The Only Living Boy In New York - Tumblr Posts

what is all but luminous by art garfunkel, posted by @dominik528 // my notes app // x // x // x // x // x // x

Oh, hello there fellow folks who see and appreciate these connections between songs! 🥹💜

Songs that when paired successively give you chills and throwup sickness

I love this. I truly do. Because I also feel like the love has always been and always stayed there, between them, through all the bullshit and animosity and such.

I do feel that love is the key to their relationship, whatever that is.

what's your expert opinion on the post-catch-22 incident aka everything that went wrong after their big fight? like, ive been pondering about their downfall for a while now, with art's poem page kind of hinting his longing for paul after/during that bit and the only living boy/frank lloyd wright/why don't you write me trilogy. they were one crazy couple. anyways, id like to know! (since there's a potential field study that can be made to solely analyze their psyches and body language together lol)

Brace yourself—this is going to be a long one without a whole lot of coherent thoughts, but here’s a few things that come to mind:

I really don’t think it was all miserable during the recording of Bridge. There’s a priceless bootleg of So Long, Frank Lloyd Wright where they can barely get through the song without fits of laughing. ( https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=PeMOGkvukuI ) And while Art reportedly didn’t realize the meaning of So Long, Frank Lloyd Wright for a while, I can’t imagine that he didn’t pick up on the meaning of Why Don’t You Write Me while they were recording it. To an extent, it seems that they were able to detach themselves from the meanings of those songs while recording—Art said in 2020 about So Long, Frank Lloyd Wright that “only after the fact did I start thinking about things like that he wrote it to me. You could say it's a song of rejection. You could say all kinds of shit. I never got into that. I got into the melody.” And when the tension did finally boil over beyond repair, it seemed like a combination of everything that had built up over almost two decades of friendship and a few inciting incidents, as you mentioned. 

A part of me can’t fathom how they could walk away from each other and from the top of the world like that. But I also can’t imagine singing and being best friends with someone since grade school, losing them right after getting a taste of fame, finding them again, going from college kids to worldwide fame practically overnight, being together almost 24/7 during tours, being under tremendous pressure to create perfection all the time, having that soulmate connection clash with the underlying bitterness—the list goes on. That’s a hell of a lot for both of them to have lived through by age 28, and it’s not surprising that the idea of forever being tied to each other was too much to bear.

I don’t think Art had bad intentions during the filming of Catch-22, but it’s likely that the combination of finally doing something on his own/not being second fiddle for once and the leftover bitterness from the Tom & Jerry days pushed him to take it a little too far afterwards and sign on for Carnal Knowledge without telling Paul. I think neither of them had any idea how to improve beyond the virtual perfection of Bridge, and I think Paul especially believed that there was really nowhere else to go as a duo and that his only chance to improve as an artist was to strike out on his own. We’ve seen a million times over how willing and able he was to branch out musically and demonstrate his absolute genius, and I don’t doubt that he knew that going at it alone was the only way to get there. That’s not to say that I don’t feel bad for Art, because I do. It seems that he really genuinely didn’t know that the “break from Paul” would turn into a permanent split, and getting left at the top without realizing it must’ve been extremely difficult to process.

Going back to the trilogy of songs you mentioned, Art described the feeling I get from those songs better than I can in a 2020 American Songwriter article. “There you were, the architect. He’s telling you he can’t believe you’re gone. This friendship has come, and now… it’s fucking gone. And he can’t believe it. And he’s giving you, in your mouth, these lyrics to sing. What a world.” 

But I will always fall back on The Only Living Boy in New York as the overall story of the end of S&G that I dearly hope is true—that the love and friendship did remain even after the musical partnership fell apart. I’ve only ever interpreted that song as genuinely loving, with no bite or sarcasm on Paul’s part. Everything about it, from “I know that you’ve been eager to fly now” to what almost sounds like a sob in “like it shines on me” to the beautiful twist of Art being the one to feature most prominently on “here I am,” is both devastating and heart-warming. I really do hope that that’s the most accurate account of it all—a mutual agreement that it was time to go their own ways but that if one of them ever really needed the other, they’d be there. And of course there’s the crushing demo line that absolutely should have stayed in the final version: “half of my life is gone and I don’t know where.” Interpret that and their relationship however you wish, but it might be the single most fitting line for their split, their connection, and everything that went wrong. 

Obviously there’s a lot we’ll never know about how it all went down, and I’m not sure I’ve done a good job of sharing my opinion and not just regurgitating facts for a small eternity, but I enjoyed rambling about all of this anyway, so thank you! 

This is so beautiful, I'm crying.

the lyrics "tom, get your plane right on time / i know your part'll go fine / fly down to mexico" and "I get the news I need on the weather report / i can gather all the news I need on the weather report" are so so good and just such a beautiful example of how it feels to care deeply for someone. like when someone you love is on a plane journey all you need to check is the weather to know that they're safe in the air, i gather all the news i need on the weather report i got nothing to do today but smile i know your part will go fine. that's LOVE baby. i love this song

Half of my life is gone truly had a power of its own, though it's heartbreaking enough like this, too.

Half of the time we’re gone but we don’t know where And we don’t know where Here I am…

I can't.

And Bye Bye Love right after these.

And Song For the Asking to close the album, where he literally says ASK ME FFS I CAN'T

we don't talk about how really deranged paul simon actually is for writing this about art garfunkel OR ANYONE FOR THAT MATTER like he doesn't even stick to saying I miss you... he's literally gonna hang himself on the highest tree over this. and he's gonna question him like 20 times why he hasn't written him .

- “The Only Living Boy in New York”, Paul Simon // Simon & Garfunkel

Oh yeah, he was so subtle. King of dissimulation. No one will even suspect a thing, rest assured.

bringing this back since it’s on topic

No, yeah, of course, I mean... Paul was just literally singing about how half of his life was gone when Artie was in Mexico, but yeah, pure male companionship. Gotta love that definition, gonna use it for them from now on.

An early demo of Simon and Garfunkel’s “The Only Living Boy in New York” (excerpted from the 1975 BBC series on the duo). I wish this line had made it into the final version!

Pure male companionship, uh?

These two, I swear.

remember this..

no better genre of songs than bobby jean by bruce springsteen and only living boy in new york by simon and garfunkel

Do you ever think about the demo version with "half of my life is gone and I don't know where" just to add salt to the wound?

do you ever listen to this song and just go so profoundly insane its as if you will never ever recover? do you ever think about Paul simon "half of the time we're gone but we don't know where, we don't know where, the only living boy in new york" and art garfunkel replying with "here i am" in the most haunting harmonies that could fill a canyon? i mean do you ever think about that.

No one will ever write a song like only living boy in new york ever again. Thats a one in a zillion song dont even bother

I think he understood, and chose to go/stay away all the same. Maybe he was all wrong, or maybe he had... reasons.

So long, Frank Lloyd Wright on the other hand... I hAd nO iDeA iT wAs AbOuT mE like R u 4 real?! 🤣

if I was art and paul had called me up and was like hey… I have this song that goes “Tom get your plane right on time I know your part’ll go fine fly down to Mexico” I would have understood. I’m sorry to art but I would have understood

OF COURSE IT ISSSSS

SO GLAD SOMEBODY FINALLY SAID IT OUT LOUD 😭

YOU CANNOT CONVINCE ME THAT TRAVILING BOY WASN'T A SEQUEL TO LIVING BOY IN NY YOU CANTTTT