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Saturday, July 4, 2020

Simon & Garfunkel - The Story Of Bridge Over Troubled Water



As an amateur songwriter I always wonder how people compose hit songs. For singer songwriters in the old days it was easy. They strummed a song of two verses or three and memorised it. If it was successful they sang it again.

Then in the old day of musicals, and America you would have the singer- songwriter doing the words and the pianist coming up with a tune.

However, listening to Simon and Garfunkel, it is much more complicated. it starts as a few words on a guitar. It is translated into piano music. The base player comes in. The arranger comes in. The wind instruments. Possibly a backing choir or quartet.

Finally, in the Phil Spector era, the surround sound and everything created on a keyboard like a full orchestra.

A long way from the singer a capella (without an instrument), or the singer and guitar.

Over in Europe, Freddie Mercury and his team had their own recording studio in Switzerland.

Simon and Garfunkel were born in the 1940s and both still alive in 2020 when I checked in Wikipedia. So no statues yet. But you can see a statue of Freddie Mercury in Switzerland.

If the songwriter and composer are still alive you can risk running into copyright problems if you try adding their soundtrack to a video of your travels which you try to load onto YouTube. However, any time you visit a bridge, or water, or just need an uplift, you can play the song to yourself.

Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker.

Useful Websites
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simon_%26_Garfunkel


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