(Credits: Far Out / Album Cover)
Wed 14 January 2026 21:30, UK
The 1970s didn’t foster uncharted solo territory for just The Beatles. No, it was a new era for a whole host of artists who once existed in the safety of their own group and one of which was Paul Simon.
While less exposed to the glittering heights of fame, Simon faced a somewhat similar dilemma to that of Paul McCartney or John Lennon. His songwriting chops had developed off the back of a well-trusted partnership with Art Garfunkel, his former school turned bandmate, who boldly stood next to him as the spotlight burned ever brighter.
But in 1970, right after the release of their triumphant album Bridge Over Troubled Water, Simon found himself alone for the first time as a musician. With the wind of artistic momentum at his back, you’d think his new creative chapter would be failsafe. But suddenly his career as a musician felt like an entirely different one, partly in the studio but largely, within the vulnerability of on-stage performance.
His self-titled album was a convincing introduction to the new world of Paul Simon solodom, and he wasted no time in booking a tour to boot.
“The reason I wanted to tour now was that I wanted to be visibly on the scene,” said Simon in 1973. “I didn’t want to appear to be retired or anything like that. I felt that the second album was good, that it probably was going to make an impact, and I wanted to say, ‘Look, I really care. I’m just sending down albums from some mountaintop to you.‘”
He continued, “I also wanted to see how people would react to me. I think the vast majority of people don’t know who I am. If you say Paul Simon of Simon and Garfunkel, then the identification comes through. So, for me, I have to show my face a little so people will have some idea of who I am.”
Nevertheless, he did continue to play a number of Simon and Garfunkel hits during that tour. ‘Homeward Bound’, ‘The Boxer’, ‘America’, ‘The Sound of Silence‘, and ‘Bridge Over Troubled Water’, were all blended into a setlist of his fresh, solo material. Among some of the standout live songs from his own work were ‘Duncan’, ‘Loves Me Like a Rock’, ‘American Tune’, and ‘Me and Julio Down by the Schoolyard’.
While the set list of that first Boston show on May 6th, 1973, is buried away somewhere I have yet to find, there is evidence that his later performance at the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium in May of that year was opened by ‘Me and Julio Down by the Schoolyard’.
It’s an unsurprising choice, given just how perfect that dry acoustic introduction is to open any show, let alone a new chapter of solo Simon songwriting. Especially given that night, Simon was backed by the South American vocalists Urubamba and gospel group the Jesse Dixon Singers, who, together with Simon on this very song, helped forecast the sort of sounds we would later hear on his iconic album, Graceland.
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