I bought “Bridge over troubled Water” the other day (fantastic album BTW, would recommend it to anyone) and although I really like the tune & harmonies of track 8, The Only Living Boy in New York I haven’t got the slightest idea what it’s about. Does anyone have their own interpretation of this tracks lyrics?
Also, if you’ve got any other S&G songs you don’t know the meaning of feel free to post them here to save people posting multiple threads.
I have no proof of this, but based on the context, I’d say it’s one of many songs on the “Bridge Over Troubled Water” album that deals with the slow breakup of Simon & Garfunkel.
Despite the great success they’d had, artistically and commercially, Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel had a lot of vehement disagreements. Both were talented guys with healthy egos, and that often led to tension. And it didn’t help that Paul Simon was so slooooooow, when it came to writing songs. To some, that meant he was a perfectionist, to others it meant he was just lazy.
Regardless, during the long periods when Simon wasn’t writing any music, Garfunkel started pursuing other interests, like acting in movies. In spite of the fact that Simon had often treated Garfunkel like an unnecessary nuisance, he was genuinely hurt by Garfunkel’s lengthy absences. It became pretty clear that the two were drifting apart, and headed in different directions.
Several tracks on “Bridge Over Troubled Water” reflect that. “So Long, Frank Lloyd Wright” for instance (it helps if you know that Garfunkel was once an architecture student). The lyrics to that song say, essentially, “Bye Art, we had a lot of great years together, and I’ll always treasure the great times we had and the great music we made together.”
Then there’s “Why Don’t You Write Me?”, a song that practically pleads, “Come on, Art, where are you? Come back!”
“The Only Living Boy in New York” isn’t anywhere near as straightforward in its lyrics as those other those other two songs, but I think the meaning is similar. When Simon writes about “Tom,” I think he’s probably talking about Art Garfunkel… you may remember that the two of them originally called themselves Tom & Jerry. I THINK the song is another plea, along the lines of, “Come on Art, I’m here in New York waiting for you. Come back, I KNOW you’ve got to be ready to sing with me again.”
Ah, that makes sense. Thanks astorian! I’d never thought of that interpretation of “So long Frank Lloyd Wright” either, even though I did know Garfunkel studied architecture. I thought Frank Lloyd Wright was a friend of Simons who had died or something.
P.S. - While you’re here, would you agree that “Keep the customers satisfied” is about a drug dealer?
Garfunkel did one on his own which I like: “Breakaway.” Don’t know if this has anything to do w/the split.
Specifically, “The Only Living Boy in New York” refers to Art Garfunkel’s first film role, as Nately in Catch 22, which was filmed mostly in Mexico. So the opening lyrics–
“Tom, get your plane right on time.
I know your part will go find.
Fly down to Mexico…”
are easy to understand in that context.
Regarding “Keep the Customers Satisfied”–I remember reading long ago (sorry, I can’t cite it) that Paul Simon was at one point asked to do a song or two for the soundtrack of the film Midnight Cowboy; while that didn’t come off, this song was originally meant for the film. When you watch the movie, some of the lyrics do seem to apply.
Wow! I was just thinking about the Frank Lloyd Wright song yesterday. I never thought that it might in fact not be about Wright after all, but about Garfunkel. I did not know that he studied architecture. (By the way, Roger Waters, formerly of Pink Floyd was also an architecture student)
Yeah, I always just sort of figured that Simon actually was friends with Wright, and maybe he was?
Ok I have a question about “I Am a Rock.” I really love this song and I think it’s one of their most meaningful, but I wonder if my interpretation is a common one.
My question is about the last line: “And a rock feels no pain/And an island never cries.” Throughout the rest of the song, the line “I am a Rock” is thrown out proudly, but in this last line it sounds like he’s having second thoughts and his resolve is leaving him. He just suddenly doesn’t sound convinced.
So I’ve always taken this song to be one about someone whose facade of blissful alienation is breaking down.
Anyone else hear it this way? Or is it more straightforward then I’m making it?
I think that the entire lyrics of “I am a rock” is meant to be ironic.
I think the entire song is to convince us that he’s fine, and the last line is to convince himself.
Well, heck, even if one WANTED to become an emotionless “rock,” with no feelings, incapable of ever suffering heartbreak or loneliness, how would one do it?
