A musical biography unlike any you’ve ever heard: Paul Simon in conversation with Malcolm Gladwell and Bruce Headlam, discussing Simon’s greatest hits, artistic struggles, and what it means to move people through music, now with a new epilogue that finds Paul continuing to wrestle songs from the universe including for his latest album Seven Psalms.
What happens when Paul Simon, widely considered one of the greatest songwriters in music history, and Malcolm Gladwell, the bestselling author and podcast host, sit down together, with a tape recorder and a guitar?
Miracle and Wonder: Conversations with Paul Simon is part memoir, part investigation, and unlike any creative portrait you’ve ever heard before. Recorded over a series of conversations between Simon, Gladwell, and Gladwell’s oldest friend and co-writer, journalist and Broken Record podcast co-host Bruce Headlam, the conversation flows from Simon’s music, to his childhood in Queens, NY, to his frequent collaborators and the nature of creativity itself. Gladwell and Headlam traveled from the mountains of Hawaii to Simon’s own backyard studio to record an artist they’ve idolized since childhood.
Woven throughout the audiobook is distinctive commentary about Simon’s songwriting alongside archival audio footage and never-before-heard live studio versions and original recordings of beloved hits including “The Boxer,” “The Sound of Silence,” and “Graceland”. Between conversations, Gladwell deploys his signature blend of historical research and social science to understand how a boy from 1940’s Queens conjured near-perfect songs over an incredible career. Along the way he gathers reflections on Simon’s particular genius from the likes of Sting, Herbie Hancock, and Roseanne Cash.
The result is an intimate audio biography of one of America’s most popular songwriters.
