Off the TV
My Little Town - Simon & Garfunkel (Blast from the Past Tuesday)
This past weekend, Saturday Night Live debuted the first episode of their fiftieth season. This is pretty significant to me, because I had this phase a couple of years ago where I got really into the history of the show and so I know a lot of little facts and tidbits about it that will no doubt propel me to great success in the corporate world. All that aside, SNL’s musical performances have always been interesting to me, but the one that really takes the cake is Paul Simon & Art Garfunkel doing “My Little Town” on the very second episode in 1975.
When I first got in my phase, I started with the second episode because I had heard of Paul Simon before and wanted to see what sort of sketches he had done. Well, SNL was pretty different back then, and most of the show was musical performances, with the sketches serving as interludes rather than the main event. I remember being about to switch to a different episode when Art Garfunkel appeared. They launched into “Scarborough Fair”, and I was hypnotized. They kept going, continuing onto some other hits I had heard before. The performance style was really strange, because although they sang in perfect harmony and stood inches away from each other, they didn’t make eye contact once. Neither of them cracked a smile, and they just looked forward, past the camera and the crowd to the wall.
Then “My Little Town” began, and they awkwardly shift around before they start to sing. While they sound beautiful, I wouldn’t necessarily say Simon & Garfunkel were the best performers — they often had little movement or facial expression, something that I wouldn’t necessarily expect with the emotion their voices portray. But as the music swells for the first instance of the chorus (quite a ways into the song I might add), they show this goofy picture of them standing together. This is not an inaccurate adjective either, here’s a screenshot of it from the only video I could find of the SNL performance that some angel recorded from their television:
This is kind of how they performed the entire song, standing just like that. See how engaging they can be? (All jokes, mostly.)
Anyways, once that picture fades away and they get into the chorus, they’re shown to be smiling, grinning ear to ear and nudging each other like actual friends, not just two guys who were pushed onstage without knowing the other’s name. It only lasts for a moment and then they’re back to their old “straight out, cool guy” style, but I love that split second for the way it shows the real bond between them, the one nobody was really sure they’d ever get back after Bridge Over Troubled Water. It’s a heartwarming thing to think about, especially when the backdrop is one of the best songs of the 70s. I recommend checking out the performance, so here’s the “filmed off the tv” version of it. Adds character!!
Got something I should hear? Let me know here!
Follow Ear Bites on Instagram here!
Follow Ear Bites on Spotify here!
Tune to my radio show “No Static at All” this (and every) Sunday from 1:30-3:30pm EST here!