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Paul Simon opened up about how his first major hit “irrevocably changed” his life
His song “The Sound of Silence,” recorded with Art Garfunkel, ultimately hit No. 1 on the Billboard and Cashbox charts
Simon continues to perform and is touring this year
Paul Simon’s life has taken many twists and turns.
Simon, 84, opened up in an interview with The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, posted April 3, about how he first found fame. In 1964, he told Colbert, he moved to London and lived there for two years.
While in London, his music evolved. “I love that music. Fell in love with that music,” he said. He also “learned a lot about guitar,” he said.
“I originally started out playing electric guitar, then I switched to acoustic and I learned how to finger pick,” he remembered. “I learned a lot and I was playing like that.” He remembered that he would play shows at “folk clubs,” which were “really just rooms above a pub.”
Art Garfunkel (left) and Paul Simon in 1966
Credit: Hulton Archive/Getty
“Sometimes they had a mic, sometimes they didn’t have a mic,” he said, noting they helped “maybe” 50 to 75 people. “And I learned how to be an act, how to put together a set and talk,” he said.
Colbert, 61, noted that Simon was overseas when “The Sound of Silence” became a hit in America. The song, recorded by Simon and Art Garfunkel, was originally released in 1964 and did not do well. A year later, in September 1965, it was released again, with a remix that included overdubbed electric instruments and drums.
Colbert asked how Simon knew the song was a hit since he didn’t have any Internet. “Well, there was a there a magazine called Cashbox,” he explained. A music-industry trade magazine, it was published from 1942 to 1996. “They used to have the top 100 and then what they called bubbling under, which was 100 to 120,” he remembered. “And Arty says to me, ‘You know, we’re like 111 on bubbling under.’ I said, ‘Really?’ And then the next week we were 101.”
The week after, Simon was heading to Denmark to play a show. “I knew that that was [when] the new publication of Cashbox would come out,” he said. “So, I’m waiting around and waiting around till the publisher’s office opened, and I went in there, and I got the magazine, and I said, ‘I just can’t bear to look at it.’ Because I know if it comes in anywhere between 100 and 80, you’re not going to have a hit.”
Art Garfunkel (left) and Paul Simon in 1966
Credit: CBS Photo Archive/Getty
He mimicked checking the bottom of the list. “I just sort of quickly go, ‘Good it’s not there.’” Then he checked between 80 and 70 and saw it wasn’t there either. “Okay, that could be good,” Simon thought.
He slowly started looking at the list, one at a time. Finally, he saw it at 59.
“I said, I never forget this, I said, ‘My life is irrevocably changed.’ It was,” Simon said.
“The Sound of Silence” ultimately hit Cashbox’s No. 1 spot on January 29, 1966. It also hit No. 1 on the Billboard chart. Simon & Garfunkel continued to mix together folk and rock music, and had hits with songs like “Homeward Bound,” “I Am a Rock,” “Mrs. Robinson,” “The Boxer,” “Cecilia” and “Bridge Over Troubled Water.”
Simon went solo after 1970 and had more hits up his sleeve, including “Me and Julio Down by the Schoolyard,” “50 Ways to Leave Your Lover,” “Still Crazy After All These Years” and “You Can Call Me Al.” He was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame as both a member of Simon & Garfunkel and as a solo artist.
The musician will continue to tour this summer across the U.S. and Canada.
Read the original article on People