Golden Nuggets #15: Simon & Garfunkel- Bridge Over Troubled Water

Hello there, and welcome to the fifteenth edition of the Golden Nuggets series, where I take a look at the top Billboard chart hits from fifty years ago, and reflect on the listening habits of a bygone era. This time, we'll be taking a look back at the title track from Simon & Garfunkel's monumentally successful and final album, Bridge Over Troubled Water. If you're unfamiliar with the track, or just need a quick refresher, you can listen to the track here. With the introductions out of the way, we can proceed.

I feel like "Bridge Over Troubled Water" is a song that can make me tear up at any point in my life. It's just an amazingly powerful and uplifting song, and something that I feel a lot of people could use right now, instead of cynically, and predictably, letting R.E.M's "It's the End of the World as We Know It" climb the charts (yes, that's happening). It's a great song to hear to raise your spirits and know that someone is there for you. Plus, the string arrangements and Art Garfunkel's solo vocal performance are absolutely gorgeous. I know Paul Simon wrote the song, and he's a little regretful that he gave Garfunkel the vocal duties here, but sorry dude, it's his song now, don't care who wrote it. Paul Simon's voice is fine, and probably would have made a serviceable enough track, but it's Garfunkel's delicate timbre and higher register that really takes this song into the stratosphere. It's like listening to "I Shall Be Released" from Music from Big Pink and then listening to the Bob Dylan original that he eventually released on a compilation. Sure, Bob Dylan wrote the song, and I (unlike many others) think is voice is emotive and fine on its own, Levon Helm's falsetto is undeniable.

This song held the top spot on the Billboard charts for 6 whole weeks. That's crazy. I know we live in an era where "Old Town Road" was essentially unstoppable, but you've got to think, there was a lot more competition for pop dominance back then. What pop acts exist now? This held off the Beatles and the Jackson Five to become the top selling single of the entire year. That being said, I can't imagine this being on the radio for so long. This is not a song I'm always dying to hear. Who wants to get teary eyed every time they turn on pop radio? Especially when pop radio was what it was in 1970 (that is to say, a lot more ubiquitous in American culture than it is now). I feel like I might be a little more partial to hearing "The Boxer" off the same album on the radio, because although it's still a very powerful song (Simon opened his performance after 9/11 with it to lift New York up) it doesn't always make me cry like a total bitch.

So, that's my opinion on the song. Check back soon for my opinion on the next song in the Golden Nuggets series, the title track to the Beatles' swan song "Let it Be". I'm sure I'm the first person to ever talk about that undiscovered gem. Anyway, I'll be trying to maybe write a bit more, seeing as I don't have a lot better to do, given this whole pandemic situation. Hopefully, everybody's staying safe, staying inside, and keeping clean. Also, if you don't absolutely need to go outside, don't. As a person who by my state is considered an employee of an "essential and life sustaining" business, it kind of frustrates me to see people who could be staying inside just walking around like business as usual, or maybe even more so just to spite some unknown entity. I would love to stay inside, but my job prevents me from doing so, and I'm not getting paid that well to risk my life so you chumps can walk around all casually (warehouse workers don't exactly get paid like doctors you see). Anyway, rant over. Catch you on the flip side.


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