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Paul Simon
- The Life
- Narrated by: Dennis Boutsikaris
- Length: 12 hrs and 20 mins
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Publisher's summary
A publishing event from music legend Paul Simon: an intimate, candid, and definitive biography written with Simon's participation - but without editorial control - by acclaimed biographer and music writer Robert Hilburn.
Through such hits as "The Sound of Silence", "Bridge Over Troubled Water", "Still Crazy After All These Years", and "Graceland", Paul Simon has spoken to us in songs for a half-century about alienation, doubt, resilience, and empathy in ways that have established him as one of the most honored and beloved songwriters in American pop music history. His music has gone beyond the sales charts into our cultural consciousness. He was the first songwriter awarded the Gershwin Prize by the Library of Congress and is a member of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (twice) and the Songwriters Hall of Fame.
Deeply private, Simon has said he will not write an autobiography and has refused to talk to previous biographers. But he not only opened up to acclaimed biographer Robert Hilburn for what has amounted to more than 100 hours, he also urged those around him to speak. Independently, Hilburn also interviewed others who have been important in Simon's life, including his first two wives, Peggy Harper and Carrie Fisher, as well as, for the first time, people close to Kathy Chitty, his long-reclusive first muse.
The result is a deeply human account of the challenges and sacrifices of a life in music at the highest level, including the courage to leave Simon and Garfunkel at the peak of the duo's popularity to pursue more fully his expanding artistic goals. Hilburn documents Simon's search for artistry and his constant struggle to protect that artistry against distractions - fame, marriage, divorce, drugs, record company interference, rejection, and insecurity - that have derailed so many great pop figures.
Paul Simon: The Life is an intimate and inspiring narrative that helps us finally understand Paul Simon the person and the artist, including new and absorbing insights into his most enduring songs. Exploring his successes and failures onstage and off, the book combines the scholarship, passion, and storytelling grace of biography at its best.
Critic reviews
"Using a conversational tone throughout, Boutsikaris delivers the song lyrics as if they were works of poetry, giving listeners a new perspective on them." (AudioFile)
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- By J. Barker on 08-08-16
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Beatles '66
- The Revolutionary Year
- By: Steve Turner
- Narrated by: Simon Vance
- Length: 12 hrs and 14 mins
- Unabridged
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The year that changed everything for the Beatles was 1966 - the year of their last concert and of Revolver, their first album created to be listened to rather than performed. This was the year the Beatles risked their popularity by retiring from live performances, recording songs that explored alternative states of consciousness, experimenting with avant-garde ideas, and speaking their minds on issues of politics, war, and religion. Music journalist and Beatles expert Steve Turner investigates the enormous changes that took place in the Beatles' lives and work during 1966.
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Great listen
- By Tad Davis on 07-28-18
By: Steve Turner
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Why Should the Devil Have All the Good Music?
- Larry Norman and the Perils of Christian Rock
- By: Gregory Alan Thornbury
- Narrated by: Stephen R. Thorne
- Length: 9 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
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In 1969, in Capitol Records' Hollywood studio, a blonde-haired troubadour named Larry Norman laid track for an album that would launch a new genre of music and one of the strangest, most interesting careers in modern rock. Having spent the bulk of the 1960s playing on bills with acts like The Who, Janis Joplin, and The Doors, Norman decided that he wanted to sing about the most countercultural subject of all: Jesus.
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Hagiography not Biography
- By Keith Howard on 10-29-18
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Let’s Go Crazy
- Prince and the Making of Purple Rain
- By: Alan Light
- Narrated by: Fred Berman
- Length: 7 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
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Purple Rain is a song, an album, and a film - each one a commercial success and cultural milestone. How did this semiautobiographical musical masterpiece that blurred R&B, pop, dance, and rock sounds come to alter the recording landscape and become an enduring touchstone for successive generations of fans?
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A Must-Read For Any PRINCE Fan
- By Bryan K. Chavez on 05-06-16
By: Alan Light
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The Ballad of Bob Dylan
- A Portrait
- By: Daniel Mark Epstein
- Narrated by: Bronson Pinchot
- Length: 15 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
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The Ballad of Bob Dylan is a vivid, full-bodied portrait of one of the most influential artists of the 20th-century - a man widely regarded as the most important lyricist America has ever produced. Acclaimed poet and biographer Daniel Mark Epstein frames Dylan against the backdrop of four seminal concerts - all of which he attended. Beautifully written, The Ballad of Bob Dylan is a unique, eye-opening portrait of an artist who has transformed generations and continues to inspire and surprise today.
