Father and child reunion

Being Paul Simon’s son has its advantages and disadvantages, said Sophie Heawood in the London Times. From an early age, Harper Simon was given opportunities other musicians could only dream of. He began playing guitar at age 10, and by 14 was jamming nightly onstage with his father and an ensemble of African musicians. “He took me out of high school and I went on the [Graceland] tour and played,” Harper says. “It was a special time.” After high school, he enrolled in Boston’s prestigious Berklee College of Music. But he quit before graduating, and then kicked around in various marginal punk bands in New York and London. That genre didn’t suit his soft, Paul Simon–type voice, and he was both hypercritical of his own musicianship and reluctant to trade on his famous name. He soon found himself battling drugs and depression.

Now 37, he has just released his first solo album, which does sound like a Paul Simon album. Harper says he has overcome his demons and embraced who he is and where he comes from. Still, his father’s shadow looms large. “It’s a very high bar that he’s set,” he says. “His work is of such a high level. It’s kind of like, if you can’t be up at that level, why bother, you know?”

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