Paul Simon's Solo Works Collected on 'The Complete Albums Collection' Box Set

BY Alex HudsonPublished Aug 19, 2013

If you enjoyed Paul Simon's best-of compilation Songwriter but are seeking a more extensive overview of the legendary tunesmith's back catalogue, then this is for you. This fall, Legacy Recordings will bring together Simon's solo works for The Complete Albums Collection, due out on October 15.

The set includes a whopping 15 discs. This includes 12 studio albums, plus two live concerts (one of them spread over two discs). This only cover's Simon's solo career, although a few classic tunes from Simon & Garfunkel pop up in the live sets.

Each of the discs includes the complete original album, while many of the discs are additionally fleshed out with a handful of bonus cuts. These includes outtakes, B-sides, demos and live recordings. There's also a 56-page book of photos and liner notes, all of which is housed in what a press release describes as "a deluxe library box with magnetic closure."

In addition to the CD release, The Complete Albums Collection will also be available digitally. See the massive tracklist below.

The Paul Simon Song Book (1965):


1. I Am a Rock

2. Leaves That Are Green

3. A Church Is Burning

4. April Come She Will

5. The Sound of Silence

6. A Most Peculiar Man

7. He Was My Brother

8. Kathy's Song

9. The Side of a Hill

10. A Simple Desultory Philippic (Or How I Was Robert McNamara'd into Submission)

11. Flowers Never Bend with the Rainfall

12. Patterns

13. I Am A Rock (alternate version)

14. A Church Is Burning (alternate version)

Paul Simon (1972):


1. Mother and Child Reunion

2. Duncan

3. Everything Put Together Falls Apart

4. Run That Body Down

5. Armistice Day

6. Me and Julio Down by the Schoolyard

7. Peace Like A River

8. Papa Hobo

9. Hobo's Blues

10. Paranoia Blues

11. Congratulations

12. Me and Julio Down by the Schoolyard (demo - San Francisco 2/71)

13. Duncan (demo - San Francisco 2/71)

14. Paranoia Blues (unreleased version)

There Goes Rhymin' Simon (1973):


1. Kodachrome

2. Tenderness

3. Take Me to the Mardi Gras

4. Something So Right

5. One Man's Ceiling Is Another Man's Floor

6. American Tune

7. Was A Sunny Day

8. Learn How to Fall

9. St. Judy's Comet

10. Loves Me Like a Rock

11. Let Me Live in Your City (work in progress)

12. Take Me to the Mardi Gras (acoustic demo)

13. American Tune (unfinished demo)

14. Loves Me Like a Rock (acoustic demo)

Paul Simon in Concert: Live Rhymin' (1974):


1. Me and Julio Down by the Schoolyard

2. Homeward Bound

3. American Tune

4. El Condor Pasa (If I Could) 

5. Duncan

6. The Boxer 

7. Mother And Child Reunion 

8. The Sound Of Silence 

9. Jesus Is The Answer 

10. Bridge over Troubled Water 

11. Loves Me Like a Rock 

12. America 

13. Kodachrome (alternate version)

14. Something So Right (alternate version)

Still Crazy After All These Years (1975):


1. Still Crazy After All These Years

2. My Little Town

3. I'd Do It For Your Love

4. 50 Ways to Leave Your Lover

5. Night Game

6. Gone At Last

7. Some Folks' Lives Roll Easy

8. Have A Good Time

9. You're Kind

10. Silent Eyes

11. Slip Slidin' Away (demo)

12. Gone at Last (original demo with the Jessy Dixon Singers)

One-Trick Pony (1980):


1. Late in the Evening

2. That's Why God Made the Movies

3. One-Trick Pony

4. How The Heart Approaches What It Yearns

5. Oh, Marion

6. Ace in the Hole

7. Nobody

8. Jonah

9. God Bless the Absentee

10. Long, Long Day

11. Soft Parachutes (unreleased soundtrack recording)

12. All Because Of You (outtake)

13. Spiral Highway (unreleased soundtrack recording)

14. Stranded in a Limousine

Hearts and Bones (1983):


