I was 12 years old when the single Bridge Over Troubled Water was released. The first time I heard the song on the radio I felt it was the best song I had ever heard. Early Sunday morning before church, the local radio station did a Top 40 countdown.
I listened every week and it didn't take long for the Simon and Garfunkel song to break into the top ten. I danced a jig when it got to number one, where it stayed for several weeks.
When the album came out, a buddy of mine and I went to the local record store and 'liberated' some albums. The one I freed from the capitalist grips of its owner was the Bridge Over Troubled Water album.
I snuck upstairs our attic and played it on a small phonograph player. The first song was the title track, I had heard it many times.
The second song, El Condor Pasa, was an Incan/Peruvian melody that Simon had written lyrics for. It was haunting where Bridge had been uplifting. Cecelia, also a hit single, followed. It was sheer fun and included some lyrics that were, for 1970, quite risque.
Another buddy said his dad told him the fourth song, Keep the Customer Satisfied, was about a drug dealer. This, for me, lent an air of danger to the blaring brass sounds. I loved the line "I hear words I never heard in the Bible."
The last song on the first side was far too mellow for my soon to be thirteen soul to enjoy. Garfunkel's delicate voice crooning about a dead architect meant nothing to me at the time.
But after that, one flipped the album over and the first song was The Boxer.
"I am just a poor boy though my story's seldom told, I have squandered my resistance for a pocketful of mumbles, such are promises; All lies and jest, still a man hears what he wants to hear and disregards the rest."
I was blown away by the opening lyrics, and the song just kept getting better as it spun on the turntable. The conclusion left me drained but spiritually uplifted.
The funny and fun Baby Driver followed, also with some wonderful cheeky lyrics. "I'm not talking about your pigtails, but I'm talking about your sex appeal."
The Only Living Boy in New York was a song I was not prepared for, it was delicate, beautiful, full of longing and loss. The vocals were probably the most striking I had heard.
Why Don't You Write Me hit a chord in my adolescent heart, visiting feelings of unrequited affections and rejection.
I knew that the Everly Brothers were a big influence for Paul and Artie, but I still couldn't stand the next song, Bye Bye Love. I realize now it's because even then I didn't like audiences that clapped or sang along to the songs. Most people can't sing AND don't have any rhythm, so for me most concerts are unbearable. More on this later.
But after eight truly incredible songs and the architect song, I forgave them for this boo boo. Besides, I am told there are people that like that kind of thing, my partner being one of them. Ahem.
The song that closes out the album, Song for the Asking, is an offertory of love that to this day, moves me. Maybe because it is about giving and not taking.
When I went to Boy Scout camp that summer in 1970, I took Bridge and my portable record player with me. I played the album every night over and over again. To this day, I have the lyrics to the album (except Bye Bye Love and Frank Lloyd Wright) memorized. It's a part of my soul, it inhabits every fiber of my being.
Last year (2010) the 40th Anniversary edition of Bridge was released. I didn't think I needed another copy until I discovered the new edition came with a dvd of the 1969 Simon and Garfunkel TV special. That TV special deserves its own pages. Until then,
"If you need a friend, I'm sailing right behind."
Thank you, Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel. Thank you.
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