The Complicated Career Of Simon & Garfunkel
Simon & Garfunkel were a music duo made up of Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel. During the height of their career in the 1960s, they were one of the best-selling music groups of their time, with some of their greatest hits including, "Bridge Over Troubled Water," "Mrs. Robinson," and "The Boxer," among others. However, although they were a successful pair musically, they had a rocky relationship that eventually led to them breaking up in 1970. Although they have reunited numerous times, they still haven't made amends. Take a deeper look into the lives and careers of Simon and Garfunkel and what makes them such a notable pair of musicians.
They Met in School
Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel were both raised in the predominantly Jewish neighborhood of Forest Hills in Queens, New York. The two met in school during the sixth grade in 1953, and they both performed in their school play of Alice in Wonderland: Simon playing the White Rabbit and Garfunkel playing the Cheshire Cat.
According to Garfunkel, "As I entered Parsons Junior High where the tough kids were, Paul Simon became my one and only friend. We saw each other's uniqueness. We smoked our first cigarettes. We had retreated from all other kids. And we laughed."
They Initially Called Themselves Tom & Jerry
The two then started playing in a doo-wop group called the Peptones, playing at school dances. They paid $25 to record a few songs they wrote where they were overhead by Sid Rosen, who signed them to the independent label Big Records. The duo was just fifteen years old at the time.
Under Big Records, the two went under the name Tom & Jerry, where their music began to gain traction on the radio. Afterward, they attended separate colleges and released solo tracks, coming together once again, only to split up shortly after.
A Desperate Reunion Resulted In One of Their Most Renowned Performances
By 1980, the former duo's solo careers were not going as well as expected. New York's declining economy meant that fewer people were paying for entertainment. Promoter Ron Delsener suggested that the two reunite for a free concert in Central Park that could help boost both of their careers.
The two agreed, and on September 19, 1981, the concert was held with an audience of 500,000, the largest-ever concert attendance. Not long after, Warner Bros. released the live album The Concert in Central Park, which went on to be double platinum in the US and sparked a new interest in their music.
Art Garfunkel Has Walked Across The United States
Art Garfunkel began long-distance walking when he was touring Japan, and decided it would be interesting to walk from one end to the other. After completing his goal, he decided that his next step would be to walk across the United States.
So in 1983, he began his trek across the country. He didn't do it in one go. Instead, Garfunkel completed the trek over the course of 14 years, doing multiple segments per year. Finishing his walk across the US in 1994, he announced his plans to walk from Ireland to Istanbul which he ended up completing in 2014.
They Never Intended To Be A Folk-Rock Act
Although the success of their songs such as "Sound of Silence" is credited with spurring the popularity of folk-rock in the 1960s and 70s, it turns out that was never their intention. When they recorded "Silence," it was like the majority of the rest of the songs on their 1964 debut album Wednesday Morning, 3 A.M., which was all acoustic.
However, the album essentially failed, and the two split up. Without telling anyone, producer Tom Wilson remixed the song, adding electric guitar, bass, and drums, turning the song into what we know today. The success of the new version resulted in the two reuniting and the true start of their music career.
Their Hit Song "Mrs. Robinson Was Almost "Mrs. Roosevelt"
Written for the iconic film The Graduate, and regarded as one of the greatest movie hits of all time, "Mrs. Robinson" almost wasn't the song we all know and love. When Simon and Garfunkel were approached by CBS's Mike Nichols about contributing songs for The Graduate, they already had a song ready which turned out to be "Mrs. Robinson."
However, before the film was released, the duo usually sang the song as "Mrs. Roosevelt." When Nichols learned that the duo already had a song called "Mrs. Roosevelt," he insisted that they change the name to "Mrs. Robinson" for the movie, and they did.
They Had A TV Special That Didn't Do Very Well
The duo's lyrics in their songs demonstrated their liberal views, as well as their outlook on the political climate at the time. So, in 1969, they helped produce an hour-long CBS television special titled Songs of America. The special featured a lot of touchy subjects at the time.
Due to the special's controversial content, their AT&T sponsor pulled out and was picked up by Alberto V05. Released in November 1969, it was only broadcast once and did not receive glowing reviews.
"The Boxer" Took Over 100 Hours To Record
Appearing on their fifth studio album, Bridge Over Troubled Water, "The Boxer" was released as the lead single on March 21, 1969. The song is written by Paul Simon with the lyrics being semi-autobiographical as well as alluding to the Bible.
The song was a follow up to "Mrs. Robinson," peaking at No. 7 on the Billboard Hot 100. The track is considered to be one of Simon and Garfunkel's best-produced songs, taking over 100 hours to record across several locations. Rolling Stone ranked it No.105 on their 50 Greatest Songs Of All Time.