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Excellent book, excellent narration
- By L chandler on 12-22-11
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Unchained
- The Eddie Van Halen Story
- By: Paul Brannigan
- Narrated by: Mike Lenz
- Length: 8 hrs and 50 mins
- Unabridged
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From the moment their hugely influential 1978 debut landed, Van Halen set a high bar for the rock 'n' roll lifestyle, creating an entirely new style of post-'60s hard rock and becoming the quintessential rock band of the 1980s. But the high-flying success was fraught with difficulty, as Eddie struggled with alcohol and drug addiction while simultaneously battling David Lee Roth over the musical direction of the band, eventually taking the band in an entirely new direction with Sammy Hagar and scaling new heights, before that iteration of Van Halen disintegrated.
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Please don't read other audible books
- By Mike on 02-01-22
By: Paul Brannigan
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Paul McCartney
- A Life
- By: Peter Ames Carlin
- Narrated by: John Lee
- Length: 13 hrs
- Unabridged
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The best-selling author of the definitive biography of former Beach Boy Brian Wilson offers new insight into the life and music of Paul McCartney, one of the world's most popular and influential musicians. Informed by new, exclusive interviews with friends, bandmates, and collaborators, the book describes McCartney's many triumphs as well as his failures, from the Beatles era through his decade with Wings and his subsequent solo career.
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Great...But
- By Diego on 05-02-10
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The History of Rock & Roll
- Volume 1: 1920-1963
- By: Ed Ward
- Narrated by: David Colacci
- Length: 15 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
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Ed Ward covers the first half of the history of rock & roll in this sweeping and definitive narrative - from the 1920s, when the music of rambling medicine shows mingled with the songs of vaudeville and minstrel acts to create the very early sounds of country and rhythm and blues, to the rise of the first independent record labels post-World War II, and concluding in December 1963, just as an immense change in the airwaves took hold and the Beatles prepared for their first American tour.
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Author's blindspots mar this book
- By Mark Clark on 03-28-17
By: Ed Ward
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Never a Dull Moment
- 1971 - the Year That Rock Exploded
- By: David Hepworth
- Narrated by: David Hepworth
- Length: 11 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
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On New Year's Eve, 1970, Paul McCartney told his lawyers to issue the writ at the High Court in London, effectively ending The Beatles. You might say this was the last day of the pop era. The following day, which was a Friday, was 1971. You might say this was the first day of the rock era. And within the remaining 364 days of this monumental year, the world would hear Don McLean's "American Pie", The Rolling Stones' "Brown Sugar", The Who's "Baba O'Riley", Zeppelin's "Stairway to Heaven", and more.
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A blast from the past
- By Amazon Customer on 07-30-16
By: David Hepworth
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Uncommon People
- The Rise and Fall of The Rock Stars
- By: David Hepworth
- Narrated by: Matthew Lloyd Davies
- Length: 10 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
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The age of the rock star, like the age of the cowboy, has passed. Like the cowboy, the idea of the rock star lives on in our imaginations. What did we see in them? Swagger. Recklessness. Sexual charisma. Damn-the-torpedoes self-belief. A certain way of carrying themselves. Good hair. Interesting shoes. Talent we wished we had. What did we want of them? To be larger than life but also like us. To live out their songs. To stay young forever. No wonder many didn't stay the course.
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INSIGHTFULL!
- By CLAUDIA R KENNEDY on 02-18-18
By: David Hepworth
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The Wrecking Crew
- The Inside Story of Rock and Roll's Best-Kept Secret
- By: Kent Hartman
- Narrated by: Dan John Miller
- Length: 9 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
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If you were a fan of popular music in the 1960s and early '70s, you were a fan of the Wrecking Crew - whether you knew it or not. On hit record after hit record by everyone from the Byrds, the Beach Boys, and the Monkees to the Grass Roots, the 5th Dimension, Sonny & Cher, and Simon & Garfunkel, this collection of West Coast studio musicians from diverse backgrounds established themselves as the driving sound of pop music - sometimes over the objection of actual band members....
