitar Lessons.
For Paul Simon, the important point is what happened next.
When Simon & Garfunkel split in 1970, Simon didn’t simply try to recreate the same sound with another singer. He went somewhere else.
The 1970s
To me, the 1970s are where Paul Simon’s solo career becomes fascinating. His self-titled debut album arrived in 1972 and immediately demonstrated that he could thrive without Art Garfunkel’s harmonies.
It gave us Mother and Child Reunion and Me and Julio Down by the Schoolyard. Then came There Goes Rhymin’ Simon in 1973.
The album opens with Kodachrome, followed by Tenderness and Take Me to the Mardi Gras. Turn the record over and you get American Tune, followed by Love Me Like a Rock. That’s quite a collection.
Tenderness
Tenderness isn’t one of the songs that immediately springs to mind when you say Paul Simon’s name. That’s partly why I like it.
It’s a beautiful composition and a serious test of harmonic understanding, packed with the kind of chord movement that makes you realise there’s much more going on underneath the melody.
If you want to understand Paul Simon as a songwriter rather than simply a creator of famous singles, this is the sort of tune to study.
Don’t just learn how to play the big chord names. Work out what the chords are doing. Understand the movement. Then hear how the melody sits on top of it.
Still Crazy After All These Years + 50 Ways
Simon followed this up with Still Crazy After All These Years in 1975. The title track became another classic, but the song that really stands out for guitarists and musicians is 50 Ways to Leave Your Lover.
And, naturally, the drummers love it. The Steve Gadd groove is one of the most recognisable drum parts in popular music, and on top of that groove are some fantastic chords.
It’s a great example of why arrangement matters. Take away the drums and the song still has a sophisticated harmonic structure. Put the groove back and suddenly everything locks together.
That’s the sort of songwriting that gives musicians something to work with, and there’s a bigger lesson here for guitarists:
Paul Simon doesn’t write guitar parts simply to fill the space between the vocal lines. The guitar, bass, drums, piano and other instruments each have a job.
That’s one reason his songs can be deceptively difficult to play. You might look at the chord progression and think, “That’s not too bad.” Then you try to make the whole arrangement feel right. That’s when the real work starts.
A Golden Era of Music
It’s easy to divide Paul Simon’s career into three obvious periods and decades:
- Simon & Garfunkel in the 1960s
- Solo work in the 1970s
- Graceland and You Can Call Me Al in the 1980s
All three are fantastic. But personally, I think the 1970s catalogue is exceptional. And Simon wasn’t working in isolation.
The years around 1968–1975 produced extraordinary music from more artists such as The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, Neil Young, and Stevie Wonder.
If you have a vinyl player, dig out those albums. There’s a lot to learn.
American Tune
American Tune is another fascinating example of Simon’s songwriting. The tune was even seriously considered as a possible alternative to the American national anthem, The Star-Spangled Banner.
Whether or not you agree with that idea, it tells you something about the stature of the song. It has the quality of something much older than a contemporary pop song. And that’s one of Simon’s great strengths: making sophisticated songwriting feel familiar.
The Guitarist Behind the Songs
Paul Simon isn’t simply a songwriter who happens to play guitar. His guitar playing is an important part of how he writes.
That’s obvious when you start digging into his chord vocabulary. He uses familiar folk and acoustic ideas, but then moves beyond them with unusual chord shapes, harmonic substitutions and rhythmic approaches.
This is where learning his songs become much more interesting than simply learning the chord sequence. Try playing a Paul Simon song while concentrating on the right hand.
Listen to where the accents fall.Listen to which notes are allowed to ring. Listen to what happens when the guitar drops out.
Then listen to the drums. Then the bass. Suddenly the arrangement starts to make sense.
Graceland
By the 1980s, Simon was ready for another major change. Graceland brought together his songwriting with musical influences far beyond the folk and pop traditions that had defined his early career.
The result was an album that sounded unmistakably like Paul Simon while also sounding unlike his earlier records. Graceland, You Can Call Me Al and Diamonds on the Soles of Her Shoes became central to this new chapter.
For a musician, this is perhaps the most interesting thing about Simon’s career. He didn’t treat his existing style as a prison. He treated it as a starting point.