Their 80's "Reunion Album" Did Terribly
After the success of their performance at Central Park and the live studio album that followed, the pair decided to reunite once again in 1981 to create a new album. It would be their first new album since 1970's Think Too Much. While fans were promised a Simon & Garfunkel album, unfortunately, that's not what they got due to creative differences between the two.
The artists butted heads so frequently that it resulted in Garfunkel quitting. This left Simon with a lot of songs and no album but decided to record them anyway, releasing them as a solo album in 1983 called Heart and Bones. Unsurprisingly, the album flopped.
Paul Simon Was On A United Nations Boycott List
Although his music isn't considered to be all that controversial, he still managed to get on the bad side of the United Nations. In 1987, Simon was placed on the United Nation's boycott list for recording some of his songs from the Graceland album in South Africa.
The UN had begun a cultural boycott against South Africa due to the country's support of apartheid. Hence, Simon recording there was viewed as morally wrong. Simon wasn't happy about the boycott against him and wrote a letter claiming that he could never actually perform in South Africa. His plan worked and he was taken off of the boycott list.
They Broke Their Own Record
In 2004, during one of their few reunion tours, Simon and Garfunkel had the chance to perform at the Roman Colosseum. It was there that they performed in front of 600,000 people.
However, they didn't actually play inside of the Colosseum, considering how old it is and how many people it can fit. Instead, they played on the street outside for an audience of 600,000, breaking the world record they set for the largest performance of 500,000 at Central Park.
Art Garfunkel Is An Avid Reader
Not only does Art Garfunkel enjoy reading, but he also likes to share what he's read with his fans. On his website, he lists just about every book that he has read in the past 50 years or so.
He writes the title, the author, the year of publication, the month and year that he read it, and how many pages it was. However, he leaves it at that. and doesn't comment whether he like it or not. Yet, on a separate page, he has a list of all of his personal favorites. Easily, his most unique entry is the dictionary, which he included in his list in March 1993.
Garfunkel Taught Geometry
During a period of time in the '70s when Simon and Garfunkel were separated, Simon was experiencing a successful solo career, whereas Garfunkel became a teacher. After Simon and Garfunkel first broke up in 1964, Garfunkel went back to school to get his teaching degree.
Then, in 1971, he took a job as a geometry teacher at a private school in Connecticut. However, the job didn't last long, and he was on the road touring again within nine months of initially taking the job.
Garfunkel Lost His Voice For Four Years
Garfunkel isn't recognized as the primary songwriter for Simon & Garfunkel, he's better known for his voice, especially on songs such as "Bridge Over Troubled Water." However, he began to lose his voice after choking on a piece of lobster and began having trouble swallowing.
According to his doctor, one of his vocal cords was inflamed, making it difficult for him to reach higher notes. Although he almost stopped performing completely, eventually he began to offer private shows as he gained his confidence back.
Bob Dylan Declined Working With Paul Simon
While working on his 2011 album So Beautiful Or So What, Paul Simon reached out to Bob Dylan to see if he would have been interested in recording a duet together. Simon assumed that the two were on good terms considering that they had toured together in 1999.
However, Bob Dylan never even responded to Simon's request for unknown reasons. On the subject, Simon stated, "I thought it would be nice if he sang that, since his voice has become so weathered I thought he would sound like a sage. I sent it to him, but I didn't hear back. I don't know why."
"The Sound Of Silence" Was Covered By A Heavy Metal Band
In 2015, the heavy metal band Disturbed covered Simon and Garfunkel's hit track "The Sound of Silence." The cover reached the No.1 spot on the Billboard Hard Rock Digital Songs and Mainstream Rock Charts, and is the band's highest-charting song on the Hot 100, topping at No.42.
David Drainmna, the lead singer of Disturbed commented, "It's a song that my parents can play for their friends with pride without having to warn them not to be frightened ahead of time. I have fans saying, 'Finally, me and my mom can actually agree on music for once!'"
Bridge Over Troubled Water Topped The Charts For 10 Weeks
Released in January 1970, Bridge Over Troubled Water was the fifth and final studio album by Simon & Garfunkel. Although the duo split up not long after, the album contained two of the pair's most successful songs which were "Bridge Over Troubled Water" and "The Boxer," both listed on Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Songs of All Time.
The album itself was a massive success, topping the chart in ten countries, and remaining at No.1 for ten weeks in the United States. The album went on to sell 25 million copies and was named No.51 on Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Albums of All Time.
