Simon & Garfunkel released Bridge Over Troubled Water

Bridge Over Troubled Water Simon & Garfunkel

Released: January 26, 1970 Peak: 110 US, 133 UK, 19 CN, 115 AU, 14 DF Sales (in millions): 10.0 US, 3.2 UK, 28.5 world (includes US and UK) Genre: folk rock

Tracks: Song Title (Writer(s) [time] (date of single release, chart peaks) Click for codes to charts. Bridge Over Troubled Water [4:52] (1/26/70, 1 BB, 1 CB, 1 GR, 1 HR, 1 AC, 1 CL, 1 UK, 1 CN, 2 AU, 1 DF) El Condor Pasa (If I Could) (Daniel Alomía Robles, arranged by Jorge Milchberg and English lyrics by Paul Simon) [3:06] (8/24/70, 18 BB, 11 CB, 24 GR, 13 HR, 6 AC, 21 CL, 1 AU, 17 DF) Cecilia [2:55] (4/10/70, 4 BB, 1 CB, 8 GR, 1 HR, 31 AC, 1 CL, 6 AU, 15 DF) Keep the Customer Satisfied [2:33] So Long, Frank Lloyd Wright [3:41] The Boxer [5:08] (4/4/69, 7 BB, 4 CB, 8 GR, 3 HR, 3 AC, 2 CL, 6 UK, 3 CN, 8 AU, 8 DF) Baby Driver [3:14] The Only Living Boy in New York [3:58] (40 CL, 32 DF) Why Don’t You Write Me [2:45] ]Bye Bye Love (live) [2:55] (Felice Bryant/Boudleaux Bryant) (30 CL, 17 DF) Song for the Asking [1:49] All songs written by Paul Simon unless noted otherwise. Total Running Time: 36:29

Rating: 4.573 out of 5.00 (average of 29 ratings) Awards: (Click on award to learn more).

