FEATURE:
The Boxer’s Last Stand
Simon & Garfunkel’s Bridge Over Troubled Water at Fifty
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THIS month has already seen a…
IN THIS PHOTO: Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel in 1968
couple of big albums celebrating anniversaries and, tomorrow, Simon & Garfunkel’s final album together is fifty. Bridge Over Troubled Water is a masterpiece that connected the glory and promise of the 1960s with the new decade. The album draws from a wide range of influences; from Roots Rock and Gospel through to Soul and Jazz, it is a phenomenal swansong. The album indicated two artists moving in different directions; two who would be parted and embark on solo careers. Bridge Over Troubled Water went to the number-one spot and was 1970’s best-selling album. It took home six Grammy Awards, including Album of the Year and Best Engineered Recording; the title track won Song of the Year, and the album has sold over twenty-five million copies. The song, Bridge Over Troubled Water, has been covered dozens of times and has seen some enormous artists take it on – including Elvis Presley and Aretha Franklin. To mark fifty years of one of the greatest albums ever, a new E.P. has arrived. This article explains more:
“January 26 marks the 50th Anniversary of Simon & Garfunkel’s iconic masterpiece, Bridge Over Troubled Water. Legacy Recordings celebrates with Simon & Garfunkel – Live At Carnegie Hall 1969 — an EP of Four Early Live Versions from the Duo’s Then-Upcoming Fifth Studio Album, Available Exclusively for Streaming Now.
Recorded in November 1969 during a sold-out two-night run at New York’s Carnegie Hall, this new four-song EP captures S&G’s live magic at the height of the folk-rock duo’s massive popular success. Simon & Garfunkel – Live At Carnegie Hall 1969 includes previously-unreleased early live versions of “Bridge Over Troubled Water,” “So Long, Frank Lloyd Wright,” “The Boxer” and “Song For The Asking.” The recordings from Carnegie Hall capture early performances of songs that Simon & Garfunkel were introducing in concert to their fans, two months before the release of their fifth and final studio album, Bridge Over Troubled Water (originally released January 26, 1970)”.
Simon & Garfunkel’s fifth and final album, there is something bittersweet about Bridge Over Troubled Water. Garfunkel took on an acting role in Catch-22 following the duo’s soundtrack of The Graduate; Paul Simon spent time writing songs for the album – everything expect Felice and Boudleaux Bryant's Bye Bye Love. In terms of tones and sounds, Bridge Over Troubled Water is similar to Bookends – an album that is almost as sensational as its follow-up. Although there are similarities between their final two Simon & Garfunkel albums, Bridge Over Troubled Water brings in more Rock, Gospel and World sounds; a broader palette and lyrics that endure for longer and dig deeper. The duo would part after the album (although they performed together on a few occasions afterwards) but, in sheer terms of ambition, Bridge Over Troubled Water is an amazing achievement. Simon & Garfunkel split later in 1970: Garfunkel worked in film whilst Simon released a series of world-class and hugely memorable albums (including 1986’s Graceland).
It is understandable why Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel could not carry on but, when you consider the genius of the album and how important it is, one wonders what could have happened if they kept playing. Some argue both artists were strongest as a duo and never matched the same levels and heights they achieved on their final album. Certain critics, looking back, feel Bridge Over Troubled Water is a little overwrought, overrated and underwritten; most agree that the album is one of the very best the duo created and a very fitting and stunning goodbye. Songs like Cecilia, The Boxer and the title track are classics; So Long, Frank Lloyd Wright, The Only Living Boy in New York and Why Don’t You Write Me are classic Paul Simon numbers. Even though the songwriting duo was heading in different directions, they sound united and harmonious throughout. Bridge Over Troubled Water is a song that perfectly frames Art Garfunkel’s voice, whilst it is impossible to listen to The Boxer without being moved. I want to bring in a couple of retrospective reviews before I move on. Here is how Pitchfork judged the album:
“This diverse album contains the roots of Paul Simon's subsequent incorporation of African and South American rhythms into astute pop songs, especially "El Condor Pasa (If I Could)". The tune is hundreds of years old, but Simon came to it via a contemporary Peruvian group called Los Incas. He wrote new English lyrics about the rural versus the urban, and he and Garfunkel sang them over the original instrumental track. Especially coming after the grandiose gospel of the title track, the song sounds both exotic and humble. Later, "Keep the Customer Satisfied" swells with gargantuan blasts of brass, "Baby Driver" revs up some R&B sax, and "Cecilia" sounds impossibly infectious with its pennywhistle solo and handclap/thighslap percussion. Despite the breadth of sound-- and despite the splintering of their relationship-- Bridge sounds like a unified statement enlivened by styles and rhythms not often heard on pop radio at the juncture of those two decades.
The album cuts on Bridge hold up arguably better than the singles-- or maybe it's just that we've all heard the title track and side-two opener "The Boxer" so many times, while songs like "Keep the Customer Satisfied" and "Baby Driver" still sound less familiar, and therefore full of surprises. Especially on this subtle remastering, Bridge reveals a surfeit of strange, exciting sonic details, as Simon, Garfunkel, and co-producer Roy Halee insert small flourishes of sound, such as the disruptive skiffle beat on "Why Don't You Write Me" or the audience rhythm section on the live version of "Bye Bye Love". The title track derives its outsize drama not only from Garfunkel's intense, measured vocals but also from the resonating percussion, which mimics the echoing crack of sound against a cathedral wall. Thanks to the echo-chambered vocals, disembodied organ, and Joe Osborn's melodically prominent bass, "The Only Living Boy in New York" sounds practically weightless, as if Manhattan were as lonely and desolate as the moon”.
The remarkable Bridge Over Troubled Water sprouted the roots of Paul Simon’s love of African and South American rhythms. Listen to the big brass Keep the Customer Satisfied and one can see new worlds opening up for Simon; elements that would feed into his solo work. In their review of Simon & Garfunkel’s final album, AllMusic had this to say:
“Bridge Over Troubled Water was one of the biggest-selling albums of its decade, and it hasn't fallen too far down on the list in years since. Apart from the gospel-flavored title track, which took some evolution to get to what it finally became, however, much of Bridge Over Troubled Water also constitutes a stepping back from the music that Simon & Garfunkel had made on Bookends -- this was mostly because the creative partnership that had formed the body and the motivation for the duo's four prior albums literally consumed itself in the making of Bridge Over Troubled Water.
The overall effect was perhaps the most delicately textured album to close out the 1960s from any major rock act. Bridge Over Troubled Water, at its most ambitious and bold, on its title track, was a quietly reassuring album; at other times, it was personal yet soothing; and at other times, it was just plain fun. The public in 1970 -- a very unsettled time politically, socially, and culturally -- embraced it; and whatever mood they captured, the songs matched the standard of craftsmanship that had been established on the duo's two prior albums. Between the record's overall quality and its four hits, the album held the number one position for two and a half months and spent years on the charts, racking up sales in excess of five million copies. The irony was that for all of the record's and the music's appeal, the duo's partnership ended in the course of creating and completing the album”.
As a standalone, Bridge Over Troubled Water is a sensational album crammed with brilliance. If you figure it into the history and story of Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel, the album is so much bigger and more important. One can read subtext in certain songs but, to me, this is two musicians providing the world with something timeless and majestic, knowing they would not record another album again. On its fiftieth anniversary tomorrow (26th January), lots of fans will mark an incredible album; musicians have been inspired by it since its release and, even though Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel are not together (and not speaking) and their friendship was strained in 1970, it is obvious their final album together will endure and influence…
FOR another fifty years.