The Simon & Garfunkel song that Paul Simon hated with a passion: “I’m going to penalise myself”
Paul Simon is one of the most prolific musicians of his era. It means he has a lot of songs that he loves, but also a hefty amount that he truly detests.
As a member of Simon and Garfunkel and a solo artist, the New Yorker has penned many classics, ranging from ‘The Sound of Silence’ to ‘You Can Call Me Al’. Ostensibly a folk singer-songwriter, Simon has covered a variety of styles in his time, and often, with great success.
One of the most fascinating aspects of Paul Simon’s life and career is his tendency to be stinging about his work. He once dismissed one of his definitive tracks, ’50 Ways To Leave Your Lover’, as nothing more than “nonsense” when reflecting on the material. Extending this point, he has been so damning of Simon and Garfunkel’s definitive 1964 hit ‘The Sound of Silence’ that he once remarked that he was “horrified” by the original acoustic of the track.
From his past comments, it is clear that Paul Simon has a complex relationship with his music, even when some of the songs are majorly culturally significant. This angle shines a light on the inner workings of the man behind the artist, who has always come across as one of the most neurotic of his generation. This constant internal friction has also led him to provide contradictory statements over the years.
The vast likelihood is that Simon’s unease at some of the material he had created with Art Garfunkel is a result of the pair’s tentative relationship. Given the intense rise to fame that the pair experienced during the 1960s, it was almost inevitable that the relationship between the two musicians would become somewhat strained. So much so that, by 1970, there was no way to continue with the group. The duo parted ways, launching respective solo careers, and rarely speaking to each other.
For instance, when performing at Tufts University in 1966, Simon let fans into the songwriting process behind the Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and Thyme classic, ‘The 59th Street Bridge Song (Feelin’ Groovy)’, one of his most dream-like numbers.
Simon had been in the UK trying to find his folk heart in a new land: “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. It was a very difficult scene to make, and I was writing very depressed-type songs until around June of last year.”
But the track actually arrived amid a burst of positivity. Paul Simon was in a great mood when he wrote one of the 1966 album’s highlights. He said: “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’.”
However, when playing in Portland, Oregon, on May 19th, 2018, Simon inexplicably changed his tune. Whilst he rarely played the song during solo shows, he told the crowd that he loathes it. After forgetting the lyrics to ‘The Cool, Cool River’ as a punishment, he publically chastised himself by playing ‘The 59th Street Bridge Song (Feelin’ Groovy)’. “I’m going to penalise myself,” he told the crowd. “I’m going to sing one of my songs that I loathe.”
Self-flagellation rarely comes in such an artistic form, but given the sheer bile and hatred that Simon holds for the track, it is easy to understand why this tune might be the ultimate penance for the songwriter.