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Left Guessing
- By Patrick King on 04-29-14
By: Kent Hartman
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Sing to Me
- My Story of Making Music, Finding Magic, and Searching for Who's Next
- By: LA Reid
- Narrated by: Dion Graham
- Length: 9 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
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Legendary music producer LA Reid - the man behind artists such as Mariah Carey, Toni Braxton, Kanye West, Rihanna, TLC, Outkast, Pink, Justin Bieber, and Usher - changed the music business forever. Now he tells his story, taking fans on an intimate tour of his life. Sing to Me is a fascinating journey from Reid's small-town R&B roots in Cincinnati, Ohio, and his work as a drummer to his fame as a Grammy Award-winning music producer and his gig as a judge on the hit reality show The X Factor.
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Wow!! What a journey!!!
- By Marty Cohn on 02-06-16
By: LA Reid
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Who I Am
- By: Pete Townshend
- Narrated by: Pete Townshend
- Length: 17 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
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From the voice of a generation: the most highly anticipated autobiography of the year, and the story of a man who wanted The Who to be called The Hair; wanted to be a sculptor, a journalist, a dancer and a graphic designer; became a musician, composer, librettist, fiction writer, literary editor, sailor; drank too much and nearly died; detached from his body in an airplane, on LSD, and nearly died; planned to write his memoir when he was 21; and published this book at 67.
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Glad To Meet You
- By Mel on 10-12-12
By: Pete Townshend
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What listeners say about Paul Simon
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Mark L. Berry
- 07-22-18
Missed opportunity
Overall, I enjoyed learning more about Paul. I am a big fan of his. And, the narrator did a good job reading the material. Where the big fail is here, is the lost opportunity to embrace audio as a story-telling platform. Every time I heard the narrator read lyrics referred to in the story, I felt a snippet of the actual song, (with Paul, or in some cases, Art or another vocalist) should have been played instead. This is especially frustrating when the narrator talks about the music, and the music isn't presented. Fortunately I know all the references and could sing them in my head. But audiobooks shouldn't be just a person reading a story, especially a story about about music, since music is also a widely recorded medium.
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- Swallowtail
- 05-28-18
Paul Simon the music
This book is mistitled. It is not about Paul Simon's life (including friendships and other personal relationships) in any but a superficial fashion. If what you're looking for is a well-researched, detailed chronology of the evolution of Simon's music, this is the book for you.
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27 people found this helpful
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- William
- 06-22-20
Still Crazy
The first time I heard Simon and Garfunkel was the song “The Sound of Silence” and something pulled at my heart then. As a 12-year-old, I didn’t really understand it, but it moved me. “And the words of the prophets are written on the subway walls, and tenement halls” pushed me. It made me think. Then there was the Boxer, “Still a man hears what he wants to hear and disregard the rest.” I took a trip with them to look for America and learned about Kodachrome’s nice bright colors. I remember feeling upset about their breakup, almost as much as when the Beatles did so. Paul Simon wrote about almost every subject that you can think of from love to the most mundane and yet, there was always something else below the surface. Their singing of “Silent Night” with the background of a news report was so simple and yet so moving. And, he kept on going. “Still Crazy After All These Years” became almost an anthem among my dorm buddies. And, we learned that there were 50 ways to leave your lover, which is something I never needed. He branched out into so many different styles and kept growing in his music. This book is not just a biography. It’s an investigation into what made a great songwriter and musician tick. It’s based on extensive interviews with Paul Simon, in itself an accomplishment since Paul Simon was so very private. Hilburn also interviewed everyone who was close to him including his wife Carrie Fisher shortly before her death. It shows a commitment to music that was primary and a competitiveness accompanied by a lack of self-confidence. He was sensitive about his height, just over 5 feet, his thinning hair, and often worried that he could not keep up the creativity to stay relevant. He was not very good with people, though at times he could also be very generous. His relationship with Art Garfunkel, on again and off again, was, at least as portrayed in this book, was due to his own insecurity, critical spirit, and inability to forget slights, but also Art’s mercurial personality and inability to stay focused. And, Simon didn’t want to be tied down, to have to compromise. The book takes us right up to Simon’s “retirement” and last tour in 2018, though he promised to keep writing songs. If you liked (like) Paul Simon or Simon and Garfunkel, this is a must-read. It gives a greater understanding of Simon and of the meaning and source of his songs. Many of his song lyrics are included in their entirety, there are some additional verses that were not in the first recording of a couple of songs. A superb work.
