What Brought the Airplane to Me
Old Friends - Simon & Garfunkel (Blast from the Past Sunday)
I find that when I think about my future, I often get stuck imagining scenarios that take place on an airplane, and I’m not exactly sure why. I don’t think this is some kind of unconscious thing, the way that spiders appearing in a dream mean you’re stressed or overwhelmed. I don’t believe it’s a cheesy “you’ll fly and soar!” kind of thing either. Nevertheless, I found the airplane arriving in my thoughts just the other night while listening to music, specifically when Simon & Garfunkel’s “Old Friends” came on.
The song itself is one of the most beautiful I’ve ever heard, something that I’ve come to expect when it comes to any of the duo’s songs, solo or otherwise. “Old Friends” is the type of song that immediately wraps you in a nostalgic warmth yet also makes you want to cry at the same time, a combination that seems almost certainly reserved for late-night thinking.
“Old Friends” puts all of my favorite aspects of Simon & Garfunkel on full display. This is a song where their voices just melt into each other, crossing paths only to float in different directions. Of course I know their story, but I’ve always found myself thinking how the HECK did Simon & Garfunkel just happen to find each other?? That’s a situation in which you can’t even try to deny that some semblance of fate exists, because their voices are genuinely the perfect blend. “Old Friends” has a great orchestral section, with horns, strings, and my personal favorite, a shiny sounding glockenspiel! While I do think the song would be great if it was just acoustic guitar & their voices, the orchestral sections add a sense of urgency, a sense of beauty and sincerity to the song that only enhance the message.
“Old Friends” is a song that picks you up gently only to toss you around, but still ends up rocking you to a sense of calm and importance at its finish. It’s a song that makes my heart physically hurt, and yet I always return to it for comfort and understanding. As I said, the other night “Old Friends” was what brought the airplane to me. While listening, I imagined that I would book a flight somewhere, and that an old friend would happen to have bought the seat right next to me, someone who I hadn’t talked to for a while, yet often held in my thoughts. While I couldn’t exactly think of how the conversation would go, it makes me smile even now to think that it could happen one day, and even though it’s not exactly a park bench, I would be just as happy to bookend an airplane aisle.
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