Garfunkel Spent Some Time Acting
Art Garfunkel met director Mike Nichols while working together as Simon and Garfunkel provided music for his film The Graduate. After the graduate, Garfunkel acted in two of Mike Nichols' other films. In 1970, he appeared in Catch-22 playing Lieutenant Nately and Carnal Knowledge as the character Sandy.
He even earned a Golden Globe nomination for Best Supporting Actor for his performance in Carnal Knowledge. Garfunkel continued to act throughout the years with his latest performance being in The Rebound in 2010.
Paul Simon Met His Third Wife Thanks To Saturday Night Live
Paul Simon met his third wife, singer Edie Brickell, when she was performing under Edie Brickell & New Bohemians on the set of Saturday Night Live in 1988. Brickell noticed Simon standing next to the cameraman watching her, and the two became infatuated with each other.
Simon introduced himself and the two went on to become romantic, eventually, marrying in 1992 and remaining together ever since. The couple has three children named Adrian, Lulu, and Gabriel.
Art Garfunkel Is A Poet
Garfunkel has admitted that he didn't grow up in a house that necessarily valued literature as he does today, and he didn't become an avid reader until entering Columbia University in 1959. It was also then that he became interested in poetry.
While touring in Switzerland between 1981 and 1982, Garfunkel first began writing poetry, eventually releasing a collection of prose poetry titled Still Water that was well-received. His poetry focuses on his depression over the loss of his father, a companion who passed away, and his relationship with Paul Simon and music.
Music Was Her Escape Route from Life as a House Wife
Slick's parents were both college-educated, and her father held a job as an investment banker in San Francisco. However, after attending college herself and starting a career in modeling, Slick didn’t see herself following the life path that was expected of her. Living in the suburbs bored her, and with Haight-Ashbury just a stone’s throw away, she was ready to take the leap.
She told The Wall Street Journal, "I was a product of ’50s America in Palo Alto, California, where women were housewives with short hair and everything was highly regulated. I went from the planned, bland ’50s to the world of being in a rock band without looking back."
The Truth About Her Style On Stage
Grace Slick became an iconic vocalist and musician of rock and roll, not just for a female artist, but any artist. Audiences were drawn to her onstage aura. Mic in hand, Slick holds her space with limited movement compared to other lead singers of the rock genre. Gently swaying to the sound, as if entranced by the instrumentals for the first time, fans adore her live performances. So where does her style come from?
Slick told The Wall Street Journal, "People in the audience thought I moved around on stage like a panther. I'm actually a klutz. The reason I moved so carefully was to avoid tripping and breaking my neck."
Slick Joined The Same Band That Inspired Her To Pursue Music
With a college education and modeling jobs freely flowing around her, Slick had a world of opportunities at her doorstep in the summer of 1965. But after experiencing Jefferson Airplane play live, she knew music was her true path. Slick attended one of their shows at The Matrix after reading an article about the band in the San Francisco Chronicle. Their live performance inspired her to start a band of her own, The Great Society.
The following year in the fall of 1966, Jefferson Airplane's lead singer, Signe Toly Anderson gave birth to her daughter Lilith and left the band. The band needed a new singer, and Slick stepped in. Imagine being asked to join the band that inspired you to pursue music. It must have been fate.
The Band's Performance at Woodstock Was a Let-Down
Woodstock '69 is revered as the greatest rock festival of all time. Jefferson Airplane played the festival, but it wasn’t their best performance. Drummer Spencer Dryden said, "There was a helicopter that was ferrying people back and forth from the hotel to the site and show times were being changed." The band’s Saturday night performance was delayed through the entire night. Finally, Sunday morning, they took the stage.
The worn-down group plugged in and Slick took the mic to wake up the crowd. “Alright, friends. You have seen the heavy groups, now you will see morning maniac music. Believe me, it’s a new dawn.” After a sleepless night, neither the band nor the crowd was top notch, and Jefferson Airplane’s performance didn’t make the cut for the Woodstock film.
Grace Has a Daughter With Guitarist Paul Kantner
Grace Slick has been married twice. Her first marriage was to Jerry Slick, who was the drummer of her first band, The Great Society. The marriage ended after ten years, and her second marriage was to Jefferson Starship lighting designer, Skip Johnson. However, between her two marriages, Slick dated her bandmate, guitarist Paul Kantner.
The couple welcomed their daughter, China Wing Kantner on January 25, 1971. When China was just 15-years-old she became the youngest MTV VJ. A testament to her talented musical genes, China also contributed vocals and wrote songs for Jefferson Starship.
Grace's Joke at Her Daughter’s Birth Became An Urban Legend
On the day of China's birth in 1971, Grace Slick made a joke to one of the nurses… and it didn’t land. At the San Francisco hospital, Slick joked to the nurse that she was going to name her daughter 'God’. But, she joked, she would spell her name with a lowercase ‘g’ because she "wished for the child to be humble."
