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Simon and Garfunkel
The
most successful folk-rock duo of the 1960s, Paul Simon
and Art Garfunkel crafted a series of memorable hit albums
and singles featuring their choirboy harmonies, ringing
acoustic and electric guitars, and Simon's acute, finely
wrought songwriting. The pair always inhabited the more
polished end of the folk-rock spectrum, and were sometimes
criticized for a certain collegiate sterility. Many also
feel that Simon, as both a singer and songwriter, didn't
truly blossom until he began his own hugely successful
solo career in the 1970s. But the best of S&G's work
can stand among Simon's best material, and the duo did
progress musically over the course of their five albums,
moving from basic folk-rock productions into Latin rhythms
and gospel-influenced arrangements that foreshadowed Simon's
eclecticism on his solo albums.
Simon
and Garfunkel's recording history actually predated their
first mid-'60s hit by almost a decade. Childhood friends
while growing up together in Forest Hills, NY, they began
making records in 1957, performing (and often writing
their own material) in something of a juvenile Everly
Brothers style. Calling themselves Tom and Jerry, their
first single, "Hey Schoolgirl," actually made
the Top 50, but a series of follow-ups went nowhere. The
duo split up, and Simon continued to struggle to make
it in the music business as a songwriter and occasional
performer, sometimes using the names of Jerry Landis or
Tico & the Triumphs.
By
the early '60s, both Simon and Garfunkel were coming under
the influence of folk music. When they reteamed, it was
as a folk duo, though Simon's pop roots would serve the
act well in their material's synthesis of folk and pop
influences. Signing to Columbia, they recorded an initially
unsuccessful acoustic debut (as Simon and Garfunkel, not
Tom and Jerry) in 1964, Wednesday Morning, 3 A.M. They
again went their separate ways, Simon moving to England,
where he played the folk circuit and recorded an obscure
solo album.
The
Simon & Garfunkel story might have ended there, except
for a brainstorm of their producer, Tom Wilson (who also
produced several of Bob Dylan's early albums). Folk-rock
was taking off in 1965, and Wilson, who had helped Dylan
electrify his sound, took the strongest track from S&G's
debut, "Sounds of Silence," and embellished
it with electric guitars, bass, and drums. It got to number
one in early 1966, giving the duo the impetus to reunite
and make a serious go at a recording career, Simon returning
from the U.K. to the U.S. In 1966 and 1967 they were regular
visitors to the pop charts with some of the best folk-rock
of the era, including "Homeward Bound," "I
Am a Rock," and "A Hazy Shade of Winter."
Simon
& Garfunkel's early albums were erratic, but they
steadily improved as Simon sharpened his songwriting,
and as the duo became more comfortable and adventurous
in the studio. Their execution was so clean and tasteful
that it cost them some hipness points during the psychedelic
era, which was a bit silly. They were far from the raunchiest
thing going, but managed to pull off the nifty feat of
appealing to varying segments of the pop and rock audience
-- and various age groups, not just limited to adolescents
-- without compromising their music. Parsley, Sage, Rosemary
and Thyme (late 1966) was their first really consistent
album; Bookends (1968), which actually blended previously
released singles with some new material, reflected their
growing maturity. One of its songs, "Mrs. Robinson,"
became one of the biggest singles of the late '60s after
it was prominently featured in one of the best films of
the period, The Graduate (which also had other Simon &
Garfunkel songs on the soundtrack).
It
was unsurprising, in retrospect, that the duo's partnership
began to weaken in the late '60s. They had known each
other most of their lives, and been performing together
for over a decade. Simon began to feel constrained by
the limits of working with the same collaborator; Garfunkel,
who wrote virtually none of the material, felt overshadowed
by the songwriting talents of Simon, though Art's high
tenor was crucial to their appeal. They started to record
some of their contributions separately in the studio,
and barely played live at all in 1969, as Garfunkel began
to pursue an acting career.
Their
final studio album, Bridge Over Troubled Waters, was an
enormous hit, topping the charts for ten weeks, and containing
four hit singles (the title track, "The Boxer,"
"Cecilia," and "El Condor Pasa").
It was certainly their most musically ambitious, with
"Bridge Over Troubled Waters" and "The
Boxer" employing thundering drums and tasteful orchestration,
and "Cecilia" marking one of Simon's first forays
into South American rhythms. It also caught the confused,
reflective tenor of the times better than almost any other
popular release of 1970.
That
would be their last album of new material; although they
didn't necessarily intend to break up at the time, the
break from recording eventually became permanent, as Simon
began a solo career that brought him as much success as
the S&G outings, and Garfunkel pursued simultaneous
acting and recording careers. They did reunite in 1975
for a Top Ten single, "My Little Town," and
have periodically performed together since without ever
coming close to generating albums of new material. A 1981
concert in New York's Central Park attracted half a million
fans, and was commemorated with a live album; they also
toured in the early '80s, but a planned studio album was
canceled due to artistic differences. -- Richie Unterberger
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