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Paul Simon: "I did say, "This is very special." I didn't think it was a hit, because I didn't think they'd play a five minute song on the radio. Actually, I just wrote it to be two verses done on the piano. But when we got into the studio, Artie and Roy Halee, who coproduced our records, wanted to add a third verse and drums to make it huge. Their tendency was to make things bigger and lusher and sweeter. Mine was to keep things more raw. And that mixture, I think, is what produced a lot of the hits. It probably would have been a hit with two verses on the piano, but it wouldn't have been the monster hit that it became. I think a lot of what people were responding to was that soaring melody at the end? Funny, I'm reminded of the last verse. It was about Peggy, whom I was living with at the time: "Sail on, silver girl ... / Your time has come to shine" was half a joke, because she was upset one day when she had found two or three gray hairs on her head.

Totally detached (from it). I don't feel that Bridge Over Troubled Water even belongs to me. When I think about it now, I think first of an elevator. it makes me laugh - it's nice to have any song that you write played in an elevator. It's not as good a feeling, though, as walking down the street and hearing somebody sing a song of yours. That, I think, is the best feeling for a songwriter. " (Playboy)

Paul Simon: "I have no idea where it came from. It came all of a sudden. It was one of the most shocking moments in my songwriting career. I remember thinking, 'This is considerably better than I usually write."

"Bridge over Troubled Water" was composed by Paul Simon very quickly, so much so that he asked himself, "Where did that come from? It doesn't seem like me." The chorus lyrics were partly inspired by Claude Jeter's line "I'll be your bridge over deep water if you trust in me," which Jeter sang with his group, the Swan Silvertones, in the 1958 song "Mary Don't You Weep." According to gospel producer and historian Anthony Heilbut, Simon later acknowledged his musical debt to Jeter in person, and additionally handed Jeter a check as compensation. Simon wrote the song initially on guitar but decided to transpose it to the piano, to both better reflect the gospel influence and to suit Garfunkel's voice.

Simon felt his partner, Art Garfunkel, should sing the song solo, an invitation Garfunkel initially declined. ..... Composed by singer-songwriter Paul Simon, the song is performed on piano and carries the influence of gospel music. The original studio recording employs elements of Phil Spector's "Wall of Sound" technique using L.A. session musicians from the Wrecking Crew. (Wikipedia)

(Paul Simon)

Art Garfunkel - lead vocals
Paul Simon - guitar
Fred Carter, Jr. - guitar
Joe Osborn - bass
Hal Blaine - drums
Larry Knechtel - keyboard
Ernie Freeman - strings
Jimmie Haskell - strings

Produced: Paul Simon, Art Garfunkel, Roy Halee
Engineered: Roy Halee
Recorded at: California (instrumentation); New York, New York (vocal),Nov. 1969

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Paul Simon: "I think I'm the first person to use "Jesus" in a non-religious song, in Mrs. Robinson. I was sitting around writing it but I was singing "Mrs. Roosevelt." I sang "Mrs. Robinson," too. Artie said to Mike Nichols "Paul's writing a song called Mrs. Robinson."He said "You're writing a song called Mrs. Robinson and you didn't tell me?" I said "Well, I don't know if it's Mrs. Robinson or Mrs. Roosevelt." He said "Don't be ridiculous! We're making a movie here! It's Mrs. Robinson!"

"Mrs. Robinson", of course, was written during The Graduate. And at one point I considered calling it "Mrs. Roosevelt." I used to sing sometimes "Mrs. Roos- evelt" and sometimes "Mrs. Robinson." And I was working on it and it was Artie who said to Mike Nichols that I had this song called "Mrs. Robin- son." And (Nichols) said, "You've written a song called 'Mrs. Robinson' and you never told me?" So I sang sort of just the chorus for him; I didn't have the verses. And in the movie, it's only the chorus. It's only after we made the record that it became a big hit and that was after the movie came out. The Joe DiMaggio line was written right away in the beginning. And I don't know why or where it came from. It seems so strange, like it didn't belong in that song and then, I don't know, it was so interesting to us that we just kept it. So it's one of the most well-known lines that I've ever written.