Their History Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel met in 1953 in Queens, New York, while in elementary school and they rose to fame as the quintessential folk-rock duo in the 1960s. They “were an odd couple, mismatched physically and emotionally, but their voices could produce the most gorgeous synthesis” CC with “Garfunkel’s angelic falsetto singing desperate, painful hymns to all who hear; Paul Simon with a voice that moves like a bare knuckle boxer in the ring – playful, desperate and hungry.” PM Feuding and a Finale It was their fifth and final album, Bridge Over Troubled Water, which gave the folk-rock duo their commercial and critical peak. It was “a fitting farewell” PM and “a grand testament to what they had built together.” PM Ironically, though, it came at a time when the lifelong friends “pretty much hated each other.” TL They started working on the album in late 1968, but it was sidelined for nearly a year when Garfunkel decided to launch an acting career in Mexico with a film version of Catch-22. Simon wrote the bulk of the material and when they finally reconvened in the fall of 1969 “they feuded endlessly” TL while they recorded most of the songs over a three-week period. TB Art’s “contribution is limited to providing angelic harmonies to Paul’s melodies.” PR Why the Album Mattered Bridge “serves as an effective counterbalance to the clichés” TM of 1960s America, providing listeners with “a quiet respite from the exuberant noise of pop culture in the Age of Aquarius.” TM. The decade has been simplified to “rampant flower-powered euphoria” TM and “almost utopian togetherness,” TM but Paul Simon “writes as an outsider” TM “in pieces that sit idly and contemplate life in America from the window seat of a bus” TM or in which “emotional entanglement brings heavy consequences and duties.” TM “Simon is a deceptive lyricist – he starts out describing the scenery, and pretty soon he's drawn listeners deep into the thoughts of his complicated, often conflicted characters.” TM This is also “an album of the great possibility of hiding in change, of learning to accept that some things are not forever – that some partners are just too eager to fly, and that you can still take one final shot at saying goodbye together.” PM It is “a masterpiece of flawless songwrinting, production, and performance.” CM “Bridge Over Troubled Water, at its most ambitious and bold…was a quietly reassuring album; at other times, it was personal yet soothing; and at other times, it was just plain fun.” AM “Each song is a marvel of introspection,” TM “convey[ing] a slightly different perspective.” TM “Some of his best songs take the perspective of an alienated, isolated young man.” TM Technology and Production “The album owed as much to the production wizardry of longtime Simon & Garfunkel associate Roy Halle as the song contributions of Paul Simon.” TB Most of the songs feature the famed session players known as the Wrecking Crew. CM “The technical explorations that had begun with 1968’s Bookends – natural echoes, delays, and volume swells – were evident right from the start of the Bridge sessions.” TB Label chief Clive Davis “wondered aloud if all of these ‘extras’ were really necessary.” TB There was also fear at the label of Simon striking out on his own. They thought he was unlikely to find success without Garfunkel. CC The Songs Here are thoughts on the individual songs from the album. “Bridge Over Troubled Water” Only Garfunkel sang on the “gorgeous” 500 “gospel-flavored title track.” AM It is an “elegant, majestic, piano-led ballad” CC with a “hymn-like quality” CC that “expresses devotion and empathy in terms more likely to resonate with an adult than some headstrong hippie.” TM It seemed an ironic send-off for the duo considering its “themes of enduring friendship and tenderness.” RV “According to BMI, [it] was the 19th most performed song of the 20th century, spawning versions that run the quality gamut from Aretha Franklin’s transcendent cover at the Fillmore in ‘72 to Clay Aiken’s considerably less transcendent cover on American Idol in ’03.” TL In 1972, Simon told Rolling Stone, Garfunkel “felt I should have done it…And many times I’m sorry I didn’t.” 500 “El Condor Pasa (If I Could)” The duo explore “world music on tracks like El Condor Pasa, inspired by a Peruvian song he first heard performed by a Chilean musician.” RV In the book 25 Albums That Rocked the World! Chris Charlesworth argued that the song “can be seen as the most important track on the whole album” CC because “it pointed to the direction that Simon’s music would take for the next 20 years.” CC It reflected an interest in world music which Simon would take to its ultimate peak with 1986’s hugely influential and successful Graceland album. It is “a stately anthem” CC that flows at a “serene, somewhat deliberate pace.” CC Lyrically, it offers “a common sense, albeit somewhat prosiaic, philosophy about life’s choices.” CC “Cecilia” Cecilia represents one of the duo’s “euphoric expressions of teenage romance.” TM It is “a light-hearted, uptempo romp dominated by the percussive track over which Simon sings, probably fairly spontaneously, about a faithless ladyfriend.” CC It “sounds like a throwaway, an experimental dance track with a carefree, singalong vocal, but it comes as a refreshing change after the solemn pace of the title track” CD and “If I Could.” Another take on the song is that it is “a love song to St. Cecilia the patron saint of music.” CM “Keep the Customer Satisfied” “There are moments of withering cynicism” TM such as with Keep the Customer Satisfied. With its “brisk pace” CC “this is an update on ‘Homeward Bound’ but, instead of longing to return to his love life, our troubadour is now quite simply fed up of the road, dead tired and longing for some peace and quiet.” CC “So Long, Frank Lloyd Wright” “Sung by Garfunkel alone, this lush ballad operates on two levels, firstly as a tribute to the celebrated American architect, and secondly as a nostalgic look back to the S&G partnership” CC with lyrics that “suggest the parting round the corner.” CC It is “cutting with its reference to bluntness and rigity…but it’s still affectionate in its lilting bossanova beat.” CM It also features “a melody that comes close to the grandeur of the title track.” CC “The Boxer” The first single dates back to more than a year before the album’s release. Recording began on The Boxer on November 16, 1968 TB and the song was released in April 1969. It showed “the partnership at its best: wry, wounded songs with healing harmonies” 500 on “a profound and perceptive song that is pure poetry.” RV It “is a subtle commentary on man’s inhumanity to man and, more crucially, a scatching castigation of American society’s preoccupation with winners and lack of sympathy for losers.” CC Simon has also said the song is “a crude metaphor for his own experience as a performer.” CM The song is “propelled by a fast, intricate guitar figure that underpins the melody, lingering and returning over ebbs and flows from major to minor chords until the song breaks out into its swaggering climax.” CC “Baby Driver” This rocker features Simon’s “apparently smug, self-satisfied lyrics about his well-to-do family, comfortable lifestyle, and, in the final verses, determination to experiment sexually.” CC “As seems to be the pattern on this album, the uptempo songs carry considerably less weight than the slower ones.” CC “The Only Living Boy in New York” “The Only Living Boy in New York speaks to what will haunt you with the record.” PM This “might have been more suited to Garfunkel’s style and voice” CC but it is Simon who takes the lead on this “slow, dramatic ballad” CC in which he “laments and learns to let go of something and someone he can’t hold onto forever.” PM It serves as Simon’s “wonderfully sweet ode to their friendship.” CM “Why Don’t You Write Me” This marked Simon’s “unconvincing” CC first attempt at reggae, something which he later admitted himself. CC “The rhythm track is amateurish and clumsy, a poor imitation of the real thing.” CC He remedied that with “Mother and Child Reunion” on his next solo album. “Bye Bye Love” Simon & Garfunkel became the most successful duo in American music history. Their predecessors were the Everly Brothers who exploded at the dawn of the rock and roll era in the late ‘50s with gems like “Wake Up Little Susie,” “All I Have to Do Is Dream,” and “Bye Bye Love.” Simon & Garfunkel chose to record the latter, “a sorry tale of lost love set to the kind of rhythm that suggests it doesn’t really matter, because we’re only young and we’ll fall in love with somebod else next week anyway.” CC “Song for the Asking” “This charming closing ballad is a plaintive declaration of love, touching in its simplicity, brief but heartfelt.” CC Both this song and “Keep the Customer Satisfied” “reference the pressures of writing and recording hits.” CM It is significant that the final song on S&G’s final album features only Simon. In his future solo career, Simon “seemed less…inclined towards the smooth, harmonious ballads that grace this album.” CC Notes: A 2001 reissue added demos of “Feuilles-O” and “Bridge Over Troubled Water.”

Review Sources: DMDB Encyclopedia entry for Simon & Garfunkel AM AllMusic.com review by Bruce Eder CC Chris Charlesworth, editor (2008). 25 Albums That Rocked the World!. Omnibus Press: London, England. Pages 62-9. CM Toby Creswell & Craig Mathieson (2012). 100 Best Albums of All Time. Hardie Grant Books. Page 82. TM Tom Moon (2008). 1,000 Recordings to Hear Before You Die. Workman Publishing Company, Inc.: New York, NY. PM PasteMagazine.com (6/3/2024). “The 300 Greatest Albums of All Time” RV The Review (Oct./Nov. 2001). “The 100 Greatest Albums of All Time” by Clarke Speicher 500 Rolling Stone 500 Greatest Albums of All Time TB Thunder Bay (2005). Albums: The Stories Behind 50 Years of Great Recordings. Thunder Bay Press; San Diego, CA. Page 123. TL Time Magazine (11/13/2006). “All-TIME 100 Albums” by Josh Tyrangiel and Alan Light Other Related DMDB Pages: First posted 1/26/2013; last updated 8/7/2024.