BRIDGE OVER TROUBLED WATER

Paul Simon: “Bridge Over Troubled Water” is inspired by two different sources, both of which are not too far away from Elvis Presley. One is The Swan Silvertones, that was Reverend (Claude) Jeter, who I became friends with, and the other is a song on The Everly Brothers album, “Songs Our Daddy Taught Us.” If I pointed them out to you you’d say, “I guess I hear it” but in some way both of those things fed into what became “Bridge Over Troubled Water.”

The experience of writing it was unique. I was in my late 20s and I wrote it in a night. The music and lyrics came completely naturally. It was like a gift. Because I hadn’t experienced one with that intensity before I didn’t think anything of it other than, “That’s unusually good for me.” It was better than I usually write. Even in terms of the chord structure, I was using chords that I didn’t usually use, diminished chords and the length of the melody is 14 notes. That’s kind of a long phrase.

At the time I didn’t think it was about a spiritual experience. It would have been something I recognized later but I didn’t know it then. To write something that effortlessly and that quickly is a very unusual kind of inspiration. It’s happened to me a few times in my writing career and “Bridge Over Troubled Water” is one of the notable examples of that. It was definitely one of those experiences that separated itself from the rest of my writing.

Then the odd thing that happened was I gave it to Artie (Garfunkel) to sing and transferred it over to (session pianist) Larry Knechtel to play. So in a strange way I felt disconnected from that song for a long, long time …  decades. I hardly sang on the record; I sing a little bit of harmony on the last verse and I didn’t play guitar on it. I’ve reconnected with the song and have sung it many times now in different forms, piano versions. I played it with just me and an acoustic guitar. I’ve sung it with other people. I sang it with Artie where we swapped verses on the Simon & Garfunkel tour. I sang it with Luther Vandross and Jennifer Holliday once as a trio. I’ve sung it all over the place. But I still feel in some ways as if I almost didn’t write it. It was one of those songs that people describe it as coming through you.

- See more at: http://www.goldminemag.com/article/paul-simon-story-bridge-troubled-water#sthash.WTRlcwWs.dpuf

 

Jan 26 1970 US LP -Columbia LP KCS 9914; QUADLP CQ 30995; CD CK 9914 (US: #1)

Bridge over Troubled Water is the fifth and final studio album by Simon and Garfunkel.[1] First released on January 26, 1970, it reached No. 1 on Billboard Music Charts pop albums list. It won a Grammy Award for Album of the Year, as well as for Best Engineered Recording, while its title track won the Grammy Award for Record of the Year and Song of the Year in the Grammy Awards of 1971.[1] It has since sold over 25 million worldwide.

The album proved to be a vast success in the United Kingdom, enjoying several runs at number one, spending some years in the charts and eventually becoming the country's biggest-selling album of the 1970s.[1] In August 2006, the continued popularity of the album was proven when it charted 7th place in The BBC Radio 2 Music Club Top 100 Albums.

In 2001, the TV network VH1 named Bridge over Troubled Water the thirty-third greatest album of all time. In 2003, the album was ranked number 51 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 500 greatest albums of all time.[1]

The songs "Cuba Si, Nixon No," "Groundhog," and the demo "Feuilles-O" (later Garfunkel released "Feuilles-Oh/Do Space Men Pass Dead Souls on Their Way to the Moon?" as the flip to his "I Shall Sing") were recorded during sessions but not released on the album. "Cuba Si, Nixon No" was later released on a bootleg copy of a November 11, 1969 concert by Simon and Garfunkel at Miami University, Oxford, Ohio, while the demo recording of "Feuilles-O" was released on October 4, 1997 on the boxed set Old Friends.

A remastered and expanded version of the album was released on CD in 2001, also containing "Feuilles-O" and a previously unreleased demo version of "Bridge over Troubled Water."

Track listing
All songs by Paul Simon except where noted.


Side one
"Bridge over Troubled Water" – 4:52
"El Condor Pasa (If I Could)" (Daniel Alomía Robles, English lyrics by Paul Simon, arranged by Jorge Milchberg) – 3:06
"Cecilia" – 2:54
"Keep the Customer Satisfied" – 2:33
"So Long, Frank Lloyd Wright" – 3:47

Side two
"The Boxer" – 5:08
"Baby Driver" – 3:14
"The Only Living Boy in New York" – 3:58
"Why Don't You Write Me" – 2:45
"Bye Bye Love" (Felice and Boudleaux Bryant) (live recording from Ames, Iowa) – 2:55
"Song for the Asking" – 1:49

Bonus tracks (2001 CD reissue)
"Feuilles-O"
"Bridge over Troubled Water" (demo)

Personnel
Paul Simon — lead vocals, guitar
Art Garfunkel — lead vocals
Los Incas — Peruvian instruments
Joe Osborn — bass guitar
Larry Knechtel — piano
Fred Carter, Jr. — guitar
Hal Blaine — drums


Pete Drake-Steel guitar and Dobro
Jimmy Haskell and Ernie Freeman — strings
? - flute, saxophones, horn section

Awards and ratings
In the 1971 GRAMMY Awards' ceremony the album (and its contents) won six GRAMMYs:

Category --- Title
Record of the Year--- Bridge over Troubled Water (relates to one track)
Album of the Year ---Bridge over Troubled Water (relates to the whole album)
Best Contemporary Song (Pop) --- "Bridge over Troubled Water"
Song of the Year --- "Bridge over Troubled Water"
Best Engineered Recording (Non-Classical) --- Bridge over Troubled Water
Best Arrangement Accompanying Vocalist(s) --- "Bridge over Troubled Water"

Chart positions

Album

Year Chart Position
1970 Billboard Pop Albums (Billboard 200) 1
1970 Australian Kent Music Report Albums Chart 1

Singles
Billboard Music Charts (North America) — singles

Year Single Chart Position
1969 "The Boxer" Pop Singles 7
1969 "The Boxer" Adult Contemporary 3
1970 "Bridge over Troubled Water" Pop Singles 1
1970 "Bridge over Troubled Water" Adult Contemporary 1
1970 "Cecilia" Pop Singles 4
1970 "El Condor Pasa (If I Could)" Pop Singles 18
1970 "El Condor Pasa (If I Could)" Adult Contemporary 6

 

Recorded live in Ames Iowa. Song For The Asking Produced by: Paul, Art & Roy Halee.

Paul & Fred Carter Jr. - guitars; Hal Blaine - drums; Joe Osborn - bass; Larry Knechtel - keyboard; Jimmy Haskell & Ernie Freeman - strings. The songs Cuba Si, Nixon No, Feuilles-Oh and Groundhog were recorded but not included on the album.

Released as part of the box set Simon And Garfunkel Collected Works, on LP and CD.

Released as part of the box set Columbia recording 1964 -1970