WHAT A STORY
New MGM+ documentary lays bare the musical genius of Paul Simon
IT was the sound of running water — not the sound of silence. That was the mundane muse behind the angelic ascension of “The Sound of Silence” — the chart-topping classic that had Simon & Garfunkel making all kinds of noise after their 1964 debut.
“I used to go into the bathroom of my parents’ house. There was tile on the wall, and I’d turn the water on,” recalls Paul Simon — who wrote the duo’s first hit — in the two-part documentary “In Restless Dreams: The Music of Paul Simon,” which premieres on MGM+ Sunday and continues on March 24.
“And the tile made the echo, and the water was like a white noise sound. It was going to a space that was a zone.”
For Simon, 82, sitting in the john of his parent’s home in Flushing, Queens, made him flush with creativity.
“There was a very easy flow of creating energy,” he explains. “One second ago, that thought wasn’t here — and now I’m weeping. How’d that happen? And how can I do it again?”
However, on the first demo of “The Sound of Silence” that was recorded in 1964, Art Garfunkel was on mute. “It was just me, it wasn’t with Artie,” says Simon of his solo vocal without his childhood buddy in harmony.
But after playing the song — which was originally titled “The Sounds of Silence” — for Bob Dylan’s Columbia Records producer Tom Wilson, Simon felt as if it was missing something: Garfunkel.
“And I said, ‘I sang this song with a friend of mine. Could we come in and audition for you?’ He said, ‘Yeah, sure.’
“So Artie and I came in and sang it. And they said they would sign us. We were very excited because really at that time you couldn’t be at a more prestigious place than Columbia Records.”
Still, there was “a big debate” about what the duo — who had previously released the 1957 hit “Hey Schoolgirl” as Tom & Jerry — would be called.
“Because there was a group called Art and Paul,” explains Simon in the doc. “So now Columbia was trying to figure out names, and God they were awful. They were really awful. I mean, one of them was the Rye Catchers.”
Finally, though, an executive decision was made.
“The president of Columbia Records, Goddard Lieberson, stepped in and said, ‘No, their name should be Simon & Garfunkel,’” says the two-time Rock & Roll Hall of Famer.
“Which at the time was a pretty radical thing to have ethnic names. People still Anglicized their names … So that was a big deal.”
And with that, Simon & Garfunkel would begin their legendary folk-rock run.
“And so,” Simon says, “we went in and we recorded our first album, ‘Wednesday Morning, 3 A.M.’”
Simon & Garfunkel would bitterly part ways after their fifth and final album, 1970’s Grammy-winning “Bridge Over Troubled Water.”
But Simon — who is described in the documentary as “the greatest songwriter in the history of American popular music” — would go on to build his own storied solo career that would see him get inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame for the second time.
“I never thought anything was a risk,” he says of his songwriting process. “I really didn’t know which song was gonna be a hit.”
After explaining how he “loves the mystery” of songwriting, a young Simon adds, “I write for various reasons. Some songs I write for the pleasure of writing a song. It doesn’t have any great meaning. It’s just a song.”
And for those who wonder about the eclecticism that has led him from the African influences of 1986’s “Graceland” to the Brazilian inspiration of 1990’s “The Rhythm of the Saints,” he says, “People say, ‘Why is it that you always want to change your sound?’ And I’m not thinking that way at all. I’m looking for the edge of what you can hear. I can just about hear it, but I can’t quite. That’s the thing I want … “And sometimes you find it to make something that’s magic, you know?”