Back Forty

Bridge Over Troubled Water, Simon and Garfunkel, 1970. 
 This Columbia release in near mint condition would bring $8-15.  
An audiophile vinyl version on Mobile Fidelity could bring as much as $50.

Forty years ago today (April 17) I sat glued to the TV set, as tense as most other Americans, waiting for the beleaguered Apollo 13 astronauts to splash down and emerge safe and sound from their capsule.  Too bad there wasn’t a way to capture the collective sigh of relief that rippled across the nation when it finally happened.  I’m sure it would make an interesting sampling clip.

There was plenty dividing the nation in 1970, and like most young adults I was cynical about a lot of things.  But during that long week when the astronauts' lives hung in the balance it didn’t matter what side of the political fence you were on, you just wanted to see a happy ending to it all.  We’d all watched and waited together from the moment Jim Lovell had reported “Houston, we have a problem,”  (okay, for you purists, what he actually did was repeat what Swigert said, which was “Houston we’ve had a problem,” but I like the pop culture version better myself).

A lot of PR work went into turning the image of gonzo test pilots into squeaky clean heroes whose appeal jumped the vast chasm of the sixties’ generation gap and stretched from one end of the ideological spectrum to the other. It worked. We loved our astronauts.  They were rock stars in their own way. 

By now you’re probably wondering what all this has to do with Simon and Garfunkel. There’s a connection.  Maybe it’s only in my mind, but there IS a connection.  Bridge Over Troubled Water was the number one album that year (according to Billboard).  It was the final studio album for the pair.

They’d been an overnight sensation when “Sounds of Silence” made it to number one in 1966. That is if you don’t count the years 1957-1965 when they’d struggled, together and separately, to make a successful record–billed first as Tom and Jerry (and  Simon as Jerry Landis or Tico and the Triumphs) and finally as themselves: Simon and Garfunkel.

The knock on Simon and Garfunkel was that with their choirboy harmonies, their polished production values and their precise musicality they were too whitebread for the rough and raw musical scene of that psychedelic era. In other words in some quarters they were looked down on for being too good. 

But, as with the astronauts, people from many age groups, personal philosophies and ideological stances seemed more than willing to check the cynicism at the door and embrace them.  I think it happened because they believed in their music and,  again like the astronauts, they stayed true to their mission. 

Tell me your favorite Simon and Garfunkel song. And can you complete these lyrics and tell which S&G songs they’re from?   (Answers are now posted in comments section).  

I have squandered my resistance
For a pocket full of ____________________________
 
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 “Kathy," I said as we boarded a Greyhound in Pittsburgh
"____________ seems like a dream to me now"
It took me four days to hitchhike from _______
I've gone to look for ________
 
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Coo, coo, ca-choo, _______________
Jesus loves you more than you will know (Wo, wo, wo)…
 
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Tell her to make me a _________________
 (On the side of a hill in the deep forest green)
 
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Hello ___________, my old friend
I've come to talk with you again
 
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Away, I'd rather _______away
Like a ______ that's here and gone
A man gets tied up to the ground
 
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I got a ________   _____________
I love to take a photograph
So mama don't take my ______________ away