Quintessentially American folk-pop singer/songwriter Paul Simon spent an impressionable 13 months in England prior to the late 1965 release of his and Art Garfunkel's era-defining single The Sound of Silence. Radio 2 explores this period when Simon went 'missing'. The New York troubadour arrived in London in April 1964, and spent what was in essence a gap year bumming around England, playing tiny folk venues, meeting people such as Bert Jansch, Martin Carthy and Leon Redbone, and writing songs such as "April Come She Will", "A Most Peculiar Man", "Leaves That Are Green", "Blessed", "Kathy's Song", "I Am a Rock", "The Big Bright Green Pleasure Machine" and "Homeward Bound". This programme recalls Simon's 'gap year' with input from Brian Protheroe, Al Stewart and Martin Carthy, whom Simon often would hear performing "Scarborough Fair". And expect to hear Simon's previously unaired 1965 track "The Northern Line", recorded in Exeter. Music choices: page 120.