Paul Simon finally reveals the reason why Simon and Garfunkel split
After working with his singing partner off and on for years, Paul Simon opened up about what really caused the split between Simon and Garfunkel. The news comes following the premiere of a documentary series chronicling Simon’s career in music.
In the series In Restless Dreams: The Music of Paul Simon, the songwriter revealed that Garfunkel’s acting career was the leading cause of their breakup, saying, “Artie said, ‘Yeah, the way it’s going to be is that I will do movies for six months, then I’ll come back, you’ll have written the songs, and we will do the album’, and I thought, ‘Yeah? Actually, no”.
Garfunkel’s turn as an actor began to put a wrench into the band’s plans when work started on the album Bridge Over Troubled Water. For all of the celebrated songs that appeared on the project, Simon remembered most of the album being delayed due to how little feedback he would get from Garfunkel while he was working in Mexico.
Going into the recording of Bridge Over Troubled Water, Garfunkel began working on the film Catch 22, which began a lengthy separation from Simon as he worked on songs. By the time Garfunkel returned from Mexico, the call for more pickup shots led to him motioning for Simon to write most of the record without him.
After getting increasingly frustrated with the predicament, Simon was unhappy with Garfunkel trying to criticise the tapes he had made, explaining, “It was like, everything got disrupted. It was a recipe for the breakup of Simon & Garfunkel.”
The final album, Bridge Over Troubled Water, would become the last full body of work that the duo put out as Simon moved on to a solo career. When looking back on that time, Simon eventually lamented that he had lost a friend, thinking that Garfunkel had turned into a completely different person than the one he knew when they first began.
Of course, that wouldn’t be the last time the duo would ever perform together. Although they had refrained from making any new material together, the duo have reunited to play a handful of shows whenever they get the chance, including a now-famous concert in Central Park. The band also appeared at The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame’s 25th Anniversary to perform their signature hit, ‘The Sound of Silence’. Outside of the live shows, there has been no word on whether they have any plans to make new material.
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