This story is presented as part of the spring 2018 edition of The Stranger’s Art + Performance Quarterly.
During Paul Simon’s career making records, the music in which he specializes has transmogrified wildly, from teen fad to global hormonal explosion to Serious Art Form to self-serious indulgence to failed revolution to nostalgia delivery device. Having been part of every stage of this evolution, and at the forefront of several of them, Simon has earned the right to be done.
The news that his forthcoming tour will be his last was hardly surprising. First of all, he’s 76 years old. That would be getting up there even if we weren’t measuring in rock and roll years—in which 76 is both ancient and average. For contrast: Paul McCartney is eight months and five days younger; Bernie Sanders is one month and five days older. Consider, however, that Simon has been a working musician for 61 of those years, and a major star for 53 of them. You can hardly blame a person for getting tired.
Second, the announcement of Homeward Bound: The Farewell Tour comes during a phase of what might be called “retirement vogue” among artists of a certain age. If their word is worth anything (Cher? The Who? I’m looking at you), 2018 will bring the last stage hurrah for musicians as unalike as Elton John, Neil Diamond, Ozzy Osbourne, Joan Baez, Sonny Rollins, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Rush, and even Slayer.
