简介/传略...
歌声有如天籁的赛门和葛芬柯虽然是纽约邻居兼同学,却只合作了六年,市面上的音乐合辑,选来选去就是那二十多首歌,他们从1965窜红,1970就分手,2004年才又复合开了一次老友再携手的演唱会,留给世人的只有遗憾和怀念。

要提到赛门和葛芬柯的传奇,就一定要提到电影《毕业生》,该片在1967年底推出,四个月之后就获得了奥斯卡最佳导演奖,1968年四月十日,《毕业生》的导演麦克尼柯斯上台领取奖座时,现场就响起了主题曲“罗宾逊太太”的音乐声,事实上,这首音乐随着电影的大卖座,不但成为当年最受欢迎的音乐之一,更是后人在回顾电影音乐史时,总是会挤进十大音乐榜单的名曲之一。

只是很少人知道,这首曲子本来不叫做““罗宾逊太太”,而是叫做“罗斯福太太”。

故事要从保罗.赛门和阿特.葛芬柯这对“赛门和葛芬柯”的二重唱团体说起。他们本来是纽约皇后区的邻居,生日只差三星期,念的是同一所小学和中学,两人又都会唱歌,自然而然就成为校园里最受欢迎的二重唱。

保罗.赛门的爸爸发现儿子爱唱歌,就花了约等于一个月薪资的25美元买了一把名贵的木吉他送他,但是赛门爸爸讨厌摇滚,不准他公开弹唱摇滚歌曲,保罗很气,也很孤单,只有经常把自己关在浴室里,关掉灯,独自对着四周贴满瓷砖的小小空间,开始唱着:“HELLO, DARKNESS, MY OLD FRIEND, I’VE COME TO TALK WITH YOU AGAIN……”(哈啰,黑暗,我的老朋友,我又来找你谈话了…)这就是后来脍炙人口的名曲“THE SOUND OF SILENCE”“沉默之声”的由来。

1965年,唱片制片人推出“沉默之声”时,深受远赴他乡负笈求学的大学住宿学生的喜爱,认为保罗.赛门的歌词写出了人们的孤独心灵,再加上阿特.葛芬科清脆高亮的美丽和声,唱出了时下青年的寂寞心事,号称是当年最爱欢迎的校园民歌。正在筹拍《毕业生》的麦克尼柯斯,渴望能找到一种音乐来表达大学生的迷惘和失落感,一听到“沉默之声”时,当下就决定要请“赛门和葛芬柯”创作电影音乐。

保罗.赛门那时根本不懂电影音乐是怎么回事,很快就签约,但是“赛门和葛芬柯”很红,各地的邀约演唱不断,他和阿特.葛芬科每天都巡回全美各地演唱,根本没机会来细想电影音乐的细节,等到电影都已经拍完,进入后制剪辑时,导演手上有的音乐还是只有“沉默之声”和“史卡波罗博览会”等几首保罗.赛门早期写就的歌曲,每天听每天唱,的确找到不少影像空间的剪接节奏,但是做为整体的电影音乐而言,这样的素材还是太薄弱了,于是麦克下了最后通碟,要求“赛门和葛芬柯”履约,交出电影需要的新音乐。

保罗.赛门临时赶出来的音乐,都被麦克打了回票,就在大家情绪都很不好的时候,阿特.葛芬科突然说:“我们还有一首‘罗宾逊太太’,要不要试试看?”“什么?还有一首‘罗宾逊太太’?为什么我都不知道?”麦克急得跳了起来。

《毕业生》中那位引诱朋友儿子上床的急色女人就叫做罗宾逊太太,麦可本来要找素以良家妇女形象著称的桃乐丝.黛担纲,但是桃乐丝.黛不肯,只好另找安妮.班克劳馥接棒。麦克正在烦恼该怎么突出这位前卫的色欲女士角色时,一听有一首‘罗宾逊太太’,当然备感兴奋,当场要保罗赛门和阿特.葛芬科唱给他听。

当然,保罗和阿特并不是故意暗杠这首‘罗宾逊太太’,而是保罗试图在歌词里把美国人曾经最爱的棒球偶像狄马乔,退休后就备受泠落的境况写进歌词时,以探讨美国人的生活价值观一直在变化的文化情貌,歌名原本叫做“罗斯福太太”,但是罗斯福的音节比较嘶哑,不像罗宾逊那样响亮,于是阿特就建议把罗斯福改成罗宾逊,但是歌名才改好,曲词都还没有最后定案,所以才迟迟没有秀给导演听。

由于‘罗宾逊太太’实在太巧合了,加上电影公映在即,根本不可能另外发展音乐,于是请编曲家大卫.葛鲁辛参酌“赛门和葛芬柯”的歌曲音符写下一些背景音乐,其他就以“赛门和葛芬柯”的“沉默之声”、“史卡波罗博览会”和“罗宾逊太太”等歌穿插在电影中。或许就是因为麦克.尼柯斯把“赛门和葛芬柯”的音乐早听烂了,电影节奏与音乐搭配得天衣无缝,甚至原本是保罗.赛门自己关在浴室里的独白心声转化到银幕上时,都变成了男主角达斯汀.霍夫曼的青春独语,共鸣回响非常大,不但电影高居卖座榜首,连原声带也连续霸占了流行榜冠军九个星期,缔造了六0年代电影与音乐“联姻”的轰动纪录。

电影人口远高过音乐市场,在《毕业生》风靡全球之前,保罗.赛门和阿特.葛芬柯这对“赛门和葛芬柯”的二重唱团体还只是流行音乐界永远只穿着牛仔裤和T恤就上台演唱的美声金童,电影将他们的销售纪录推上新颠峰,保罗赛门光是在1968年就赚进了七百万美金。