I’ve had enough heartbreak in my life that I’ve WANTED to say (forgive me for sounding like Dionne Warwick!) “I’ll never fall in love again. It just isn’t worth the pain and misery.” But I never said it, and if I had, I could never have kept my pledge.
The song “I Am a Rock” is filled with misery and sadness, after all, which means the narrator HASN’T shut himself off from emotion. If he were really the rock he says he is, he couldn’t possibly still be so bitter, could he?
Thank you for reminding me of the “Bridge Over Troubled Waters” album. I loved it when I was a kid and I had it on vinyl. I think I’ll buy it on CD today. I really love “Only Living Boy in New York”.
I just wanted to pop in here and say that “Homeward Bound” is–without a doubt–one of the most beautiful songs ever written. I tear up every single time I hear it, and I’m generally not a sappy sort.
bella–whose son was born while “Sounds of Silence” played in the background
Kiz <— used to be an amateur S & G “interpreter” because she wore out most of her S & G albums before cassettes came into the mainstream!
Back in my woeful teen angst days, I Am A Rock was one of my anthems. I was even going to use the “A rock feels no pain” line as one of my yearbook quotes until it dawned on me that it was a bit, um, too depressing…
My interpretation? I always saw the “rock feels no pain/an island never cries” line as a continuation of everything the persona (I never attributed it to what Paul Simon was feeling) said beforehand – in other words, he’s resolving NOT to feel pain, nor ever to cry, to others. If the persona did, he would cease being a “rock”. I always pictured the persona breaking down in gutwrenching sobs at the end of the song, but nobody but him would ever hear them…
Another S & G song that’s fairly straightforward which also fed my angst was “A Most Peculiar Man” which is on the Parsley, Sage, Rosemary, and Thyme album. The line “He had no friends/He seldom spoke/And no one in turn ever spoke to him/'Cause he wasn’t friendly/and he didn’t care/and he wasn’t like them” went straight from my heart to my throat and just lodge there…
Thankfully I’ve outgrown the angst, but S & G (and Paul Simon as a solo artist) will always be on the top of my favorite musical groups!
“A Most Peculiar Man” is actually on the album Sounds of Silence.
I was a big Simon and Garfunkel fan from 16 to 19–a very angsty age–and still have the LPs.
ohhh boy…just to put in mah two cents here.
I love America. The harmony in that song way outdoes the lyrics, just their voices send tingles down my spine…but not nearly as much as some of the others…likeScarborough Fair? whooooo (shudders in glee)
I was also a teenage Simon and Garfunkel freak! I was in high school from 1979-1983, so this was definitely past the time when S & G were a “current” or “cutting edge” act.
I was one of those kids who was very sensitive and didn’t quite feel comfortable with the often painful processes of teenage socializing. Yet at the same time I cared deeply about people (and still do, I just feel more comfortable actually interacting with them now). Simon and Garfunkel’s music just seemed to really speak to me, in a way that so much other music (especially much of what was popular at the time).
I also like “America” a lot…both the music and the lyrics. It really captures the restlessness of the late 60s/early 70s, and the whole search for meaning in an often meaningless world. More specifically, the search for “America-” that place that we are taught to believe in but which often does not live up to its lofty promises and rhetoric.
D’oh! In my last post I meant to write “in a way that so much other music (the stuff in parentheses…) DID NOT…”
I just forgot to add the part after the parentheses.
i had a friend that misconstrued the lyrics to “i am a rock.”
she heard: “i am a rock, i am an onion.” so the lines a rock feels no pain, an onion never cries, made perfect sense to her. onions cause others to cry!
Hehehe…I love Simon and Garfunkel.
Although, question: does anyone else hear the lyric in Sounds of Silence that says something like, “I take my arms and I reach you?” as “I’m an angry Jew?” That’s what I thought it said.
BTW, what IS a “Big Bright Green Pleasure Machine” referring to?
I don’t have any questions, just wanted to say that I LOVED Simon and Garfunkel. Almost everything they ever did together was magic to me. The harmony, the depth to their songs…they are still one of my favorite “groups.”
I continue to love Garfunkel…His “On Second Avenue” breaks my heart every time I hear it. I was never much of a Paul Simon fan once he was on his own.