Wednesday, August 26, 2015

42. Simon & Garfunkel - Bridge Over Troubled Water


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I've met some difficulty trying to find a way to tweak this album art. It's not a really flashy album cover such as the ones I've tried my hands on, but this one is a great album overall. The levels of
Art Garfunkel's shoulders are about even, but Paul Simon's are not. So in order to put Art Garfunkel shoulder to shoulder with himself and Paul Simon with himself too, the succeeding image
has to be reduced. Two images put together left ample space but placing a third left insufficient space for a fourth. The solution was to reduce the size of the first image. 

Now, there are four, but the image reduction left so much space at the top and at the bottom. The solution was to paste the images repeatedly behind the front line, reducing  the
sizes and darkening each succeeding image a bit every step towards the back. Finally the whole image was texturized to make it look as if it had been done on rough solid wall.
By contrast, the monochromed background makes the wall look thin and creates a sense of space behind. Luckily for me, the resizing and positioning still allowed the names
of the artists to be shown in its entirety on the second line. 

I seems that I saw a slow motion replay of a "Boxer" in action, or someone waving "Bye Bye Love" or heared the revved up engine in "Baby Driver." But it's the shoulder-to-
shoulder that symbolizes the Bridge and the monochromed background the troubled water. The duo's rocky relationship often resulted to artistic disagreements.
Bridge Over Troubled Water was the last studio album by Simon and Garfunkel.   


Here's the original album cover art design posterized and crosshatched.


No. 51, Rolling Stone, The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time; No. 54, Billboard, The 300 Best-Selling Albums of All Time;
No. 66, The Virgin All-Time Album Top 1000; No. 68, Rate Your Music, The 100 Greatest Albums of All Time.


Photograph by Abbott Mills and Peter Powell. Album produced by Paul Simon, Art Garfunkel and Roy Halee. Columbia 1970. 


"Bridge over Troubled Water" was influenced by the gospel music to which Simon was listening at that time, especially the Swan Silvertones and their song
"Mary Don't You Weep". The name of the title track was inspired by the latter's line "I'll be your bridge over deep water, if you trust in my name".
"Bridge over Troubled Water" was addressed to Simon's wife Peggy, whom he met that year. The "silver girl" in the song refers to her. Full article


The album cover for Bridge Over Troubled Water features a photograph credited to Abbott Mills and Peter Powell. It shows Art Garfunkel standing
behind Paul Simon, with the top of Simon's head blocking Garfunkel's mouth and chin. It didn't take long for people to realize that by holding
up a thumb to block out Simon's face while looking at the sleeve, it looks as if Garfunkel is sporting a large, handle bar moustache
(below). Some people believe that this was intentional. In any case, it is something that has been amusing both children
and adults for four decades. More




(A) Bridge Over Troubled Water - El Condor Pasa - Cecilia - Keep the Customer Satisfied - So Long, Frank Lloyd Wright

(B) The Boxer - Baby Driver - The Only Living Boy in New York - Why Don't You Write Me - Bye Bye Love - Song For the Asking

"The Boxer" live from Central Park from Jack Lim on YouTube


            

  

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