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- Books on our Brains Society/ Barbara
- 08-05-18
A must for fans of Paul Simon
I've had a subscription to the LA Times most of my adult life. Robert Hilburn was the rock music critic for the Times for 35 of those years. His biography, Paul Simon: The Life, is a loving and unblinking portrait of one of the greatest songwriters of my generation. In his book about Simon's life devoted to writing songs and making music, Hilburn describes Paul Simon's struggles to balance professional life with a stable and happy personal one. He details Simon's close but antagonistic relationship with Art Garfunkel, finally ending in an irreparable split. But the best parts of the book are about Simon's creative process in songwriting. These passages are deeply personal and wonderfully insightful. Simon's struggle to always improve through learning from and collaborating with other musicians sets an example for any striving novice. As a 50-plus year fan of Simon's music, Paul Simon: The Life was a sublime read (or listen) and deeply affecting. Kudos to the narrator, Dennis Boutsikaris.
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- JC
- 05-18-18
Great!
Bob Hilburn brings insights into Pail Simon like nobody else can. His access and long history covering music is invaluable.
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- Tracy F.
- 01-09-21
Boring...
Very boring. They glossed over key points or events in his life, and spend TONS of time on giving us names of every single band member he ever shook hands with.
Not enough time spent on his relationship with ex wife Carrie Fisher, or even his lifelong relationship with Art Garfunkel.
I was quite disappointed and barely finished it. Plus it seems as if he is almost always in a sullen mood. Kinda brought me down at times.
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- Dubi
- 12-03-18
Still Hazy After All These Years
I held off reading biographies of Paul Simon until the heralded publication of this one by Robert Hillburn, which promised to be the one that, given extensive access to Simon himself for the first time, would present a balanced view of the great singer songwriter. This is The Life after all, not a life. I'm a huge fan -- I perform his songs. I didn't want a character assassination of one of my heroes, every prior biography determined to prove that Paul is the world's biggest jerk.
So I'm terribly disappointed in the result. It's not bad -- most people will probably enjoy it. But even though Hillburn was given ultimate control of the output, it's hard to imagine Simon, who comes off as controlling even if not the world's biggest jerk, didn't somehow guide him to a desired result by focusing on the songwriting, recasting controversies as misunderstandings, even avoiding events like his highly publicized 2014 arrest.
There is a case to be made (as Hillburn does) that Simon has been so invested in his art since his teenage years that he often comes off as distant, distracted, controlling, but is really just consumed by his work. But it just cannot be the case that everyone else was wrong about him in every imaginable instance, giving me a sense that this is an unbalanced portrait, albeit in a different direction that usual.
What Hillburn does best in this book is hardly praiseworthy. In a space which is not short but certainly not overlong, only one question is fully and adequately answered: What is Paul Simon's place in the pantheon of songwriters? We already knew the answer -- top five all-time. The only real addition to the Simon canon are detailed explanations of where some of his famous lyrics came from and what they mean, explained by Simon himself.
And even that is marred by flaws: the publication in full of the lyrics to many songs (do we really need every word of Wrist Band?), factual errors like calling Woody Allen a Bronx native (he's Brooklyn born and bred), or saying that the lost verse of The Boxer was added later and that its famous booming drum was recorded inside an elevator shaft. The author's laziness shows at every turn, and that is the problem with this book, regardless of how you feel about the substance.
There is so much more I have to say about this, but it wouldn't be helpful here. If you're interested, my full review is at Good Reads in all its gory detail. The bottom line here: if like me you've been waiting for a balanced look at Paul Simon's life and career, you're nor going to get it. If you just want the overall story, you'll probably like this well enough.
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- Anonymous User
- 12-26-18
Not so good
Actually I was dissapointed with the story and the narrator troubled me to spesally when reading Simons lyricsb
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- jeffincville
- 08-06-18
Enjoyable Listen
I am sure that you aren't looking at this book unless you are a S&G fan, and I bought it for the same reason. I enjoyed it most in unexpected ways, however, as Simon's description of the work that went into writing some of his songs had me going back to listen to them again with a new perspective. Much of his newer stuff has had little interest for me, as it lacks the hooks found in his earlier stuff. After hearing about his thought process, I found the songs much more interesting. Highly recommended biography.
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- William
- 07-02-18
Great story of Paul Simon's journey through life.
I really loved it.
It was a great story of Paul Simon's journey through life.
This minimum number of words for my review is dumb.
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