The degree to which the song touched on the mood of the movie (The Graduate), without being specific about the movie was conscious. I remember the recording of it in California. I think it's all my guitars - a regular six-string that plays the lick, a 12-string. And a lot of congas. When I go back through those early records, I am struck again and again by how often the sounds which are on the Rhythm of The Saints album are there - conga, conga again, bongos, squeaker, shakers,moaning sounds from a conga, where you wet your finger and rub it against the grain of the conga. That's in Mrs Robinson all the time - those are Caribbean sounds."

Paul Simon: "It's about syllables, Dick. It's about how many beats there are. ..... that I didn't mean the lines literally, that I thought of him as an American hero and that genuine heroes were in short supply. He accepted the explanation and thanked me. We shook hands and said good night." ()

Art Garfunkel: "Paul had been working on what is now 'Mrs. Robinson,' but there was no name in it and we’d just fill in with any three-syllable name. And because of the character in the picture we just began using the name 'Mrs. Robinson' to fit [...] and one day we were sitting around with Mike talking about ideas for another song. And I said ‘What about Mrs. Robinson.' Mike shot to his feet. 'You have a song called "Mrs. Robinson" and you haven’t even shown it to me?' So we explained the working title and sang it for him. And then Mike froze it for the picture as 'Mrs. Robinson.'"
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Produced by the duo and Roy Halee, it is famous for its inclusion in the 1967 film The Graduate. The song was written by Paul Simon, who pitched it to director Mike Nichols alongside Art Garfunkel after Nichols rejected two other songs intended for the film. The song contains a famous reference to baseball star Joe DiMaggio.

Nichols asked if the duo had any more songs to offer, and after a break from the meeting, they returned with an early version of "Mrs. Robinson". They had been working on a track titled "Mrs. Roosevelt", and returned to perform it for Nichols. He was ecstatic about the song.

(Paul Simon)

Paul Simon – acoustic guitar, vocals
Art Garfunkel – vocals
Hal Blaine – drums, congas
Larry Knechtel - bass

Produced: Paul Simon, Art Garfunkel, Roy Halee
Engineered: Roy Halee
Recorded at: Columbia Studio A, New York City, Feb. 2, 1968
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Paul Simon: "I think I was reading the Bible around that time. That's where I think phrases such as 'workman's wages' came from, and 'seeking out the poorer quarters'. That was biblical. I think the song was about me: everybody's beating me up, and I'm telling you now I'm going to go away if you don't stop. By that time we had encountered our first criticism. For the first few years, it was just pure praise. It took two or three years for people to realize that we weren't strange creatures that emerged from England but just two guys from Queens who used to sing rock'n'roll. And maybe we weren't real folkies at all! Maybe we weren't even hippies!" (Playboy)

Paul Simon: (wordless chores) "I didn't have any words! Then people said it was 'lie' but I didn't really mean that. That it was a lie. But, it's not a failure of songwriting, because people like that and they put enough meaning into it, and the rest of the song has enough power and emotion, I guess, to make it go, so it's all right. But for me, every time I sing that part... [softly], I'm a little embarrassed."

The song, written by Paul Simon, is a folk rock ballad that variously takes the form of a first-person lament as well as a third-person sketch of a boxer. Simon's lyrics are largely autobiographical and partially inspired by the Bible, and were written during a time when he felt he was being unfairly criticized. The song's lyrics discuss poverty and loneliness. It is particularly known for its plaintive refrain, in which the singer sings 'lie-la-lie', accompanied by a heavily reverbed drum. (Wikipedia)

(Paul Simon)

Art Garfunkel - harmony vocals
Paul Simon - harmony vocals, guitar
Fred Carter, Jr. - guitar
Joe Osborn - bass
Hal Blaine - drums
Larry Knechtel - keyboard
Ernie Freeman - strings
Jimmie Haskell - strings

Produced: Paul Simon, Art Garfunkel, Roy Halee
Engineered: Roy Halee
Recorded at: Columbia Studios, Nashville, Tennesee, USA, Nov. 1969
..... (Horns: Columbia University, New York, New York, USA)
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Paul Simon: "I wrote The Sound of Silence when I was 21 years old. The main thing about playing the guitar, though, was that I was able to sit by myself and play and dream. And I was always happy doing that. I used to go off in the bathroom, because the bathroom had tiles, so it was a slight echo chamber. I'd turn on the faucet so that water would run (I like that sound, it's very soothing to me) and I'd play. In the dark. 'Hello darkness, my old friend / I've come to talk with you again'."

