BBC 'IMAGINE' Simon and Garfunkel

Subject: BBC 'IMAGINE' Simon and Garfunkel
From: GUEST,johnmc
Date: 08 Nov 11 - 10:39 AM

Tonight BBC1 - about the album "Bridge Over.. ".

Subject: RE: BBC 'IMAGINE' Simon and Garfunkel
From: GUEST,davemc
Date: 08 Nov 11 - 03:44 PM

Yet more BBC commercial product placement? Nicely timed by the state broadcaster to tie in with Paul's album release and the remastering of the old stuff. One wonders why they need all those billions from licence payers when they're doing adverts anyway.

Subject: RE: BBC 'IMAGINE' Simon and Garfunkel
From: GUEST,matt milton
Date: 08 Nov 11 - 05:00 PM

It has been shown elsewhere recently on American TV, so I doubt that's really the case. 10.30pm on a Tuesday night - not exactly a prime audience slot.

Plus, thinking about it, how exactly is a screening of a documentary about a decades-old album publicity for a new album release by one half of the couple? If it is, it's a rather roundabout way of going about it. Plus, it's not like they're worried about it not selling.

I had no idea he had a new album out, and had no idea the old stuff was being remastered until you just told me. Neither are of interest to me. I'd be amazed if I feel any differently after I watch said doc...

etc etc etc

Subject: RE: BBC 'IMAGINE' Simon and Garfunkel
From: BTNG
Date: 08 Nov 11 - 05:18 PM

I find GUEST,davemc theory very unlikely even though there was a 40th anniversary edition of Bridge Over Troubled Waters issued last year and definitely has nothing to with the new recording Paul Simon. Songwriter released recently, I believe.

Subject: RE: BBC 'IMAGINE' Simon and Garfunkel
From: catspaw49
Date: 08 Nov 11 - 05:32 PM

Hey....Ya' know....It is a pretty good show with some truly interesting parts to it whether you area fan or not. Frankly the recording stuff was a lot more interesting than the other parts though overall the program was excellent.

Spaw

Subject: RE: BBC 'IMAGINE' Simon and Garfunkel
From: BTNG
Date: 08 Nov 11 - 05:38 PM

The recording still stands up.....after all these years.

Subject: RE: BBC 'IMAGINE' Simon and Garfunkel
From: Joe Offer
Date: 08 Nov 11 - 08:13 PM

Dave, we welcome announcements like this. Many of our users might be interested.

-Joe Offer-

Subject: RE: BBC 'IMAGINE' Simon and Garfunkel
From: katlaughing
Date: 08 Nov 11 - 08:16 PM

I am definitely interested. We don't watch tv any more, so had not heard of this. Thanks!

Subject: RE: BBC 'IMAGINE' Simon and Garfunkel
From: BTNG
Date: 08 Nov 11 - 08:34 PM

Paul Simon - April Come She Will (BBC Radio, 1965)

Subject: RE: BBC 'IMAGINE' Simon and Garfunkel
From: Howard Jones
Date: 09 Nov 11 - 03:44 AM

I thought it was interesting that they carefully sidestepped why they broke up after bringing out the album. Paul Simon hinted briefly at different musical directions, but Art Garfunkel kept going on about how great it was, what good friends he and Paul were and how much he loved what they were doing.

It also contrasted with a radio documentary I heard a while ago, which suggested that Simon was bitter that perhaps his greatest song, Bridge over Troubled Water, "belongs" to Art Garfunkle and the pianist, and he had to sit on the sidelines while they performed it, invariably to a rapturous reception.

An interesting and enjoyable programme, nonetheless.

Subject: RE: BBC 'IMAGINE' Simon and Garfunkel
From: Phil Edwards
Date: 09 Nov 11 - 04:00 AM

Yes - I was mentally totting up the statements they each made about what happened after that album, and it didn't really add up to a split. Paul Simon at one point said that it was the first album where they each took some songs separately, but then said they could have made another two or three albums like that. About the most negative comment either of them made was Art Garfunkel saying that he had wanted some time off from S&G. I guess that whatever drove them apart was a bigger deal at the time than it is in retrospect.

