Gerard
Jan-30-2011, 03:43 GMT
New Zealand
 | This Songs Of America documentary is worth the investment of buying the BOTW 40th Aniversary Re-issue.
I was lucky enough to attend the New York S&G concerts of Dec 2003 (that became OLD FREINDS LIVE ON STAGE DVD). I was next to the soundboard where the video production team was. After the concerts I told them that when they release the DVD concert of the show they really must include the 1969 Songs of Amercia TV Special as an extra bonus content. When I told them this they didn´t know of it´s existence. I said, well someone does because parts of the video montage in the shows are lifted straight off it. I was dissappointed that when the DVD came out it only lifted some songs from the TV Special and not the whole show. What a missed opportunity.
Back in 1996 I posted a topic about this TV Special on the Paul Simon newsgroup (alt.music.paul-simon), which until recently someone had picked up and included on their Paul Simon website. I now include this here in this thread as it seems topical to do so: -
Simon & Garfunkel: Songs Of America
The following article was posted to alt.music.paul-simon in January 1997 by Gerard Eastwood.
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Newsgroups: alt.music.paul-simon
Subject: Songs Of America
Date: Sun, 26 Jan 1997 22:23:12 -0800
1996 was an excellent year for my search for material for my Paul Simon collection. My introduction to the Internet has uncovered material I never knew existed.
The jewel of my discoveries from 1996 has to be the video tape of SONGS OF AMERICA, the TV Special Simon & Garfunkel produced in 1969 - the height of their joint creative powers.
I do recall this being on TV (just) but at 11 years of age I didn´t take in the political overtones. The production of this 1 Hour special was masterly and provides an excellent commentary of key events of the 1960´s. An evocative collage of film clips from the times and influences on the life and times of Simon & Garfunkel. This works very well and presents themes on a national/international level (vietnam, racial discrimination, poverty, political unrest) and also a personal level (showing them refining their craft, in studio & in concert, and their attitudes to their work and success).
The show starts with scenes of the American landscape set to the sounds of America, intersperced with dialogue from Paul Simon, and captures the songs themes of searching and longing perfectly.
To the backdrop of the song So Long Frank Lloyd Wright we are treated with images of the heroes and influences of their childhood/ youth - The Lone Ranger, Mickey Mantle and others. The sense of times past and innocence lost is very effectly conveyed.
The most powerful scenes are the images worked around Bridge Over Troubled Water (President JFKennedy, Robert Kennedy and Martin Luther-King & scenes of racial unrest in U.S.), Scarborough Fair (scenes of fighting in Vietnam & soldiers sharing time with loved ones) and El Condor Pasa (scenes of poverty & civil unrest & a commentary on violence).
Next they make light of footage of what appeared to be an American budget speech with the song Punky´s Dilemna:
"wish I was a kellogs cornflake,
floatin in my bowl takin movies,
relaxin awhile
living in style ....."
Also, Paul Simon´s humour is in evidence in the dialogue between Paul, Art & co-producer Charles Grodin. The tongue-in-cheek discussion leads into a question to Paul:
GRODIN: "Why would you wanna be president?"
SIMON: "straighten it all out and get on back to my song writing, in peace. And to be president, I just don´t have time really..."
GARFUNKEL: "He wants to develop himself as an artist, Chuck"
GRODIN: "You have no time to be President?"
SIMON: "I feel I´d make the time." [laughing]
This television special is an excellently conceived and produced programme. I recommend it to anyone interested in the music of Simon & Garfunkel in the context of the social and political climate of the 1960?s. It really deserves to be made commercially available on video. Unfortunately the picture quality on the copy I got is less than ideal.
As further background the following extract from SIMON & GARFUNKEL:The Definitive Biography By Victoria Kingston (1996, Sidgewick & Jackson) covers the events surrounding the making of SONGS OF AMERICA:
The successful recording of Bridge was followed by a period of frustration. September ´69 was packed with hard work and very little satisfaction. The pace hadn´t let up at all. Now they were making a TV special. It turned out to be a long and complicated business, fraught with angry clashes with media people, only increasing the tension that had been growing all year.
Originally, Simon & Garfunkel were to make a guest appearance on the Bell Telephone Hour, to coincide with the start of their concert tour planned for the following month. Basically, the special was to promote the tour. As Paul said: "To say to people, here we are again. We´re back, even though it´s a year later." But the concept of the show continually expanded in the planning stages, until finally Bell Telephone asked them to do a complete show, their first special for television. They agreed. Bell Telephone were delighted, because they were running a recruiting campaign, and the support of Simon & Garfunkel could help them to gain the interest of young people.
Meanwhile, Art and Paul thought a lot about the show´s content. They asked Charles Grodin, who had starred with Artie in Catch-22, to help them. Grodin, an enormously talented and versatile actor, writer and director, said to them: "If you´re going to get an hour on television, instead of doing an ordinary show, let´s think up something that would be different."
They settled on a show all about America, highlighting contemporary, controversial issues. Bell, on the other hand, believed they were doing a typical light entertainment programme. As Paul said: "They didn´t know that we were planning on doing a show that had anything to do with real life."
A week before the show was due on the air, they showed the film to Bell, who rejected it completely. It was out of the question. They strongly objected to a sequence with Robert and John Kennedy and Martin Luther King, using Bridge over Troubled Water as background. According to Paul, their objection was on the grounds that: "They were all Democrats. There´s no Republicans in there. And we said, "Is that what you get? How about that they were all assassinated"" They also rejected a film clip of Jesse Jackson, Ralph Abernathy and Robert Kennedy, because there would be trouble if they showed it in Alabama. Bell accused the duo of using their company funds to make propaganda and spread their own political views. Bell wanted no part in the footage of Woodstock or Vietnam. But according to Paul: "They said they could live with The Lone Ranger. If we wanted to keep that in, it was all right."
Paul was passionately angry. "So we said, "You mean to say that there are people who will object if we say you must feed everyone in this country?" And they said, "You´re goddam right someone would object." They said, "You´ll have to change this; it´s not going on." And we said, "Well, too bad then. It´s not going on, because we´re not changing anything."
Paul and Artie remained firm. Bell Telephone remained just as firm. Paul later said: "It was a terrible experience. Really awful. One of the most frustrating things I ever did in my life was to work for hours and hours on that show and to hear somebody just put it down in the worst terms possible."
Angry and exhausted, Paul and Artie gave the company executives an ultimatum: "This is the show we made. This is what we believe in. Don´t put it on, then."
They didn´t put it on. Paul and Art went to CBS and met with their censor executives. For the most part, CBS sympathized with the concept of the show. They finally forced it on to the air, in spite of Bell. It was scheduled to be screened on 30 November. When the television special was shown at the end of November, the duo were inundated with letters urging them not to present cheir political opinions on the air, just to sing. Paul was irritated. "I used to say to Artie, it´s like if you decided to go to the bathroom and somebody said, "Don´t go to the bathroom. Just sing." That´s what you do. Don´t do anything else. Don´t make bacon in the morning. "You´re not a bacon maker. You sing." As if you had to have some qualifications to say, I´m alive today."
I recommend Victoria Kingston´s biography. I agree with a past posting that said her commentary on songs from albums was unnecessary anyone interested to read it will already know the songs. However this irritation aside it is a good account of their careers. The chapters on the early period of Paul Simon´s career while in England is the most thorough a I have read. A good complement to Patrick Humphries´ Boy In The Bubble.
The transcript of the TV special can be found at the excellent S & G site: http://fy.chalmers.se/~jmo/acoustic.guitar.song.co
llection.html
Gerard Eastwood
New Zealand
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