Art Garfunkel: (about) "the inability of people to communicate with each other, not particularly internationally but especially emotionally, so what you see around you are people unable to love each other."

Paul Simon: "I have an affection for them (the early songs) as part of my youth. The Sounds of Silence can be quite effective. It caught the mood of the time, alienation. ... That's right (back in England then). I remember getting a letter from Artie saying that they were very excited about the new release. And then I was doing some dates in Denmark a few weeks later, and I got a copy of Cash Box, and the song was number 59 with a bullet. I said to myself, "My life is irrevocably changed."

I was very happy (the song went to #1), but it was weird. I had come back to New York, and I was staying in my old room at my parents' house. Artie was living at his parent's house, too. I remember Artie and I were sitting there in my car, parked on a street in Queens, and the announcer said, "Number one, Simon and Garfunkel." And Artie said to me, "That Simon and Garfunkel, they must be having a great time." Because there we were in a street corner in Queens, smoking a joint. We didn't know what to do with ourselves." (Playboy)

In September 1963, the duo performed three new songs, among them "The Sound of Silence", getting the attention of Columbia Records producer Tom Wilson, who worked with Bob Dylan. Simon convinced Wilson to let him and his partner have a studio audition, where a performance of "The Sound of Silence" got the duo signed to Columbia. ..... Without the knowledge of Paul Simon or Art Garfunkel, electric guitars, bass and drums were overdubbed by Columbia Records staff producer Tom Wilson on June 15, 1965. This new version was released as a single in September 1965. ..... In the fall of 1965, Simon was in Denmark, performing at small clubs, and picked up a copy of Billboard, as he had routinely done for several years. Upon seeing "The Sounds of Silence" in the Billboard Hot 100, he bought a copy of Cashbox and saw the same thing. Several days later, Garfunkel excitedly called Simon to inform him of the single's growing success.

(Paul Simon)

Paul Simon – vocals, acoustic guitar (1964)
Art Garfunkel – vocals (1964)
Barry Kornfeld – acoustic guitar (1964)
Bill Lee – acoustic bass (1964)
Al Gorgoni: guitar (1965)
Vinnie Bell: guitar (1965)
Joe Mack: bass guitar (1965)
Bobby Gregg: drums (1965)

Produced: Tom Wilson, Bob Johnston
Engineered: Roy Halee
Recorded at: Columbia Studio, New York, New York, USA, Mar. 10, 1964
..... (Overdubs: Columbia Studio "Studio A", New York, New York, USA, Jun. 15, 1965)
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Paul Simon: “This is unquestionally my most neurotic song. I finished it and I thought, oh man, I can't be this sick. I wrote that in England and that´s an adolescent song, or really, a post-adolescent song”.

Paul Simon: “We tried to cut "I Am a Rock" in Nashville, and it didn't work. At that time, we had an asset that we didn't know about, which was our engineer in New York - Roy Halee.”. (1972:Rolling Stone)

The folk-rock nature of the music makes it unlikely that Simon would have written it much earlier than 1964, when he first began experimenting with the folk genre. Some sources say that it was performed by Simon on January 27, 1965, on a promo show for the BBC. In any case, Simon seems to have written the song before the end of January 1965, and certainly had it down before May, when he recorded it. Thematically, the song deals with isolation and emotional detachment.

