Simon & Garfunkel saved the best for last. Their final studio album, 1970’s Bridge Over Troubled Water was their most accomplished yet, featuring several enduring classics and their most sophisticated production.
Despite being lifelong friends (or perhaps because of that), Simon and Garfunkel broke up a lot. In fact, they nearly ended their career as a duo before it began, separating before the release of Sounds of Silence. By the time Bridge Over Troubled Water came out, the boys had reached their breaking point and the album became a poignant swan song for the legendary act.
The song that alludes to this split is my favorite on the album, ‘The Only Living Boy in New York.’ I like that song so much it was the 7th track I featured on this blog.
The album also features, of course, its title track, a bit of white-boy gospel sung with aching beauty by Garfunkel. That’s a great example of a song that is completely owned by somebody who didn’t write it, though Paul does do a nice solo version as well.
‘Cecilia,’ another classic track from this album, has one of the best singalong choruses Paul Simon ever wrote (and some excellent percussion work to boot).
But the song I most associate with Bridge Over Troubled Water is one of the first Simon & Garfunkel songs I ever heard, ‘The Boxer.’ I remember listening to this song in my bedroom while in elementary school, not really getting its meaning but loving its sound.
This song is true poetry, in both its words and music. Sure, maybe the li la li’s go on a bit long (the ‘Hey Jude’ effect) but otherwise it’s just perfect.
Though my story’s seldom told
I have squandered my resistance
For a pocket full of mumbles, such are promises
All lies and jests
Still a man hears what he wants to hear
And disregards the rest
When I left my home and my family
I was no more than a boy
In the company of strangers
In the quiet of the railway station running scared
Laying low, seeking out the poorer quarters
Where the ragged people go
Looking for the places only they would know
Asking only workman’s wages
I come looking for a job
But I get no offers
Just a come-on from the whores on Seventh Avenue
I do declare, there were times when I was so lonesome
I took some comfort there
Then I’m laying out my winter clothes
And wishing I was gone
Going home
Where the New York City winters aren’t bleeding me
Bleeding me, going home
In the clearing stands a boxer
And a fighter by his trade
And he carries the reminders
Of every glove that laid him down
Or cut him till he cried out
In his anger and his shame
“I am leaving, I am leaving”
But the fighter still remains
Meet Me In Montauk 
As soon as I saw today’s SOTD title, I started trying to reach back into my memory to recall when I first heard it. I know it was played at home and that I knew the song as teenager, but somehow it wasn’t until college that my appreciation for this song, Simon and Garfunkel in general, and Paul Simon in particular, became cemented. I have much stronger memories of listening to Simon’s solo album (“50 Ways to Leave Your Lover,” for instance) than I do of specifically listening to this song.
Then Dana and Mark played it, and I started appreciating those lyrics for the first time: “I have squandered my resistance for a pocket full of mumbles, such are promises,” – I mean, come on! The guy is a poet! Listening to the lyrics (to both this and “Me and Julio”) as they were sung by friends somehow enabled me to think about the storyteller behind them. I fell in love with that type of storytelling. The fact that Graceland came out during my first years in college only solidified my admiration and awe.
And, yeah, it’s a great song to “li la li la” along to – no matter how long it might go on.
I have always felt this was among the most beautiful and profound songs ever written. No matter how many times Mark and I would play this song, it never grew tired, never boring, never old. It somehow felt like an honor to sing it each time.
And as for the “li la li’ ending, my feeling has always been that their voices simply become another instrument playing over the escalating arrangement. If you hear it in that way, not as lyrics but as melody, I don’t think it is boring at all.
I love this song! I saw them recently on an HBO special highlighting all the artists from the rock hall inductions and they sang this song and several others. They sounded as good as ever. Dad and I were newly married and he was about to leave for the army when these songs were first played and it brings those days back to us whenever we hear them.