The nurse didn’t catch on to Slick’s humor and repeated the story as though the new mother was being serious. With both parents being high-profile musicians, rumors spread like wildfire, and it became rock and rock urban legend that China’s name was originally ‘god’.
She's Been Arrested At Least Four Times
Alcohol has a way of getting people into trouble and no one knows this better than Grace Slick. In fact, she's even created a name for it. Boozed-up and feeling feisty, Slick often found herself in trouble after running her mouth. The psychedelic rock icon was arrested on at least four occasions for what she calls a "TUI" or “talking under the influence.”
In one such “drunk mouth” incident, Slick was in the backwoods of Marin County, just north of the Golden Gate Bridge. She was sitting there, propped up against a tree trunk drinking wine, eating bread, and reading poetry when an officer approached her and questioned what she was doing. Slick gave a sassy reply and was subsequently arrested. In 1994 she was again arrested, this time for assault with a deadly weapon when she pointed an unloaded gun at a police officer.
Grace Slick Is Critical of Woodstock
Slick may be bitter about Jefferson Airplane's showtime being pushed from Saturday night into Sunday morning at Woodstock, and not making the cut for the film thereafter. And in all fairness, she has a right to be upset. That may be the reason she’s so critical of the event that history deems 'the greatest rock festival of all time’.
Slick later told CNN, "Woodstock– I didn’t see anybody play, except when I was standing backstage waiting to go on, because it was so muddy. And the weather was so horrible, you literally couldn’t get there except by helicopter." She continued, “Woodstock is well known because this country is so hyped on amount. It was big. Half a million people doesn’t necessarily mean something is good. It just means it’s big.”
Grace Slick Was The First To Say A Certain Expletive On TV
Slick has a history of breaking down doors in her musical career, but she also has a rather interesting 'first' that she can claim. On August 19, 1969, Slick appeared on an episode of The Dick Cavett Show with Jefferson Airplane. The band was performing their song, "We Can Be Together" from the b-side of Volunteers.
Fans of Jefferson Airplane knew what was coming, but Dick didn’t. The host, along with the show’s viewers had to pick their jaws up off the floor after Slick sang the lyric, “up against the wall, [expletive]” making her the first person to state a certain curse word on television.
She's Always Talked Openly About Psychedelics
From the very beginning of her music career, Grace Slick was open about her interest in psychedelic drugs and marijuana. She was in her mid-twenties; beautiful, talented and artsy, right in the thick of the Haight-Ashbury San Francisco scene that suited her so well.
In a 2016 interview with The Wall Street Journal Slick recalled,"The more the band gigged, the more media coverage we got. In an interview with the San Francisco Chronicle, I argued in favor of marijuana and LSD, and somehow the article got back to my parents. It was painful for them, I'm sure, but I didn’t care whether they minded. Parents were criticizing a generation’s choices while sitting there with their glasses of scotch."
She Didn't View Herself as a Sex Symbol
Music lovers lusted after not just Grace Slick's voice, but her image, too. However, the artist never saw herself as someone to be desired. "I thought I was kind of dark and foreboding, kind of witchey," she told Rolling Stone. “But I didn’t think of myself as being sexy.” Not only did she not see herself as attractive, but Slick was completely ignorant to the fact that guys were tripping over themselves at the sight of her.
She recalled, “I wasn’t aware of that thing going on there until about four years ago when a guy who used to be my lawyer– and still occasionally is but not so much anymore– he said, 'Oh yeah. I used to go in and just sit there and drool…’ And I said, ‘Really? You’re kidding me!’ So it didn’t occur to me until after I was already out of the business that, that was going on.”
She's Had Her Fair Share Of Health Problems
The 1960's rock music scene was immersed with drugs and alcohol, and those artists who were lucky enough to survive it and grow into old age weren’t left unscathed. Slick had a major health scare in 2006 when she was diagnosed with diverticulitis– inflammation along the walls of the intestines. She was sent into surgery, but complications led to two more surgeries, and then a tracheotomy.
Things got so bad, Slick was put into a medically-induced coma for two months while her body healed from the trauma. When she woke up, Slick had to go to rehab in order to learn how to walk again.
She Wrote "White Rabbit" While High On LSD
Slick adores Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and identified with Alice as a young woman. One afternoon in 1963, she began writing song lyrics inspired by the book. Slick played the first notes on a red piano she bought for $80 from a San Francisco warehouse. It was old and some of the keys were missing, but Slick said, "I didn’t play way up there anyway—the notes were too pingy."