The original version of "I Am a Rock" was first released on The Paul Simon Songbook, and became, in the summer of 1965, the A-side to Simon's only single released from the album. ..... He immediately returned to the United States (after The Sound of Silence became a hit), and in December 1965 he and Garfunkel began a series of hasty recording sessions to match the electric "mold" created by Wilson with many of the other songs that Simon had recorded on the Song Book, including "I Am a Rock," which was re-recorded during these sessions on 14 December 1965. (Wikipedia)

(Paul Simon)

Paul Simon: lead vocals, guitar
Art Garfunkel: lead vocals
Fred Carter, Jr.: guitar
Glen Campbell: guitar
Joe South: guitar
Joe Osborn: bass
Hal Blaine: drums
Larry Knechtel: keyboards

Produced: Bob Johnston, Tom Wilson
Engineered: Roy Halee
Recorded at: CBS Studios, Nashville, Tennessee, & Los Angeles, California, Dec. 1965

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VIDEO

Paul Simon: "That was written in Liverpool when I was traveling. What I like about that is that it has a very clear memory of Liverpool station and the streets of Liverpool and the club I played at and me at age 22. It's like a snapshot, a photograph of a long time ago. I like that about it but I don't like the song that much. First of all, it's not an original title. That's one of the main problems with it. It's been around forever. No, the early songs I can't say I really like them. But there's something naive and sweet-natured and I must say I like that about it. They're not angry. And that means that I wasn't angry or unhappy. And that's my memory of that time: it was just about idyllic. It was just the best time of my life, I think, up until recently, these last five years or so, six years... This has been the best time of my life. But before that, I would say that that was." (1990:SongTalk)

Paul Simon: "I remember playing a concert somewhere in the middle of Germany. It's strange enough to be in Germany, and when I finished playing, I was thinking, I hate Homeward Bound. And then I thought, Why do I hate it? I said "Oh, I hate the words." So I went over them. And then I remembered where I wrote it. I was in Liverpool, actually in a railway station. I'd just played a little folk job. The job of a folk singer in those days was to be Bob Dylan. You had to be a poet. That's what they wanted. And I thought that was a drag. And I wanted to get home to my girlfriend, Kathy in London. I was 22. And then I thought, Well, that's not a bad song at all for a 22-year-old kid. It's actually quite touching now that I see it. So I wonder what's so embarrassing to me about it. Then I said, "I know! It's that I don't want to be singing that song as Simon and Garfunkel!"" (Playboy)

(Paul Simon)

Paul Simon – lead vocals, guitar
Art Garfunkel – lead vocals
Joe South – guitar
Carol Kaye – bass
Hal Blaine – drums

Produced: Bob Johnston
Engineered: Roy Halee
Recorded at: Columbia Studio, New York, New York, USA

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VIDEO

Paul Simon: “I don't really know what was in my mind when I wrote this. I think it's very 1968, kind of about a generation of kids who have just started to travel the country. But it doesn't much take me back when I listen to it, but then I'm not very nostalgic except for some pockets of arcane rock 'n' roll of the '50s. I'm a much more future-orientated person than I am reflective. I'm not sure I could even tell where the images came from - the riding on the bus. The girl is Kathy, my girlfriend in England. She was the model for the girl, but we never actually took a trip like that. None of those events actually occurred to me in my life. In many ways, this is a song with no physical roots”.

Bob Dyer: (ex disc jockey/Saginaw, Mich.) "I asked Paul Simon if they were still charging the $1,250 we paid them to play and he said they were getting about four times that much then. Then I asked him why he hadn't pulled out, and he said he had to see what a city named Saginaw looked like. Apparently, he liked it; he wrote 'America' while he was here, including that line about taking four days to hitchhike from Saginaw." (2004:The Saginaw News)
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The song was written by Paul Simon and concerns young lovers hitchhiking their way across the United States, in search of "America", in both a literal and figurative sense. "America" was inspired by a five-day road excursion Simon undertook in September 1964 with his girlfriend Kathy Chitty. Producer Tom Wilson had called Simon back to the United States to finalize mixes and artwork for their debut studio album, Wednesday Morning, 3 A.M. Simon, living in London at the time, was reluctant to leave Chitty, and invited her to come with him, forgetting the album and spending five days driving the country together. Several years later, "America" was among the last songs recorded for Bookends, when production assistant John Simon left Columbia Records, forcing Simon, Garfunkel, and producer Roy Halee to complete the record themselves. (Wikipedia)
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(Paul Simon)

