My local PBS had Simon and Garfunkel's Songs of America documentary on last night. They get to sing several songs, while on a road trip together. The bickering between the two is as much fun to watch as their performances.
I didn't know Garfunkel was Jewish. He looks like a Germanic American, tall, blond with curly hair. His voice is surprisingly sweet, whereas the short Simon (Paul, isn't Paul a Christian name, and especially that Paul?) is more aggressive. Garfunkel is 6'0 to Paul Simon's 5'3.
I used to listen to these songs in college. My favorite was Feelin' Groovy, which until I watched the documentary, didn't know it was also called 59th Street Bridge Song. The 59th Street Bridge is also another, colloquial, name for the Queensboro Bridge.
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[The Queensboro Bridge is a] collaboration between the bridge engineer Gustav Lindenthal (1850-1935) and architect Henry Hornbostel...[T]he main bridge is 3,725 feet long, the longest of the East River Bridges. The overall length of the bridge including the Manhattan and Queens approaches is 7,449 feet.Here's what Paul Simon says about the song:
Source: NYC Bridges. Read more here.
"I spent most of the year 1965 living in England, and at the end of that year in December, I came back to the United States, 'The Sound Of Silence' had become a big hit, and I had to make this adjustment from being relatively unknown in England to being semi-famous here, and I didn't really swing with it. It was a very difficult scene to make, and I was writing very depressed-type songs until around June of last year. I started to swing out of it, I was getting into a good mood, and I remember coming home in the morning about 6 o'clock over the 59th Street Bridge in New York, and it was such a groovy day really, a good one, and it was one of those times when you know you won't be tired for about an hour, a sort of a good hanging time, so I started to write a song that later became the 59th Street Bridge Song or Feelin' Groovy."Feelin' Groovy
Slow down, you move too fast.
You got to make the morning last.
Just kicking down the cobble stones.
Looking for fun and feelin' groovy.
Ba da, Ba da, Ba da, Ba da...Feelin' Groovy.
Hello lamp-post,
What cha knowin'?
I've come to watch your flowers growin'.
Ain't cha got no rhymes for me?
Doot-in' doo-doo,
Feelin' groovy.
I've got no deeds to do,
No promises to keep.
I'm dappled and drowsy and ready to sleep.
Let the morning time drop all it's petals on me.
Life, I love you,
All is groovy.
The short, informal, guitar-strumming rendition of Feelin' Groovy, which looks like the duo is working on in a hotel room, is at the 37.20 minute point in the top video.
And below is a later rendition:
And the beautiful. melodically complex, English folk song, "Are you Going to Scarborough Fair, around the 20 minute point in the video at the top of the blog, and a later (1981, Concert in Central Park) rendition below:
Scarborough Fair
Are you going to Scarborough Fair?
Parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme.
Remember me to one who lives there.
She once was a true love of mine.
On the side of a hill in the deep forest green.
Tracing of sparrow on snow-crested brown.
Blankets and bedclothes the child of the mountain
Sleeps unaware of the clarion call.
Tell her to make me a cambric shirt.
Parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme;
Without no seams nor needle work,
Then she'll be a true love of mine.
On the side of a hill a sprinkling of leaves.
Washes the grave with silvery tears.
A soldier cleans and polishes a gun.
Sleeps unaware of the clarion call.
Tell her to find me an acre of land.
Parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme;
Between the salt water and the sea strand,
Then she'll be a true love of mine.
War bellows blazing in scarlet battalions.
General order their soldiers to kill.
And to fight for a cause they've long ago forgotten.
Tell her to reap it with a sickle of leather.
Parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme;
And gather it all in a bunch of heather,
Then she'll be a true love of mine.
And below Bob Dylan's Girl from North Country, which,
Bob Dylan came across Scarborough Fair when he visited England in the early sixties but he never recorded it. Instead, he used it as the inspiration for a new song, Girl from the North Country, which he released on his album, The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan in 1963.
Girl From The North Country
If you're traveling in the north country fair
Where the winds hit heavy on the borderline
Remember me to one who lives there
For she was once a true love of mine.
Well, if you go when the snowflakes storm
When the rivers freeze and summer ends
Please see for me if she's wearing a coat so warm
To keep her from the howlin' winds.
Please see from me if her hair hanging down
If it curls and flows all down her breast
Please see from me if her hair hanging down
That's the way I remember her best.
Well, if you're traveling in the north country fair
Where the winds hit heavy on the borderline
Please say hello to one who lives there
She once was a true love of mine.
If you're travelin' in the north country fair
Where the winds hit heavy on the borderline
Remember me to one who lives there
She once was a true love of mine.