The Simon and Garfunkel song that reflected the frustration and betrayal in their friendship
Although Bridge Over Troubled Water would later be remembered as the emotional farewell between Simon and Garfunkel, the process of creating the album was marked by tension as the duo approached their breakup. During this period, Art Garfunkel had journeyed to Mexico to work on the film Catch-22, a project in which Paul Simon was initially expected to have a role. Instead, Garfunkel dedicated months to the film, while Simon poured his efforts into the album back in New York, channelling his frustration into one particular song.
During the writing of Bridge Over Troubled Water, Simon frequently sent letters to Garfunkel to keep him updated on its progress. Throughout their friendship and joint professional career, they had always shared a profound bond, which was now at breaking point. After they released the album, Simon continued on his musical path as a solo artist, while Garfunkel pursued a career in acting.
The implosion of their relationship felt far from amicable at the time. In fact, Simon expressed his vexation in the song ‘The Only Living Boy In New York’, where he addressed their earlier moniker, Tom and Jerry. Back then, before the folk duo became famous, they were known by the name of the famous animated duo, which Simon references in the song: “Tom get your plane right on time. I know that you’re eager to fly now.“
Garfunkel addressed the song during a screening of the duo’s documentary Songs of America, saying: “I had Paul sort of waiting: ‘All right, I can take this for three months. I’ll write the songs, but what’s the fourth month? And why is Artie in Rome a fifth month? What’s Mike [Nichols] doing to Simon & Garfunkel?’ And so there’s Paul in the third month, still with a lot of heart, writing about, ‘I’m the only living boy in [New York]. You used to be the other one.“
Although the song recounted the loneliness and betrayal Simon felt during the difficult time, he looked back with fondness when discussing the musical arrangements. “I like that record, and I like the song, too. That was written about Artie’s going off to make Catch-22 in Mexico,” he told Song Talk. “I liked the ‘aaahhhs,’ the voices singing ‘aaah.’ That was the best I think that we ever did it. It was quite a lot of voices we put on, maybe 12 or 15 voices. We sang it in the echo chamber. I remember that, too.”
What’s more, during the recording of the song, the pair gained a surprise visit from another musical icon: Bob Dylan. The two acts were on the same label, and Dylan came and went during the recording of his album, Self Portrait. In the book Simon and Garfunkel — A Musical Biography, Garfunkel recalled the visit while discussing the song’s vocals. “It’s us around eight times screaming, and we mixed it down very softly,” he says.
Adding: “I started getting into open-mouth harmony, in a very loud, strident way. We were screaming at the top of our lungs and inside an echo chamber. I remember that day that Dylan dropped by to visit. We came out of the booth after all this screaming, and there he was. Anyway, we got a very foreign sound.”
