Harrogate, Jan/Feb 1970. I was a switchboard operator at Central Taxis working the night shift. I was filling my airwaves with stuff like ...
"Gray 3, pickup at the Montpellier Club to Pennypot"
"Gray 5, Brian, are you still on the rank?"
Meanwhile, Simon and Garfunkel were filling their radio waves with the newly released, soon to be classic, 5 minute soaring gospel inspired single 'Bridge Over Troubled Water' from the album of the same name.
Three months later I was back in Australia heading to my favourite record shop in Mount Isa to spend some of my first pay packet after getting my old job back. This is one of the albums I bought.
Some songs are excellent, some are brilliant and the ones that aren't as good are still amazing. Ten tracks, ten gems.
Art wanted Paul to sing the solo on 'Bridge ..' but Paul convinced Art to do it. Art's ethereal haunting vocals make grown men cry, but later, when Paul would see Art alone on stage getting all the applause and credit he says he regrets not doing it himself. One bit of controversy was the line 'Sail on silver girl' which paranoid puritans thought was a reference to drugs and needles but was written about Paul's future wife who'd got upset about finding some grey hairs.
'El Condor Pasa' was a bit of a hint as to where Paul Simon's music would go in later years, the world influences of albums like 'Graceland' and 'Rhythm of the Saints', but this early track led to a court case. Paul heard the instrumental of a tune called 'Paso Del Condor' played by Los Incas in Paris. They were an Andean folk group and incorrectly told him it was a traditional folk song. After writing English lyrics and recording it he was sued by Daniel Robles whose father had written the song in 1913 and taken copyright in the US in 1933. It was all basically a genuine misunderstanding and things were settled amicably.
My second favourite track on the album is the beautiful 'The Only Living Boy In New York', with it's choir of angelic harmonies, all done by multiple overdubs of the two of them in an echo-chamber singing "aaahhh" and "here I am". When they were getting stuff together for this album, Art Garfunkel was also making the movie "Catch-22" and had to leave for filming. Paul was left in New York and wrote this song about their separation. I love the opening verse where he says ..
"Tom, get your plane right on time
I know your part'll go fine
Fly down to Mexico
Do-n-do-d-do-n-do and here I am,
The only living boy in New York"
making a direct reference back to their 1950's personas Tom and Jerry and noting that Tom (Art Garfunkel) was the one going away.
'Bridge ...' is the song that claims the spotlight, but for me the masterpiece of this album, and indeed probably my all time favourite S&G song from their complete catalogue together, is 'The Boxer'.
I love everything about it. The story in the lyrics, the atmosphere, the New York City winters and the whores on Seventh Avenue, the places where the ragged people go all creating vivid images. The music, an opening guitar lick, tubas, flutes, harmonicas, chopping staccato bursts and crashing drums after every 'lie la lie' chorus. This song took over 100 hours to record, part of it in a church for the acoustics and part of it in a corridor in front of an elevator in the Columbia office building to get the sound for those crashing drums.
For the purist, there was one more verse to the song that didn't get recorded on this album but has been sung live in concert by both S&G and by Paul on his own -
"Now the years are rolling by me
They are rockin' evenly.
I am older than I once was,
And younger than I'll be.
That's not unusual;
No, it isn't strange:
After changes upon changes
We are more or less the same;
After changes we are more or less the same."
After this album was released, Simon and Garfunkel went their separate ways. The last track on the album, 'Song For The Asking' seems to hold a promise that they would always be there for each other, but as history shows, that wasn't really the case.
"Here is my song for the asking
Ask me and I will play
So sweetly, I'll make you smile"
They did get together a couple of times afterwards, but it wasn't until they did the 1981 concert in Central Park and released the live album that they started working together for any extended period. A world tour was organised and I went to see them on 18 Feb 1983 when they played Western Springs in Auckland, NZ. Sadly they spent a lot of the tour not speaking to each other and basically from then until now, apart from little bursts of daylight along the way, they've never really regained the friendship they once had.
I would be surprised if Simon and Garfunkel, together or alone, were not on everyone's playlist. Their total body of work is immense and varied with worldwide appeal and their songs have been covered by many artists in many styles. The Bangles took their 'Hazy Shade of Winter' to new heights and The Tennors made 'The Only Living Boy ... ' into a rocksteady version called 'Weather Report'.
Simon and Garfunkel. There's something there for everyone.
The Boxer - (Central Park) with extra verse
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