1. Allergies

2. Hearts and Bones

3. When Numbers Get Serious

4. Think Too Much (b)

5. Song About the Moon

6. Think Too Much (a)

7. Train in the Distance

8. Rene and George Magritte with Their Dog After the War

9. Cars Are Cars

10. The Late Great Johnny Ace

11. Shelter Of Your Arms (unreleased work in progress)

12. Train In The Distance (original acoustic demo)

13. Rene And George Magritte with Their Dog After the War (original acoustic demo)

14. The Late Great Johnny Ace (original acoustic demo) (bonus track)

Graceland (1986):


1. The Boy in the Bubble

2. Graceland

3. I Know What I Know

4. Gumboots

5. Diamonds on The Soles of Her Shoes

6. You Can Call Me Al

7. Under African Skies

8. Homeless

9. Crazy Love, Vol. II

10. That Was Your Mother

11. All Around The World or The Myth of Fingerprints

12. Homeless (demo)

13. Diamonds on the Soles of Her Shoes (unreleased version)

14. All Around the World or the Myth of Fingerprints (early version)

15. You Can Call Me Al (demo)

16. Crazy Love (demo)

17. The Story of Graceland (as told by Paul Simon, recorded January 2012)

The Rhythm of the Saints (1990):


1. The Obvious Child

2. Can't Run But

3. The Coast

4. Proof

5. Further to Fly

6. She Moves On

7. Born at the Right Time

8. The Cool, Cool River

9. Spirit Voices

10. The Rhythm of the Saints

11. Born at the Right Time (original acoustic demo)

12. Thelma (bonus track)

13. The Coast (work in progress)

14. Spirit Voices (work in progress)

Paul Simon's Concert in the Park (1991):


CD 1:


1. The Obvious Child

2. The Boy in the Bubble

3. She Moves On

4. Kodachrome

5. Born at the Right Time

6. Train in the Distance

7. Me and Julio Down by the Schoolyard

8. I Know What I Know

9. The Cool, Cool River

10. Bridge Over Troubled Water

11. Proof

CD 2:


1. The Coast

2. Graceland

3. You Can Call Me Al

4. Still Crazy After All These Years

5. Loves Me Like a Rock

6. Diamonds on the Soles of Her Shoes

7. Hearts and Bones

8. Late in the Evening

9. America

10. The Boxer

11. Cecilia

12. The Sound of Silence

Songs From the Capeman (1997):


1. Adios Hermanos

2. Born in Puerto Rico

3. Satin Summer Nights

4. Bernadette

5. The Vampires

6. Quality

7. Can I Forgive Him

8. Sunday Afternoon

9. Killer Wants to Go to College

10. Time Is an Ocean

11. Virgil

12. Killer Wants to Go to College II

13. Trailways Bus

14. Shoplifting Clothes (bonus track)

15. Born in Puerto Rico (demo with Jose Feliciano)

16. Can I Forgive Him (original demo recorded March 1993)

You're the One (2000):


1. That's Where I Belong

2. Darling Lorraine

3. Old

4. You're the One

5. The Teacher

6. Look at That

7. Senorita with a Necklace of Tears

8. Love

9. Pigs, Sheep and Wolves

10. Hurricane Eye

11. Quiet

12. That's Where I Belong (live)

13. Old (live)

14. Hurricane Eye (live)

Surprise (2006):

1. How Can You Live in the Northeast?

2. Everything About It Is a Love Song

3. Outrageous

4. Sure Don't Feel Like Love

5. Wartime Prayers

6. Beautiful

7. I Don't Believe

8. Another Galaxy

9. Once Upon a Time There Was an Ocean

10. That's Me

11. Father and Daughter

So Beautiful or So What (2011):

1. Getting Ready for Christmas Day

2. The Afterlife

3. Dazzling Blue

4. Rewrite

5. Love and Hard Times

6. Love Is Eternal Sacred Light

7. Amulet

8. Questions for the Angels

9. Love and Blessings

10. So Beautiful or So What

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