You Can Call Me Al
You Can Call Me Al is probably the song most people associate with this period. It’s catchy, rhythmic and immediately recognisable, but there’s much more going on than the famous video might suggest.
The bass and percussion are hugely important. The guitar isn’t simply there to provide conventional singer-songwriter accompaniment.
This is music built from rhythm. And that is something guitarists can learn from Simon’s entire catalogue. Think rhythmically. Don’t ask only, “What chords do I play?” Ask: Where does the guitar sit?
Stranger to Stranger
Fast forward many decades and you might expect an artist with such a long career to eventually run out of ideas. Simon didn’t.
His 2016 album Stranger to Stranger included Wristband, demonstrating that his songwriting curiosity was still very much alive.
That’s quite an achievement when you consider how long he had already been writing and recording. His career wasn’t simply a nostalgia act built around the songs of the 1960s. He continued to write.
The Importance of Work
One of the things I particularly like about Paul Simon is his attitude towards songwriting.
In the first video in the playlist above, Simon talks about his songwriting process and the importance of work.
That matters. It’s tempting to imagine great songs arriving fully formed because the songwriter is somehow blessed with inspiration. But Simon’s career suggests something much more practical.
You sit down. You write. You play. You experiment.
You throw things away. You try again. Then you do it tomorrow. That applies just as much to guitar.
You don’t become a better guitarist because you bought another guitar. You become a better guitarist because you put the hours in investigating and performing tunes.
Building Your Paul Simon Repertoire
If you’re learning Paul Simon tunes on guitar, don’t just collect the famous songs. Use the catalogue to develop your musicianship. Start with the recognisable tunes, then dig deeper.
Learn the chords to 50 Ways to Leave Your Lover and understand how they work. Learn Tenderness and challenge your harmonic vocabulary. Learn American Tune and study the melody and progression.
Then move into Graceland and listen to what happens when Simon’s songwriting meets completely different rhythmic traditions.
The aim isn’t to become a Paul Simon impersonator. It’s to understand why his songs work. That is what makes a repertoire useful.
Every great tune you learn gives you another rhythm, another chord movement, another melodic idea or another way of accompanying a singer.
And eventually, those ideas start appearing in your own playing.
Still Crazy After All These Years
Paul Simon’s greatest achievement may not be any single song or album. It’s the fact that he kept looking for somewhere else to go.
He could have spent the rest of his career playing The Sound of Silence, Mrs. Robinson and Bridge Over Troubled Water.
Instead, he made Still Crazy After All These Years. Then Graceland. Then Rhythm of the Saints.
Then kept writing, recording and experimenting well into the 21st century. That’s the real lesson I take from Paul Simon. Don’t stop learning songs. Don’t stop listening. And don’t assume that the music you’ve already made is the best you’re capable of.
Because the next great tune might still be waiting for you.
Paul Simon Tunes | Related Pages
50 Ways To Leave Your Lover | Chords + TAB
You can learn 50 Ways To Leave Your Lover by Paul Simon using chords, lyrics, chord analysis, a chord chart, TAB, and backing tracks.
| Em/G D6 | Cmaj7 B7b9 B7 |
The problem is all inside your head, she said to me…
The Boxer | Chords + TAB
You can learn how to play The Boxer by Simon & Garfunkel using chords, lyrics, chord analysis, a chord chart, and the original recording.
| C (C/G) | C G/B Am Am/E |
I am just a poor boy, though my story’s seldom told…
Check out the full TAB lesson here: The Boxer (Simon & Garfunkel) Guitar Lesson with TAB.
Scarborough Fair | Chords + TAB
You can learn how to play Scarborough Fair by Simon & Garfunkel using chords, lyrics, a chord chart, chord analysis, and Spytunes video guitar lessons.
| A13sus4 | Asus2 | G C/E G | A13sus4 | A7sus2 |
Are you going to Scarborough Fair…
Start learning with the full lesson series: Scarborough Fair – Guitar Lessons with TAB.
Tenderness | Chords + TAB
Learn how to play Tenderness by Paul Simon using chords, lyrics, chord analysis, the original recording, a chord chart, TAB, backing tracks and an acoustic arrangement.
| C | B7 | Em G | C C#dim7 |
What can I do, what can I do? Much of what you say is true…
Paul Simon on the web
