Song by Song: "A Most Peculiar Man" Quiz

Answer: Four lines in an article in a London paper

On his 1967 album "Live from New York City," Paul Simon recounts the inspiration for this song. "I wrote this song," he says, "when I was living in England. The seeds of the song were planted one day when I saw an article in a London paper about a man who had committed suicide. Four lines in the paper ... And I thought: 'That's a very bad way to go out. Bad eulogy. Four lines.'"

Answer: The song never says

The song never mentions a name, which adds to the sense of the peculiar man's isolation from the world. Throughout the song, he is simply "a most peculiar man." The name "Richard Cory" comes from another song on the same album. Frank Lloyd Wright was an architect and Simon & Garfunkel recorded a song titled "So Long, Frank Lloyd Wright" on their 1970 album "Bridge Over Troubled Water."

Answer: Mrs. Riordan

"He was a most peculiar man
That's what Mrs. Riordan said and she should know
She lived upstairs from him
She said he was a most peculiar man."

Simon & Garfunkel have a song titled "Mrs. Robinson," but she wasn't the one living upstairs from the most peculiar man. The fact that the neighbor has a name but the most peculiar man does not further highlights his distance from others.

"A Most Peculiar Man" was released on Simon & Garfunkel's second studio album, "Sounds of Silence," which was recorded over several months in 1965 and released January 17, 1966.

Answer: himself

"He was a most peculiar man
He lived all alone within a house
Within a room, within himself
A most peculiar man."

The subject of the song inhabits his own world. The repetition of "within" here is a rhetorical device known as anaphora, which can be used to emphasize a phrase while adding rhythm. It involves repeating a specific word or phrase at the start of a phrase or line, as is done here - within (a house), within (a room), within (himself). This repetition can intensify meaning, as it does here, by heightening the image of the man sinking farther and farther away from the world.

Answer: no

"He had no friends, he seldom spoke
And no one in turn ever spoke to him
'Cause he wasn't friendly and he didn't care
And he wasn't like them
Oh, no, he was a most peculiar man."

The most peculiar man is utterly isolated from the world, known only vaguely to his neighbors, without friends. In these verses, the listener begins to get a sense that the callous neighbors are being judged. They could have attempted to be his friends, after all, but "he wasn't like them."

Although there were some differences between the UK and US version of the "Sounds of Silence" album, "A Most Peculiar Man" appears on both albums.

"A Most Peculiar Man" was covered by Jackie & Roy on their 1968 album "Grass." It was also covered by The Hollyridge Strings on their 1968 album "The Hollyridge Strings Play the Hits of Simon & Garfunkel."

Answer: Last Saturday

"He died last Saturday," the duo sings.

It was Richard Cory who died "last night" in another song by Simon & Garfunkel on this same album.

The Coswells, a six-sibling singing group from Rhode Island, covered "A Most Peculiar Man" and released it as a single in 1967. The song was also covered by folk singer, songwriter, guitarist, and poet Harvey John Andrews in 1966.

Answer: He turned on the gas and he went to sleep

"He turned on the gas and he went to sleep
With the windows closed so he'd never wake up
To his silent world and his tiny room."

It was Richard Cory who "went home last night / and put a bullet through his head" in the song "Richard Cory." Suicide seems to be a recurring theme in Simon & Garfunkel's songs. It is also explored in the song "Save the Life of My Child."

Alex Campbell covered "A Most Peculiar Man" on his 1967 album "At the Tivoli Gardens."

Answer: A brother

"And Mrs. Riordan says he has a brother somewhere
Who should be notified soon.
And all the people said, "What a shame that he's dead
But wasn't he a most peculiar man?"

It seems the most peculiar man is not entirely without family, but his family obviously doesn't visit often, as Mrs. Riordan is only vaguely aware of the existence of an unnamed "brother somewhere." He "should be notified soon," she thinks, but it's not implied she has any way to notify him.

Answer: True

Paul Simon's first studio album, "The Paul Simon Songbook," was released in the UK in 1965. It was recorded at Levy's recording studio in London and contained several songs that would later be recorded by the duo, including "April Come She Will," "I Am A Rock," and "The Sound of Silence." In a December 20, 2021 article in "The Guardian," Paul Owen describes the version of this song on "The Paul Simon Songbook" as a "gentle, echoey lament arranged purely for guitar."

Answer: no

The singles released from "Sounds of Silence" were "The Sound of Silence," "Homeward Bound," and "I Am a Rock." Nor was it released as a single from the "Paul Simon Songbook." The single from that album was "I Am a Rock" with "Leaves that Are Green" on the backside.

In his article in "The Guardian," Paul Owen writes, "The song explores typical Simon themes such as the alienation of 1960s youth, but more surprising is that for all Simon's embrace of England during this period . . . 'A Most Peculiar Man' actually paints a rather dreary and joyless picture of 1960s Britain, with its cramped, colourless houses and atomised community."