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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

Controversial Opinion - Simon and Garfunkle

158 replies

Magenta82 · 07/04/2023 07:49

I've long harboured this opinion and so far the people I've voiced it to have been split so I thought I would throw it out to you lovely ladies.

Paul Simon is a genius, his songs and music are amazing, however, pretty much every cover version is better than the original that was sung by Simon and Garfunkle.

So Mumsnet, AIBU?

OP posts:
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7
Whoknowswhere · 07/04/2023 08:36

I like S&G, however, the best cover of theirs is Hazy Shade of Winter by The Bangles.

determinedtomakethiswork · 07/04/2023 08:37

There is a subtlety in Simon & Garfunkel singing that just isn't there in the covers.

CurlewKate · 07/04/2023 08:39

Absolutely agree. Graceland is a truly fantastic album.

Timeforachangeisitnot · 07/04/2023 08:40

Just listened to Disturbed, having grown up with older siblings original S&G version. I love the Disturbed version, yes, it is shouty but just as the original was speaking to the dazed out hippies , this version really makes its point , I can actually ‘get’ the lyrics better with Disturbed’s version.
so thanks all for introducing me to that, off yo listen to some more.

LadyPlasters · 07/04/2023 08:42

Bridge Over Troubled Water g.co/kgs/ELTsZf

I like the original of BoTW but I LOVE this version by Aretha 👌

izzy2076 · 07/04/2023 08:44

'Toss me a cigarette I think there's one in my raincoat..

Kathy I'm lost I said though I knew she was sleeping....I'm empty and aching and I don't know why...'

These lines are so powerful in their simplicity and could never be sung by anyone else. YABU!

TriceratopsRocks · 07/04/2023 08:47

I love S&G, but I really dislike the version of Sound of Silence that was released as a single (apparently so did Paul Simon - the electric guitar being added afterwards, in production and not by him). The version on the album Wednesday morning 3am is wonderful - but then, I do tend to prefer acoustic versions of stuff. I feel like the song was ruined by the addition of the electric backing track, but then it became a huge hit, so what do I know!

ByTheSea · 07/04/2023 08:49

LyndaSnellsSniff · 07/04/2023 08:35

We used to do a lot of long car journeys to visit family and we tended to listen to the Simon & Garfunkel Reunion Concert in Central Park. So I was more familiar with their live versions of their own songs than the album versions. When I first heard the recorded, album version of Bridge Over Troubled Water I was a bit disappointed and thought it was over-produced.

I'm over that now though and think it's sublime. I can't listen to that Reunion Concert though without feeling incredibly emotional.

I was at that concert. I also raised DC playing that concert cassette tape all the time on car journeys, all of us singing along, and my DC are also big fans so I was thrilled to be able to take them to see Paul Simon in concert as well.

mydogisthebest · 07/04/2023 08:56

YUBVVVVVVVVVVU. The Disturbed version is bloody awful. I love Simon and Garfunkel

toomuchlaundry · 07/04/2023 08:57

Bridge over Troubled Water by S&G was playing on the radio in the background when my best friend (then aged 21) phoned me to tell me her father had died. Always associate that song with that 😔

TriceratopsRocks · 07/04/2023 09:03

I regularly watch songs from the concert in central park on YouTube. And that version of Bridge over troubled water remains my favourite. It looked effortless, but really isn't. I Iove it when Art Garfunkel does a little fist pump at the end - he knew he had totally smashed it and it showed how much it meant to him.

PurpleParrotfish · 07/04/2023 09:05

I'd not heard of the Disturbed version, so just looked it up and don't like it at all! It's so slow and self indulgent I couldn't be bothered to wait and skipped forward to see what the later bits were like. None of the charm of the original. In general I quite like Simon and Garfunkel, but Paul Simon's later stuff is more likely to make it onto my random playlists. But I do love Sound of Silence (the original).

GCAcademic · 07/04/2023 09:07

BrokenWing · 07/04/2023 08:34

Never heard the cover version from Disturbed before........ not keen, don't get the emotions in it at all, feels shouty for the sake of shouting, too try hard. Personally think S&G version delivers the essence of the song much more powerfully.

I completely agree. I’m amazed that people rate that cover at all, never mind above the original.

TrashyPanda · 07/04/2023 09:12

I think singer/songwriters bring an extra depth to their music.
even if they aren’t the greatest of singers - think8ng of Neil Young, Leonard Cohen etc.

Bob Dylan is the exception to this!

S&G are sublime.

Strugglingtodomybest · 07/04/2023 09:15

BrokenWing · 07/04/2023 08:34

Never heard the cover version from Disturbed before........ not keen, don't get the emotions in it at all, feels shouty for the sake of shouting, too try hard. Personally think S&G version delivers the essence of the song much more powerfully.

I agree, it's too try hard.

BlueHeelers · 07/04/2023 09:18

Paul Simon has never had quite the success that he had with Art Garfunkel. Maybe you’re too young to know just how huge Simon and Garfunkel - as a pair - were.

PS you might be slightly less unreasonable if you could spell Mr Garfunkel’s name correctly.

BrokenWing · 07/04/2023 09:19

TriceratopsRocks · 07/04/2023 09:03

I regularly watch songs from the concert in central park on YouTube. And that version of Bridge over troubled water remains my favourite. It looked effortless, but really isn't. I Iove it when Art Garfunkel does a little fist pump at the end - he knew he had totally smashed it and it showed how much it meant to him.

Just watched this (twice). Simply outstanding 👏🏼

HarlanPepper · 07/04/2023 09:21

I love Simon and Garfunkel and I've got a deep emotional attachment to their music. So I don't agree in general, BUT I've always loved that Lemonheads Mrs Robinson cover.

waterlego · 07/04/2023 09:21

HeddaGarbled · 07/04/2023 08:14

Nope. The harmony of the two voices is something special. And that Disturbed version turns the original into a ten-a-penny power ballad.

Agree. I don’t get why so many people rave about the Disturbed cover. I think it’s completely overrated.

StrawberryWater · 07/04/2023 09:24

I like a few S&G covers.

Not keen on the Disturbed cover though. I mean it’s ok but dudes voice is nowhere near as good as Art Garfunkle’s and to say it’s better is like saying Madonna’s American Pie is better than Don McLean’s. No!

CasperGutman · 07/04/2023 09:26

I think singer/songwriters bring an extra depth to their music.

100% this. Much of the difference is, I'm sure, in my head. I listen more closely to the lyrics and appreciate them more when I know I'm hearing the singer's own words.

In the case of Simon & Garfunkel, this makes massive difference as the words, and their interplay with the music, are such a big part of the experience.

The cover versions generally add more instruments, more layering, a "fuller" arrangement. You're not wrong to prefer this, and there is a lot of value in many of the covers, but in many cases, it takes focus away from the lyrics. And in my mind, with S&G, this is more often than not a bad thing.

CasperGutman · 07/04/2023 09:28

Perhaps I should have added: Much of the difference is, I'm sure, in my head but no less real for that.

GrouchyKiwi · 07/04/2023 09:30

Agree with PP that the Bangles version of Hazy Shade of Winter is better than the original.

But that's the only one.

I LOATHE the Disturbed version of SoS.

Bridge Over Troubled Water by S&G has never been bettered, though I also adore Josh Groban & Brian McKnight's version for the beauty of their harmonies.

First Aid Kit's America is also lovely.

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