Paul Simon Looks Back At 9 Classic Solo Albums – Rolling Stone

“All those hits I had in the Seventies, I never wrote any of them thinking, ‘This will be a hit,'” Paul Simon says on a recent afternoon from his home in Connecticut. “All of the hits I had were pretty oddball.”

What has Simon mulling over his back catalog is the release of a new box set, The Complete Albums Collection, which compiles all 14 of Simon’s solo studio and live albums without Art Garfunkel. Simon released an earlier box set of studio albums almost a decade ago, but this upgrade includes two live albums as well as 1965’s The Paul Simon Song Book, his first album without Garfunkel (and one that includes early versions of “I Am a Rock,” “Patterns,” “Flowers Never Bend with the Rainfall,” and others later cut with his recurring partner). The box also upgrades the earlier set by including his latest studio album, 2011’s So Beautiful or So What.

Simon isn’t dwelling too much on the past these days. He’s begun work on a new album, which he hopes to complete in the spring, and in February, he and Sting will embark on their first-ever dual tour. The two men, who’ve rarely performed together onstage, will meet in January to plot out a set list and format for the show, both of which are currently up in the air.