“Very, very strong melody”: The hit song Paul Simon considered a pop standard
Paul Simon is his harshest critic. Though one of his most iconic tunes, he once admitted he would have dropped ‘Gumboots’ from Graceland if it wasn’t that song that started the whole thing. He also feels that many of his songs are too dated to perform to modern audiences, like ‘I Am A Rock’, which he deliberately omits from live setlists for fear of losing his audience’s attention.
Simon is tough on himself, but it’s mainly a characteristic that comes with years and years of perfectionism. Even while writing albums, he strives to create with more efficiency and higher standards than ever before and often appreciates the simplicity of a simple guitar lick or harmony and the ability of these traits to enhance a song’s emotional appeal.
Being critical of your own work as intricately as Simon means possessing in-depth knowledge about bridging the gap between formulaic charm and forward-thinking boundary-pushing. Even as half of Simon & Garfunkel, Simon was committed to his infinite quest for authenticity, which allowed him to transition from the folk and pop leanings of his earlier work to something more genre-blending and globally resonant as Graceland.
That said, Simon has long regarded Bridge Over Troubled Water as the ultimate pop standard, knowing how much heart and soul they each poured into the album to make it absolutely perfect. Though coming at an immensely poignant time for the duo, each song packs a punch as weighty as two friends saying their final goodbyes to one another, layered with the kind of bone-deep camaraderie that defined their relationship over the years.
Describing the sentimentality evoked by their harmonies, Simon once told SongTalk he “liked the ‘aaahhhs,’ the voices singing ‘aaah,'” saying, “That was the best I think that we ever did it.” Knowing how much he overanalyses the quality of his own work, a compliment of this calibre doesn’t go unnoticed. His reading makes sense, however, considering the intricacy they injected into the album and the technique they employed to achieve such a delicate sound.
Therefore, it comes as no surprise that when the singer was asked by American Songwriter which of his records he regarded as the pop standard, he struggled to answer at first, before naming Bridge Over Troubled Water as the only worthy contender. Specifically, he said the title song was worthy of such a grandiose analysis. “[It has a] very, very strong melody,” he said.
Expanding on its appeal, he said: “It’s hard to know now, now that the song has become a gospel standard,” adding, “Maybe it’s a standard in pop records, I don’t know, but it’s certainly a standard as far as the church is concerned. So I don’t know; I don’t have a perspective on it anymore.”
Even though they each knew Bridge Over Troubled Water would be their last record, it enabled the sound to incorporate a deep-rooted sentimentality to mark the poignancy of their final curtain call. Knowing that this was their final venture as a duo, they ensured the sounds carried the same amount of nostalgia they likely felt at the time, resulting in a magic capsule chronicling their final moments as musical partners.
