Encore - Paul Simon

City Arts & Lectures

This week…. An encore of our 2016 conversation with legendary musician Paul Simon.
Paul Simon first gained prominence in the 1960s as one-half of duo Simon and Garfunkel. Their hits included The Sound of Silence, Mrs. Robinson, and songs from their fifth and final album, Bridge Over Troubled Water. Simon expanded his music beyond traditional American folk rock in a highly successful solo career that included platinum selling albums like Graceland and Rhythm of the Saints. He was twice inducted into the Rock n Roll Hall of Fame.

On June 6, 2016, Simon came to the Sydney Goldstein Theater in San Francisco to talk to writer Dave Eggers about his painstaking process, in which he has sometimes taken more than two years to finish a single song - and about the physics of sound.

At the time this program was recorded, Simon was touring and had just performed two concerts at Berkeley’s Greek Theater. In 2018, he announced he was retiring from public performance, in part because of hearing issues. but in 2025, at the age of 83, he returned to the stage with “A Quiet Celebration Tour”.