SIMON AND GARFUNKEL – "Bridge Over Troubled Water"

Tom in soul-hating shocker!

Never my favorite S&G tune, but it’s continually grown on me since I bought the LP a couple years back and gave it more of a chance. Now I think it’s positively lovely, although somewhat lacking for pop in that there’s no hope of singing along with it, not even badly. To rate it below “Sugar, Sugar” is just cruel though – if “Bridge”‘s craft is more transparent, surely it’s to a better purpose! Of course these are records/commodities, and they’re not going to save the world, but I can’t help but think that a record that makes people feel comforted and hopeful in a time of troubles has some greater moral value than one that just carries on about sugar and honey. (This is a line of thinking that will inevitably bite me in the ass later on, especially once we get to the 80s) but what I think it comes down to is that S&G ride the line between between being rockist artistes, popist craftsmen, and folkist traditionalism. You get the sense of them in the studio, painstakingly working this thing out…but not just because they knew they had a hit on their hands, but because, goshdarnit, Paul Simon knew he had something to say here, and one last chance to use his greatest weapon (Garfunkel) to do it.

Is “Bridge Over Troubled Water” the first number one where at least part of the credited act does not actually appear on the record?

Paul Simon wrote it but plays no part on the record. The harmonies in the final verse are multitracked Art. Larry Knetchel plays the piano and indeed got a label credit on the single. Ironically, given the song’s intended aim, Simon and Garfunkel couldn’t actually bear to be in the same studio as each other at this time.

Personally I think the grandiose ending slightly unnecessary – how much more impressive it would have been if they’d kept it quiet all the way through – and gives it an “Unchained Melody” tendency (Righteous Brothers natch) which doesn’t really suit the song’s emotional tenor – but I think of the parent album as a kind of male equivalent of New York Tendaberry (same producer and arranger, mostly the same musicians) and I am moved by the song and performance.

And in terms of consolation in times of trouble it knocks “Let It Be” (which IIRC it kept at number two) clean out of the yard.

Marcello – first number one where at least part of the credited act doesn’t appear on the record? – “John and Yoko”, for one…

Tom – I’ve always admired your iconoclastic approach to commenting on and marking the acknowledged “classic” records, and it’ll be fascinating to see you on your home turf in a couple of decades’ time (a pause here to note the nifty way the “Popular” logo switched from the Beatles to Bolan the minute you reached the 70s). Of course, to each his or her own – but I have to say that giving lower marks to the Beatles, Stones, Creedence and this, then awarding 8 to the Archies for having more hooks than a Peter Pan fancy dress party, is a bit like picking faults with Jamie Oliver and Gordon Ramsay then giving an 8 to McDonalds and praising their clever deployment of addictive ingredients.

But I can’t deny it makes for a bloody good read.

“(a pause here to note the nifty way the “Popular” logo switched from the Beatles to Bolan the minute you reached the 70s)”

eagle-eyed viewers may also note that the Beatles picture was initially replaced by Jimi Hendrix for about half an hour too, before editorial overlords pushed fwd their bulshy Bolanist agenda!

I’m not a fan of the Simon and Garfunkle version of this song. I’d say it’s a combination of Art’s voice, the arrangement, and the lyrics to the third verse.

Art has a lovely voice, but the prettiness of ethereal choir boy voices has never appealed to me. That’s simply a personal quirk of taste and doesn’t really say anything about the quality of the record. Perhaps more to the point in analysing the singer’s performance, I’m put off by what I sense to be Art’s own regard for his voice: for too many parts of this song, the emotion I hear is Art’s wonder at the stained-glass beauty of his own singing.

Hal Blaine is my favorite drummer, but his work here and on “The Boxer” isn’t among my favorites in his catalogue. I’m sure he gave Garfunkle and Roy Halee, the producer, exactly what they wanted, but I always feel as if Hal were striking me on my head with those timpani mallets, shouting, “AWE!! Be AWEstruck, dammit!!” It’s never enjoyable to feel an artist poking you in the chest with his finger, while he tells you how to feel.

I’ve heard that Garfunkle added the lyrics to the third verse. I can believe that’s true because they don’t make any sense, and they also have that sophomoric stretching for profundity that new songwriters often suffer from. (The rumor at the time was that the “silver girl” was a reference to needles, meaning drugs – yes, this is pretty far-fetched, even for Sixties lyrical interpretation).

In the early years of “Saturday Night Live,” Paul Simon, appearing as the musical guest, sang “Bridge Over Troubled Water.” He used only his acoustic guitar as accompaniment and he dropped the third verse entirely (lending credence to the idea that he didn’t write it). Sung in Simon’s warm, modest, conversational voice, absent all the bombast, instrumental and lyrical, I for the first time found it a moving expression of emotional support for a loved one.

I, too have “a major blankspot about stately quasi-abstract big statement appeal-to-the-good-in-mankind rock/pop.” Nice to hear it defined so well.

tom stand fast – this type of gooey uselessness is good for figuring skating routines, nip/tuck finales, and not much else. a defense could be mustered on the grounds of ‘the power ballad is being born here’ (as with beatles’ ‘hey jude’) or that here specifically it represents a bridge between hymnal and power ballad (‘bridge’ as midpoint between ‘how great thou art’ and ‘beautiful’ maybe) but that doesn’t make listening to it any easier. simon and garfunkel were good at a few things (they probably did have more good songs than the archies if nothing better than ‘sugar sugar’) but they were generally worthless without a chugga-chugga-chugga and percussion. i will say this is probably the best version of this song i’ve heard, i’ve heard singers i like alot more than art cover it and always come away thinking ‘wow you couldn’t come up with anything to save it either huh?’, the thing seems very well built to art’s strengths, enough so to possibly hint at why people for the longest time kept hoping for a s&g reunion even though the best work by far paul (or art even amazingly!) ever did was afterwards. someone could probably do carmody treatment with this song as harbinger/turning point into ‘me decade’ as well.

