Paul Simon Tells the Story of How He Wrote "Bridge Over Troubled Water" (1970)

 

                                                               Simon & Garfunkel - Bridge Over Troubled Water (Audio)

Lyrics:

When you're weary, feeling small

When tears are in your eyes, I'll dry them all (all)

I'm on your side, oh, when times get rough

And friends just can't be found

Like a bridge over troubled water

I will lay me down

Like a bridge over troubled water 

I will lay me down 

 

It takes a certain amount of hubris to write a song like “Bridge Over Troubled Water”—to write, that is, a secular hymn, a non-religious gospel hit for burned-out sixties’ folkies. Maybe only a tragic flaw could inspire a composer “coming off the back of four hit albums and two number one singles in four years” to soothe the disaffection of down-and-out Americans who could see the bottom from where they stood in 1969, a year notorious for its cultural disaffection and political gloom.

Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel’s status as superstar hitmakers at the end of the decade perhaps made it harder for viewers of Songs of America—the television film in which “Bridge Over Troubled Water” debuted—to take them seriously.

for more pls read: https://www.openculture.com/2021/02/paul-simon-tells-the-story-of-how-he-wrote-bridge-over-troubled-water-1970.html