Simon & Garfunkel

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Bridge Over Troubled Water is the fifth and final studio album by Simon & Garfunkel. Following the duo's soundtrack for The Graduate, Garfunkel took an acting role in the film Catch-22, while Simon worked on the songs, writing all tracks except one. With the help of producer Roy Halee, the album followed a similar musical pattern as their Bookends, partly abandoning their traditional style in favor of a more creative sound, combining rock, R&B, gospel, jazz, World music, pop and other genres. After filming Catch-22, Garfunkel returned and the duo recorded around 14 tracks, three of which were not featured in the album. It was described as both their "most effortless record and their most ambitious."

Bridge was released in January 26, 1970 and several re-releases followed. Columbia Records released a 40th Anniversary Edition on March 8, 2011, which includes two DVDs including the political TV special Songs of America, the documentary The Harmony Game, additional liner notes and a booklet. Other reissues contain bonus tracks, such as the 2001 version, which covers the demo tapes of "Feuilles-O" and "Bridge Over Troubled Water".

The album includes two of the duo's most acclaimed songs, "Bridge Over Troubled Water" and "The Boxer", which were listed on Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Songs of All Time. Both critically and commercially successful, it topped the charts in over 10 countries and received 2 Grammy Awards for the album, plus four for the title song. It sold around 25 million records and was furthermore ranked on several must-have lists, including at number 51 in Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Albums of All Time. Despite numerous accolades, the duo decided to split up, and parted company; Garfunkel continued his film career, earning a Golden Globe nomination, while Simon worked intensely with music. Both released solo albums in the following years.

For their most recent project, Simon & Garfunkel had recorded the soundtrack album for the American comedy-drama The Graduate, directed by Mike Nichols and based on Charles Webb's novel The Graduate. Garfunkel took the role of Captain Nately in another Nichols film, Catch-22, based on the novel of the same name. Initially Simon was to play the character of Dunbar, but screenwriter Buck Henry felt the film was already crowded with characters and subsequently wrote Simon's part out. The unexpectedly long film production endangered the relationship between the duo;Garfunkel later stated in a 1990 interview with Paul Zollo on "Song Talk":

So I was gone, at first, for what I thought was just a little interruption. See, our way of working was for Paul to write while we recorded. So we'd be in the studio for the better part of two months working on the three or four songs that Paul had written, recording them, and when they were done, we'd knock off for a couple of months while Paul was working on the next group of three or four songs. Then we'd book time and be in the studio again for three or four months, recording those. So my thought was, rather than wait for Paul to write the next bunch of songs, I went off and did this movie. When Paul's songs were ready, he was ready to be in the studio before I was finished with Catch-22.

The filming of Catch-22 began on January 1969 and lasted about 8 months. Simon had not completed a song yet, and the duo planned to collaborate when the filming would finish. Roy Halee produced this album, and as was the case with their most recent studio album, Bookends, they created a similar experimental sound, moving away from the typical folk rock and instead exploring new genres.

The recordings for "The Boxer", which was already partly written by Simon in 1968 and released in April 1969, became one of the longest and toughest in the duo's career. The session lasted over 100 hours and took place at several locations. The second, main part was recorded in Nashville, the third, final part and the horns inside a chapel at Columbia University and the strings and main song in the Columbia Studios. The loud drums were played by "Wrecking Crew" member Hal Blaine in a corridor.[5][6] Simon & Garfunkel became the first musicians to use 16-track recording, but as only two 8-tracks recorders were available, both had to be manually synchronized carefully to produce a clear sound.[7] Several critics criticized the bad quality of the singing in the original version. According to Simon in a 1970 interview with Loraine Alterman, the reason for this was because a word passed over into the next word and that the end of a sound was also the beginning of the next one.[clarification needed] The original version had the long repeated "lie-la-lie" refrain, similar to The Beatles' "Hey Jude", but the track was later rearranged by the duo and producer Halee. The song was later covered by Bob Dylan on Self Portrait, despite the alleged satirical portrayal of Dylan as a "boxer".

In the summer of 1969, Simon, his wife Peggy and Garfunkel rented a house on Blue Jay Way in Los Angeles, as Garfunkel did not want to withdraw from Catch-22. Beatles guitarist George Harrison had previously written his song "Blue Jay Way" there. In this session, the duo experimented with numerous objects to create unusual sounds, such as a falling bundle of drum sticks. Garfunkel had a cassette recorder with a reverberation effect, so that each sound received an echo. When finished, Simon gave the tape to Halee, who then worked on the song, condensing sounds and copying them. The song features Simon as percussionist on the xylophone, an instrument he had never played before, and as acoustic guitarist. He began with a random line: "You're breaking my heart. I'm down on my knees" and when finished it was what later became "Cecilia". The drummer was again Blaine.[8][6]

As Simon and Garfunkel were working busily on their next songs, they had to decline invitations to shows, among them the Woodstock Festival.During this time Simon wrote "Bridge Over Troubled Water". Simon wanted a gospel piano, and so he hired session musician Larry Knechtel. The song was initially two verses long, but Simon felt the song was too short, and asked Knechtel to play a third verse, to which Garfunkel would write more lyrics. Joe Osborn played the two bass guitars, one high and the other low. A horn section rounded off the song. The drums were played in an echo chamber to achieve a hall effect. Due to a series of factors, the duo had to work on a new tape; an arranger falsely labeled the song as "Like a Pitcher of Water", wrote Garfunkel's name incorrectly and the string part was unsatisfactory.[12] Simon and Garfunkel then went to New York to record the vocals. The vocal style in "Bridge Over Troubled Water" was inspired by Phil Spector's technique in "Old Man River" by The Righteous Brothers,[13] Garfunkel beginning with a slow melody and ending with a powerful finale. Garfunkel worked frantically on the singing as the production team recorded small segments for a better control in mixing. After two months the song was finalized. Critics saw similarities between this song and The Beatles' "Let it Be", and Simon himself admitted that it sounded like "Let it Be", stating in an Rolling Stone interview: "They are very similiar songs, certainly in instrumentation..." Curiously, Paul McCartney asked soul singer Aretha Franklin to cover "Let It Be", as he originally wrote it for her, while Simon intended to do the same with his song.The song was covered by many artists since then, including Elvis Presley and Johnny Cash.About $7 million were generated from royalties for cover versions alone.

Following the end of filming of Catch-22 in October, the first performance of what was, for a time, their last tour, took place in Ames, Iowa. The concert included The Everly Brothers' "Bye Bye Love", with the rhythmical hand clapping of over 80,000 people. Simon & Garfunkel were fascinated with its sound, so they repeated it twice for a tape recording; while the first try failed, they liked the second attempt and included the latter on Bridge Over Trouble Water. The US leg of the tour ended in the sold-out Carnegie Hall on November 27.Three days later, their show Songs of America was broadcast on CBS, only one time on November 30, 1969, then it was banned. After numerous fan letters to the duo, with suggestions to not intervene in politics, but rather continue doing music, the duo did not release any similar TV specials.

"The Only Living Boy in New York", "with its mix of strumming acoustic guitars, start-and-stop drums, and a far-off wall of harmonies", has, according to Bill Janovitz of Allmusic, similarities with some of Elton John's songs, especially "Rocket Man". In an interview with Song Talk, Simon guessed that 12 to 15 voices were used to record the "aaah"s, while Garfunkel said that he proposed those lines, stating "It's us around eight times screaming, and we mixed it down very softly...I started getting into open-mouth harmony, in a very loud, strident way. We were screaming at the top of our lungs and inside an echo chamber. I remember that day that Dylan dropped by to visit. We came out of the booth after all this screaming, and there he was. Anyway, we got a very foreign sound."

"El Condor Pasa (If I Could)" is a cover version of a Peruvian traditional song. Simon first heard Jorge Milchberg's version in 1965 in Paris, backed by the group Los Incas. He later asked the band to cover this song and suggested they back him, which they agreed to do.

The folk ballad "The Boxer" tells the story of a boy who one day leaves home to seek good fortune, but instead encounters the inhumanity and harsh rebuke of American society, whose primary concern is for winners, and which lacks tolerance towards losers. The boy then becomes injured, experiences misery and loneliness, and eventually finds the only comfort to be a prostitute. The song ends optimistically, as the boxer keeps his dignity. Simon said in an interview with Playboy in 1984 that he was inspired by the Bible, and used some of its language in this song.The song "Cecilia" is about an unfaithful girl who invites a guy to her bed, while the singer is in the bathroom. It has an unusual high tempo as opposed to their prior songs.

"Bridge Over Troubled Water" was influenced by the gospel music to which Simon listened at that time, especially the Swan Silvertones and their song "Mary Don't You Weep".The name of the title track was inspired by the latter's line "I'll be your bridge over deep water, if you trust in my name". Simon also praised Reverend Claude Jeter's falsetto voice, which was for him the greatest in music. In a 1970 TV-show with Dick Cavett he later admitted probably stealing the line, and according to gospel producer and historian Anthony Heilbut, Simon later acknowledged his musical debt to Jeter in person, and additionally handed Jeter a check as compensation. "Bridge Over Troubled Water" was one of only a few songs not addressed to Garfunkel, but to Simon's wife Peggy, whom he met that year. The "silver girl" in the song refers to her, and gray highlights in her hair, and not to a drugged hypodermic needle, as was believed in the United States.[26] Simon asked Garfunkel to sing lead on the song, and although Garfunkel initially refused this proposal and suggested that Simon should sing falsetto, later agreed to sing. Simon initially composed the song in G major, but had to transpose it to B flat for Garfunkel's voice. Simon read the accords in G to Garfunkel, and arranger and composer Jimmie Haskell wrote the E accords in addition.

"El Condor Pasa (If I Could)" is a Peruvian traditional song. It later became a forerunner of Simon's World music era as a solo artist.[23] In "Keep the Customer Satisfied", Simon complains about the exhausting tours, a similar theme as "Homeward Bound". "So Long, Frank Lloyd Wright" is a tribute to the architect Frank Lloyd Wright but also to Garfunkel, the latter of whom wanted to train as an architect. It chronicles the early career of the duo and prophesies their future split up. "Baby Driver", an uptempo and happy song already released as a B-side of "The Boxer", tells about a boy who lives a comfortable life in a protected home, but who searches for adventures and one day decides to have his first sexual experience.

Simon wrote "The Only Living Boy in New York" while Garfunkel was filing in Mexico, and is about the resulting isolation he felt in New York. The next song, "Why Don't You Write Me", deals with separation from Simon's wife in a jungle.[28] In this song Simon experimented with reggae for the first time.[29] The album ends with a live cover of "Bye Bye Love" and the ballad "Song for the Asking", the latter a farewell song as well as a hint of a new career.[30]
[edit] Songs of America special

Earlier that year, the duo was invited to perform on the Bell Telephone Hour, but due to scheduling issues never did. Sponsor American Telephone & Telegraph (AT & T) proposed[when?] an one-hour US$600,000 show. One week before their appearance, the duo produced, with the help of actor Charles Grodin, the TV special Songs of America, which was intended to be played during their performance. Songs of America is a mixture of cutscenes of notable political events and leaders surrounding the USA, such as the Vietnam War, Martin Luther King, John F. Kennedy's funeral procession, Cesar Chavez and the Poor People's March. On the other side, the film shows American heroes such as Lone Ranger, Dick Clark, baseball player Mickey Mantle, comedian Lenny Bruce and politician Eugene McCarthy. After many disputes between the parties after the film's denial by the sponsor due to the controversial scenes, Simon and Garfunkel were furious about this decision, and they both returned to the CBS studios to talk with the censors. One of the censors meant that the director used the sponsors money to promote his humanistic ideology. After Grodin asked "You mean there are people who are against the humanistic approach in America?", the representative answered "You're goddam right there are – the southern affiliates of AT&T are not going to appreciate seeing black and white kids going to school together". While the new backer, shampoo manufacturer Alberto Culver, accepted to broadcast their show, AT & T replaced the duo with the rock bands Yellow Payges, Jefferson Airplane and the New York Rock and Roll Ensemble.

After the Christmas break, the duo continued working on the album in early 1970 and finished it in late January. 11 tracks were featured in this album; one finished song, "Cuba Si, Nixon No", as well as other bonus tracks were excluded. Garfunkel did not like this song and proposed instead a chorale, entitled "Feuilles-O", with which Simon disagreed. After a discussion, they decided to not include more tracks.

Bridge Over Troubled Water charted in over 11 countries, topping the charts in 10 countries, including the US Billboard 200 and the UK Albums Chart. It became the best-selling album in 1970, 1971 and 1972 and was at that time the best-selling album of all time, until the release of Michael Jackson's Thriller.The album topped the Billboard 200 charts for 10 weeks and stayed in the charts for 85 weeks.According to Columbia Records, 1.7 million copies were sold in the first three weeks in the United States.[37] In the United Kingdom, the album topped the charts for 35 weeks, and spent 285 weeks in the top 100, from 1970 to 1975.[4] Furthermore it received 8× Platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), and 4× Platinum in Canada.[4] According to the Official Charts Company, Bridge Over Troubled Water has since sold 3,047,242 times in the UK, and over 25 million copies worldwide.

The songs "Cuba Si, Nixon No", "Groundhog", and the demo "Feuilles-O" were recorded during sessions but not released on the album.[40] "Cuba Si, Nixon No" was later released on a bootleg copy of a November 11, 1969 concert by Simon and Garfunkel at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio,[41] while the demo recording of "Feuilles-O" was later released on the Old Friends and The Columbia Studio Recordings (1964–1970) box sets.[40] A remastered and expanded version of the album was released on compact disc in 2001, containing the demo versions of "Feuilles-O" and "Bridge Over Troubled Water". It was remastered by Vic Anesini.[40][42] Garfunkel later recorded "Feuilles-Oh/Do Space Men Pass Dead Souls on Their Way to the Moon?" on his debut solo album Angel Clare, and as the flip-side to his single "I Shall Sing" from the same album.

Columbia Records released a 40th Anniversary Edition on March 8, 2011, comprising three discs. The first disc features the original album and the second disc contains the entirety of Live 1969, which had been released three years earlier as an exclusive at Starbucks. The third disc, a DVD, consisted of the television special Songs of America, which originally aired in 1969 on CBS and unavailable since its original broadcast, and a new documentary The Harmony Game about the making of the album. Songs of America comprised footage of the 1969 tour, intimate backstage conversations, and historic news clips; it had elicited controversy owing to the duo's political comments regarding the Vietnam War and the direction of American society at the time. The Harmony Game featured new 2010 interviews with Simon, Garfunkel, producer Roy Halee, and more principals involved with the making of the album. The 1969 special runs for approximately 52 minutes 37 seconds, while the 2010 documentary runs for approximately 70 minutes 54 seconds. A booklet of liner notes, photos, and essays by critics Michael Hill and Anthony DeCurtis was also included.

Bridge Over Troubled Water received positive critical reception. The record was both criticized and lauded for its individual sound, incorporating genres ranging from rock, R&B, gospel, jazz, World music and pop. Bruce Eder of Allmusic said that the album was "perhaps the most delicately textured album to close out the 1960s from any major rock act", especially in a time of troubles in the United States.[44] Although Stephen M. Deusner of Pitchfork also praised the unique sound, he said that "Bridge sounds like a unified statement enlivened by styles and rhythms not often heard on pop radio at the ju\ncture of those two decades."[1] Steve Horowitz of PopMatters called the album their worst, criticizing the uncommon sound and the stand-alone recording, thus resembling The Beatles' The White Album.[43]

The album won a Grammy Award for Album of the Year, as well as for Best Engineered Recording, while its title track won the Grammy Award for Record of the Year, Song of the Year, Contemporary Song of the Year and the Instrumental Arrangement of the Year in the Grammy Awards of 1971. Bridge Over Troubled Water was nominated at the first Brit Awards for Best International Album and its title track for Best International Single in 1977.[48] In 2003, it was ranked at #51 on Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Albums of All Time list.[49] In December 1993, The Times ranked the album at number 20 on its "The Vultures 100 Best Albums of all Time".

As was the case during the recordings of Bridge Over Troubled Water, both musicians became rather independent. Garfunkel took a role in another Mike Nichols film, Carnal Knowledge, in the supporting role as Sandy and for which he later earned a Golden Globe nomination.[51] Filiming started in May 1970, and Simon was again furious about his absence. Meanwhile, Simon attended a one-week songwriting course at New York University, studied music theory and listened to numerous types of music. The duo's last performance at that time was in the Forest Hills Stadium in the summer of 1970. Beside the independence of both musicians, another reason for the split-up was the overly deep friendship, and not the several wrangles and accusations. Simon worked on his second studio album (and first post-Simon & Garfunkel) solo album between January and March 1971, which was later released as Paul Simon, while Garfunkel revived his music career by recording Angel Clare in September 1973.


All songs written and composed by Paul Simon except where noted.

Side one 
No.  Title  Length 
1.  "Bridge Over Troubled Water"    4:52
2.  "El Condor Pasa (If I Could)" (Daniel Alomía Robles, English lyrics by Paul Simon, arranged by Jorge Milchberg)  3:06
3.  "Cecilia"    2:55
4.  "Keep the Customer Satisfied"    2:33
5.  "So Long, Frank Lloyd Wright"    3:41

Side two 
No.  Title  Length 
6.  "The Boxer"    5:08
7.  "Baby Driver"    3:14
8.  "The Only Living Boy in New York"    3:58
9.  "Why Don't You Write Me"    2:45
10.  "Bye Bye Love" (live recording from Ames, Iowa, Felice and Boudleaux Bryant)  2:55
11.  "Song for the Asking"