Paul Simon – lead vocals, acoustic guitar
Art Garfunkel – harmony vocals
Joe Osborn – bass
Hal Blaine – drums, percussion
Larry Knechtel – Hammond organ
Uncredited – soprano saxophone or clarinet

Produced: Paul Simon, Art Garfunkel, Roy Halee
Engineered: Robert Honablue
Recorded at: Columbia Studio A, New York, New York, USA, Feb. 1, 1968

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Paul Simon: “It isn't auto- biographical in any sense. The song is about someone who hates the town he grew up in. Somebody happy to get out. I don't know where the idea came from. It was originally a song I was writing for Artie. I was gonna write a song for his new album, and I told him it would be a nasty song, because he was singing too many sweet songs. It seemed like a good concept for him. As I was teaching it to him, we would be, aaah, harmonizing. So he said, 'Hey, why don't you do this song with me on the record?' So I said, 'Yeaah, sure, why not.' I think it was Artie's idea to put the song on both of our albums. He felt it wouldn't be fair to put it on one. We figured there would be a certain amount of commotion about our not having sung together in the studio for five years: we decided if people wanted to buy Simon and Garfunkel, they should not have to buy one album as opposed to the other album."

Paul Simon: "I wrote My Little Town specifically for Art Garfunkel. It came back to become a Simon & Garfunkel record. I wanted to write Art a song with a kind of nasty lyric because he was singing so many sweet songs. I thought it was time for him to sing a really nasty, biting lyric. That began with a sentence. I'd say to people, "How would you finish this: 'In my little town I used to be known as ...'?" I was always asking people. And I actually was picturing a town. I was thinking about Gloucester, Massachusetts. A friend of mine comes from Glouchester and he used to talk about what it was like to grow up there. I grew up in Queens so I never had that feeling. That song was entirely an act of imagination, as opposed to autobiography. There's no element of me in there at all. It was one of the first songs where I used half diminished chords as a way of going down the scale chromatically”. (Written in My Soul)

(Paul Simon)

Paul Simon – lead vocals, guitar
Art Garfunkel – lead vocals
Pete Carr - electric guitar
David Hood - bass
Roger Hawkins - drums
Barry Beckett - piano
Dave Mathews - horn arrangement

Produced: Paul Simon, Art Garfunkel, Phil Ramone
Engineered: Jerry Masters, Phil Ramone
Recorded at: ??

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VIDEO

Paul Simon: “Cecilia was recorded on a home tape recorder. We were all sitting around the livingroom, making up rhythms by pounding on a piano bench and hand clapping, and the lyrics and melody were added later to this per cussion track. The lyrics were the first words that came to mind-"I'm down on my knees/I'm begging you please"-lines heard in hundreds of songs. They're "cliches" but then the song really has nothing to say.

Cecilia tick a tong tick a tick a tong tuck a tuck a toong tuck a… on a Sony, and I said, "That's a great rhythm set, I love it." Every day I'd come back from the studio, working on whatever we were working on, and I'd play this pounding thing. So then I said, "Let's make a record out of that." So we copied it over and extended it double the amount, so now we have three minutes of track, and the track is great.So now I pick up the guitar and I start to go, "Well, this will be like the guitar part " – dung chicka dung chicka dung, and lyrics were virtually the first lines I said: “You're breakin' my heart, I'm down on my knees." They're not lines at all, but it was right for that song, and I like that. It was like a little piece of magical fluff, but it works”.

Paul Simon: "Every day I'd come back from the studio, working on whatever we were working on, and I'd play this pounding thing. So then I said, 'Let's make a record out of that.' So we copied it over and extended it double the amount, so now we have three minutes of track, and the track is great. So now I pick up the guitar and I start to go, 'Well, this will be like the guitar part' - dung chicka dung chicka dung, and lyrics were virtually the first lines I said: 'You're breakin' my heart, I'm down on my knees.' They're not lines at all, but it was right for that song, and I like that. It was like a little piece of magical fluff, but it works." (Rolling Stone)

Written by Paul Simon, the song's origins lie in a late-night party, in which the duo and friends began banging on a piano bench. They recorded the sound with a tape recorder, employing reverb and matching the rhythm created by the machine. Simon later wrote the song's guitar line and lyrics on the subject of an untrustworthy lover. The song's title refers to St. Cecilia, patron saint of music in the Catholic tradition. (Wikipedia)

(Paul Simon)

Art Garfunkel - harmony vocals
Paul Simon - harmony vocals, guitar
Fred Carter, Jr. - guitar
Joe Osborn - bass
Hal Blaine - drums
Larry Knechtel - keyboard
Ernie Freeman - strings
Jimmie Haskell - strings

Produced: Paul Simon, Art Garfunkel, Roy Halee
Engineered: Roy Halee
Recorded at: Columbia Studios, Nashville, Tennesee, USA, Nov. 2, 1969
..... (Horns: Columbia University, New York, New York, USA)
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"Scarborough Fair" is a traditional English ballad about the Yorkshire town of Scarborough. The song relates the tale of a young man who instructs the listener to tell his former love to perform for him a series of impossible tasks, such as making him a shirt without a seam and then washing it in a dry well, adding that if she completes these tasks he will take her back. Often the song is sung as a duet, with the woman then giving her lover a series of equally impossible tasks, promising to give him his seamless shirt once he has finished.

Simon & Garfunkel set it in counterpoint with "Canticle"—a reworking of the lyrics from Simon's 1963 anti-war song, "The Side of a Hill",[10] set to a new melody composed mainly by Art Garfunkel. (Wikipedia)

Paul Simon: “I learned that from Martin Carthy. "Scarborough Fair" is like- 300 years old. Martin Carthy had a beautiful arrangement of it and my arrangement was like my memory of his arrangement. He was a wonderful guitarist and singer. Very popular and still playing. He's the guy who taught me "Angie."

(Paul Simon)

Paul Simon – lead vocals, guitar
Art Garfunkel – lead vocals
Joe South – guitar
Carol Kaye – bass
Hal Blaine – drums
John Meszar – harpsichord

Produced: Bob Johnston
Engineered: Roy Halee
Recorded at: Columbia Studio, New York, New York, USA

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"A Hazy Shade of Winter" follows a more rock-tinged sound, with a fairly straightforward verse-refrain structure. The song dates back to Simon's days in England in 1965. The song follows a hopeless poet, with "manuscripts of unpublished rhyme", unsure of his achievements in life. (Wikipedia)
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(Paul Simon)

Paul Simon – vocals, guitar
Art Garfunkel – vocals, tapes
Hal Blaine – drums, percussion
Joe Osborn – bass guitar
Larry Knechtel – piano, keyboards

Produced: Bob Johnston
Engineered: Robert Honablue
Recorded at: Columbia Studio, Manhattan, New York, New York, USA

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Paul Simon: “I was in Paris in 1965, right before Simon and Garfunkel broke. I was roaming around Europe by myself, doing folk stuff. It was there I met Los Incas at a concert. I was booked, and they were booked, and that was the first time I had ever heard South American music. They gave me an album of their stuff, and "El Condor Pasa" was on the album. The Simon and Garfunkel record of "El Condor Pasa" was recorded over that preexisting track.

That track was originally a record. The track is originally a recording on Phillips, a Los Incas record that I love. I said, "I love this melody. I'm going to write lyrics to it. I just love it, and we'll just sing it right over the track”.

El Cóndor Pasa (pronounced: [el ?kondo? ?pasa], Spanish for "The Condor Passes") is an orchestral musical piece from the zarzuela El Cóndor Pasa by the Peruvian composer Daniel Alomía Robles, written in 1913 and based on traditional Andean music, specifically folk music from Peru and Bolivia. ..... Since then, it has been estimated that around the world, more than 4000 versions of the melody have been produced, along with 300 sets of lyrics. In 2004, Peru declared this song as part of the national cultural heritage. This song is now considered the second national anthem of Peru.

