Simon and Garfunkel
Course | Available (Membership Required)
In the second half of the 1960s, Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel combined angelic harmonies and timeless melodies with poetic, socially conscious lyrics to craft some of the biggest folk-rock hits ever. This course details their rise from Everly Brothers-obsessed New York teenagers through the folk revival and on to classics with increasingly sophisticated electric rock arrangements and orchestration, including “The Sound of Silence, ” “Mrs. Robinson,” and “Bridge Over Troubled Water.” It will also cover their eclectic use of gospel, Latin, and soundtrack influences as their career progressed and how Simon brought his songwriting smarts into a successful solo career in the early 1970s.
Richie Unterberger
Richie Unterberger is the author of nearly a dozen music history books, including volumes on the Who and the Velvet Underground, as well as a two-part history of 1960s folk-rock. His book The Unreleased Beatles: Music and Film won a 2007 Association for Recorded Sound Collections Award for Excellence in Historical Recorded Sound Research. He is a graduate of University of Pennsylvania, and has taught courses on the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, 1960s folk-rock, the history of rock from 1955-1980, and San Francisco rock at the College of Marin. He gives regular presentations on rock, soul, and folk history throughout the Bay Area incorporating rare vintage film clips and audio recordings, at public libraries and other venues. In 2014, he was one of seven recipients of grants to conduct research at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as part of its Gladys Krieble Delmas Visiting Scholar program.