Showing posts with label Simon & Garfunkel. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Simon & Garfunkel. Show all posts

Sunday, 19 January 2025

Bridge Over Troubled Water

 

Cover version of the month #104
Artetha Franklin covers Simon and Garfunkel

One day in December I was driving through the rain when Craig Charles stopped me in my tracks by playing Aretha Franklin's version of Simon & Garfunkel's classic Bridge Over Troubled Water.

I was spellbound! There are covers, and then there are Aretha Franklin covers! See my May 2017 blog on her rip roaring version of Respect by Otis Redding.

Her 1971 take on Simon & Garfunkel’s Bridge Over Troubled Water is a masterclass in reinterpretation—transforming an already iconic song into something deeply personal, profoundly soulful, and utterly transcendent. WOW!

The original version by Simon & Garfunkel, released in 1970, is a shimmering melancholic folk-pop ballad. Paul Simon’s lyrics, inspired by gospel music, offer comfort and solace, while Art Garfunkel’s angelic voice delivers them with a serene purity. It’s a song that builds delicately, layering piano, strings, and harmonies until it swells into a grand crescendo. 

Listening to the song on headphone, it feels intimate, like Garfunkel is talking to you, like he empathises and cares. 

Then comes Aretha!

Recorded just a year after the original, Aretha’s rendition brings the gospel roots of the song front and centre, making it feel less like a folk-pop hymn and more like a sermon from the pulpit - the full embrace of the gospel choir, a heart-on-sleeve declaration of love and support. 

Aretha’s version begins with a soulful organ, immediately setting a richer tone. Then there’s her voice—raw, powerful, and infused with deep emotional, backed by a heavenly gospel choir. There is no rush, there is a lengthy instrumental passage from 26 seconds through to 1-minute 30 seconds, with a slow, soulful, slightly jazzy feel.  

Then, just before 2-minutes, Aretha sings;

When you're down and out

When you're on the street

When evening falls so hard

I will comfort you

Listen to the way she sings so hard - Goosebumps! 

Aretha sings with the conviction of someone who has lived every word, every heartbreak, and every triumph that the song embodies. This is spine tingling, life affirming stuff - listen to Franklin's voice rise with ease. Listen to the section where Aretha and her choir sing see how they shine in tandem. OOOFFFTT!

And the arrangement! The backing vocals! And that voice! Aretha isn’t afraid to go big! The choir backing her feels like a congregation lifting her up, and the rhythm section injects a subtle groove that wasn’t there in the original. By the time she hits the climactic Like a bridge over troubled water, it’s no longer just a lyric—it’s a declaration, a promise shouted from the mountaintop. 

While the groove is slow and chilled and the backing vocals are arranged beautifully arranged, Aretha is on fire - wild, radiant and impossible to contain! And it is A M A Z I N G to hear. What a sound! What a voice! The closing 90-seconds are utterly sublime.

Interestingly, Paul Simon himself praised Aretha’s version, once calling it the definitive recording of the song. 

So, which version is the best? That depends on what you’re looking for. Need a quiet moment of reflection, or a need to appreciate the art of songwriting in one of its finest moments? Go with Simon & Garfunkel. Need to feel uplifted, empowered, and ready to take on the world? Turn to Aretha. Both are exceptional performances of a truly magnificent song.

When I look back at the list of 100+ cover versions that I have blogged on, this is one of the very, very best.

I do love cover versions. One of the many beautiful things about music is how songs can be reimagined, reshaped, and reborn in ways that make us fall in love with them all over again.

Bridge Over Troubled Water won 5 Grammy's in 1971. Aretha performed her version as Simon & Garfunkel collected their awards.

Both versions are added to my Everything Flows Cool Cover Versions playlist on Spotify which also features all of the songs listed below. Search for the title or CLICK HERE

Previous covers of the month blogs

13. Hurt
39. ABBA-esque
40. Jumpin' Jack Flash
64. Lola
82. Drop
87. Indian Rope Man + bonus Strawberry Fields Forever + This Wheels On Fire
92. Valerie
101. Shout!
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Tuesday, 11 January 2022

Mrs Robinson

Cover version of the month #73 
The Lemonheads cover Simon & Garfunkel



Sometime back in 1992 I heard Mrs Robinson by The Lemonheads and also caught the video that was on heavy rotation on MTV. I bought the 7-inch single and subsequently bought the album it was on - It's A Shame About Ray. I'll be blogging on the album soon as it is receiving a deluxe reissue for its 30th anniversary.

Mrs Robinson wasn't originally on the album. The Lemonheads had recorded it (under duress from Atlantic Records) for the 25th anniversary of the film The Graduate, where the song by Simon & Garfunkel had featured back in 1967. The video for the single splices between shots of The Lemonheads on a boat on the canals of Amsterdam (?) and scenes from the film.

The Lemonheads scuzzy bubblegum garage pop version became a hit all over and Dando became an indie pinup, crossing over into the mainstream through his incredible good looks and hedonistic lifestyle. 

I absolutely loved (and still love) The Lemonheads version and the beautiful b-side Being Around, so clever, funny and melodic. 

The do, do, do, do, do, do intro is pure pop and after a burst of guitar the drums kick in and the band tear through the first verse. I love the garage psychedelia outro that goes on for 40-seconds.

Evan never played the song when he toured It's A Shame About Ray for the 20th anniversary, so it will be interesting to see if he does this time.


Simon & Garfunkel released Mrs Robinson as a single and on their Bookends album back in 1968. A 30-second introduction introduces us to the key guitar riff and vocal melody of the song, before bursting into the chorus. Paul & Art are in perfect harmony

One thing that surprised me when I listened to the song for the first time in a while was its length. I would never have guessed that Mrs Robinson was over 4-minutes long!

Simon's lyrics are so clever, introducing politics in the verse beginning Sitting on a sofa on a Sunday afternoon that leads to the lines;

Going to the candidates debate
Laugh about it, shout about it
When you've got to choose
Every way you look at this, you lose

That last line hits politics absolutely spot on - every way you look at this, you lose! 

I do think there is a touch of psychedelia in the way Simon & Garfunkel sing. Their voices are so beautiful and gentle, the playful intro, then the way they rise for the final verse. I love how the guitar riff is played upon for the outro, something The Lemonheads picked up on.

Check the stunning romp through the song by The Lemonheads on 90's cult classic show The Word and Simon & Garfunkel wowing Central Park.

Both versions have been added to my Cool Cover Versions playlist on Spotify, or search for Everything Flows Cool Cover Versions.

A list and links to all previous covers of the month blogs is below.

Previous covers of the month

13. Hurt




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