Song: The Only Living Boy in New York
Artist: Simon & Garfunkel
Album: Bridge Over Troubled Water (1970)
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This is an incredible song from an incredible folk rock duo. There’s a lot to say that I can’t fit here, but luckily we discuss it in this week’s episode of the podcast, which you can check out here!
Paul Simon & Art Garfunkel first met in elementary school and started making music together in 1957 at the age of 16. At the time, they referred to themselves as Tom & Jerry (from the cartoon characters). Art was ‘Tom’ and Paul was ‘Jerry.’
The first line of this song, The Only Living Boy In New York, is “Tom, get your plane right on time, I know your part’ll go fine, Fly down to Mexico…”
Some insights: The song was written by Paul Simon, and he is actually referring to Art (Tom), who was down in Mexico filming a movie called Catch-22. Paul was left alone in New York preparing the songs for their next album (this one) and was feeling left alone while Art was down in Mexico. This song is somewhat of a farewell song written by Paul as their relationship started to get shaky around this time, and they ended up breaking up a few years later. This song was released on their final album in 1970, a couple of years before they broke up.