Robert Hilburn. (2018). Paul Simon: the Life. Simon & Schuster.

Robert Hilburn. 2018. Paul Simon: The Life. Simon & Schuster.

Robert Hilburn, Paul Simon: The Life. Simon & Schuster, 2018.

Robert Hilburn. Paul Simon: The Life. Simon & Schuster, 2018.

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1. • value: 1970s
2. • value: pop music
3. • value: surprise
4. • value: singer-songwriter
5. • value: 1990s
6. • value: songwriters
7. • value: rock music
8. • value: graceland
9. • value: Folk music
10. • value: Music
11. • value: 1980s
12. • value: Music Biography
13. • value: Johnny Cash
14. • value: 2000s
15. • value: The Sound of Silence
16. • value: paul simon
17. • value: Bruce Springsteen
18. • value: annie hall
19. • value: carrie fisher
20. • value: homeward bound
21. • value: simon and garfunkel
22. • value: The Graduate
23. • value: Art Garfunkel
24. • value: mrs. Robinson
25. • value: grammy winners
26. • value: all you need is cash
27. • value: bridge over troubled water
28. • value: edie brickell
29. • value: hearts and bones
30. • value: kennedy center honorees
31. • value: one-trick pony
32. • value: robert hilburn
33. • value: so beautiful or so what
34. • value: songs from the capeman
35. • value: still crazy after all these years
36. • value: stranger to stranger
37. • value: the rhythm of the saints
38. • value: there goes rhymin simon
39. • value: you're the one

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1. • role: Author
   • fileAs: Hilburn, Robert
   • bioText: Robert Hilburn was the chief pop music critic for the Los Angeles Times for more than three decades. Author of the bestselling biography Johnny Cash: The Life, which Michiko Kakutani of the New York Times selected as one of her top ten books of 2013, Hilburn has reported extensively on most of pop music's giants, including Bob Dylan, John Lennon, Joni Mitchell, Leonard Cohen, Michael Jackson, Bruce Springsteen and U2. He lives in Los Angeles.
   • name: Robert Hilburn

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Paul Simon: the Life

fullDescription

Acclaimed music writer Robert Hilburn's "epic" and "definitive" (Rolling Stone) biography of music icon Paul Simon, written with Simon's full participation—but without his editorial control—that "reminds us how titanic this musician is" (The Washington Post).
For more than fifty years, Paul Simon has spoken to us in songs about alienation, doubt, resilience, and empathy in ways that have established him as one of the most beloved artists in American pop music history. Songs like "The Sound of Silence," "Bridge Over Troubled Water," "Still Crazy After All These Years," and "Graceland" have moved beyond the sales charts and into our cultural consciousness. But Simon is a deeply private person who has said he will not write an autobiography or talk to biographers. Finally, however, he has opened up for Robert Hilburn—for more than one hundred hours of interviews—in this "brilliant and entertaining portrait of Simon that will likely be the definitive biography" (Publishers Weekly, starred review).

Over the course of three years, Hilburn conducted in-depth interviews with scores of Paul Simon's friends, family, colleagues, and others—including ex-wives Carrie Fisher and Peggy Harper, who spoke for the first time—and even penetrated the inner circle of Simon's long-reclusive muse, Kathy Chitty. The result is a deeply human account of the challenges and sacrifices of a life in music at the highest level. In the process, Hilburn documents Simon's search for artistry and his constant struggle to protect that artistry against distractions—fame, marriage, divorce, drugs, record company interference, rejection, and insecurity—that have derailed so many great pop figures.

