Fans will finally get to see Paul Simon dive into his songwriting legacy and the high points of his nearly seven-decade career in music when the biopic In Restless Dreams: The Music of Paul Simon hits streaming next month.
“People used to say, ‘Oh, you have your finger on the pulse,’” Simon says in voiceover in the 90-second trailer for the “definitive” musical doc chronicling the 82-year-old singer’s legendary career; the film premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival last year and will bow as a two-part series on MGM+ on March 17 and 24. “No, I don’t have my finger on the pulse… I just have my finger out there and the pulse is running under,” Simon says.
In addition to taking viewers behind the scenes of the making of Simon’s 2023 album Seven Psalms, the Alex Gibney-directed doc promises to includes never-before-seen footage from throughout Simon’s storied career, from his days in Simon & Garfunkel to the global success of his landmark 1986 world music album Graceland.
The opening montage says it all, bouncing from footage of a fresh-faced Simon at the beginning of his career in the mid-1950s, to his historical free 1981 Concert in Central Park benefit show with former partner Art Garfunkel for 500,000 and the sessions for the meditative Psalms song cycle.
“I’ve never wanted to be anything other than a singer and songwriter,” says Simon, author of such indelible hits as “Homeward Bound,” “The Sound of Silence,” “Mrs. Robinson,” “Me and Julio Down by the Schoolyard,” “Loves Me Like a Rock” and the South Africa-inspired Graceland, which won the 1987 Grammy for album of the year.
His collaboration with Garfunkel — which began when they were teenagers performing as Tom & Jerry — spawned dozens of hits and classic albums during the 1960s until their acrimonious split in 1970. The pair reunited several times over the next three decades for one-off shows and a 1993 world tour, though they would never again record a full album together.
“Artie, that was a good friendship,” he says lovingly about Garfunkel in the trailer. “We thought we should express what our generation felt.”
Watch the trailer for In Restless Dreams below.