票房卖座,名声也就水涨船高,电影《午夜牛郎》的导演约翰.史勒辛格就邀保罗.赛门来替电影配乐,但是保罗立刻拒绝了,不是他对电影没兴趣,而是因为《午夜牛郎》的男主角还是达斯.汀霍夫曼,影评人和乐评人都指出“赛门与葛芬柯”的音乐在《毕业生》中说出了达斯汀.霍夫曼的心声,但是保罗不想被人认定为是达斯汀的代言人,所以婉拒了,后来由约翰.贝律接手,稍后却获得了奥斯卡最佳电影配乐。

《毕业生》的导演麦克.尼柯斯除了享受“赛门和葛芬柯”的天籁歌艺,他更看好美声如天使,额头高耸,金发自然卷的葛芬柯是潜力无穷的影坛新星,就在别人还陶醉于《毕业生》的名利双收时,他已经悄悄地把新片《二十二支队》的剧本递给了葛芬柯,但是他怎么也没想到一个小动作,竟然戮中了“赛门和葛芬柯”的罩门要害。

FORMED: 1964, New York, NY DISBANDED: 1970

The most successful folk-rock duo of the 1960s, Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel crafted a series of memorable hit albums and singles featuring their choirboy harmonies, ringing acoustic and electric guitars, and Simon's acute, finely wrought songwriting. The pair always inhabited the more polished end of the folk-rock spectrum, and were sometimes criticized for a certain collegiate sterility. Many also feel that Simon, as both a singer and songwriter, didn't truly blossom until he began his own hugely successful solo career in the 1970s. But the best of S&G's work can stand among Simon's best material, and the duo did progress musically over the course of their five albums, moving from basic folk-rock productions into Latin rhythms and gospel-influenced arrangements that foreshadowed Simon's eclecticism on his solo albums.

Simon and Garfunkel's recording history actually predated their first mid-'60s hit by almost a decade. Childhood friends while growing up together in Forest Hills, NY, they began making records in 1957, performing (and often writing their own material) in something of a juvenile Everly Brothers style. Calling themselves Tom and Jerry, their first single, "Hey Schoolgirl," actually made the Top 50, but a series of follow-ups went nowhere. The duo split up, and Simon continued to struggle to make it in the music business as a songwriter and occasional performer, sometimes using the names of Jerry Landis or Tico & the Triumphs.

By the early '60s, both Simon and Garfunkel were coming under the influence of folk music. When they reteamed, it was as a folk duo, though Simon's pop roots would serve the act well in their material's synthesis of folk and pop influences. Signing to Columbia, they recorded an initially unsuccessful acoustic debut (as Simon and Garfunkel, not Tom and Jerry) in 1964, Wednesday Morning, 3 A.M. They again went their separate ways, Simon moving to England, where he played the folk circuit and recorded an obscure solo album.

The Simon & Garfunkel story might have ended there, except for a brainstorm of their producer, Tom Wilson (who also produced several of Bob Dylan's early albums). Folk-rock was taking off in 1965, and Wilson, who had helped Dylan electrify his sound, took the strongest track from S&G's debut, "Sounds of Silence," and embellished it with electric guitars, bass, and drums. It got to number one in early 1966, giving the duo the impetus to reunite and make a serious go at a recording career, Simon returning from the U.K. to the U.S. In 1966 and 1967 they were regular visitors to the pop charts with some of the best folk-rock of the era, including "Homeward Bound," "I Am a Rock," and "A Hazy Shade of Winter."

Simon & Garfunkel's early albums were erratic, but they steadily improved as Simon sharpened his songwriting, and as the duo became more comfortable and adventurous in the studio. Their execution was so clean and tasteful that it cost them some hipness points during the psychedelic era, which was a bit silly. They were far from the raunchiest thing going, but managed to pull off the nifty feat of appealing to varying segments of the pop and rock audience -- and various age groups, not just limited to adolescents -- without compromising their music. Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and Thyme (late 1966) was their first really consistent album; Bookends (1968), which actually blended previously released singles with some new material, reflected their growing maturity. One of its songs, "Mrs. Robinson," became one of the biggest singles of the late '60s after it was prominently featured in one of the best films of the period, The Graduate (which also had other Simon & Garfunkel songs on the soundtrack).

It was unsurprising, in retrospect, that the duo's partnership began to weaken in the late '60s. They had known each other most of their lives, and been performing together for over a decade. Simon began to feel constrained by the limits of working with the same collaborator; Garfunkel, who wrote virtually none of the material, felt overshadowed by the songwriting talents of Simon, though Art's high tenor was crucial to their appeal. They started to record some of their contributions separately in the studio, and barely played live at all in 1969, as Garfunkel began to pursue an acting career.

Their final studio album, Bridge Over Troubled Waters, was an enormous hit, topping the charts for ten weeks, and containing four hit singles (the title track, "The Boxer," "Cecilia," and "El Condor Pasa"). It was certainly their most musically ambitious, with "Bridge Over Troubled Waters" and "The Boxer" employing thundering drums and tasteful orchestration, and "Cecilia" marking one of Simon's first forays into South American rhythms. It also caught the confused, reflective tenor of the times better than almost any other popular release of 1970.

That would be their last album of new material; although they didn't necessarily intend to break up at the time, the break from recording eventually became permanent, as Simon began a solo career that brought him as much success as the S&G outings, and Garfunkel pursued simultaneous acting and recording careers. They did reunite in 1975 for a Top Ten single, "My Little Town," and have periodically performed together since without ever coming close to generating albums of new material. A 1981 concert in New York's Central Park attracted half a million fans, and was commemorated with a live album; they also toured in the early '80s, but a planned studio album was canceled due to artistic differences. ~ Richie Unterberger, All-Music Guide