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Diva/Mensch pair for Oct 30, 2024

The big winner at the Grammys for 1970 was "Bridge Over Troubled Water." It won Record of the Year, Album of the Year, Best Contemporary Song, and Best Arrangement for Instrumental and Vocals.


The Mensch is the first half of the song, where it's just Art Garfunkel and piano. The cymbals put a cap on that section around 2:50 and then the other instruments creep in, turning it into a total Diva trip. We also get brief harmony vocals by the other guy in the group, the guy who WROTE the darn song, Paul Simon. Simon sang the demo and he wanted Garfunkel to sing it as a solo when they recorded it. Garfunkel thought Simon sounded so good in the demo, HE should do it, but Simon thought Garfunkel had the perfect "white choirboy sound" the song needed. So they recorded it with Garfunkel basically singing the whole time and Simon spent the rest of his life regretting it!


BTW I looked up the difference between Record of the Year and Album of the Year. Album of the Year is for a whole album - - Record of the Year is for a single song. Which I guess could overlap with another category, as it did this year with "Bridge..." also getting Best Contemporary Song.


One more note: Simon and Garfunkel had already split up by the time the Grammys came around.




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