In 1965, the American musician Paul Simon heard for the first time a version of the melody by the band Los Incas in a performance at the Théâtre de l'Est parisien in Paris in which both were participating. ..... In 1970, the Simon & Garfunkel duo covered the Los Incas version, adding some English lyrics which in turn added Paul Simon to the author credits under the song name "El Cóndor Pasa (If I Could)". The instrumental version by Los Incas was used as the base track. They included the song on the 1970 album Bridge Over Troubled Water. (Wikipedia)

(Daniel Alomía Robles, Jorge Milchberg, Paul Simon)

Art Garfunkel - harmony vocals
Paul Simon - harmony vocals, guitar
Fred Carter, Jr. - guitar
Joe Osborn - bass
Hal Blaine - drums
Larry Knechtel - keyboard
Ernie Freeman - strings
Jimmie Haskell - strings

Produced: Paul Simon, Art Garfunkel, Roy Halee
Engineered: Roy Halee
Recorded at: Columbia Studios, Nashville, Tennesee, USA, Nov. 1969
..... (Horns: Columbia University, New York, New York, USA)
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"For Emily, Whenever I May Find Her" has sometimes been thought to be named after poet Emily Dickinson, who also is referenced in another song on the record, "The Dangling Conversation." It has also been considered to be inspired by Simon’s relationship with Kathy Chitty, also covered in "America"; "For Emily" is more lyrically comparable with "Homeward Bound" and "Kathy’s Song" in that details finding solace in a lover.

While other songs, such as "The Sound of Silence," had taken months for Simon to complete writing, others, such as "For Emily," were written in a single night. In their 1968 appearance on Kraft Music Hall, Simon explained that "For Emily" is not about an imaginary girl Emily, but about a belief, while the song "Overs" (from the album Bookends) is about the loss of that belief.
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Paul Simon: “Artie likes that song an awful lot. He liked to sing it. Well, it was a very romantic song but I don't like it”.

(Paul Simon)

Produced: Paul Simon, Art Garfunkel, Roy Halee
Engineered: ??
Recorded at: (live) St. Louis, Missouri, USA, Nov. 1969
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"59th Street Bridge" is the colloquial name of the Queensboro Bridge in New York City. The song's message is immediately delivered in its opening verse: "Slow down, you move too fast". (Wikipedia)
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(Paul Simon)

Paul Simon – lead vocals, guitar
Art Garfunkel – lead vocals
Joe South – guitar
Eugene Wright – double bass
Joe Morello – drums

Produced: Bob Johnston
Engineered: Roy Halee
Recorded at: Columbia Studio, New York, New York, USA

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Paul Simon: "“Fakin' It" was interesting. Autobiographically, it was interesting. But we never really got it on the records. "Fakin' It" on the album is vastly improved over "Fakin' k" as a single. For one thing, I think it's speeded up. For two, it was re-mixed and greatly improved in stereo. It was a jumble; it was a record that was jumbled sloppy. When you hear the original mono, it's slower and it's sloppier. It was improved on the LP, but by then it was already poisoned in my mind.

During some hashish reverie I was thinking to myself, "I'm really in a weird position. I earn my living by writing songs and singing songs. it's only today that this could happen. If I were born a hundred years ago I wouldn't even be in this country. I d probably be in Vienna or wherever my ancestors came from--Hungary--and I couldn't be a guitarist-songwriter. There were none. So what would I be? "First of all," I said, "I surely was a sailor." Then I said, "Nah, I wouldn't have been a sailor. Well, what would a Jewish guy be? A tailor." That's what it was. I would have been a tailor. And then I started to see myself as like, a perfect little tailor. Then, once, talking to my father about my grandfather, whom I never knew--he died when my father was young--I found out that his name was Paul Simon, and I found out that he was a tailor in Vienna. It wiped me out that that happened. It's amazing, isn't it? He was a tailor that came from Vienna.

