He began performing with his schoolfriend Art Garfunkel in 1956; together the two came to prominence in the 1960s as Simon & Garfunkel. The duo's blend of folk and rock music in hits like "The Sound of Silence", "Mrs. Robinson", "America", and "The Boxer" served as a soundtrack to the counterculture movement. Their career together peaked with their last album, Bridge over Troubled Water (1970), at one point the best-selling album of all time. Throughout his subsequent solo career, Simon has continued to explore an eclectic mixture of genres, including gospel, reggae, soul, and more. His celebrated 1970s output—comprising Paul Simon (1972), There Goes Rhymin' Simon (1973), and Still Crazy After All These Years (1975)—kept him in the public spotlight and saw critical and commercial acclaim, spawning the hits "Mother and Child Reunion", "Me and Julio Down by the Schoolyard", and "50 Ways to Leave Your Lover".
Across his life, Simon has intermittently reunited with Garfunkel for several tours, including the famed Concert in Central Park. The widely lauded Graceland (1986) became Simon's biggest album of his career, melding his rock sound with worldbeat flavors; its single "You Can Call Me Al" became one of Simon's top hits. A sequel of sorts, The Rhythm of the Saints (1990), preceded his own successful Concert in the Park, attended by a half-million fans. That decade, Simon focused his energies on a Broadway musical The Capeman (1997), which was poorly received. In the first quarter of the next century, Simon continued to record and tour; his later albums, such as You're the One (2000), So Beautiful or So What (2011), and Stranger to Stranger (2016), have introduced him to new generations. He retired from touring in 2018. His most recent work, Seven Psalms, will see release in May 2023.
Simon is among the most acclaimed musicians and songwriters in popular music, and one of the world's best-selling music artists, both for his solo work and with Garfunkel. He is a two-time inductee into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, and has been the recipient of sixteen Grammy Awards, including three for Album of the Year. Two of his works, Sounds of Silence and Graceland, have seen induction into National Recording Registry for their cultural significance, and in 2007, the Library of Congress crowned him the inaugural winner of the Gershwin Prize for Popular Song. He is a co-founder of the Children's Health Fund, a nonprofit that provides medical care to children.
In an in-depth interview reprinted in American Songwriter, Simon discusses the craft of songwriting with music journalist Tom Moon. In the interview, Simon explains the basic themes in his songwriting: love, family and social commentary (as well as the overarching messages of religion, spirituality and God in his lyrics). Simon explains the process of how he goes about writing songs in the interview: "The music always precedes the words. The words often come from the sound of the music and eventually evolve into coherent thoughts. Or incoherent thoughts. Rhythm plays a crucial part in the lyric-making as well. It's like a puzzle to find the right words to express what the music is saying."
Patterns
Paul Simon Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
With the hush of falling leaves,
Casting shivering shadows
On the houses through the trees,
And the light from a street lamp
Paints a pattern on my wall,
Like the pieces of a puzzle
Up a narrow flight of stairs
In a narrow Little room,
As I lie upon my bed
In the early evening gloom.
Impaled on my wall
My eyes can dimly see
The pattern of my life
And the puzzle that is me.
From the moment of my birth
To the instant of my death,
There are Patterns I must follow
Just as I must breathe each breath.
Like a rat in a maze
The path before me lies,
And the pattern never alters
Until the rat dies.
And the pattern still remains
On the wall where darkness fell,
And it's fitting that it should,
For in darkness I must dwell.
Like the color of my skin,
Or the day that I grow old,
My life is made of Patterns
That can scarcely be controlled
In Paul Simon's song "Patterns", the lyrics describe the sensation of a dark, quiet night in a narrow room where the singer is lying in bed, looking at a pattern on the wall that's created by the shadows and lights of the street outside. The pattern on the wall prompts the singer to reflect on the patterns of their own life, from birth to death, and the inevitability of following paths that can scarcely be controlled. The lyrics compare life to a rat in a maze, following a predetermined path until the end. The connection between the pattern on the wall and the patterns in the singer's life underscores the idea that life itself is a puzzle, with its own unique and intricate design.
There is a melancholic and introspective tone to the song, which is particularly emphasized through Simon's mellow vocals and the low tempo of the melody. The lyrics speak to the universal human experience of contemplating the meaning of life and our place in the world. As the song progresses, the singer recognizes that even the pattern of their life cannot be controlled in the same way they cannot control the pattern on the wall of their room, which is shrouded in darkness. The piece showcased not only Simon's songwriting ability but also his unique ear for creating musically complex songs with powerful messages.
Line by Line Meaning
The night sets softly
The evening begins to calm down
With the hush of falling leaves,
The sound of leaves dropping softly hit the ground
Casting shivering shadows
Creating shaky outlines
On the houses through the trees,
The trees and foliage provide the houses with the sights and shadows
And the light from a street lamp
The lighting from a flickering street lamp
Paints a pattern on my wall,
Forming a structured series of lines on the wall
Like the pieces of a puzzle
Voicing how similar the outlines resemble a jigsaw puzzle
Or a child's uneven scrawL
Or lines of an unsteady child's drawing
Up a narrow flight of stairs
Going up a small flight of stairs
In a narrow Little room,
Inside a cramped, tiny space
As I lie upon my bed
While I rest on my bed
In the early evening gloom.
During the dimness at the beginning of the night
Impaled on my wall
As I look closely at the wall
My eyes can dimly see
My vision is misty and unclear
The pattern of my life
A structured sequence of events that make up my life
And the puzzle that is me.
The many complex and diverse parts that form who I am
From the moment of my birth
At the time of my birth
To the instant of my death,
Till the moment I pass away
There are Patterns I must follow
There are series of events that I need to adhere to
Just as I must breathe each breath.
Much like how I need to take every breath to be alive
Like a rat in a maze
A comparison of how life feels like a maze for most people
The path before me lies,
The way I must journey lies ahead of me
And the pattern never alters
The very structure of life doesn't change
Until the rat dies.
Until the very end of life
And the pattern still remains
The structured series still exists
On the wall where darkness fell,
Empathizing how darkness complements the structured series
And it's fitting that it should,
It's only fitting that this structured representation should exist
For in darkness I must dwell.
For I am always in the midst of this dark and structured series
Like the color of my skin,
Like the tone of my skin
Or the day that I grow old,
Or the moment I age
My life is made of Patterns
The course of my very existence is structured
That can scarcely be controlled
Sequenced events that often can't be dictated
Lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group, Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC
Written by: Paul Simon
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind