SIMON AND GARFUNKEL - A BRIDGE OVER MANY YEARS

SIMON AND GARFUNKEL

A few weeks ago I saw a BBC TV programme about Simon and Garfunkel, made by Alan Yentob. It was about music that was of my generation. My memory of those two is founded on the images of their record covers so that they are ever young to me: those pictures and those wonderful songs are my memories of a time and will not, I know, ever change. It was not a short time because it started before Marcus and Julian were born and it went on so that they became part of my sons’ musical memories. It went on beyond the ‘split’ through to Paul Simon’s solo output, Art Garfunkel’s more limited solo work, to the famous get-together in Central Park and on and on. So I had to watch the TV programme.

The first thing the programme did was to remind me that the album ‘Bridge Over Troubled Water’ came out forty-one years ago – and it was their fifth and final album together. There are so many of my Facebook Friends and blog readers that weren’t even thought of then – but all of those songs and those that came later are ‘there for the asking, ask me and I will play’*

Simon’s work over the decades distinguishes him as a fine poet, incredibly creative maker of songs, great guitarist and all-round top ranking musician and recording artist. He wrote ‘Bridge Over Troubled Water’ (First heard in the USA on TV in November ’69) and had he never written again that one song would have justified my words of praise. Fortunately for us all he didn’t stop there.

The image of Garfunkel that I retain is of him singing that great song. Wearing jeans and a tight fitting, long sleeved red pullover, with his flaring hair and his slender body thrust forward from the hips, his wonderful voice reaching what seemed to me to be impossible heights he stays with me as the most beautiful of men. In the sleeve-notes of the CD that I ordered online within five minutes of the TV programme ending (my version is on vinyl …) Bud Scoppa says the song ‘gradually ascends from whispery intimacy to breathtaking grandeur on the wings of Garfunkel’s greatest vocal. And what lines Simon had given him to sing! Consider the magnificent middle eight’.

Sail on, silvergirl,


Sail on by.


Your time has come to shine.


All your dreams are on their way.


See how they shine.


If you need a friend


I’m sailing right behind



Nicely put, Mr Scoppa.

The CD I bought so recently also carries a nice surprise in the form of another, earlier, version of the great song, hitherto unreleased, with Garfunkel accompanied only by piano: one gets the impression he was trying out the song. It shows how much work had gone into the track that is number one on the record - (‘breathtaking grandeur’ does put it very well).

This morning Radio Four’s Today programme ran an interview with Art Garfunkel. Recently he had attended Paul Simon’s 70th birthday party. He had been asked to say a few words and he read out for us what he had said at the party. He called it ‘Who Will Speak At Whose Funeral’ and I hope he won’t mind if I pass it on to you:

He was enigmatic to himself.

Which of us was more aware?

Which the elder?

I was born November fifth.

He on October 13th - a few weeks premature, you following me?

He was born three weeks before me, my dear,

But he was a premature baby.

Were we both conceived at the same instant?

February 5th 1941, the dead middle of winter,

In the heart of World War Two

Was I born at the right time?

For 70 years his arm has been around my shoulder,

He's dazzled me with gifts.

I nurtured him in his youth.

He brought me into prominence.

I taught him to sing.

He connected my voice to the world.

I made him tall**.

All of our personal belongings are intertwined***.

We say it's exhausting to compete,

But we shine for each other****.

It's still our favourite game.

It goes on, this embrace, whether I speak for him or he for me:

Love ruled our lives.

It rules the mourners,

And the winter of longevity.


And at seventy himself Art Garfunkel shows himself to be a warmhearted and wise man who cannot be unaware of the regard, or even love, people have for him and establishes for once and for all the regard, or even love, he has for Paul Simon. And he cannot resist a small joke at Simon’s expense. Simon is short, no doubt about it; I have double asterisked the reference in Garfunkel’s poem.

If you go to the Today programme’s website you can hear a recording of Art Garkunkel reading that poem – it is, of course, much, much better than just reading it.

* From ‘Song For The Asking’ by Paul Simon (on the CD)

** Yes he is short. Once at a party in Winfield (no relation sadly) House, Regent’s Park, the home of the US Ambassador to Great Britain I turned around to reply to a friend who had called me by name and at first failed to spot Mr Simon who was standing behind me and well below my line of vision. I quickly recognised him and we exchanged smiles.

*** This line comes from 'René And Georgette Magritte With Their Dog After The War', by Paul Simon to be found on the Hearts and Bones CD.

**** A reference to the quoted middle-eight from Bridge Over Troubled Water and also, probably, to lines in 'The Only Living Boy In New York', again by Paul Simon, that goes
'Hey, let your honesty shine, shine, shine
Da-n-da-da-n-da-n-da-da
Like it shines on me'.

There may be other references in the above which I have missed. Send me a Comment if you find any.