“I was really tense”: Why Simon and Garfunkel scared Paul Simon
Many artists live in the hope that, one day, their songs will be lauded by the masses. They long to walk across red carpets and award show stages for their efforts in the studio, to have five-star reviews attached to their discography and to play sold-out shows all over the world. But the reality of global fame isn’t always quite as glamorous as it seems. It can take its toll on a band, something Simon and Garfunkel know all too well.
Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel met when they were both just kids, bonding over their love for music in the suburbs of New York. Eventually, they turned that shared passion into unparalleled fame and acclaim as Simon and Garfunkel. They paired seamless harmonies with gorgeous folk twangs on albums that would become seminal and movie soundtracks that remain iconic, winning over the masses with their combined talents.
After steadily earning more and more praise throughout the 1960s, Simon and Garfunkel’s success came to a head with the creation and release of their signature track, ‘Bridge Over Troubled Water’, in 1970, alongside the album of the same name. The record endeared itself to audiences once more, finding its way into record collections worldwide, but the fame began to unnerve one-half of the duo.
Speaking about their success following the release of ‘Bride Over Troubled Water’ during a conversation with Don Heckman for the New York Times, Simon admitted that “Simon and Garfunkel had become so big it was scary.” And while the world heaped more and more praise upon the duo and their folk-rock offerings, they began to struggle behind the scenes.
It wasn’t just fame that they were grappling with, though. They also began to struggle to work with one another. “But we were still two individuals,” Simon remembered, “And after a certain point, it became very hard to take criticism from each other.” While Simon believed that he shouldn’t have to “audition [his] songs for anyone,” Garfunkel had a different take.
“He felt,” Simon remembered, “And rightly so, ‘If I don’t like that song, I don’t have to sing it.’” Although Simon respected this position, they did begin to butt heads when it came to songwriting. “We’d go through dialogues like, ‘Well, I just don’t like it,’” he explained, “And I’d say, ‘How can you say that? It’s my favorite song.’ And he’d come back with, ‘Yeah, but I just don’t want to sing it.’ Stuff like that.”
In fact, Simon picked out Bridge Over Troubled Water as a suitable example of this kind of creative squabbling. Initially, he explained, they had planned to include 12 tracks on the record. However, their arguments meant that they could only agree on 11. “We fought so much over what the last one should be,” Simon remembered, “Finally we said, ‘Screw it. Put it out. Eleven songs.’ I was really tense.”
Fittingly, Bridge Over Troubled Water was to be Simon and Garfunkel’s final album. Although they were at the height of success, penning signature songs like the title track and ‘The Boxer’, they simply couldn’t reconcile their creative differences behind the scenes. They split in 1970 and each embarked upon their own solo careers, Simon pushing into new genre territories while Garfunkel honed his acting career.
