小简介
1941年10月，Paul Simon出生于美国新泽西州的迅瓦克。不久，他随家人一起移居到纽约的奎因斯。Paul Simon的父亲是一个职业的贝斯手，母亲是一名教师。
在故里，Paul Simon结识了他的终生好友，事业上的长期合作伙伴阿特.加丰凯尔(Art.Garfunkel)。他们两家住得很近，只相隔3个街区。一次，Paul Simon看了一场阿特.加丰凯尔的演出，被他的表演深深打动。于是Paul Simon希望自己也能象阿特.加丰凯尔那样走上舞台。不久，两人成了好朋友。
高中毕业以后，Paul Simon与阿特.加丰凯尔尝试涉足乐坛。古典摇滚乐以及他们每天都有可以听到的街头歌手的演唱给他们以深深的影响。Paul Simon和阿特.加丰凯尔配合得天衣无缝，默契之极。他们经常在阿特.加丰凯尔的地下室一坐就是半天，只为寻找一个词或一个音调。Paul Simon和阿特.加丰凯尔对音乐的热爱和他们对音乐的天赋，使得唱片公司很快为其打开了大门。
最初，两人一遍又一遍地与制作人探讨他们的作品。而这些制作人却只会叼着烟卷吞云吐雾，根本上不屑听他们呕心沥血制成的盒带。不过最终两人还是签订了一份合同，使当时最受欢迎的电视音乐节目“美国乐坛”专门为他们录制了一期节目。
然而早期取得的成功很快就烟消云散了。Paul Simon与阿特.加丰凯尔各奔东西。
之后，Paul Simon就一个人继续灌录歌曲，并学习了很多录音棚的制作流程知识。上大学之后，Paul Simon的身高只有5英尺3英寸，他为此忧心如焚，变得非常敏感忧郁。这种多愁善感的性格成了他个性中不可磨灭的一部分。后来Paul Simon与阿特.加丰凯尔再次走到一起，成为大学校园的知名歌手。然而好景不长，Paul Simon在奎因斯大学完成他的学业后即远赴英伦，开始他的民间音乐巡回演出。
此后不久，Paul Simon遇到了为英国民间音乐做巡回演的凯西，在后来的许多年中，她一直是Paul Simon的朋友兼情人。在这次巡回演出中，Paul Simon创作了大量的歌曲。其中有一首引起了Bob Dylan的制作人汤姆.威尔森的兴趣。
于是，Paul Simon与阿特.加丰凯尔再度合作，录制了名为《星期三零晨三点钟》(Wendesday Morning 3 A.M.)的专辑。他们应制作有的建议，将各自的名字改为“西蒙和加丰凯尔”。这张专辑仍没有引起什么轰动，Paul Simon失望地结束了他的英国之旅。
但Paul Simon并不气馁，又尝试着出版了《Paul Simon歌集》(Paul Simon)，同样没有取得任何效果。就在这时，英国电台的音乐节目主持人总是在节目中播放Paul Simon的那首The sound of silence,播放的次数越多，反映就越热烈。后来，哥伦比亚公司在这首歌中加入电结它的鼓点，这一版本一以行就升到排行榜的宝座。
于是，Paul Simon两人趁热打铁，出版了一部The sound of silence的专辑，结果大获成功。之后，专辑《香菜、智者、迷失者和百里香》(Parsley,sage,rosemary and thyme)又最得成功，《书夹》、《忧愁河上的桥》( Bridge over the troubled water)是他们最有影响力的一张专辑。Paul Simon与阿特.加丰凯尔的名字家喻户晓。
在这以后的独唱生涯中，Paul Simon录制了一系列的专辑，取得了一定的成功，但都无法与“西蒙与加丰凯尔时代”的音乐媲美。
1986年，Paul Simon深入非洲各地，运用当地的音乐素材精心制作了一部名为《恩赐之地》(Graceland)的专辑。这张专辑获得了巨大的成功。它将多种形式的南非黑人民谣与美国的摇滚结合在一起，并配与各种奇妙的音乐效果，使得整张专辑的卓越艺术性与飘逸性令人兴奋。这张专辑连续两年获得了格莱美大奖。
1990年，一张同样具有非洲风格的专辑《圣洁的节奏》(The Rhythm of Saint)发行，Paul Simon再次获得了成功。
1994年，Paul Simon与文蒂.普瑞凯尔结婚。
In a career dating back to the 1950s, Paul Simon established himself among the best and most popular songwriters of the rock era. Growing up in Queens, NY, Simon befriended schoolmate Art Garfunkel, who had an angelic tenor voice, and the two teamed up as Tom & Jerry, taking the names of the cartoon characters. In the winter of 1957-1958, they scored a chart hit with "Hey Schoolgirl"; both were 16 years old.
