Simon & Garfunkel's output is ultimately strong enough to muster a *** rating on my site, but it's extremely borderline and without the surprising (in the context of the albums that came before) marvel that is Bridge Over Troubled Water, they would essentially be a footnote in my collection. Simon & Garfunkel is typically considered one of the elite musical acts of the 1960s, and I agree that their best material is excellent, but there's way less top-notch material in their catalogue than you might guess if you only have a casual familiarity with them. Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel were a nice performing duo whose legacy was helped immeasurably by three main factors (and that's without accounting for the incredible stroke of luck that led to 'The Sound of Silence' shooting up the charts and reviving their career when it was essentially dead): (1) a tight association with one of the defining movies of the generation that would ultimately determine the first iteration of what constituted the rock music canon, (2) the good fortune to break up right after releasing the album that was both their best and their most popular by a considerable margin, and (3) the good sense of their handlers to release a strong greatest hits compilation a couple of years after they broke up. But I have a sneaking suspicion that in my earphones I’ll be listening to The Who’s Roger Daltrey singing “ Hope I d-d-d-die before I get old”.Simon & Garfunkel Completely confused by the rating system? Go here for an explanation. Soon enough, I suppose, I’ll be sitting on a park bench with dust gathering on my shoulders. But I’ve still got my creative juices, such as they are, flowing like an agitated mountain stream in spring, choked and rushing furiously with melted snow and I’m going to be spending the next month thanking the Almighty for blessing me with the health and energy to channel these energies into a project that keeps me off the streets and out of my wife’s hair. He was 24 when he wrote ‘he not busy being born is busy dying’. That other guy from back then sporting a jewfro, Bob Zimmerman, transcended the clichés of the time. But you know what? I have more of my jewfro left than you do. But I also realize that there’s much more out there that I haven’t learned than what I have.

It would have given me solace and confidence to grapple with the challenges of those daunting years. I’ve actually learned something over this threescore and ten-a failure isn’t the end of the world. See, that’s something I didn’t know at 18. It was us against them-the hippies vs the pigs, John Lennon vs Richard Nixon, “the countless confused, accused, misused, strung-out ones an’ worse” vs The Establishment. You see, in 1968, “ there was music in the cafes at night, and revolution in the air”. Preserve your memories – they’re all that’s left you. Long ago it must be, I have a photograph. Old friends, memory brushes the same years, silently sharing the same fears.Ī time it was, and what a time it was, it was a time of innocence, a time of confidences. The sounds of the city sifting through trees settles like dust on the shoulders of the old friends.Ĭan you imagine us years from today, sharing a park bench quietly? Old friends, winter companions, the old men lost in their overcoats, waiting for the sun Old friends, old friends, sat on their park bench like bookends.Ī newspaper blown through the grass falls on the round toes of the high shoes of the old friends. How do I know that I’m old? Because of a 1968 Simon and Garfunkel song. So I’ve been thinking (in addition to finishing my tax return and watching the new season of Ozark) about stuff like The Meaning of Life. We thought that if we grew long kinky hair, maybe we’d be able to jump as high as Dr J or sing as raunchy as Wilson Pickett. Art and I, it turns out, were both early sporters of jewfros, a coiffure in style amongst some young members of our notoriously nerdy tribe.

Simon garfunkel bookends spoof