This week were celebrating 50 years of Simon & Garfunkel's timeless Bridge Over Troubled Water album.
So I'll be putting Paul Simon center stage on the Rock'n'Roll London walk this Friday 2pm at Tottenham Court Road tube. Simon almost always crops up on my London Music Tours – both in the West End (where Friday;s tour takes place) and out at The Troubadour. One of my very favorite of his albums remains…
The Paul Simon Songbook (Columbia 1965)
This London classic was deleted for a number of years, but is now happily available again to download and stream and also on those old fashioned CD thingies.
Not that such matters trouble me – as you can see, my vinyl copy is still going strong. It's pictured above on my beloved 1965 Dansette Viva.
The album was recorded at Levy’s Recording Studio at 73 New Bond Street right here in London, and is a relic of Simon’s London exile of the mid 60s.
The girl in the sleeve picture is Simon’s then girlfriend Kathy Chitty, a native of Essex. Kathy makes her presence felt in the work of Simon and Garfunkel – notably in Kathy’s Song and America.
Over at The Troubadour in Earl's Court they still have a tribute to Paul Simon painted on the wall…
It was one of the many venues in Britain where Simon plied his trade on his first sojourn to London back in 1965.
I can’t recall a time when I didn’t know every moment of Bridge Over Troubled Water off by heart.
Soothing, sad, uplifting and even funny (the burst-tyre percussion of Cecilia, a songwriter’s love song about being abandoned and then loved again by Cecilia the patron saint of musicians as his muse waxes and wanes is always hilarious. The harmonies. Paul’s barnet as Artie’s moustache on the sleeve! I listened to it last with my daughter. What joy to revel in her first-time appreciation of this classic.
If you have a Simon & Garfunkel memory, come and share it with me on the Rock'n'Roll London tour on Friday – hearing stories from you guys is one of the things I love best about leading London Music Tours.
• The London Music Tour – Rock'n'Roll London •
Friday 31st January 2020
2pm Tottenham Court Road tube (exit 1)
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Willow W, reviewing Rock'n'Roll London on TripAdvisor
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