I Stepped on the Bridge Over Troubled Water together with Simon & Garfunkel
Added 2025-01-27 12:40:40 +0000 UTCCan a piece of music be compelling and powerful without relying on a great build up of musical tension? Well … if life has already given you all the stress you need, then the music can release that tension.
Comments
Amy, there is another Simon and Garfunkel song, "American Tune" that features "O Sacred Head, Now Wounded" prominently. You don't have to wonder. It's very obvious. It's a beautiful song.
Lynn Poole
2025-02-04 17:36:23 +0000 UTCI’d have never made the link with Bach’s ‘O Sacred Head’, but now that you mention it, I can certainly hear a kinship! Thanks for that info!
Amy Shafer
2025-02-04 02:55:41 +0000 UTCGreat question! The waveform is on my screen as well, but it’s a small thin ribbon down at the bottom, so I don’t really “see” it unless I intentionally look down there, such as when I’m rewinding. I don’t think it has ever spoiled any musical surprises for me, at least, any that I’m aware of!
Amy Shafer
2025-02-04 02:41:30 +0000 UTCNicky was maybe the most undersung talent in the modern music era. He was everywhere. Everywhere except out in front taking bows with the rest of the bands he played with. One could easily listen to a couple dozen great songs by a couple dozen great bands and he would be the common thread in all of them. edit: and YES to more U2 and Ultravox!
Chester Beals
2025-02-02 01:07:35 +0000 UTCOne of the greatest (and purest) vocal performances ever recorded. And Paul Simon is a legit poet. Funny, but I never noticed before how much the strings on the outro remind me of the end of Abbey Road.
Gary Wilmot
2025-02-02 00:08:10 +0000 UTCSo very many artists claim, for good reason, that they were merely the vehicle through which a work of art was produced... inspirational... "from the spirit," rather than intentional.
DJ Marquis Marc Rambeau du Tacoma
2025-02-01 17:10:52 +0000 UTCThere's an extra long version of SCARBOROUGH FAIR/CANTICLE out there... and it's well worth looking for.
DJ Marquis Marc Rambeau du Tacoma
2025-02-01 17:09:35 +0000 UTCI wondered the same, Chester. I assume that Amy DOES see the waveform, as she seems to use it when rewinding the song to an earlier point.
DJ Marquis Marc Rambeau du Tacoma
2025-02-01 17:07:54 +0000 UTCAnother great reaction to a great song. Seriously... I only just mentioned doing Nilsson's WITHOUT YOU and Simon and Garfunkel's BRIDGE OVER TROUBLED WATER in my comment on GOD ONLY KNOWS a few days ago - and here you went and did BOTH of those songs, practically in a row! Amazing! So, Amy, let me add two more songs that fit in well with these three: I STILL HAVEN'T FOUND WHAT I'M LOOKING FOR by U2 https://youtu.be/e3-5YC_oHjE VIENNA by Ultravox https://youtu.be/xJeWySiuq1I The former song is SUPER popular, and is from their best and most popular album from 1987, The Joshua Tree. The latter song is pretty obscure, by comparison... but they both echo, somehow, the very same chords in me that BRIDGE does. ___ Also, Amy, I here's a name that many of us mentioned to you even as early as two years ago: Nicky Hopkins... whose piano style is somewhat echoed in this song. Nicky wasn't particularly hale, health wise, and so didn't tour back in the sixties. BUT... he was highly sought out by the English artists of the time, and his keyboard work is found scattered among the recordings of the era. The two Nicky Hopkins performances that I would direct your attention to is his 1967 contribution to The Rolling Stones SHE'S A RAINBOW, and his 1971 contribution to John Lennon's JEALOUS GUY, from his Imagine album.
DJ Marquis Marc Rambeau du Tacoma
2025-02-01 17:04:50 +0000 UTCTo Paul's credit he allowed his great masterpiece to be sung by Art, the better singer.
RAD1
2025-02-01 16:49:05 +0000 UTCGets me every time the bass comes in lifting the song to a new level. Breathtaking song.
Gary Sjoberg
2025-01-27 20:31:06 +0000 UTCEnjoyed that. And glad, that you have this beautiful, grand, song in your repertoire, now. Feels good I have a bridge experience. When this song came out in 70, I was 10yrs old. I was attending VBS in a large church in Memphis. The music director choose it for the school to preform on the final night assembly. Bless her heart it was just to complicated. Everybody was familiar with the song, it was just that popular. It was the first popular rock tune, I’d ever heard that crossed over in a church. And again I enjoyed it, thanks.
TONY SURRATT
2025-01-27 15:24:52 +0000 UTCMy preference is more original Simon and Garfunkel. Covers can wait.
Lynn Poole
2025-01-27 14:57:59 +0000 UTCGreat listen, Amy! One of the all-time fantastic songs. Hey, I'm curious... when we watch your videos, we see the audio waveform of the song playing in the bottom left of the screen. Do you see that as well? If you do, does it spoil any musical surprises for you? i.e., after it seemed the song had climaxed after the second verse, did you know there was a bigger surprise third verse coming? or maybe the lyrics/sheet music does that as well?
Chester Beals
2025-01-27 14:28:36 +0000 UTCI agree. None of the covers I've heard top the original. Covers can come later.
Lynn Poole
2025-01-27 14:18:27 +0000 UTCVery nice breakdown and appreciation, Amy. I would suggest that rather than exploring covers of this song (although some are quite good, like Aretha Franklin's, S&G is the definitive version), a deeper exploration of this duo might serve you better. This same album contains an early favorite of yours - "The Boxer", but also "Cecilia", "El Condor Pasa", and others. Of course, earlier Simon & Garfunkel - "Scarborough Fair", "Hazy Shade of Winter", "I am a Rock", "America" - this is where the gold lies.
George Brady
2025-01-27 14:15:16 +0000 UTCThat's what Vlad said as well...
Amy Shafer
2025-01-27 14:00:51 +0000 UTCThank you for that, Amy! Made my day. When you’re done with the rabbit hole of covers for this one, perhaps your next Simon and Garfunkel could be “Scarborough Fair / Canticle” (that’s one song). I don’t think you will be disappointed. ☺️
Kristina Mathesen
2025-01-27 13:27:10 +0000 UTCPaul Simon wrote the song. He describes one of those "the song came out of nowhere" experiences. It has a hymn like quality which I think contributed to its appeal. He did not play an instrument on the song. The pianist was a session musician. Paul Simon said he wanted a gospel sound to it. He said Bach's "O Sacred Head, Now Wounded" was inspiration for parts of the melody. This is such a beautiful song and It's timeless. In 1971, it won multiple Grammys including "Record of the Year" and the album of the same name won "Album of the Year".
Lynn Poole
2025-01-27 13:16:13 +0000 UTC
