S is for Simon and Garfunkel

Tuesday 5th November

They were there in the heyday of sixties pop, along with the Beatles, the Stones, the Who, The Beach Boys, all that Tamla Motown stuff and Dylan himself.  They are still talked about, still remembered fondly and yet they only made five albums, and had a handful of singles.  But what beautiful records, gentle raindrops amidst the thunder and lightning of Pop’s first great explosion.

Wonderful gentle ballads that spoke of poetry and unrequited love, and mentioned Emily Dickinson and Robert Frost; two intellectuals in a world of Rock’n’Roll.  They were quite political too, name-checking Martin Luther King, Lenny Bruce and anti Vietnam rallies.  Taking his template from folk Paul Simon wrote and played guitar, gradually moving into more groovy rhythms and styles.   And Art added his beautiful vocals to each song; it is almost fashionable to dismiss his contribution now, but listening again he made the songs far better than they might have been.  Their first ‘hit’ was a quiet song ‘The Sounds of Silence’ that a DJ added drums to and released as a single.  At the time Paul was living in England and playing in folk clubs, thinking that the partnership with Art Garfunkel was going nowhere.  He hurried back and they quickly recorded a second album.  Then came the success of the film ‘The Graduate’ with Simon and Garfunkel songs as the soundtrack including a new song ‘Mrs Robinson’ written for the film.  Their last album is also their masterpiece ‘Bridge Over Troubled Waters’, where every song is perfection and follow on from each other as if written that way.  It seemed that at this point they were unstoppable, but behind the scenes they had already parted.  It was probably always an unequal partnership, and Art has made a few beautiful records since, and every now and then they still tour the old songs together.  Paul Simon however has gone on to become one of the true world superstars, but that is for another day.