I would have liked more about how Paul Simon's songwriting was developing - this is someone who moved from the earnest & very "written" style of early songs like "Patterns" and "The Sounds of Silence" to writing songs by scatting over chord sequences and making the words fit afterwards (I remember reading that he had no idea what "Mother and Child Reunion" was about). Maybe BOTW was the beginning of that approach - "Sail on silver girl", indeed...

Subject: RE: BBC 'IMAGINE' Simon and Garfunkel
From: Phil Edwards
Date: 09 Nov 11 - 04:10 AM

Incidentally, I had to laugh when Yentob said that their first single - recorded in 1957, when they were both 15 - sold "a meagre 100,000 copies"! We should all be such failures.

Subject: RE: BBC 'IMAGINE' Simon and Garfunkel
From: Pete Jennings
Date: 09 Nov 11 - 05:23 AM

No doubt the ins and outs of the S&G partnership/fallout will always generate debate, but let's not lose sight of the fact that "Bridge" was and remains a great album. And the TV programme's focus on the making of it was a success - some of Roy Halee's revelations about how they achieved some of the sounds were jaw-dropping.

Subject: RE: BBC 'IMAGINE' Simon and Garfunkel
From: G-Force
Date: 09 Nov 11 - 06:30 AM

I seem to remember hearing that 'So Long Frank Lloyd Wright' was about Art Garfunkel, and that he had no idea until much later.

Don't know if any of that is true, just passing on the rumour.

Subject: RE: BBC 'IMAGINE' Simon and Garfunkel
From: GUEST,matt milton
Date: 09 Nov 11 - 06:57 AM

'So Long Frank Lloyd Wright' - that's my favourite song by either of them. Best thing either of them ever did, in my humble opinion.

I liked the doc. The recording info was interesting. I had no idea that they had been friends since they were kids. Kind of stands to reason they'd split up: it's frankly amazing that they weren't sick to death of each other by them. All those tours, all that time together... a lot of marriages don't last half that long...

Subject: RE: BBC 'IMAGINE' Simon and Garfunkel
From: GUEST,Patsy
Date: 09 Nov 11 - 07:59 AM

Most long term bands have gone on to do their own thing, everyone grows up even the Beatles. Simon and Garfunkle will always still remain a favourite of mine and a valuable part of my collection of music. The Boxer is a particular favourite and so atmospheric of the seedy world that a boxer's life might have been back then, brilliant.

Subject: RE: BBC 'IMAGINE' Simon and Garfunkel
From: BTNG
Date: 09 Nov 11 - 09:37 AM

'Incidentally, I had to laugh when Yentob said that their first single - recorded in 1957, when they were both 15 - sold "a meagre 100,000 copies"! We should all be such failures.'

In another documentary, this concerning Paul Simon's Music, no idea of the title, Simon comments that Hey School Girl was a nationwide failure, but on some New York area radio stations it was a Top Ten hit so I'm presuming that most of the "meagre 100,000 copies" were sold in the New York and surrounding area.

and the break up? S&G have told several different stories regarding it, and I believe, at one point, denied they had broken up, but that their partnership was merely on hiatus. I stopped listening along time ago, zone out completely whenever some interviewer asks the question, I enjoy the music for the music, and if it's live in concert all the better.

Subject: RE: BBC 'IMAGINE' Simon and Garfunkel
From: Northerner
Date: 09 Nov 11 - 09:48 AM

I really enjoyed the programme, plus I had bought the CD of BOTW (don't think it was an anniversary edition)and had been playing it recently so the programme felt quite timely for me. I found all the recording stuff really interesting.

Subject: RE: BBC 'IMAGINE' Simon and Garfunkel
From: BTNG
Date: 09 Nov 11 - 09:57 AM

I just remembered this.

Some Canadians might remember a television series from back in the early sixties, named Let's Sing Out! It ran from October 1963 to July 1967 first on CTV and then CBC.

