Max's Musings

Bridge Over Troubled Water

Bridge Over Troubled Water

1969. The best of times and the worst of times.

The best because I was 19, starting out on my own, a freshman at college. Live was an unwritten book stretching in front of me. When you're 19, anything is still possible.

The worst because, well, everything else. The year before, Martin Luther King and Robert Kennedy had been assisinated. Richard Nixon was President. Viet Nam continued unabated.

At first, the sixties felt like the Enlightenment and the Renaisance, but then came the violence and the reaction. In many ways, we're sitll enduring that reaction, ever more violent and cruel in its relentless anger.

Hope could have died, then, but it didn't. One reason, one small reason, was songs like Bridge Over Troubled Water. It was certainly a song for the times. We all felt down and out, and evening fell so hard. We all needed a companion to be there with us, to help us weather the storm. This song reminded us that our time to shine will come, that our dreams are on the way.

Simon said that his inspiration for the song was the gospel hymn, "Mary, Don't You Weep." Indeed, the cadences and chord changes of "Bridge Over Troubled Water" shimmer with the sounds of gospel and tent meetings. The message acknowledges loneliness and despair, and acknowledges a human need for a "silver girl" to be by our side in times of trouble. With help--with human companionship--we can keep on saliling despite adversity.

Simon wrote the song, but insisted that Garfunkel sing it on the album. Garfunkel resisted. Simon regretted the decision to force Garfunkel to sing it, not because of the performance, which was magnificent and inspiring. Rather, because it ultimately resulted in the pair breaking up. They reunited on sporadic occassions, but it was never the same. When they did come back together, it was often to assist others in their time of need--to become the silver girl of song.

Countless artists of covered this song since its first appearance, from Willie Nelson to Johny Cash to Clay Aiken. Aretha Franklin won a Grammy for her 1972 performance of the song.

Some links.
                                                 
From Simon and Garfunkel album of the same name.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4G-YQA_bsOU

                                                 
Lyrics
https://www.paulsimon.com/track/bridge-over-troubled-water/

                                                 
Aretha Franklin's version
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pWwaMcj5gqQ

                                                 
Elvis's version
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9SlNxUBVQHQ

                                                 
Clay Aiken on American Idol
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QC9SKjdoTXg

                                                 
Mary Don't You Weep, by the Swan Silvertones. Simon said this gospel song inspired him in writing "Bridge."
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ICHm7YUDc0M