Remember When: A Movie Helped Break Up Simon & Garfunkel

It’s rarely ever one occurrence or event that’s the sole cause for an act breaking up. But there’s often some incident that acts as the final straw, something that pushes the participants past the point of no return. For Simon & Garfunkel, one of the defining musical acts of the 1960s, the instigating event for their breakup was, oddly enough, a movie.

Well, technically, it was two movies: one that pushed the chasm between the two men wide and the other which made it unbridgeable. Here is the story of the unfortunate end of one of music’s greatest partnerships.

Simon, Garfunkel, … and Nichols

Mike Nichols rode in on the first wave of film directors who changed moviemaking in the ’60s by emphasizing reality and ambiguity over the pat, romanticized Hollywood films that had ruled the day to that point. In 1967, his movie The Graduate had proven revolutionary in many ways, not the least of which was its use of music.

Instead of going with the traditional, sweeping orchestral score, Nichols used the music of Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel to play behind several key scenes. Simon wrote “Mrs. Robinson,” one of the artistic peaks of the duo’s career, specifically for use in the film. That’s what put Paul and Artie in the filmmaker’s orbit.

Nichols’ next film was the war satire Catch-22, and, to prove his gratitude, he envisioned parts for both Simon and Garfunkel. However, Simon’s part was eventually removed from the script. Garfunkel headed to Mexico for filming in 1969, but wasn’t supposed to be gone too long as his was a small part.

Meanwhile, Simon, who wrote all the songs for the duo, was hard at work putting together their next album, Bridge Over Troubled Water, which would be released in 1970. One of the songs he wrote was “The Only Living Boy in New York,” which makes specific reference, in a loving way, to Garfunkel’s acting experience.

Problems started to bubble up when Garfunkel was called on to stay in Mexico longer than originally expected, making work on the album difficult to complete. Simon was frustrated, but he expected this would be a temporary nuisance. Meanwhile, Garfunkel, who often felt like he was little-used in the studio while Simon looked after every aspect of the recordings, couldn’t understand why a scenario where he worked on films part of the year before returning to S&G when needed to sing his parts or tour was such an unreasonable expectation.

Garfunkel eventually made it back to complete the album, which turned out to be an absolute masterpiece, in part because of his incredible vocals on the title track. But the death blow to the duo’s professional relationship was dealt when Simon heard that Nichols had cast Garfunkel in a much more substantial role in his next film, Carnal Knowledge.

Simon was furious that Garfunkel had initially kept this news from him. Garfunkel maintained his stance that he thought it was fair for him to be allowed to maintain his acting duties in between requirements with the duo. There was no going back from this. They shook hands in a parking lot in 1970 and decided to go their separate professional ways.

A Breakup Destined to Happen

The movie kerfuffle was likely just a symptom of the larger malaise affecting the pair. Simon had somewhat resented that many people didn’t realize he was the songwriter, and he was frustrated many focused on Garfunkel’s vocals. Garfunkel didn’t like that he was often shut out of having much input on the pair’s music, and he still harbored resentment from an incident much earlier in his career when Simon released solo music without saying he was doing so.

After their successful The Concert in Central Park reunion performance in 1981, the two briefly planned to do another album together. But the old animosity flared up, and the record (Hearts and Bones) ended up being a solo Simon release. Some post-millennial live performances again raised hopes that their relationship might thaw, but as Simon insinuated in the recent documentary In Restless Dreams, the pair aren’t even on speaking terms these days.

The harmony Simon & Garfunkel often exuded in their performances has eluded them in their personal dealings ever since those two movies. It doesn’t help they often air their grievances in the press. I know that you’re eager to fly now, Simon wrote in “The Only Living Boy in New York.” As it turned out, Simon & Garfunkel have pretty much been flying in separate directions ever since.

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Photo by Sylvain Gaboury/FilmMagic