So Long, Frank Lloyd Wright

By Martin H. Rots

By 1969, the duo of Simon and Garfunkel were falling apart.  Paul Simon was beginning to wonder if his partner's commitment was to their music or his new found passion, acting.  Before the recording of Bridge Over Troubled Water was finished, Garfunkel was on his way to Mexico to film Catch 22, leaving Simon to complete the project.  It didn't take long before Simon was wondering why he needed Garfunkel around.

It wouldn't be the first time they parted ways.  As teens, they had performed as Tom and Jerry and had a minor hit with Hey, Little Schoolgirl, which they performed on Dick Clark's American Bandstand.  They performed as Everly Brothers clones for a few years before Garfunkel went back to school and earned a degree in architecture and mathematics from Columbia n 1963.  It was Garfunkel's study of architecture that earned him the nickname of Frank Lloyd Wright from Paul Simon.  Simon went to Paris and lived the life of a vagabond troubadour, sleeping under the Pont Neuf, next to the Seine.

Reuniting in 1964, the duo recorded Monday Morning 3 AM, which included an acoustic version of The Sound of Silence.  The Columbia release went nowhere and the pair broke up again.  Simon went to England and stayed with a friend, Dave McCausland, he had met in Paris.  It wasn't long before he became a staple in the growing English folk scene and met the first real love of his life, a  young English woman, Kathy Chitty.  Kathy became the subject of many of his early love songs. 

In 1965, inspired by the success of the Byrds and the emergence of folk rock, Columbia Records producer Tom Wilson took the track and added electric guitar, bass and drums.  The song was released in its new incarnation in September 1965 and quickly climbed to #1 in the US charts  that fall.  Simon returned to the states, recorded The Sounds of Silence album with Garfunkel  and as they say, the rest was history.

The pair had met director Mike Nichols when they did the soundtrack music for The Graduate.  The single, Mrs. Robinson, included in the soundtrack album, The Graduate and  Simon and Garfunkel's Bookends quickly went to #1 in the USA early in 1968.  On the soundtrack album, there is an instrumental version of the song in addition to a shortened version used at the end of the film.  The track from Bookends is the most complete recording of the song.

Nichols had roles for both men in his next project, Catch 22.  By the time filming began, Simon's role had been eliminated from the script and Art left by himself for location shoots in Rome and Mexico.  The shooting schedule ran over and Simon found himself The Only Living Boy in New York City.   The song is addressed to Tom, Garfunkel's alter ego from the short-lived duo of Tom and Jerry.  Simon wishes him well with his part "down in Mexico," telling him to let his "honesty shine, like it shines on me."

Hardly an angry song.  But still...

Artie didn't want to do the lead vocal on Bridge Over Troubled Water.  He thought Simon should take it, but Paul insisted Garfunkel sing the lead and it became his signature song.  In later years, Simon said he wished he'd listened to Garfunkel and sang it himself.  The song was written for Simon's wife, Peggy, the "silver girl" who had recently, to her horror,  discovered a gray hair in her mane.  In spite of the songs mundane beginnings, it held out a reassuring hand and spoke to millions.  Simon considered it his best effort to date at the time.

In the studio, Paul was growing more upset by Artie's absence.  Garfunkel didn't perform at all on Baby Driver and he only contributed minimal background vocals on The Only Living Boy in New York City.  Simon and producer Roy Halee mixed The Boxer without Art. 

By the time Bridge was released, Simon needed a break, there were no new songs left in his portfolio and he was exhausted.  They went on a short tour and when they returned to New York, Simon began studying music theory and taught songwriting for a semester at New York University.  One of his students was Mellissa Manchester.  Art began work on Nichols' next film, Carnal Knowledge with Jack Nicholson and Candice Bergen. 

Bridge Over Troubled Water was the top selling album in 1970, 1971 and 1972.  By the end of 1970, Simon had collected over $7 million in royalties just from other artists who recorded the title tune.  How did Simon and Garfunkel follow up one of the best selling albums of all time?  They didn't. 

They quit while they were on top. 

Perhaps it wasn't planned that way, but that's how it worked out.  Simon had always wanted to be a solo act, anyhow.  In a 1984 Playboy interview, Simon said Garfunkel, "felt, even more than I did, the frustration of having people ask, 'Did you write the words or music?'  Arthur had to say, 'Neither.'"

In 1971, Simon went to San Francisco and began recording his first solo effort, Paul Simon.

So long, Frank Lloyd Wright. h
he felt, even more than I did, the frustration of ha

To learn more:

http://willybrauch.de/In_Their_Own_Words/paulsimon1.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bridge_over_Troubled_Water

http://www.rollingstone.com/artists/artgarfunkel/biography

 

Simon and Garfunkel The Biography by Victoria Kingston 

Paul Simon the Definitive Biography by Laura Jackson

The Paul Simon Companion by Stacey Luftig

Posted by Martin Rots at 6/12/2010 12:23 PM
Categories: folk rock, classic rock, folk, rock
Tags: Jack Nicholson folk rock Mellissa Manchester Paul Simon Hey Simon and Garfunkel Bookends Tom Wilson The Graduate Kathy Chitty Mrs. Robinson The Only Living Boy in New York City Bridge Over Troubled Water Tom and Jerry The Sound of Silence Everly Brothers Byrds Mike Nichols Little Schoolgirl Catch 22 Carnal Knowledge The Boxer Candice Bergen Dick Clark's American Bandstand Roy Halee Baby Driver Monday Morning 3 AM Columbia Records The Sounds of Silence
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