Why did Paul Simon hate the Simon & Garfunkel classic ‘The 59th Street Bridge Song (Feelin’ Groovy)’?
Following the success of their 1964 debut record, Wednesday Morning, 3 A.M., and its lead single, ‘The Sound of Silence’, Simon & Garfunkel regrouped for their second album, Sounds of Silence. Displeased with the rushed production and promotion of the sophomore effort, the duo decided to spend nearly three months in the studio to finetune material for their third outing, Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and Thyme.
The album was released in October 1966 and saw the pair garner increased intrigue on a global scale. Where Wednesday Morning, 3 A.M. and its follow-up had given fans two seminal versions of ‘The Sound of Silence’, Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and Thyme, was a well-balanced collection of acoustic songs that explored a range of themes and moods.
Paul Simon wrote most of the material for the third Simon & Garfunkel album in 1965 while living in the UK for a short period. One of the final additions to the collection was the surprisingly upbeat number, ‘The 59th Street Bridge Song (Feelin’ Groovy)’, which Simon wrote upon his return to the US.
“I spent most of the year 1965 living in England, and at the end of that year, in December, I came back to the United States, ‘The Sound Of Silence’ had become a big hit, and I had to make this adjustment from being relatively unknown in England to being semi-famous here, and I didn’t really swing with it,” Simon told the audience at Tufts University performance in 1966.
“It was a very difficult scene to make, and I was writing very depressed-type songs until around June of last year. I started to swing out of it, I was getting into a good mood, and I remember coming home in the morning about 6 o’clock over the 59th Street Bridge in New York, and it was such a groovy day really, a good one, and it was one of those times when you know you won’t be tired for about an hour, a sort of a good hanging time, so I started to write a song that later became the ’59th Street Bridge Song or ‘Feelin’ Groovy’.”
Songs that dive to the darker depths of emotion will often stay with us the longest, and the rule is rarely different for the songwriters themselves. The fruitful crop of an elated moment on ’59th Street Bridge’ has since become one of Simon’s least favourites among his broad catalogue.
Simon generally neglected to include the song in his setlists over the years. However, during a concert in Portland, Oregon, in May 2018, he forgot the lyrics to ‘The Cool, Cool River’ and performed ‘The 59th Street Bridge Song (Feelin’ Groovy)’ as a punishment to himself. “I’m going to penalize myself,” he said. “I’m going to sing one of my songs that I loathe.”
Watch the mistake and self-punishment in Oregon below.
