Why was Bob Dylan giggling through a Simon & Garfunkel show? And did Dylan pretend not to know who Simon was? There may never be a bridge over these troubled waters.
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00:00Why was Bob Dylan giggling through a Simon & Garfunkel show?
00:03And did Dylan pretend not to know who Simon was?
00:06There may never be a bridge over these troubled waters.
00:09Paul Simon and Bob Dylan penned some of the most beloved songs of the 1960s and 1970s,
00:14and both musicians continue to produce vital works to this day.
00:17These two songwriting luminaries didn't always get along, though.
00:20As Simon told Rolling Stone in 2011,
00:22"...I usually come in second to Dylan, and I don't like coming in second."
00:26The feud began when Simon and Art Garfunkel sat on the stage of Gertie's Folk City in
00:30Manhattan's Greenwich Village in March 1964.
00:33It was a big show for Simon and Garfunkel, who were about to finish recording their debut
00:36album Wednesday Morning, 3 a.m., for Columbia Records.
00:39With Simon playing guitar while he and Garfunkel sang together, a harsh nasal laugh cut through
00:44their close harmonies.
00:45It was impossible to miss, and Simon could see that the laugh came from Bob Dylan, who
00:49was sitting at the bar talking with The New York Times music critic Robert Shelton.
00:53It's worth noting that, at least according to Shelton, he and Dylan weren't laughing
00:56at Simon and Garfunkel's performance.
00:58Instead, he insists the pair were just in a giggly mood under the influence of alcohol.
01:02Regardless, the occurrence bothered Simon quite a bit.
01:05According to Paul Simon, The Life, Simon was angry not only because the men interrupted
01:09his show, but because he looked up to Dylan as a songwriter.
01:12Reportedly, Simon had loved Dylan's music since hearing his first album in 1962.
01:16He and Garfunkel even included one of Dylan's songs, The Times They Are a-Changin', on their
01:20debut album.
01:21This would prove the first stone thrown in a decades-long rivalry that wouldn't end until
01:25the turn of the 21st century.
01:27Bob Dylan and Paul Simon had first met not long before that fateful concert, when Carla
01:31Rotolo, the sister to Dylan's girlfriend Susie Rotolo, had introduced them.
01:35According to Bob Dylan, Outlaw Blues, the meeting didn't go well.
01:39Both men were awkward and didn't say much to one another.
01:41Naturally, the incident at the concert made things worse.
01:44In the aftermath of the concert, Simon got back at his rival — or at least that's how
01:48it came across to many.
01:50Dylan released his first solo record, The Paul Simon Songbook, in the United Kingdom
01:53in 1965.
01:54The record featured a track called a simple, desultory philippic, or How I Was Lyndon Johnson
01:59in the submission, which seemed to parody Dylan's music and lyrics.
02:02You guys are idiots.
02:04This song is very deep.
02:06A version of the song would later appear on Simon and Garfunkel's third album, Parsley,
02:11Sage, Rosemary, and Thyme.
02:12Despite those tensions, Simon respected Dylan, especially early on.
02:16He told Rolling Stone,
02:17In the very, very beginning, when we were first signed to Columbia, I really admired
02:21Dylan's work.
02:22The Sound of Silence wouldn't have been written if it weren't for Dylan.
02:24But I left that feeling around The Graduate and Mrs. Robinson.
02:27They weren't folky anymore."
02:29Despite his admiration, Paul Simon made fun of Bob Dylan for going electric and helping
02:33to kick off the folk rock explosion.
02:35According to Homeward Bound, The Life of Paul Simon, he even did a brief Dylan impression
02:38on stage.
02:39Dylan, for his part, responded by pretending not to know who Simon even was.
02:43In May 1966, he told New Musical Express he'd never heard of him.
02:48Over the years, though, Dylan and Simon began to admit a grudging respect for one another.
02:52In a 1984 radio interview, Dylan admitted,
02:54Paul Simon's written some good songs.
02:56I think America is a good song.
02:58I think The Boxer is a good song.
03:00I think Bridge Over Troubled Water is a good song.
03:02I mean, he's written a lot of bad songs, too, but everybody's done that.
03:05In 1999, the pair went on tour together, though it got some mixed reviews.
03:09Rolling Stone even critiqued the pair's joint set, calling it
03:12"...half historic, half train wreck."
03:14Regardless, the two iconic musicians seem to have buried the hatchet.
03:17That said, Simon did reach out to Dylan for a duet on Simon's 2011 solo composition,
03:22So Beautiful or So What.
03:24In particular, Simon said Dylan's older voice would fit perfectly on one of the track's
03:27verses.
03:28However, as Simon told Uncut that year, Dylan never responded to him about the collaboration,
03:32and to this day, Simon doesn't know why.
03:35So after everything, there may still be some bad blood between the two songwriters.