Simon continued to try to score hits in the late '50s and early '60s, reaching the charts briefly in 1962 in the group Tico & the Triumphs with "Motorcycle" and under the name Jerry Landis in 1963 with "The Lone Teen Ranger." He and Garfunkel teamed up again as a folk duo in Greenwich Village, signed to Columbia Records, and released Wednesday Morning, 3 AM (October 1964). The album flopped initially, but Simon, who had been spending a lot of time in England, was picked up as a solo artist by CBS and recorded The Paul Simon Songbook, released only in Great Britain in the spring of 1965.
In the wake of the folk-rock trend prevalent that year, producer Tom Wilson took the acoustic track "The Sound of Silence" from the Wednesday Morning album, overdubbed electric guitar, bass, and drums and released the result as a single in October 1965, a full year after the album's release. It took off and hit number one, establishing Simon & Garfunkel.
For the next five years, they were one of the most successful acts in pop music. Simon wrote the songs, and the two harmonized on a series of hit singles and albums. They split up in 1970, after the release of their most popular album, Bridge Over Troubled Water.
Simon returned to solo work with Paul Simon (January 1972), which could not hope to match the success of Bridge, but which did sell a million copies and featured the reggae-tinged Top Ten single "Mother and Child Reunion." There Goes Rhymin' Simon (May 1973) was another million-seller, containing the hits "Kodachrome" and "Loves Me Like a Rock." After a 1974 live album, Simon released Still Crazy After All These Years (October 1975), which topped the charts, won the Grammy for Album of the Year, and included the number one hit "50 Ways to Leave Your Lover."
Simon took his time following this success, though he did release a greatest-hits album featuring a new hit, "Slip Slidin' Away," and contributed to a remake of "What a Wonderful World" with Garfunkel and James Taylor. Moving to Warner Bros. Records, he wrote and starred in the film One Trick Pony (August 1980), the soundtrack of which contained the Top Ten hit "Late in the Evening."
Another three years passed before Simon returned with Hearts and Bones (October 1983), which did not match his usual level of commercial success. Simon experimented with songwriting styles and became interested in South African music, resulting in Graceland (August 1986), which became his biggest-selling solo album and won him another Album of the Year Grammy. Four years later, he delivered The Rhythm of the Saints (October 1990), which did for Brazilian music what Graceland had done for South African music and was another multi-platinum seller. Simon played a free concert in Central Park in August 1991 (ten years after Simon & Garfunkel had done one) and released a live album from the show. In 1993, Warner Bros. released a box set retrospective on Simon's career, and he undertook a tour that featured Garfunkel on their old hits, as well as covering other aspects of his career. He spent the next several years writing a stage musical, The Capeman, and released his own version of its score as Songs from the Capeman (November 1997). The show, which starred Rubén Blades and Marc Anthony, opened on Broadway in early 1998 and was a quick failure. In 1999, Simon toured on a double bill with Bob Dylan. His next album, You're the One, was released in October 2000. It went gold and earned a Grammy nomination for Album of the Year. In 2006 Simon released Surprise, a collection of new material featuring three songs written with Brian Eno.
