One thing
Simon & Garfunkel never did much of was tour, so a
Paul Simon solo tour, following two commercially successful solo albums, was one more way for
Simon to distance himself from the duo and, simultaneously, by performing songs like "The Boxer" and "Homeward Bound," to reclaim his songwriting catalog. Reflecting the musical explorations he had pursued since
S & G,
Simon brought along Brazilian group
Urubamba and gospel group
the Jessy Dixon Singers. The result wasn't perfect: nobody needed to hear "Jesus Is the Answer" (a
Dixons spotlight number) on a
Paul Simon album, and if it was inevitable that he would try his own version of "Bridge Over Troubled Water," it was also predestined that he wouldn't come near to matching
Garfunkel's original. Though the album was, like most live albums, artistically redundant (there was nothing new, and none of the live versions improved upon the studio ones), it served as a career statement and it had a marketing function, buying the relatively slow-working
Simon time between new studio releases.