The song was left unfinished for a while until Slick was inspired to continue writing during a 24-hour LSD trip listening to Miles Davis’ “Sketches of Spain” on repeat. “It was my Alice moment, heading down the hole. 'White Rabbit’ seemed like an appropriate title,” she said.
Her Regret Isn't What You’d Expect
Slick is quick to say that she's enjoyed her life and is extraordinarily happy that she chose a musical path for herself. But that’s not to say she lives without regret. Twice divorced and single, her regrets mainly reside in her love life.
"…The only thing I’d do differently is probably nail a couple more guys," Slick confessed in her 60’s. “It didn’t occur to me that I was any kind of sex symbol at all and that you can actually do that kind of stuff. You can call somebody’s people. I could have called Peter O’Toole. I could have met him. I didn’t realize I could do that at the time. I could have done it with Jimi Hendrix. I didn’t know that. It just didn’t occur to me that I was able to nail whoever I wanted to.”
Slick Planned to Spike Richard Nixon's Tea With LSD
Grace Slick happened to attend the same college as Richard Nixon's daughter, Tricia Nixon. In 1969, Tricia hosted a tea party for Finch College alumnae at the White House while her father was in office. Slick received an invitation addressed to her maiden name, "Grace Wing", as the Nixon family failed to make the connection that she was now Grace Slick of Jefferson Airplane.
Slick accepted the invite and brought along political activist Abbie Hoffman to the White House. The two of them planned to spike President Nixon’s tea with 600 micrograms of LSD. However, being a male, Hoffman was turned down at the door of the “all-female” event and they never carried out the act. On their way out, Hoffman took a black flag with a multicolored marijuana leaf and hung it on the White House gate.
Why Grace Slick Doesn't Play Music Anymore
Many legendary rock artists on par with Grace Slick are still touring, half a century after their first hit. But not Grace Slick. Slick bowed out from music in 1989, at the age of 49. Now in her seventies, when asked about why she retired from music, Slick brashly stated, "All rock-and-rollers over the age of 50 look stupid and should retire."
When she was later asked to elaborate on her statement, Slick said, “You can do jazz, classical, blues, opera, country, until you're 150, but rap and rock and roll are really a way for young people to get that anger out.” However, that doesn’t hold her back from giving the finger to a photographer today.
Odetta Was a Huge Inspiration For Her Sound
As a pioneer for female rock musicians herself, who was it that inspired Grace Slick? Her mother was a singer, who Slick describes as "high-end and soft". But Slick's voice was different from a lot of female singers at the time. She said, “I can’t sing high softly the way [Joan Baez] sings.”
The women who inspired Slick’s sound matched her powerful, low-end voice. “When I heard Odetta I was about 17 and I thought, 'Wow! That’s very interesting!’ Because I never heard a woman sing like that. Odetta takes chunks out of you.”
Both Grace And Her Daughter China Are Sober
When China was eight-years-old, Slick started attending Alcoholic Anonymous meetings, bringing her young daughter in tow. By the time China was 15-years-old and working for MTV, both mother and daughter were self-professed alcoholics. While they attempted to stop drinking, it took a few years to make it stick.
Slick shared her rock-bottom moment with TheFix, "China came over, and I'm looking pathetic– an old bag who’s drunk. The look on her face will register with me forever. I don’t mind being an [expletive] but I do mind being pathetic," she said, laughing. Both women have now been sober for over 20 years now.
Slick Really Doesn't Like Getting Older
Once she neared the age of 50, Slick couldn't get her mind off of aging. She quit music and essentially started another life for herself. She could be heard saying things like, "Old people should be heard but not seen. Young people should be seen, not heard." Now 79-years-old, Slick can’t ignore her physical appearance or her aching body. And more often than not, she’s letting it define her.
“Old people are rotting,” she told The Washington Post in 2007. “I’m rotting. You’re rotting.” At her art exhibit, she cringes when a photographer’s camera flashes in her direction. “Jesus, I hate having my picture taken,” she said.
What Grace Slick Is Doing And Listening To Now
Officially retired from music for 30 years, Grace Slick is now a visual artist in her seventies. She lives by the beach in Malibu and has a number of her paintings featured in galleries around Los Angeles. When she was 69 years old, Slick told CNN, "Following your curiosity is a good idea, because you don't want to be sitting around at my age going, 'Gee, I was too scared to go for it.'"
You might– wait, you’ll definitely be surprised as to what music she’s playing in her car these days. In the same interview, she said, “I like Daughtry, I like Nickelback, I like Dave Matthews. I like Beyoncé — she’s a really good entertainer.”
