Fact #182027
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Short story:
The Simon and Garfunkel album Bridge Over Troubled Water, enters the UK chart at No1, a position it will hold for a total of 41 weeks.Full article:
When Simon And Garfunkel came to make Bridge Over Troubled Water, they were drifting apart. Art was pre-occupied with his acting career and, consequently, Paul felt that his long-time musical partner was no longer pulling his weight.
“It was a tough album to make,” Garfunkel has admitted, “but tough is one of the words that leads to great results.” That it still stands as their definitive statement is a measure of Simon’s tendency to shine brightest in adversity. According to Simon, “I knew the minute I wrote, ‘Like a bridge over troubled water I will lay me down,’ that I had a very clear image. The whole verse was set up to hit that melody line. With certain songs you just know it.” Even so, he remembers the original demo as “a much less grandiose thing than the record. In fact, it wasn't grandiose at all. It was a humble, little gospel hymn song with two verses and a simple guitar behind it.” Embellished with a Spector-ish production and a staggering arrangement, it has since made its presence felt in virtually every poll of best-ever singles (eg No74 in Mojo’s 100 Greatest, Aug 97).
In an album where no track rates less than excellent, The Boxer emerges as another astonishing achievement and, in some ways, a more satisfying song than Bridge, with its rippling guitar ambience soaring into the ‘lie-la-lie’ hook (written because Simon couldn’t think of words) set against Roy Halee’s brilliantly engineered percussion effects, building towards the haunting, primitive, synthesiser solo, climaxing with celestial strings and synth-bass drones before fading finally into Simon’s lonesome acoustic picking.
The music reached the public in January 1970, and fellow musicians were blown away. “It’s a great record,” declared Sandy Denny, “fantastically produced.” Some critics, however, were less positive. “Their music has gotten stale,” opined Rolling Stone’s Gregg Mitchell, “Everything they play, someone else has played before.” Joe Public showed better taste.
On 21 February 1970, the album entered the UK chart at No1, a position it held for 35 staggering weeks. On 7 March it began ten weeks atop the US chart, with the title track single simultaneously topping both UK and US charts. Ironically, just as the duo had split before their first hit, The Sounds Of Silence in 1965, by the time Bridge Over Troubled Water scooped six Grammys, on 16 March 1971, Paul Simon was a solo artist.
Johnny Black
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“It was a tough album to make,” Garfunkel has admitted, “but tough is one of the words that leads to great results.” That it still stands as their definitive statement is a measure of Simon’s tendency to shine brightest in adversity. According to Simon, “I knew the minute I wrote, ‘Like a bridge over troubled water I will lay me down,’ that I had a very clear image. The whole verse was set up to hit that melody line. With certain songs you just know it.” Even so, he remembers the original demo as “a much less grandiose thing than the record. In fact, it wasn't grandiose at all. It was a humble, little gospel hymn song with two verses and a simple guitar behind it.” Embellished with a Spector-ish production and a staggering arrangement, it has since made its presence felt in virtually every poll of best-ever singles (eg No74 in Mojo’s 100 Greatest, Aug 97).
In an album where no track rates less than excellent, The Boxer emerges as another astonishing achievement and, in some ways, a more satisfying song than Bridge, with its rippling guitar ambience soaring into the ‘lie-la-lie’ hook (written because Simon couldn’t think of words) set against Roy Halee’s brilliantly engineered percussion effects, building towards the haunting, primitive, synthesiser solo, climaxing with celestial strings and synth-bass drones before fading finally into Simon’s lonesome acoustic picking.
The music reached the public in January 1970, and fellow musicians were blown away. “It’s a great record,” declared Sandy Denny, “fantastically produced.” Some critics, however, were less positive. “Their music has gotten stale,” opined Rolling Stone’s Gregg Mitchell, “Everything they play, someone else has played before.” Joe Public showed better taste.
On 21 February 1970, the album entered the UK chart at No1, a position it held for 35 staggering weeks. On 7 March it began ten weeks atop the US chart, with the title track single simultaneously topping both UK and US charts. Ironically, just as the duo had split before their first hit, The Sounds Of Silence in 1965, by the time Bridge Over Troubled Water scooped six Grammys, on 16 March 1971, Paul Simon was a solo artist.
Johnny Black