I was attending U.C.L.A. in January of 1970 when "Bridge Over Troubled Water" by Simon and Garfunkel was released and you couldn't go anywhere without hearing it. I remember one day when I was walking across the campus, they were playing it on KHJ, as they seemed to do about every hour. Some kids were picnicking on the lawn and I heard the first part coming out of a transistor radio one of them had. By the time that radio's sound was out of earshot, I was hearing the middle part from someone else's radio and the ending came out of yet another radio.
The record went onto my mixtape but I don't think I really appreciated the song itself at the time. It was a nice tune but I didn't feel any real emotional involvement in it; not until the early eighties. I went over to the apartment of my then-current lady friend to pick her up and take her to dinner and a movie. When I got there, I found she'd decided to overrule me. We were going to stay at her place, order in Chinese Food and watch The Concert in Central Park on HBO.
I said, "I thought you'd watched that a few times already." She said, "I have but I haven't watched it with you." I'm still not sure what that meant but okay. We watched it and I don't remember anything except what a huge impression "Bridge Over Troubled Water" made on me that evening. That was a much better performance than the record.
The 1970 record was fine but what they did with it in Central Park was a performance by Art Garfunkel, singing with utter sincerity to a certain person he cared about who was at that moment in need of both physical and emotional support. And ever after when I heard the 1970 recording, it felt to me like a group effort with a whole bunch of musicians playing and Mr. Garfunkel singing some lyrics that someone else wrote, accompanied by a backup voice or two.
And yes, I know someone else wrote those lyrics. Paul Simon was also a backup voice on the record. But the words just sounded so meaningful and sincere coming out of Art Garfunkel in Central Park…so here's the song, not from the record that was on my mixtape but from the performance on the special…