"As engaging as a lively American tune" (People), Paul Simon is a "straight-shooting tour de force...that does thorough justice to this American prophet and pop star" (USA TODAY, four out of four stars). "Read it if you like Simon; read it if you want to discover how talent unfolds itself" (Stephen King).

reviews

1. • premium: True
   • source:
   • content:

     March 15, 2018
     Searching biography of the renowned songwriter, well known for his melancholic songs and competitive, perfectionist nature.The former longtime critic for the Los Angeles Times, Hilburn (Johnny Cash: The Life, 2013, etc.) ranks high in the firmament of writers on popular music, a fitting match for a subject who himself is very nearly--but perhaps not quite--the equal of Lennon, McCartney, and Dylan, on all of whom Paul Simon (b. 1941) modeled himself. "They wouldn't settle for just good," said Simon of the famous competitiveness between Lennon and McCartney. "That was me, too." In public high school in New York, he teamed, fatefully, with the pure-voiced Art Garfunkel, who would be both his sounding board and his bète noire for decades to come, the subject of constant tension and the agent of transcendent musical moments. When, after several years of constant hit-making, Garfunkel took an interest in acting, the duo began to drift apart. However, writes the author, the story is a touch more complicated, for Mike Nichols offered Simon a part in Catch-22 as well only for it to wind up being cut before the film was shot. Former spouse Carrie Fisher recalls the difficulties that ensued when her own star rose as a result of the Star Wars films, when leaving him to go off and film led Simon to think of the job as "being more important to me than he was." The gossipy stuff is all nicely juicy, especially as concerns Garfunkel, with whom, it would appear, Simon will never really make peace. But what are more important are the music and Simon's contributions to popular culture through his songs; it's telling, in that regard, that Simon took Elvis Presley's death to be a warning about "the danger of not making music your top priority." Throughout a career that stretches back seven decades, Simon has clearly never forgotten where his priorities lie.With train-wreck moments and tender interludes alike, a book that delivers a sharply detailed Kodachrome of a brilliant musician.

     COPYRIGHT(2018) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

2. • premium: True
   • source:
   • content:

     Starred review from April 9, 2018
     Music critic Hilburn (Johnny Cash: The Life) delivers an energetic and elegant biography of American singer-songwriter Paul Simon. Drawing on interviews with Simon and his family and friends—including ex-wives Carrie Fisher and Peggy Harper—Hilburn exhaustively narrates Simon’s life, from his discovery of pop music in the 1950s via disc jockey Alan Freed to Simon and Art Garfunkel’s success and contentious relationship (“Artie knew Paul wrote the songs and thus controlled the future of the pair,” according to manager Mort Lewis) and Simon’s successful solo career. Hilburn describes Simon’s artistry: his “songwriting would begin with the music... then he’d try to figure out how to express what he was feeling in words.” Though Simon often came across as controlling in the studio, according to Hilburn, he was very respectful of other musicians and their time and work, and was generous toward other musicians (he wrote a check to Claude Jeter in gratitude for Jeter’s gospel singing, which inspired “Bridge over Troubled Water”). Hilburn’s brilliant and entertaining portrait of Simon will likely be the definitive biography. Agent: Luke Janklow, Janklow & Nesbit.

3. • premium: True
   • source:
   • content:

     May 1, 2018
     Simon discovered rock and roll when he heard DJ Alan Freed on WINS, the radio station which broadcast his beloved Yankees. After teaming with Art Garfunkel in school, Simon sold his baseball cards to purchase a tape recorder to capture their harmonies. They scored a minor hit while still in high school, but it was years before they prospered as a duo. Based on extensive interviews with Simon and many others, Hilburn (Johnny Cash, 2013) has assembled a thorough and engrossing account of the Rock and Roll Hall of Famer, who broke up a successful partnership and triumphed as a solo act. Hilburn delves into Simon's youth in Queens, his many loves (including Carrie Fisher and Edie Brickell), and philanthropy. He also closely examines Simon's approach to making music including his revisions, experiments in the studio, and worldwide search for interesting sounds. Simon is revealed as sensitive yet tough, spontaneous yet controlled, as well as reflective, perceptive, and empathetic, but also judgmental, insecure, and extremely competitive. As a songwriter, he has earned a spot in the canon alongside Gershwin, Lennon-McCartney, and Dylan.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2018, American Library Association.)

