Overview

Paul Simon: An American Tune is the first full-scale survey of the career of one of the most honored musicians and songwriters in American history. Starting out as a teeny-bopper rocker in the late 1950s, Paul Simon went on to form the most influential pop duo of the 1960s—Simon & Garfunkel—and after their break-up in 1970, launch one of the most successful, varied, and surprising solo careers of our time. In Paul Simon: An American Tune, Cornel Bonca considers Simon’s vast trove of songs in the biographical and cultural context in which he wrote them: from the pop cultural revolution of the 1960s which Simon himself helped to create, the singer-songwriter movement of the 1970s, the turn toward world music in the 1980s that gave the world the monumental Graceland, to the intimate personal turn his music took in the millennial era. Analyzing Simon’s albums one by one, often song by song, Bonca provides a deep and artful exploration of the work of one of today’s major songwriters. Offering a lucid and vivid portrait of an astonishing decades-long career, Paul Simon: An American Tune will interest a wide audience, from Simon fans to students and scholars of American popular culture.

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9780810895409

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How did a Jewish kid from Queens end up on top of the musical pyramid? That's the question Bonca seeks to answer in his insightful portrait of Paul Simon, who, at 72, remains at the top of his game. Simon met his future songwriting partner, Art Garfunkel, in sixth grade. They lived three blocks apart, became fast friends, and soon began writing songs together. At 15, they tried selling their wares at the famous Brill Building in midtown Manhattan. Their first album, Wednesday Morning 3 A.M., set the template for what was to follow: literate songwriting, lush harmonies, gorgeous melodies. That their songs appeared on The Graduate soundtrack only sealed the deal. When the duo parted ways in 1970, Simon began an exploration of world music, most successfully on Graceland and The Rhythm of the Saints. In spite of occasional missteps, such as the disastrous film, One-Trick Pony, Simon, Bonca affirms, continues to create important work, including his recent album, So Beautiful or So What. * Booklist * Beyond Bonca's poetic expertise and profound readings of individual songs, the highlight of this book is the context it provides. . . .It also includes significant film and book releases. The timeline will allow readers to see at a glance events that might have influenced the songwriting process. This book will prove most useful for a class such as an undergraduate popular music survey, or as background reading for a more advanced seminar. Lay audiences and newcomers to Simon's work will also find it an interesting and . . . accessible introduction to his career. Serious music scholars will appreciate the author's poetic readings of many songs and his thorough understanding of the cultural milieu in which Simon has worked . . . Therefore, Paul Simon: An American Tune is recommended for well-stocked general libraries and for universities whose general studies curricula include classes in popular music or 1960s to 1980s American culture. * Notes: Quarterly Journal of the Music Library Association *

Author Information

Cornel Bonca is Professor of English and Comparative Literature at California State University, Fullerton. His criticism, journalism, and fiction have appeared in Salon, The New York Observer, The Los Angeles Review of Books, OC Weekly Modern Language Studies, Jacaranda, and two dozen other publications.

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