Simon & Garfunkel were at the height of their folk-rock fame in 1969 when they recorded one of their most enduring classics. Yet, few fans realize this song has a surprising connection to The Beatles.
Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel were writing and recording "Bridge Over Troubled Water," and other songs for what would become the album of the same name in the latter part of 1969. After wrapping up a television special and a grueling tour, the exhausted duo set out to finish this seminal album.
Simon said in a 1972 interview with Rolling Stone that his and Garfunkel's Beatles connection came via George Harrison, in a home on Blue Jay Way, immortalized in the Magical Mystery Tour song of the same name.
"We were in California. We were all renting this house. Me, Artie and Peggy [Harper], (Simon's wife) were living in this house with a bunch of other people throughout the summer. It was [written at] a house on Blue Jay Way, the one George Harrison wrote 'Blue Jay Way' about," he explained.
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However, while the location of the songs was the same, the resulting tunes couldn't have been more different. "Bridge Over Troubled Water" is a Gospel-influenced folk-pop ballad, while "Blue Jay Way" is psychedelic and experimental.
Both songs were instrumental in pushing the envelope for their respective authors. Simon wrote the song on a piano, a stretch from his usual guitar-driven composing, while Harrison continued to expand on his fusion of eastern philosophy and western pop.
Did George Harrison and Paul Simon ever work together?
Paul Simon and George Harrison were friends from 1976 until Harrison died in 2001. Their friendship became most visible when they performed together on Saturday Night Live on November 20, 1976.
The two performed “Here Comes the Sun” and “Homeward Bound.” Their duet remains one of SNL’s most celebrated musical moments, a spontaneous meeting of two poetic songwriters.
After Harrison's death, Simon wrote a tribute to his longtime friend for Rolling Stone. “The roots of my friendship with George Harrison go back to 1976 when we performed together on Saturday Night Live,” said Simon.
“Sitting on stools side by side with acoustic guitars, we sang ‘Here Comes The Sun’ and ‘Homeward Bound’. Though we’re in the same generation and weaned on Buddy Holly, Elvis, and the Everly Brothers, it must have seemed as strange to him to be harmonizing with someone other than Lennon or McCartney as it was for me to blend with someone other than Art Garfunkel. Nevertheless, it was an effortless collaboration.”
He continued, “His songwriting, too, which I always thought to be stylistically close to mine, was gentle and sad with country and skiffle influences rippling beneath his often sardonic lyrics. It all seemed deceptively simple. They called him ‘the quiet Beatle’ but he wasn’t particularly quiet; he simply didn’t demand to be heard.”
“Amazing person, not just a musician but really brave, open, kind,” Simon continued. “Just a certain percentage of him Beatles, but the rest, he was just regular. Just interested in life, interested in the world, interested in the mind. A pleasure to hang out with him," Simon concluded.
George Harrison died on November 29, 2001. He was 58.
Paul Simon recently completed his “Quiet Celebration” Tour. He is 84.
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