Paul Simon has an incredible catalogue of music behind him, going all the way back to the 1950s. As half of the folk duo Simon and Garfunkel, he had great success before going on to record solo records, including albums with musicians from Africa and Brazil, pushing boundaries, always striving to produce something different and challenging for the listeners and critics.
In 2008, Simon was interviewed by American writer and broadcaster Katherine Lanpher at the Barnes & Noble Union Square store in New York. Simon played this incredible solo version of ‘The Only Living Boy in New York’ to the delight of the home crowd. After some initial wrong-key issues, which arguably make the clip even more endearing, Simon sings the song beautifully. Simon wrote the song as part of the aptly titled “Bridge Over Troubled Water” album, the final studio record he recorded with Art Garfunkel, as the relationship between the two began to worsen. Both artists suffered in their professional association, and this song captures Simon’s loneliness as Garfunkel left to work on his first film project, leaving Simon covering songwriting duties for the new record. The harmonies on the studio version are captivating. This solo version is plaintive and brings forth the aching loneliness in a way the original could not quite match.
Lyrically, it is simple. “Tom, get your plane right on time / I know your part’ll go fine / Fly down to Mexico”. Simon was working on the new album that became “Bridge Over Troubled Water”, and Garfunkel was in Mexico, employed in his first film role in Catch-22. From 1956 to 1958, the duo were known as Tom & Jerry, so it wasn’t more than a hop, skip and a jump to realise who Tom was in that first line. Born out of a difficult time for the duo, it’s hard to contemplate that after working together for so long, they would barely talk to each other for years.
Our very own AUK writer Jonathan Smith wrote in a recent Essential piece that “he (Simon) may be at his best when he just relaxes and lets the song do the work”, and that is precisely what he does here. In a bookstore in New York, the perfect place for ‘The Only Living Boy in New York’.
