Two of the most iconic voices in music during the 1960s, Simon & Garfunkel were grade school pals that came up together performing in New York. Bob Dylan's brand of folk rock came from the heartland, but Simon & Garfunkel were of the city, and perhaps that gave them a slightly more pop sound, making them, in effect, a bit more pop-ular, with four number one hits in the United States. I grew up listening to them, their music is the soundtrack to one of my favorite films, and the placidity of their music is second to few, if any.
420 to 30: A Music Retrospective
Here's 7 of my favorites from Simon & Garfunkel.
Week 19: SIMON & GARFUNKEL
#127/420 - Simon & Garfunkel, “Bridge over Troubled Water”
A grand song from Simon & Garfunkel’s final album as a duo, this was written by Simon specifically for Garfunkel to sing, featuring high notes that many men would struggle to hit with such skill. It’s a very nice, gentle song with kind lyrics and bright piano that builds into something quite powerful.
If we could all be a bridge over troubled water for the ones we love.
“Sail on, silver girl.”
#128/420 - Simon & Garfunkel, “Cloudy”
Simon & Garfunkel had many great songs besides just their hits and this is one I’ve always liked particularly much. It’s really impressive how layered and textured and atmospheric S&G could get while simultaneously being so minimalist with instrumentation, especially the percussion here, so soft and… cloudy. Less is more here, for sure.
The lyrics are also fantastic and timeless as with much of their work. One to drift off with for the ages!
#129/420 - Simon & Garfunkel, “Leaves That Are Green”
I remember at age 22, driving through the mountains between New Mexico and Arizona, leaving the snow behind and heading for the warm Phoenix valley in December of 2011, listening to a CD I made of my favorite Simon & Garfunkel songs, and being very struck by the opening lines to this track.
“I was 21 years when I wrote this song. I'm 22 now but I won't be for long. Time hurries on. And the leaves that are green turn to brown.”
I was on my way to film something I wrote when I was 21, and I was 22, and it did not last for long, as predicated.
This one can knock the wind out of you with its realness.
It’s also a great little ditty. But very profound for what it is. We are all green at one point, and we all turn to brown and wither and crumble away. No avoiding it.
21 is a ripe age to face this.
It is hard and even counterintuitive to keep such morbid thoughts forefront in your mind, but the benefit of remembering this is remembering to not waste time. Don’t shut the world out or it will pass you by. Don’t take for granted the love you receive here and now. Don't be slow to say you're sorry. “Time hurries on.”
#130/420 - Simon & Garfunkel, “The Boxer”
Some fine storytelling and character development for a 5 minute song, it’s one of Simon & Garfunkel’s all-time classics and best productions. It also features one of the best and only uses of the bass harmonica I can think of besides the “Sanford & Son” theme song, and that touch really puts this over the top, underlining and texturing everything along with the crashing drums so well.
I wouldn’t hesitate to call this their best song, but then we still got 3 more this week, baby, so that would be a lie-la-lie on my part.
#131/420 - Simon & Garfunkel, “The Only Living Boy in New York”
Simon & Garfunkel originally went by Tom & Jerry, so when Paul Simon sings, “Tom, get your plane right on time,” he is talking directly to Garfunkel. Simon is the boy in the title. This was on their last album before splitting up and the two had grown apart to a degree with Garfunkel’s acting career beginning to take off and his music career beginning to be neglected. Garfunkel had some really good movie roles around here though, so I don’t put down his choices. Carnal Knowledge with Jack Nicholson has long been a favorite of mine, for example. But that did leave Paul with most of the work as the main and most focused musical talent of the duo, and I can relate as an artist to the loneliness he expresses in the song. Sometimes you think you have the dream team, and maybe for a moment you do, but sometimes not everyone ultimately shares the same interests and goals. And sometimes that means finishing a project by yourself. It can be a bitter pill to swallow.
I used to have this as a ringtone for a good friend and one of my main collaborators back in the day, and I suppose prophetically it’s been about 8 years since we last worked together on anything. By no means a perfect analogy, but also the splitting of two friends, and apt in the sense that we were/are both hard workers, just now on different things.
