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| Headline | I´m puzzled . . . |
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| Author | Comment |
Rosemary in time
Jan-14-2006, 13:05 GMT
IP:
United Kingdom
 | I´m puzzled to understand why Paul didn´t use a proper orchestra on the original recording of Bridge Over Troubled Water. No matter how they remaster that track, there´s no hiding the fact that the strings sound like a string quartet which has been double-tracked to make it sound big. These days it really doesn´t sound very good. As I understand it, Paul & Artie spent a very long time and a lot of $$$ perfecting tracks like The Boxer. So why didn´t they spend a bit of money hiring an orchestra for Bridge? Does anybody know the answer? |
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Jeroen
Jan-14-2006, 14:07 GMT
IP:
Netherlands
 | Garfunkel and Halee wished to emulate the "wall of sound" approach perfected by Phil Spector. It was meant to sound like that. |
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Ans
Jan-14-2006, 15:07 GMT
IP:
Netherlands
| I knew it wasn´t Paul´s idea...;-) |
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Klausi
Jan-14-2006, 16:59 GMT
IP:
Germany
 | Good question. In only know that those kind of collaborations became more popular by the early seventies.
And "Silent Eyes" was a winner partly because of the Chicago community choir. |
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Klausi
Jan-14-2006, 17:17 GMT
IP:
Germany
| And, as Ans said, it wasn`t Paul Simons idea to make the song "bigger and brighter", as Garfunkel and Roy Haylee suggested. The third verse(the "added on verse", as Simon later said) was written in the studio, when recording had already begun.
And the recording of the whole album was difficult and wasn`t fun anymore. |
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Jeroen
Jan-14-2006, 22:17 GMT
IP:
Netherlands
| It kinda worked, though. And Art Garfunkel´s voice lifts the song to the status of a classic. It´s just a great record. Paul Simon likes it too. |
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Jeroen
Jan-14-2006, 23:27 GMT
IP:
Netherlands
| Here´s another thing. Simon sent it out, so a string arrangements could be provided by a specialist, which is normal studio procedure. (They thought it was called "Like a pitcher of water," si artie must have slurred a bit.) Anyway, they didn´t like the way it turned out so decided to write the string arrangement themselves, which is the way it ultimately appeared on the album. That might also account for the quality of the string backing on the record. |
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Rosemary in time
Jan-15-2006, 12:02 GMT
IP:
United Kingdom
| Thank you everyone for such helpful answers. So it seems as though they started out by just arranging a string quartet to back the last verse. Then they decided to make the sound bigger but instead of rewriting the arrangement and getting an orchestra in, they just doubled the string quartet part. Personally I don´t have any objection to the decision to make the sound "big" in the 3rd verse. But trying to do it without creating a proper strings part was a big mistake IMO. |
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