Simon & Garfunkel - The Only Living Boy In New York (2021 Remaster)

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For the first time ever, a "flat-transfer" of the two-track stereo mixdown for the ground-breaking 1970 album "Bridge Over Troubled Water", which would be Simon & Garfunkel's final album.

I have performed a reverse-EQ procedure on the Mastersound Gold CD, which is sourced from the master tapes without any additional compression. The top-end should sound less veiled and a more even sound throughout.


Simon & Garfunkel, initially "Tom & Jerry", were already successful in the music industry. Their Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and Thyme, the soundtrack album for Mike Nichols' film The Graduate and Bookends peaked at number three, two and one in the US Billboard 200, respectively, with the first and latter selling 3 million copies and 2 million copies in the United States alone. Art Garfunkel took the role of Captain Nately in another Nichols film, Catch-22, based on the novel of the same name. Initially Paul Simon was to play the character of Dunbar, but screenwriter Buck Henry felt the film was already crowded with characters and subsequently wrote Simon's part out. The unexpectedly long film production endangered the relationship between the duo; Garfunkel later stated in a 1990 interview with Paul Zollo in SongTalk magazine: "Our way of working was for Paul to write while we recorded. So we'd be in the studio for the better part of two months working on the three or four songs that Paul had written, recording them, and when they were done, we'd knock off for a couple of months while Paul was working on the next group of three or four songs. Then we'd book time and be in the studio again for three or four months, recording those . . . . Rather than wait for Paul to write the next bunch of songs, I went off and did this movie."

The filming of Catch-22 began in January 1969 and lasted about eight months. Simon had not completed any new songs at this point, and the duo planned to collaborate when the filming was finished. Roy Halee would produce the album, and as was the case with their most recent studio album, Bookends, they created an experimental sound, moving away from typical folk rock and instead exploring new genres.

Bridge over Troubled Water was also the duo's first album to credit the backing musicians in the liner notes. The credited musicians were Simon and Fred Carter, Jr. on guitars, and Hal Blaine on drums, Joe Osborn on bass and Larry Knechtel on keyboards, all of whom were famous Wrecking Crew members.

Side one

As Simon and Garfunkel were working busily on recording, they had to decline invitations to perform, including at the Woodstock Festival. Simon wrote "Bridge over Troubled Water". He wanted a gospel piano sound, so he hired session musician Larry Knechtel. The song was initially two verses long, but Garfunkel felt the song was too short and asked Knechtel to play a third verse, to which Simon would write more lyrics. Osborn played two bass guitar parts, one high and the other low. Blaine recorded the drums in an echo chamber, to achieve a hall effect. A horn section rounded off the track. Due to a series of factors, the duo had to work on a new tape; an arranger falsely labeled the song as "Like a Pitcher of Water" and wrote Garfunkel's name incorrectly (GarFunkel), and the string part was unsatisfactory.

The duo then returned to New York to record the vocals. The vocal style in "Bridge over Troubled Water" was inspired by Phil Spector's technique in "Old Man River" by the Righteous Brothers. After two months the song was finalized. Simon himself admitted that it sounded like the Beatles' "Let It Be", stating in a Rolling Stone interview: "They are very similar songs, certainly in instrumentation ..." The song has been covered by over 50 artists since then, including Elvis Presley and Johnny Cash.

"Bridge Over Troubled Water" was influenced by the gospel music to which Simon was listening at that time, especially the Swan Silvertones and their song "Mary Don't You Weep". The name of the title track was inspired by the latter's line "I'll be your bridge over deep water, if you trust in my name". According to gospel producer and historian Anthony Heilbut, Simon later acknowledged his musical debt to Claude Jeter in person, and additionally handed Jeter a check as compensation. "Bridge over Troubled Water" was addressed to Simon's wife Peggy, whom he'd met that year. The "silver girl" in the song refers to her, and her first gray hairs, and not to a drugged hypodermic needle, as was believed by some in the United States. Simon asked Garfunkel to sing lead on the song, and although Garfunkel initially refused this proposal and suggested that Simon should sing falsetto, later agreed to sing. Simon initially composed the song in G major, but arranger and composer Jimmie Haskell transposed the song to E-flat major to suit Garfunkel's voice.

"El Cóndor Pasa (If I Could)" is a Peruvian song based on traditional Andean music
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My favorite song on the whole album. Love it.

markjamesmeli
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Love this song . Beautiful, beautiful!

antoniocandidomigueis
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Beautiful, thank you. I never realized how much this sounds like Sisyphus by Andrew Bird. I mean, other way around.

TrueCrimeDoula
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Add a subwoofer to your hi-fi and it just goes to a new level!
As to this track (I think it was Art) being interviewed regarding the production of this said this was just on another level.

Supergeologist
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This song takes me way back to childhood. Delightful!

briteppr
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Brilliantly done! This is by far the best I have ever heard S and G. So much of the vinyl pressings and CD versions are harsh, sibilant and fatiguing. This is excellent, sensitive work.

mcfabb
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Lyrics:

Tom, get your plane right on time
I know your part’ll go fine
Fly down to Mexico
Da-n-da-da-n-da-n-da-da and here I am
The only living boy in New York

I get the news I need on the weather report
I can gather all the news I need on the weather report
Hey, I’ve got nothing to do today but smile
Da-n-da-da-n-da-da-n-da-da and here I am
The only living boy in New York

Half of the time we’re gone
But we don’t know where
And we don’t know where

Aaah, aaah, aaah,
Here I am …

Half of the time we’re gone
But we don’t know where
And we don’t know where

Tom, get your plane right on time
I know that you’ve been eager to fly now
Hey, let your honesty shine, shine, shine now
Da-n-da-da-n-da-da-n-da-da
Like it shines on me (Here I am …)
The only living boy in New York
The only living boy in New York

Aaah, aaah, aaah,
Here I am …
Aaah, aaah, aaah,
Here I am …

木倉谷哲也
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And of course he was referring to Art who was down in Mexico @ the time.

hackney
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never quite get used to the cover on this album !
maybe that was the idea tho

grantross
welcome to shbcf.ru