my recounting of the history of simon & garfunkel (mostly focusing on paul) off the top of my head (aka, infodumping): a thread

paul frederic simon was born in new jersey on october 13th, 1941 to a jewish family. they soon moved to new york. paul's father, lou, was a locally "famous" musician. he was also a teacher. lou was the one who taught paul how to play the guitar

in the 4th grade, there was a talent show at paul's school, and a boy caught his attention. he was a very good singer, and he happened to only live a little while away from paul. his name was arthur garfunkel.

arthur ira garfunkel was born in new york city (?) on november 5th, 1941. i really am not sure about his family, to be honest i dont go to his wikipedia page that often

they did not become friends until 6th grade, during their school's alice in wonderland play. paul was the white rabbit; art was the cheshire cat. the two of them started singing together when they were thirteen, perfecting harmonies in the basement of one of their houses.

when they were around the age of 15/16, they had their first hit record, which was actually inspired by a song by the everly brothers, under the name tom and jerry. they were very popular for the rest of highschool, and they had a lot of money.

with this money, paul bought a car. this car ended up exploding. their record label fell through, and the boys gave up hope. in the summer of 1963, paul went to england. he met a girl named kathy, but didnt fall in love with her until the next summer.

paul saw bob dylan, when he was still an unheard-of name in the music industry, play in a folk club. he realized that music could be about so much more than girls. he then wrote what he considered to be his first sophisticated song

back in new york, paul shows art the song, and art is impressed with it. they record an album, it is called "wednesday morning, 3 am." it is a good album, but it doesnt take off immediately. so, discouraged, paul goes back to england.

he finds kathy again, and lives with her for the summer. he falls in love with her, and even writes a song for her. but, when bob dylan's producers find "the sound of silence," they change the song so it appeals more to the public, without knowledge or permission from paul or art

art writes to paul to come back to new york, so he does, but not without asking kathy to come with him. she declines, as she cannot handle the shaky schedule of a musician such as paul, so he is heartbroken. nevertheless, he returns to his hometown.

paul and art sit in a car at the top of a hill, probably smoking weed, as their song hits #1 on the radio's top 10. this is exciting for them. in 1966, they release two albums, "sounds of silence," and "parsley, sage, rosemary, and thyme"

these two albums do well, popularity-wise, and paul and art feel at the top of the world. in 1967, director mike nichols, later to include art as important roles in some of his films, asks paul to write a song for the movie, "the graduate." paul says yes.

"mrs. robinson," alongside earlier simon & garfunkel songs, makes it onto the soundtrack. this song also makes it into the duo's 1968 album, "bookends"
this album's odd lyrics and interesting choice of production make it clear that experimental drugs were most-likely involved.

but, in 1969, the two begin to grow apart. forced together by the record label, they both try to control the musical direction. paul wants to branch out, art wants to stay the same. they make it work for one more record, their masterpiece, "bridge over troubled water"

the inspiration for one of the songs on the record, "the only living boy in new york," was art's departure to mexico to shoot a movie. mike nichols asked him to play captain nately in a film adaptation of catch-22. he was gone for months, and paul felt more alone than ever

this was also a contributing factor to their split. this might've been the final straw. art was starting to seem unreliable, and they both wanted different things, so they split. paul simon's post-simon-&-garfunkel music career was eventful and fruitful. art's was not.

on september 19th, 1981, they had a reunion concert. it was free to attend, and they filled up central park.
in 2004-2005, they had a reunion tour (which was not free) and they performed hits as well as lesser-appreciated songs that they wanted to do.

today, they do not talk. paul does occasional solo performances when asked, and art does weird little poetry shows where he just kinda talks the whole time. neither man can swallow his pride and call the other. they have not talked in "a while," according to art.
its very sad.

AND ON THAT SAD, SAD NOTE! i hope you learned something. please factcheck tho, bc this is literally off the top of my head. i tried my best to separate fiction and reality, but sometimes that is hard.
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