As for Leitch, the girl who said that on the record, her name was Beverly Martyn--did you ever hear of John and Beverly Martyn? She wasn't married to John Martyn at that time, but I knew her from way back in English scufflin' days, and we brought her over to sing at the Monterey Pop Festival. I thought she was a really talented singer. She was sort of livin' around with us. It was during the psychedelic days. Records faded in and out; things became other things. And she was friendly with Donovan. So, we decided to make up this little vignette about the shop we wanted to come up with a name. She said, well, let's put in Donovan's name." (1972:Rolling Stone)

(Paul Simon)

Paul Simon – lead vocals, guitar
Art Garfunkel – lead vocals, tapes
Hal Blaine – drums, percussion
Joe Osborn – bass guitar
Larry Knechtel – piano, keyboards

Produced: Bob Johnston
Engineered: Robert Honablue
Recorded at: Columbia Studio, Manhattan, New York, New York, USA
**KILL ME**

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"Keep the Customer Satisfied" recounts the exhausting tours that Simon grew tired of, a similar theme to that of their earlier song, "Homeward Bound". (Wikipedia)
**KILL ME**

(Paul Simon)

Art Garfunkel - harmony vocals
Paul Simon - harmony vocals, guitar
Fred Carter, Jr. - guitar
Joe Osborn - bass
Hal Blaine - drums
Larry Knechtel - keyboard
Ernie Freeman - strings
Jimmie Haskell - strings

Produced: Paul Simon, Art Garfunkel, Roy Halee
Engineered: Roy Halee
Recorded at: Columbia Studios, Nashville, Tennesee, USA, Nov. 1969
..... (Horns: Columbia University, New York, New York, USA)
**KILL ME**

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The theme is failed communication between lovers. The song starts in a room washed by shadows from the sun slanting through the lace curtains and ends with the room "softly faded." They are as different as the poets they read: Emily Dickinson and Robert Frost. Simon has compared this song to "The Sound of Silence", but says "The Dangling Conversation" is more personal.
**KILL ME**

Paul Simon: "so now I got amazed when "The Dangling Conversation" wasn't a big hit. Why it wasn't a big hit is hard to know. It probably wasn't as good a song. It was too heavy." (1972:Rolling Stone)
**KILL ME**

(Paul Simon)

Paul Simon – lead vocals, guitar
Art Garfunkel – lead vocals
Joe South – guitar
Hal Blaine – drums

Produced: Bob Johnston
Engineered: Roy Halee
Recorded at: Columbia Studio, New York, New York, USA
**KILL ME**

VIDEO

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The song is one of Paul Simon's many tributes to his hometown of New York City, and was written for the soundtrack of The Graduate, specifically the scene which takes place at the San Francisco Zoo. However, the song was not used in the film. The narrative tells the story of a trip to the Central Park Zoo; when the singer reaches the zoo, he anthropomorphizes the animals in various amusing ways. (Wikipedia)
**KILL ME**

(Paul Simon)

Paul Simon – vocals, guitar
Art Garfunkel – vocals, tapes
Joe Osborn – bass guitar
Hal Blaine – drums, percussion
Larry Knechtel – piano, keyboards

Produced: Bob Johnston
Engineered: Robert Honablue
Recorded at: Columbia Studio, Manhattan, New York, New York, USA
**KILL ME**

VIDEO

Struggling to write "words that tear and strain to rhyme," in New York, Simon misses Kathy, the woman he left behind in England. He had been there, and dated her, then came back to the States to capitalize on the success of the electrified remix of "The Sound of Silence." (Paulsimonsongs)


**KILL ME**

(Paul Simon)

Paul Simon: lead vocals, guitar
Art Garfunkel: backing vocals
Fred Carter, Jr.: guitar
Glen Campbell: guitar
Joe South: guitar
Joe Osborn: bass guitar
Hal Blaine: drums
Larry Knechtel: keyboards

Produced: Bob Johnston, Tom Wilson
Engineered: Roy Halee
Recorded at: CBS Studios, Nashville, Tennessee, & Los Angeles, California, Dec. 1965

**KILL ME**

VIDEO

Paul Simon: "I was just writing about the aging cycle, about old friends." (Playboy)

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**KILL ME**

(Paul Simon)

Paul Simon – vocals, guitar
Art Garfunkel – vocals, tapes
Joe Osborn – bass guitar
Hal Blaine – drums, percussion
Larry Knechtel – piano, keyboards

Produced: Paul Simon, Art Garfunkel, Bob Johnston
Engineered: Robert Honablue
Recorded at: Columbia Studio, Manhattan, New York, New York, USA

**KILL ME**