Of course, it was musically what made me first love this song and choose it for a ringtone I knew I’d often hear. It’s very well produced, well written, well sang, well played, and packed with passion and emotion. One of their best songs in my opinion for sure.
Really, Bridge over Troubled Water is such a good album beginning to end, it might as well be a “Greatest Hits” of Simon & Garfunkel. But there’s still two more I put above even these.
#132/420 - Simon & Garfunkel, “The Sounds of Silence”
One of the best songs ever written in my opinion, and definitely an American classic. Written out, it is probably my favorite poem as well. It’s also the de facto theme song of one of my favorite films of all time, The Graduate. It launched the careers of Simon & Garfunkel. This song, this song is a song of songs, ladies and gentlemen!
Let’s just appreciate this in its fullness.
“Hello darkness, my old friend
I've come to talk with you again
Because a vision softly creeping
Left its seeds while I was sleeping
And the vision that was planted in my brain
Still remains
Within the sound of silence
In restless dreams I walked alone
Narrow streets of cobblestone
'Neath the halo of a streetlamp
I turned my collar to the cold and damp
When my eyes were stabbed by the flash of a neon light
That split the night
And touched the sound of silence
And in the naked light I saw
Ten thousand people, maybe more
People talking without speaking
People hearing without listening
People writing songs that voices never share
No one dare
Disturb the sound of silence
Fools, said I, you do not know
Silence like a cancer grows
Hear my words that I might teach you
Take my arms that I might reach you
But my words like silent raindrops fell
And echoed in the wells of silence
And the people bowed and prayed
To the neon god they made
And the sign flashed out its warning
In the words that it was forming
And the sign said The words of the prophets
Are written on the subway walls
And tenement halls
And whispered in the sounds of silence”
Paul Simon gives Bob Dylan a run for his money here.
It may be surprising to know, all this said, that this is still not quite my top pick for Simon & Garfunkel.
#133/420 - Simon & Garfunkel, “At the Zoo”
I wouldn’t call this their deepest song, nor their most intricate or impressive, but I would call it their best because there’s just not another Simon & Garfunkel song that I prefer to hear more than this gem. Maybe I am just such a kid, but I cannot not enjoy this whenever I hear it, and many years later after first hearing it, I still often have the urge to hear it again.
It’s just a song that humorously anthropomorphizes animals at the Central Park Zoo, but it’s so bouncy and catchy and builds into such a nice crescendo, I just can’t not like it. From the gentle wind chimes to the match-strike percussion and the heavy piano and claps, it’s just a nice little ditty to accompany any trip to the zoo. Which granted, I do not often do. And I have mixed feelings about zoos. Though I love animals. But when I do go to the zoo, let me tell you.
The kids love it, the adults love it, the zookeeper loves rum. Thank you Simon & Garfunkel for so many classics.
I really could keep going on the song recommendations for these two, but these seven are a great place to start and are my personal favorites, definitely worth checking out.
Next week, I’m closing off the G’s, with one of the only bands I know of with a fully cartoon lineup. Their albums were infrequent but worth the waits, (speaking of the zoo) it’s Gorillaz.
420 to 30: A Music Retrospective
Week 2: The Jackson 5/The Jacksons
Week 3: A Tribe Called Quest
Week 4: Weezer
Week 5: Bob Dylan
Week 6: Led Zeppelin
Week 7: 2Pac/Makaveli
Week 8: Billy Joel
Week 9: Electric Light Orchestra
Week 10: Elvis Presley
Week 11: Dr. Buzzard’s Original Savannah Band
Week 12: The Jimi Hendrix Experience
Week 13: Nirvana
Week 14: The Doors
Week 15: The Rolling Stones
Week 16: Gnarls Barkley
Week 17: Gábor Szabó
Week 18: Galaxie 500
View the full list of "420 Songs" here: https://tinyurl.com/y8fboudu (Google spreadsheet link)