4. • premium: True
   • source:
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     Starred review from April 15, 2018
     

     For almost six decades, Paul Simon has been a pioneer of American songwriting, with a career that spans the folk-rock of Simon and Garfunkel to sophisticated Seventies pop and to the South African sounds of Graceland, all while writing some of the strongest lyrics in the rock canon. Journalist and writer Hilburn's (Johnny Cash: The Life) life of Simon is immediately essential as he interviewed Simon himself over the course of dozens of hours, something the singer has never before granted to biographers. Along with dozens of other interviews with Simon associates as well as sourced material, Hilburn chronicles Simon's early days in Queens, NY; his complicated relationship with Art Garfunkel, the extraordinary musical and cultural journey that led to Graceland and its reception, his occasional career setbacks, and ultimately his most recent work that still demonstrates the powers of a visionary artist. Hilburn documents the recording of specific albums, provides insights and analysis of the writing and lyrics of individual songs, and touches on Simon's personal life and family, all including the musician's own reflections. VERDICT As Simon prepares to bid farewell to touring later this year, Hilburn's well-researched book will be vital reading for his fans and to devotees of popular music of the past 50 years. [See Prepub Alert, 11/27/17.]--James Collins, Morristown-Morris Twp. P.L., NJ

     Copyright 2018 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

5. • premium: True
   • source:
   • content:

     March 15, 2018
     Searching biography of the renowned songwriter, well known for his melancholic songs and competitive, perfectionist nature.The former longtime critic for the Los Angeles Times, Hilburn (Johnny Cash: The Life, 2013, etc.) ranks high in the firmament of writers on popular music, a fitting match for a subject who himself is very nearly--but perhaps not quite--the equal of Lennon, McCartney, and Dylan, on all of whom Paul Simon (b. 1941) modeled himself. "They wouldn't settle for just good," said Simon of the famous competitiveness between Lennon and McCartney. "That was me, too." In public high school in New York, he teamed, fatefully, with the pure-voiced Art Garfunkel, who would be both his sounding board and his b�te noire for decades to come, the subject of constant tension and the agent of transcendent musical moments. When, after several years of constant hit-making, Garfunkel took an interest in acting, the duo began to drift apart. However, writes the author, the story is a touch more complicated, for Mike Nichols offered Simon a part in Catch-22 as well only for it to wind up being cut before the film was shot. Former spouse Carrie Fisher recalls the difficulties that ensued when her own star rose as a result of the Star Wars films, when leaving him to go off and film led Simon to think of the job as "being more important to me than he was." The gossipy stuff is all nicely juicy, especially as concerns Garfunkel, with whom, it would appear, Simon will never really make peace. But what are more important are the music and Simon's contributions to popular culture through his songs; it's telling, in that regard, that Simon took Elvis Presley's death to be a warning about "the danger of not making music your top priority." Throughout a career that stretches back seven decades, Simon has clearly never forgotten where his priorities lie.With train-wreck moments and tender interludes alike, a book that delivers a sharply detailed Kodachrome of a brilliant musician.

     COPYRIGHT(2018) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

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Acclaimed music writer Robert Hilburn's "epic" and "definitive" (Rolling Stone) biography of music icon Paul Simon, written with Simon's full participation—but without his editorial control—that "reminds us how titanic this musician is" (The Washington Post).
For more than fifty years, Paul Simon has spoken to us in songs about alienation, doubt, resilience, and empathy in ways that have established him as one of the most beloved artists in American pop music history. Songs like "The Sound of Silence," "Bridge Over Troubled Water," "Still Crazy After All These Years," and "Graceland" have moved beyond the sales charts and into our cultural consciousness. But Simon is a deeply private person who has said he will not write an autobiography or talk to biographers. Finally, however, he has opened up for Robert Hilburn—for more than one hundred hours of interviews—in this "brilliant and entertaining portrait of Simon that will likely be...

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