Bridge Over Troubled Water was one of the songs our choir sang in its recent concerts. Two choirs joined voices - the sound was vast in the churches. When you are in the choir, there is lots of sound going on. It is when the song ends and the echo completes that choir members realize how big the sound was.
I was delighted that a PBS fundraiser had Simon and Garfunkel's Performancel in Central Park in 1981. They (really just Garfunkel) sing the song in the concert.
Composed in early 1969, there is much written on how it was performed and by whom. Simon thought that "Garfunkel should sing it alone, the white choirboy way".
They were no longer together by 1970. And I saw this quote "We were really best friends up until Bridge over Troubled Water", says Simon..."Afterwards it didn't have the harmony of the friendship...that was broken."
Simon wrote the song with inspiration from various sources:
From Wikipedia: "The title concept was inspired by Claude Jeter's line "I'll be your bridge over deep water if you trust in my name," which Jeter sang with his group, the Swan Silvertones, in the 1959 song "Mary Don't You Weep."According to gospel producer and historian Anthony Heilbut, Simon acknowledged his debt to Jeter in person, and handed Jeter a check.Simon named Johann Sebastian Bach's "O Sacred Head, Now Wounded" as inspiration for parts of the melody."
Our choir arrangement would be considered a secular gospel song. It is a dramatic version by Kirby Shaw and starts with just a single chord by the piano and then the choir voices launch. It has anthem status with that arrangement. Particularly with a very dramatic piano accompaniment.
The song has been called "heart-stirring" and a "transcendent experience." Aretha Franklin's cover version moved it into the gospel realm. When Elvis Presley sang it, his version "left the writer of the track, Paul Simon, stunned... When I first heard Elvis perform Bridge over Troubled Water it was unbelievable."
Art Garfunkel's version in Central Park was heart-felt - likely a stirring experience for him 20 years after their break-up. I wondered what he had to say about it: there are many Paul Simon interviews and only a few with Art Garfunkel. Nothing on that song.
Here's the railroad bridge in Jordan over the Twenty Mile Creek. This is the obstacle to more train traffic to Niagara Falls as it cannot carry the load of two trains. I guess I should look for a picture of the Rainbow Bridge in Niagara Falls. That certainly has troubled water below.
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