(Credits: Far Out / Columbia Records)
Thu 18 December 2025 20:30, UK
Any artist like Paul Simon is going to have the slight fear of getting stuck as they get older.
As much as they might have their sound down to a science whenever they play, there are always subtle pieces of their music that are bound to get stale if they try to sell their audience the same song for the 20th time. There has to be some way to switch up the formula, and Simon figured the best way to do that was to keep every single album eclectic from one song to the next.
Then again, it’s not like Simon was ever going to be making a hip-hop record or trying his hand at electronic music, either. He definitely knew his limits as a songwriter, but there were also plenty of times throughout his career when he would take a chance and see what happened with it. Sometimes it would work like on Graceland, but there would be the occasional album like Rhythm of the Saints that didn’t hit the mark the way it should have compared to the rest of his catalogue.
But if there was one thing that was absolutely clear, it was that his solo career was going to be nothing like Simon and Garfunkel, and while it had the same person writing the songs, singing, and even playing the guitar on most of the tracks, towards the end of the duo’s time together, you could definitely hear the tension setting in whenever they started working on their classic tunes.
The fact that each of them managed to sound great afterwards is a miracle, though, especially if you look at Bridge Over Troubled Water. Both of them were on two completely different creative pages at the time, and since they were supposed to make a well-rounded 12-track album, the fact that they couldn’t agree enough for one more song and left it off the album was as clear a sign as any that they weren’t getting along.
And yet Bridge Over Troubled Water is one of the most tasteful records that they ever made. Not every song might be the same ballad smash that the title track was, but it holds up remarkably well despite all the tension, especially when they reach the halfway point on the more lighthearted tunes like ‘Baby Driver’ or their gorgeous rendition of The Everly Brothers’ ‘Bye Bye Love’.
Everything sounded perfect, but Simon knew that there was no way he would be coming back to the album ever again, saying, “At that point, that was when we broke up, and I started again. But I knew I’d never make another Bridge Over Troubled Water. I needed to get away from that sound, which was enormous. I wanted to do something smaller, an album about rhythm.” And listening to all of his later records, that sense of rhythm never left him when working on his new projects.
Graceland might be the obvious example of him switching up his sense of rhythm, but even on his more folksy affairs, he was still reaching for other styles. Still Crazy After All These Years might be more in line with what people think of when they hear Simon, but there are a lot more impressive things happening behind the scenes when Steve Gadd steps behind the drum kit or Tony Levin begins pounding out a steady groove on the bass.
So, really, the fact that we’re never getting another album like Bridge Over Troubled Water has nothing to do with the fact that Simon hates it. He understands that they had made a masterpiece, but the songs that he wrote following his breakup with Art Garfunkel demanded a lot more people behind him instead of a simple man playing a tune on his acoustic.
Related Topics