Simon & Garfunkel, 1970
Photo: Getty Images. All rights reserved.
“Bridge Over Troubled Water,” Simon & Garfunkel’s album legacy, is of course their most comforting. But also a panopticon of diverse sound paintings, as ROLLING STONE author Wolfgang Doebeling once pointed out. “From the gospel-heavy title song to the Andean kitsch of ‘El Condor Pasa’ and the rather annoying commercial pop of ‘Cecilia’ up to the clever ‘So Long, Frank Lloyd Wright’ and culminating in the ingenious dramaturgy of ‘The Boxer’.”
The documentary “Dreamwalker of Pop” (arte, September 22nd, 9:45 p.m., streaming until December 20th) now tells the story of the creation of the record, which, as an “emotional journey through light and shadow,” is also something of a mirror image is their time.
Paul Simon, Art Garfunkel and many of their colleagues, friends and companions report on how it came about and what makes the songs so magical. Rarely shown archive material can also be seen.