Yikes ! Thats Marc Bolan ? I thought it was Peter Frampton !!!

And where were three-quarters of the Beatles on Eleanor Rigby?

yeah, i think by and large that whole 60s class of rock songs that instantly entered the standards songbook (with the half-exception of ‘yesterday’) leave a really really bad taste in my mouth. they seem to completely lack any of the things that make rock (nevermind rock n roll) worth a damn in the first place and fall incredibly short of the standards of, um, standards (can you imagine ira gershwin writing anything as insipid as ‘sail on silver girl’?). i wonder how much of the ‘good deeds/lo it has lifted many a spirit’ justification even holds up here really – has anyone here ‘turned to’ this song in a dark, lonely hour? it seems to me (‘imho’ obv) far too hysterical and overwrought and more about ‘hey I’M here for you! look at ME – here for you!’ than about actually providing comfort/respite. something like ‘everybody hurts’ which has a much gentler manner AND still yields more catharsis at the climax beats it on that score (if perhaps not any others).

A few hit songs on which the attributed artist(s) did not appear:

1. “Unchained Melody”–The Righteous Brothers. Only Bobby Hatfield sings, not Bill Medley.

2. “Someday We’ll Be Together”–Diana Ross and the Supremes. More like Diana Ross, Luther Vandross, and the Andantes. Even the title was a lie.

3. Most of Herman’s Hermits’ recordings were Peter Noone and session players.

And the greatest of all–

4. “He’s a Rebel”–The Crystals. None of the Crystals sang on the record, which was performed by Darlene Love and the Blossoms. It was, ironically, the Crystals’ biggest hit.

I’m with Doc Casino (right up there in comment number 1) on this one. Didn’t like it much at the time; gradually found it wormed its way under my skin; studied it a little and realised what I was missing; finally got to the stage where the ‘sail on silvergirl’ line sends a cold shiver of anticipation down my spine every time I hear it.

Paul Simon has always been desperately unfashionable. People take against him for some unaccountable reason (as in some of the comments that did the rounds when he made the Graceland record in the 80s). His biggest problem is his defensiveness, I suspect: he isn’t Dylan, and he knows it. But he is one great songwriter all the same, with one of the strongest back catalogues in the history of the industry. This is one of his most commercial moments, and it deserved its position at number one, as it deserves the constant and repeated plays on our radios ever since. It’s not the greatest track on the album – ‘The Boxer’ is sublime songwriting, and sublime production – and I wouldn’t give it a 10, but it IS a genuine grade A poular music classic.

Sorry Tom, but any comparisons to Sugar Sugar and the Lee Marvin drivel just don’t stand up to critical scrutiny.

PPS to everybody – before you all start, I KNOW ‘Sail on silvergirl’ is a crap lyric. It’s the music it’s set against that sends the shiver down my spine.

A couple more great examples of hits without half of the named artistes:

Around half of the recordings credited to Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell don’t have Tammi on at all. She had a horrible life in all kinds of ways, and when she didn’t make it to the studio Valerie Simpson (of Ashford And later fame) filled in.

Apparently Ike Turner is not on River Deep Mountain High at all – Spector (notorious for this – He’s A Rebel isn’t the only Crystals single without a Crystal anywhere near it) knew that another veteran producer and control freak in the studio would be a recipe for disaster.

I would probably have given this 6 rather than 5, but by and large I agree. I am disappointed to have somehow missed 13 years of entries, however.

Tom – when Graceland came out, there was a LOT of sniping in the music industry that suggested he was somehow exploiting black african musicians to his own ends. Which of course was nonsense, in the light of the added exposure the record gave them. It probably wasn’t the musicians doing the sniping, mind you – any more than Muddy Waters complained when The Stones covered him.

Paul Simon’s new album is pretty good, by the way. I haven’t noticed any great product from Lee Marvin, Dana, the Archies, Edison Lighthouse, or Bobbie Gentry in the last two or three decades. I believe Rolf Harris had another novelty hit, but he only does that stuff to draw attention to his painting.

Correction:

I suspect it has something to do with why I find some of the other professors (all male and very self-serious) insufferably creepy.

Should have read: ” I suspect it has something to do with why I find some of the other professors (all male and very self-serious) in my own department insufferably creepy.”

The big annual list of academic job openings is now out, so I suppose that my plans to find another job are lurking behind the sentiment. My subconscious is showing. Enough said.

Bad Timing!?! Oh No!!!! I think I’ve tried to eradicate that one from my mind altogether. It’s not the story that disturbs me so much as the idea of a sex scene involving Art Garfunkel. Don’t start me on a rant about why I find Art Garfunkel even more insufferable than Paul Simon. But since you’ve recalled it to my memory (AG=professor/shrink), I know fully realize why I need to find a new job! I’m surrounded by bargain-basement knock-offs of Simon and Garfunkel, with a faux Woody Allen thrown in for bad measure.

If I were shown two pictures (Simon and Garfunkel) and asked to chose which one was “God,” I’d declare myself an atheist.

Aretha’s film career is, thankfully, limited to the role of Mrs Murphy in The Blues Brothers.