Closer to Reality: Who is Tom in ‘The Only Living Boy in New York’?
Paul Simon always had a habit of positioning characters in his songs. Even though most musicians nowadays prefer to sing about their troubles within their own minds, Simon writes songs in the same way a novelist might, taking the basis of a character and using those three minutes of music to tell a story about how they got to where they are or how they might try to make their lives even better. There may be some bits of reality in there, too, and ‘The Only Living Boy in New York’ may be a bit too close to the bone for him.
When Simon first started writing songs, he and Garfunkel’s harmonies were practically made for each other. They may not have had the same strong vocal register as The Beatles or The Rolling Stones, but their way of working their harmonies around each other was far more sophisticated than what many rock and rollers could hope to do.
Before they started working on their self-titled project, though, the duo had started under the moniker Tom and Jerry when they were still kids, with Tom being Garfunkel and Jerry being Simon. Even though they didn’t get anywhere, their success with ‘The Sound of Silence’ led to them getting much more in tune with what the public wanted. Things were looking up, but Bridge Over Troubled Water was where everything started crashing down.
While the lyrics to the song ‘Bridge Over Troubled Water’ may have been about perseverance, ‘The Only Living in New York’ has lyrics that feel incredibly jaded about where their partnership has taken them. After playing together as kids, Simon was none too pleased with where Garfunkel had gone in the years since.
Why did Simon and Garfunkel break up?
Since Garfunkel was off making movies like Catch-22, Simon was stuck in New York working away on songs, as if he were creating material for a good actor. Penning this tune about their separation, Simon talks about the loneliness that he felt about being left alone in ‘The Big Apple’, saying that “Tom” (Garfunkel) was down in Mexico. It’s a little bit on the nose, and that separation wasn’t going to just blow over when Garfunkel got back.
By the time that the pair reunited, Simon wasn’t willing to compromise on his songs anymore, leading to the duo breaking up after they bothwashed their hands of the album. Although the record stands as an all-time classic, it started a clear divide between the two that would continue to this day.
Are Simon and Garfunkel still friends?
While Simon going solo may have been the next best thing for him, his interaction with his old mate would be off and on throughout his career. As fans waited for years, Simon and Garfunkel would eventually reunite for a few shows, including an iconic show in Central Park in the 1980s, before going out on a small tour to celebrate their music.
Even though the duo has since been able to patch up some of their differences and even make the odd appearance live, they have yet to walk into the studio to create another album. ‘The Only Living Boy In New York’ may have just been a way for Simon to let out his feelings, but the amount of animosity that came from it meant that those two immortal harmony singers would be silenced for good.
