Simon & Garfunkel

Certain Songs #2218: Simon & Garfunkel – “The Only Living Boy in New York”

November 3, 2021 by Jim Connelly

Album: Bridge Over Troubled Water
Year: 1970

. . .

Perhaps the original New York Lonely Boy song — and on the short list of Prettiest Songs Ever Recorded, Folk-Rock Division — this ridiculously lovely piece of pop-craft was Paul Simon’s most direct comment on the tensions that were radiating off of the always-tenuous partnership he’d forged with Art Garfunkel, but of course, it needed both of them to fully make it work.

Early on in the recording of the Bridge Over Troubled Water album, Art Garfunkel took off to Mexico to play Nately in Mike Nichols’ adaptation of Catch-22, leaving Paul Simon to wonder about their friendship and partnership, which of course went all the way back to the late 50s, when they recorded as Tom & Jerry.

Certain Songs #2217: Simon & Garfunkel – “Bridge Over Troubled Water”

November 2, 2021 by Jim Connelly

Album: Bridge Over Troubled Water
Year: 1970

. . .

I was going to say that “Bridge Over Troubled Water” invented the power ballad, but since there is nary a guitar to be found on it — even though Paul Simon wrote it on an acoustic guitar — but that wouldn’t be quite accurate. Obviously, there’s some Spectoresque qualities to it, as well, though it’s also too piano-driven to be full Spector.

And it would probably feel like damning with faint praise to point that this song invented Barry Manilow, even if we didn’t realize it for a few years.

Certain Songs #2216: Simon & Garfunkel – “Mrs. Robinson”

November 1, 2021 by Jim Connelly

Album: Bookends
Year: 1968

. . .

One of the things I’ve realized writing these posts: Paul Simon is a helluva guitar player. Every single song I’ve written about after “The Sound of Silence” has a killer acoustic guitar part. I just hadn’t really noticed before, because a) acoustic guitar and b) they’ve always been in the service of the song.

Certain Songs #2215: Simon & Garfunkel – “Fakin’ It”

October 30, 2021 by Jim Connelly

Album: Bookends
Year: 1967

. . .

During the entire year of 1967, when their peers were releasing at least one, sometimes two albums per year — plus accompanying non-album singles — Simon & Garfunkel put out a grand total of two singles. There were a few reasons for this: Paul Simon had become caught up in the seriousization of rock ‘n’ roll, and decided to focus on album writing instead of single writing. At the same time, he ran into a case of writers block, These two things were probably somewhat related, as raising your ambitions means that every outpouring from your muse is that much more suspect.

Also, he’d been roped into contributing to the soundtrack for Mike Nichol’s The Graduate, which — well, let’s talk about that in the next post..

Certain Songs #2214: Simon & Garfunkel – “A Hazy Shade of Winter”

October 29, 2021 by Jim Connelly

Album: Bookends
Year: 1966

. . .

“A Hazy Shade of Winter” was originally recorded for Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and Thyme album, but at some point, they decided to instead release it as a single, perhaps figuring that a more rock-and-roll oriented song would do better than their previous single, the chamber-pop “The Dangling Conversation,” which was their first single not to go top 5, stalling out at a (relatively) dismal 25.

And so, based upon a cooly dynamic Paul Simon guitar riff and a relentless double-time drum part by Hal Blaine — which either he or Art Garfunkel augmented by stealing the tink-tink-tink three-beat tambourine offbeat from “(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction” giving the whole thing the satisfying thwacka-thwacka-tink-tink-tink, thwacka-thwacka-tink-tink-tink which drove the earlier song.

Certain Songs #2213: Simon & Garfunkel – “A Simple Desultory Philippic (or How I Was Robert McNamara’d into Submission)”

October 28, 2021 by Jim Connelly

Album: Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and Thyme
Year: 1966

. . .

How do you deal with a problem such as Bob Dylan?

That’s gotta be a question that all of the other major 60’s songwriters had to be asking themselves as he put out one mindblowing album after another in the mid-1960s. Some, like Brian Wilson & Pete Townshend, totally ignored him. Others, like Lou Reed and Neil Young & even Ray Davies, leaned into the freedom he suddenly provided.

And the Beatles and Stones stole from him a bit and then went on to do their own things.

And Paul Simon? Perhaps because Dylan might have been one of the Greenwich Village folkies who made fun of Simon & Garfunkel in the early days, he wrote one of the biggest, broadest Dylan parodies ever recorded, 1967’s “A Simple Desultory Philippic (or How I Was Robert McNamara’d into Submission)”, which starts the satire with the title and never lets up.

Certain Songs #2212: Simon & Garfunkel – “The 59th Street Bridge Song (Feelin’ Groovy)”

October 27, 2021 by Jim Connelly

Album: Parsley, Sage, Rosmary & Thyme
Year: 1966

. . .

Yes, I know. You totally and utterly hate this piece of hippie-dippie bullshit. Hell, even Paul fucking Simon hates this piece of hippie-dippie bullshit, one of the cheesiest songs ever written.

And now I’ve put it in your head. Hahahahahahahahahahahaha!