My Little Town

"My Little Town"
Single by Simon & Garfunkel
B-side	(1)"Rag Doll" (Art Garfunkel) (2)"You're Kind" (Paul Simon)
Released	1975
Format	7" (45 rpm)
Genre	Rock, pop
Length	3:51
Label	Columbia
Writer(s)	Paul Simon
Producer	Paul Simon Art Garfunkel Phil Ramone

"My Little Town" is a 1975 song by the American duo Simon & Garfunkel. It was written by Paul Simon, who produced the track along with Art Garfunkel and Phil Ramone. Although the song would not appear on any of the duo's albums until later, it was included on both the solo releases for Simon (Still Crazy After All These Years) and Garfunkel (Breakaway) in 1975.

History

After the success of their Bridge over Troubled Water album in 1970, both Simon and Garfunkel decided to part ways and record their own solo material.

In June 1972, they were asked to sing at a political benefit concert for United States presidential candidate George McGovern at Madison Square Garden, New York City.^[1]

On October 18, 1975, Simon hosted the second episode of the premiere season of the NBC comedy sketch program Saturday Night Live. During the musical numbers, Garfunkel performed with him, and together they sang three songs: "The Boxer"; "Scarborough Fair"; and their new collaboration, "My Little Town".^[2]

Simon has stated that the song is not autobiographical; instead he says that it is about "someone who hates the town he grew up in. Somebody happy to get out."^[3] He has been quoted describing the writing of the song: "It originally was a song I was writing for Artie. I was gonna write a song for his new album, and I told him it would be a nasty song, because he was singing too many sweet songs. It seemed like a good concept for him."^[3] After playing the song for Garfunkel, the two decided to collaborate again in the studio on this one track.

While Simon insists it is not autobiographical, Garfunkel has explained, in recent interviews, that it was about his own childhood, how he "grew up in an area where a career in music was not seen as either desirable nor exciting". This seems true since Garfunkel's parents did insist he gain some qualification aside from his pure tenor voice (He gained a bachelors degree in Arts History in 1965, and a Master's degree in Mathematics in 1967). Garfunkel, upon Simon & Garfunkel's break-up, worked as a teacher in Connecticut, a draftsman in New York and a math tutor In Los Angeles.

The first verse mentions Garfunkel's religious views, "God keeps His eye on us all" and how, as a Jew, he was expected to "Pledge allegiance to the (western) wall". The second verse describes him "coming home after school", where his mother, Rose (a housewife), would be "doing the laundry". It goes on to describe the lack of creative output and inspiration, in the form of a monochromatic rainbow. The final verse describes how Art had no identity of his own other than being "(his) Father's son", and how he was "twitching like a finger on the trigger of a gun" (presumably, from anxiety to escape the dead-end life the lyrics describe) before the final chorus plays.

The song starts off very quietly, beginning with a piano solo (by Garfunkel), and almost non-existent drumwork. They begin to sing together (there are no solo parts) which further showcases their vocals, with Paul Simon providing a subdued bass-guitar line. The choruses of "nothin' but the dead and dyin' back in my little town" are played with an increased intensity, especially the final repeat-and-fadeout section following the last verse, with some horns and backing vocals added to the mix.

Charts

The buzz surrounding the surprise reunion of the two singers helped to generate anticipation for each of their solo albums, which were released within a few weeks of the performance on Saturday Night Live. Credited on both albums as being performed by 'Simon & Garfunkel', "My Little Town" became the duo's eighth top-ten hit on the Billboard Hot 100 chart in late 1975, peaking at number nine.^[4] It spent two weeks atop the Billboard adult contemporary chart, becoming their second number one on this survey as a duo.^[3] Both singers have hit number one on the adult contemporary chart as solo performers as well, Garfunkel four times and Simon twice.

Chart performance

Chart (1975)[5]	Peak position
Australian Kent Music Report	46
Dutch Singles Chart	17
New Zealand Singles Chart	24
US Billboard Hot 100	9

See also

• List of number-one adult contemporary singles of 1975 (U.S.)

References

1. ^ Simon & Garfunkel biography from rollingstone.com
2. ^ List of guest hosts on SNL from saturday-night-live.com
3. ^ ^{a b c} Hyatt, Wesley (1999). The Billboard Book of Number One Adult Contemporary Hits (Billboard Publications)
4. ^ Whitburn, Joel (2004). The Billboard Book of Top Forty Hits, 8th Edition (Billboard Publications)
5. ^ http://swisscharts.com/showitem.asp?interpret=Simon+%26+Garfunkel&titel=My+Little+Town&cat=s

External links

• Single release info from discogs.com