Miracle and Wonder: Malcolm Gladwell Audio Journey of the Life and Music of Paul Simon

Miracle and Wonder: Malcolm Gladwell Audio Journey of the Life and Music of Paul Simon

It’s no understatement to say that the breadth and depth of Paul Simons’ music is unmatched by any other single artist alive today. I don’t know of any artist that can match Simons’ output of music and poetry spanning so many genera’s year after year and even as I write this.

I confess to being an unabashed fan – but that’s not the point of this piece. In the audiobook, Miracle and Wonder, Malcolm Gladwell, over more than five hours offers his audience a unique gift that goes far beyond a review or biography of Paul Simon and his work; he allows the listener to sit in on some amazing conversations where Simon tells us what he was thinking and doing when he wrote some of the most iconic music of our time.

Gladwell also admits his fandom and love of Paul Simon's music, which as it turns out is a good thing; he knows his subject very, very well and the listener, then gets the benefits of his insight.

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What we learn from Simon and Gladwell (and New York Times writer and partner on this project, Bruce Headlam) is how all the musical genres Simon loved including doo-wop, gospel, rock, blues, jazz, classical, Latin and South African rhythms stoked his creativity to produce epic works like Graceland, Rhythm of The Saints, Still Crazy After All These Years and songs like Sounds of Silence, America, Diamonds on the Soles of Her Shoes – and on and on. Gladwell leads the conversations to help paint a portrait of Paul Simon’s body of work.

Miracle and Wonder is an enlightening conversation with a truly unique and articulate artist that the listener gets to be part of. It’s got some funny parts too. Simon and Art Garfunkel had their only pop hit as teenagers when they were known as Tom and Jerry. Simon wrote a song called “Hey School Girl” that made it high enough on the charts that they were invited to appear on American Bandstand. After they lip-synced the song, Dick Clark came over to interview them. When Clark asked Simon where he was from, he said “Macon Georgia”! to the shock of his Queens, New York neighbor Art Garfunkel. When asked why he said that, he said, Macon Georgia was where Little Richard is from and it sounded better than Queens, New York.

When Gladwell and Headlam sat down with Paul Simon, in the beginning, to see if he'd be interested in having an extended series of conversations about his life and music, they didn’t know if he’d be interested. They decided to give it a go not knowing how long it would last or what form it would take. They recorded some thirty hours of conversation so it seems Paul Simon enjoyed the sessions and put great trust in Gladwell and Headlam who is very knowledgeable about Simon’s music. In the end, they produced more than eighteen chapters, some containing multiple sessions.

Gladwell and Headlam set out to be pretty structured to be sure they covered areas of Simon’s story they thought were important and it worked. They opened up the world of Paul Simon’s creativity and thinking and raw talent through the art of conversation. That’s what the listener gets to see and hear. I say see because you cannot listen to Miracle and Wonder without seeing visions of Simon’s music in your head.

Miracle and Wonder is available through Audible Books and Pushkin Industries.

Chris Westerkamp is retired after a career in media spanned four decades in television, radio, internet, and print.