Paul Simon on Almost Everything, Chapter 3 of 5: "Out Here on My Own" (1970-1984)

Two marriages, two divorces, two commercial flops, and mo' betta music

Carrie Fisher and Simon, neither of whom could live with, or without, the other

Not long after Clive Davis took over as Columbia Records’ president, he sat down with Paul Simon for what Davis thought would be an upbeat talk about Simon and Garfunkel’s future, which, with Bridge Over Troubled Waters leaping off record-store shelves, looked bright indeed. Davis’s sunny mood darkened quickly when he asked Simon when he and Art Garfunkel were planning to record their next album, and Simon answered, “We’re not.”

Davis was shocked. During the making of Bridge,” said the record man, “Paul and I went out to lunch from time to time, and he told me about the issues he was having with Art. But I had no idea he was thinking of leaving Simon and Garfunkel. And I told him frankly that I thought it was a major mistake. I told him how much I respected him as an artist, but I also pointed out how few musicians from best-selling groups were able to do even remotely as well on their own.”

“I had gone to see Clive,” Simon said, “hoping that he would understand and be supportive.” What he got was a warning from the boss that “leaving Simon and Garfunkel would be the biggest mistake of my life. But Clive was just thinking commercially. I wasn’t thinking of sales. I wanted to do what was best for my music. I was hoping for a long career and making enough good records that someday people would look back at Simon and Garfunkel and say, ‘Oh, this is what you did in the beginning.’”

“The pressure on [Paul] was enormous when he worked on his first solo album,” said Roy Halee. But Simon turned the duo’s breakup to his immense advantage, and without wasting time. “Mother and Child Reunion,” the first track on that first, 1972 solo album, bursts with the nervous energy of an artist who’d been chafing to explore new ground: in “Mother and Child”’s case, reggae, cut in Kingston with top Jamaican players. The single shot to #4 on Billboard’s Hot 100.¹