The 1970 song Paul Simon called his greatest work: “This is better”
Paul Simon didn’t ever need to worry about being one of the most famous artists in the world.
In his mind, what mattered was whether or not he could write great songs, and by the time that he had left Simon and Garfunkel, he had reached the point where nearly every one of his tunes had a lot more depth to them than the more folksy tunes that he made with his partner. But even when working on some of his biggest hits as part of a duo, he understood when he hit on something that almost seemed too perfect to belong to him.
But it took a while before Simon could even go back to half of what Simon and Garfunkel’s music was all about. The first album that they made under their own names was already one of the more forgettable outings of their career aside from ‘The Sound of Silence’, and since the record almost caused them to break up, Simon wasn’t exactly proud of being part of a failed duo when he had his first major hit. When he did hear his song become a hit, he still had some questions about why it sounded so strange.
The folk rock rendition of the song that was recorded after the fact was never what Simon was shooting for, and even when the duo came back together, a lot of the accompanying album was more in tune with the leftovers that they had from Wednesday Morning 3 AM. Parsley Sage Rosemary and Thyme was received pretty well, but Bookends was the first time Simon actually felt like he had the right idea for what they were supposed to sound like. So, naturally, this was the moment when they started breaking up.
Bookends already sounded like two albums being smashed up against each other, but Bridge Over Troubled Water was like pulling teeth throughout its entire development. Simon didn’t like the idea of being hung out to dry by Art Garfunkel whenever he was working in the studio, and while they were supposed to have a 12-track album, they stalled out at 11 when Garfunkel insisted that Simon not record any of the political material that he had in his backlog.
If there was one thing they could agree on, though, it was that the title track needed to be perfect. The idea of having Garfunkel sing the tune had to have done a number on Simon after he saw what a massive hit it would become, but even in the first writing stages, he understood that he was dealing with the kind of song that was one day going to become bigger than anything that he had ever done.
The song is almost a standard and deserves to be up there with the greatest gospel-style tunes in American music, but at the time, Simon only thought that he had made something that would last far longer than Simon and Garfunkel would, saying, “I have no idea where it came from. It came all of the sudden. It was one of the most shocking moments in my songwriting career. I remember thinking, ‘This is considerably better than I usually write.”
‘The Sound of Silence’ might also be one of the group’s all-time best songs, but if Simon’s lyricism on that track will last far longer than he will, more people will be able to relate to a song like this. Everyone has had moments of hardship in their life, and this song is practically like an old friend whenever anyone is going through times of trouble, always offering a helping hand and letting you know that things are going to be okay.
And for a band that was on their last legs, the fact that they could make a song that was all about unity and harmony between each other is practically hilarious. They were the furthest thing from harmonious behind the scenes, but if Simon was going to make his anthem sound right, he was willing to lay down all of his hangups to make sure that his song was given the treatment it deserved.
