Editing Paul Simon (album) (section)

==History and composition==
{{more citations needed|section|date=February 2025}}
After [[Simon & Garfunkel]]'s acrimonious breakup, Paul Simon taught songwriting classes at [[New York University]] during the summer of 1971. Among his students were two of the [[The Roches|Roche sisters]], Maggie and Terre, and singer-songwriter [[Melissa Manchester]], who recalls that Simon was nervous, listened to the students' songs and offered suggestions and criticism, often dissecting the lyrics and drawing comparisons with his own work while offering insights into his own creative process and sources of inspiration.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.paul-simon.info/ |title=Paul Simon – The neck of my guitar |publisher=Paul-simon.info |access-date=June 26, 2010}}</ref>

In a 1972 interview with ''[[Rolling Stone]]'' magazine, Paul Simon stated that one of his primary goals during the recording of the album was to move beyond the musical style he had become associated with during the 1960s. "I didn't want to sing '[[Scarborough Fair (ballad)|Scarborough Fair]]' again", he told [[Jon Landau]]. As a result, the album is characterized by a more understated production compared to his past records with [[Art Garfunkel]], with Simon's guitar and vocals taking center stage. It also incorporates a wide variety of musical genres, including [[Latin music (genre)|Latin music]], [[jazz]], [[blues]], and [[reggae]], showcasing an eclecticism that foreshadows his later exploration of [[world music]] on his acclaimed 1986 ''[[Graceland (album)|Graceland]]'' album.<ref name=":0">{{Cite web |last=Sheffield |first=Rob |date=January 24, 2022 |title=Surviving Garfunkel: How Paul Simon Found His Voice and Made His First Solo Masterpiece |url=https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-features/paul-simon-1972-solo-album-rob-sheffield-1289027/ |access-date=January 24, 2025 |website=Rolling Stone}}</ref>

This stylistic diversity resulted in contributions from several notable guest musicians, including violinist [[Stéphane Grappelli]] (featured on "Hobo's Blues", for which he is credited as a co-writer), jazz bassist [[Ron Carter]] (on "Run That Body Down") and percussionist [[Airto Moreira]] (on "[[Me and Julio Down by the Schoolyard]]", where he plays the [[Cuíca|cuica]]). The album was recorded in a variety of locations, such as [[San Francisco]], [[New York City]], [[Los Angeles]], [[Paris]] and [[Kingston, Jamaica]]. The latter was where the recording of "[[Mother and Child Reunion]]", considered one of the first songs by a non-Jamaican musician to feature elements of reggae music,<ref>{{Cite book |last=Moskowitz |first=David Vlado |url=https://books.google.fr/books?id=dDKfGRCq73cC&pg=PA139&redir_esc=y |title=Caribbean Popular Music: An Encyclopedia of Reggae, Mento, Ska, Rock Steady, and Dancehall |publisher=Greenwood Publishing Group |year=2006 |isbn=9780313331589 |pages=139 |access-date=January 24, 2025}}</ref> took place. Released as a single, it became the album's biggest hit, reaching No. 4 on the [[Billboard Hot 100|''Billboard'' Hot 100]] chart in March 1972. 

The lyrics throughout the album are also marked by variety, with Paul Simon's songwriting shifting between lighthearted and solemn moods, blending humor and biting irony with melancholy and uncertainty. On one hand, songs like "[[Duncan (Paul Simon song)|Duncan]]", whose protagonist leaves his life in the rural [[The Maritimes|Canadian Maritime Provinces]] in search of what [[Rob Sheffield]] describes as "a romantic [[Bob Dylan|Dylan]]/[[Jack Kerouac|Kerouac]] adventure"; "Me and Julio Down by the Schoolyard", set in the multicultural New York City neighborhood of [[Corona, Queens]]; and "Papa Hobo", featuring a down-on-his-luck homeless man from [[Detroit]], each contribute a unique character to the album's diverse cast, allowing Simon to explore themes such as youth and self-discovery, the political and social turbulence of the late 1960s and the [[Counterculture of the 1960s|counterculture]] that emerged in response, and the daily lives and struggles of disenfranchised groups within American society.<ref name=":0" /> On the other hand, heartbreak and bitterness over the collapse of a relationship emerge as significant themes as well, with several songs referencing, either directly ("Run That Body Down," in which "Paul" and "Peg" are mentioned by name) or indirectly ("Congratulations"), Simon's troubled marriage to Peggy Harper, which ultimately ended in divorce in 1975.