Paul Simon has proved himself to be one of the greatest songwriters of this century. He is said to be one of a handful songwriters that are able to write both intelligent lyrics and sophisticated music. Paul Simon's songs exsist on many levels at once. They are funny and sad, abstract and concrete, complex and simple. "The easier it is for people to understand, the better it is..." he once explained.

Paul Simon has always been unusually aware of the importance of combining lyrics and music. He has succeeded to the fullest. His ability to combine the two elements has made it hard imagining one without the other. Paul Simon released his first semi-solo album in 1965, The Paul Simon Songbook. The album, which where only released in Britain, was recorded in only an hour, and the songs are only accompanied with Paul's accoustic guitar. Nine of the twelwe songs would later appear on Simon & Garfunkel LPs.

The middle period in Simon's career starts with his second solo album, There Goes Rhymin' Simon in 1973, and goes through Live Rhymin' in 1974, Still Crazy After All This Years in 1975, One-Trick Pony in 1980 and Hearts And Bones in 1983. One-Trick Pony was the soundtrack for the film by the same name, both written, produced and directed by Paul Simon. The film receieved good reviews, but failed commercially. However, the soundtrack proved to be one of Paul's strongest recorded collections.

After the reunion concert in Central Park in 1981, Paul and Art considered a more permanent reunion. They put a lot of effort into this reunion and ten songs were partially recorded by late 1981. But again Art was offered a movie contract and also had teaching responsibility at a school in Conneticut. This made Paul come to point where he erased all of Art's vocals for the new album, and after a few months released it as Heart And Bones.