The guests on the episode that ran on Feb 17, 1966, from University College, University of Toronto, were Simon and Garfunkel, Sharon Trostin and Steve Jorgunsen, this was after the "electric" version of The Sound of Silence had been released in September of 1965 and become a US Billboard Hot 100 No. 1 hit. The contracts to appear on Canadian television and at the Riverboat Folk Club had been signed before The Sound of Silence entered the charts

here's the link to the available video footage, on You Tube

Simon & Garfunkel on Let's Sing Out!

Oscar Brand, by the way, was the host

Subject: RE: BBC 'IMAGINE' Simon and Garfunkel
From: BTNG
Date: 09 Nov 11 - 10:00 AM

The anniversary edition of BOTW has a second CD that contains a live concert.

Subject: RE: BBC 'IMAGINE' Simon and Garfunkel
From: GUEST,Big Nige
Date: 09 Nov 11 - 10:39 AM

I thought the programme was fasinating as much for what it didn't say. As others have said the reasons behind their going seperate ways are still unclear, but as anyone who has played in bands, duo's etc will appreciate you sort of know when things have run their course and its time to go. I suspect PS wanted more control of the direction his music took and could only do it as a solo artist. BOTW was to my mind one of the greatest albums of the 20th Century, but arguably PS went on to write and record some of his best music after that album, which probably justifies his original decision to split.

Subject: RE: BBC 'IMAGINE' Simon and Garfunkel
From: fat B****rd
Date: 09 Nov 11 - 10:47 AM

Eee! I'm a simple chap. I'm not grovellingly grateful for any music on telly that isn't X-factorish but on the other hand I don't get all suspicious and whingy about programmes like this. Actually oit reminded me how much I'd heard the album when it came out and how much I liked it.
Good to see the session men getting some credit.

Subject: RE: BBC 'IMAGINE' Simon and Garfunkel
From: Northerner
Date: 09 Nov 11 - 12:04 PM

Thank you for that information BTNG. No, mine is just the ordinary CD, and I'm not going to buy the anniversary one.

Subject: RE: BBC 'IMAGINE' Simon and Garfunkel
From: BTNG
Date: 09 Nov 11 - 12:10 PM

I must admit I still have my original vinyl copy of BOTW, purchased in London at the HMV shop on Oxford Street.....so many years ago...

Subject: RE: BBC 'IMAGINE' Simon and Garfunkel
From: evansakes
Date: 09 Nov 11 - 01:01 PM

We all know about Simon and Garfunkel but after watching that documentary you have little choice but to conclude it wouldn't have been half as good without the vision and imagination of Roy Halee. Arguably as important to S&G as George Martin was to the Beatles.

Well done that man!

Subject: RE: BBC 'IMAGINE' Simon and Garfunkel
From: BTNG
Date: 09 Nov 11 - 02:18 PM

completely none S&G, Roy Halee's father Roy Halee Sr was the voice of Heckle and Jeckle from 1951 through 1961

Subject: RE: BBC 'IMAGINE' Simon and Garfunkel
From: Musket
Date: 10 Nov 11 - 11:03 AM

Glad I caught it. (Don't watch much telly but it was starting when I turned on, just to turn to BBC News but watched it instead.)

Excellent and gave an insight that added to what I thought I knew about them. BOTW was the first album I ever bought as a cassette rather than LP. Took me back a few years...

Subject: RE: BBC 'IMAGINE' Simon and Garfunkel
From: Brian Peters
Date: 10 Nov 11 - 11:16 AM

I was never a huge fan at the time - while recognizing the quality of some of the songs - but I suppose I must have heard them so many times, back then, that they came back to me as old friends.

I too was fascinated by the details of the recording process, and the contributions of producer and the session musicians. Little details, like the guitar figure at the beginning of 'The Boxer', the looping of an old-fashioned tape for the rhythm track of 'Cecilia', or recording the drums in a corridor. Every track seemed to have a completely different production.

I also thought the chaps came over pretty affably (though like others I was baffled by the Big Split being glossed over) and not too big-headed. What was it that Simon said about 'BOTW'? "I realised I'd written something that was better than the kind of stuff I usually wrote", or something? Not: "I realised I'd written one of the greatest pop songs ever"!

I'd known nothing of the controversial TV documentary, and full marks to them for that as well.