![\"Paul](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/Paul-Simon-Musician-1986-Far-Out-Magazine-1140x855.jpg\")
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Credit: Far Out \/ Record Sleeve<\/p>\n
Thu 30 July 2026 18:17, UK <\/p>\n
Paul Simon<\/a>\u2019s ability to weave words with melody is as seamless as rain into a river. He\u2019s a natural songwriter, never straining to rhyme or struggling to strum suitable chords. <\/p>\n He defined part of this himself when he said, \u201cI sound sincere every time.\u201d As Jos\u00e9 Saramago once wrote: \u201cIf I\u2019m sincere today, what does it matter if I regret it tomorrow?\u201d Simon\u2019s art thrives on that honest tenet.<\/p>\n His tracks are dripping with wrung-out experience. It is hard to find a more truthful writer anywhere. He has extolled his life story in the songs he has written. In \u2018America\u2019, you feel like you\u2019re practically on the bus seat next to him. <\/p>\n Every anthem hints at his wandering path through life, the people he has spent it with, and all the potholes on his memory lane along the way. It is a beautiful ride, and long may it continue. Along that ride, Simon figured he had perfectly captured his experience in song on one glorious occasion back in 1966. <\/p>\n Though it might not seem that way now, Simon\u2019s career was nearly over before it began. His debut alongside Art Garfunkel flopped despite the adulation it has since received, and Simon had to return to the drawing board. \u201cThere was no place to play in New York City<\/a>,\u201d he would later bemoan. \u201cThey wouldn\u2019t have me.\u201d The Greenwich Village scene that he called home was full of folk singers, and he was no longer one of them. <\/p>\n He absconded away from the damning failure of their first album and focused on remedying it. He insulated himself from the cruel music industry with the art and poetry that inspired him in the first place, living a life like the protagonist in \u2018I Am a Rock\u2019. Feeling like an outsider but unperturbed, he was an island that would soon send out ships of influence, nevertheless. <\/p>\n If folk was a genre to comfort the downtrodden, then he was perfectly placed to propagate it with veracity. He endeavoured to write about his life. He just needed a fresh page. Given that he was borne from the days of Jack Kerouac, chasing such pages down on the road seemed viable.<\/p>\n So, determined to pursue the arts, he headed over to England to peruse the burgeoning folk scene of Bond Street. \u201cI had a lot of friends there and a girlfriend there. I could play music there,\u201d he later said of his happy time in Old Blighty. However, the wind-whipped Isle can be harsh, and as he toured, he noted his experiences on the road.<\/p>\n \u2018Homeward Bound\u2019 tells the tale of a man finding out that life on the road, even with growing success, can be filled with a yearning for home, yet that yearning itself can be \u201cidyllic\u201c in its own kind of way. \u201cThat was written in Liverpool when I was travelling. What I like about that is that it has a very clear memory of Liverpool station and the streets of Liverpool and the club I played at and me at age 22,\u201c he recalled of the 1966 song. <\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s like a snapshot, a photograph of a long time ago. I like that about it,\u201d he later said of the song. \u201cThat\u2019s my memory of that time: it was just about idyllic<\/a>. It was just the best time of my life.\u201d In love, in a fresh new land, and gathering up fans, after flopping, Simon seemed to be back on his rhyming feet. <\/p>\n \u201cHome, where my thought\u2019s escaping Paul Simon, \u2018Homeward Bound\u2019<\/p>\n \u2018Homeward Bound\u2019 gave him further reason to be happy. He had tapped into a universal feeling and had a hit on his hands. It peaked at fifth in the US and remained in the charts for 12 weeks. Simon and Garfunkel were now on their way. <\/p>\n The beauty is that it is not just a snapshot for Simon, the song resonates with all of us. It captures the vivified sentiment of home and the scenes it entails. It\u2019s a song that feels like rounding the bend onto your old street. It conjures memories and feelings way beyond what is contained within the few sweet minutes, and that is what Simon\u2019s writing does at its very best. <\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Home, where my music\u2019s playing
Home, where my love lies waiting
Silently for me\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"\"\/](\"https:\/\/faroutmagazine.co.uk\/wp-content\/themes\/far-out-magazine\/img\/google-discover.svg\")
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