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Research Day: Who The Hell Is Silvergirl?
I have been listening to (and learning the lyrics from) a lot of Simon & Garfunkle songs in preparation for The Squirrelly. After all, that's what I was raised on, and look at what a wunderkind I turned out to be. Besides, there's nothing like singing The Sound Of Silence to your child to provide him the existential angst of overwhelming emptiness that most childhoods sorely lack these days. In particular I've been focusing on "Bridge Over Troubled Water," because it's 66.66% Daily Affirmation. The first two verses describe how the singer is "on your side / when times get rough / and friends just can't be found,", etc. etc. It's all very Stand By Me-esque. But then, in the third and final verse, we get this: Sail on silvergirlYo, Silvergirl! What are you doing sailing through my nurturing and supportive lullaby?! In Googling this, I gathered more supporting evidence for a hypothesis I coined while researching Hotel California: "Any ambiguous lyric in a song released between 1964 and 1982 will be interpreted as encouragement of drug use or Satanism." Specifically, the first few websites I checked out regarding Silvergirl all claimed that the entire ballad was a tribute to smack: Last Trumpet Ministries: "Paul Simon referred to heroin as being the "Bridge over troubled waters." In that infamous song he referred to the bridge as a 'silver girl', which is the street name for a heroin needle."And so on. Fortunately -- and unlike Hotel California -- it didn't take me long to get the skinny on this myth. Here's Paul Simon himself refuting the rumor in an Song Talk interview: SongTalk: [Do] people come up with perverse ways to read your songs?So who was this elusive Silvergirl? In another interview, this one with Playboy (work safe link), Simon spilled the beans: Playboy: When you wrote Bridge Over Troubled Water, did you know immediately that you had written a hit?Bah. These things always wind up so mundane. Moral: if you want to be remembered as a songwriter who routinely encourages drug use and Satanism, it's better to write lyrics like: And so the flaming argyle hidThan: I really enjoy smoking crackBonus Research Day Fact #1 : I found zero corroboration for the claim that "'silver girl' .. is the street name for a heroin needle". See: Google: ("silver girl" OR silvergirl) heroin needle -bridge. Oh those Last Trumpet Ministries -- I'll never trust them on matters of street slang again! Bonus Research Day Fact #2 : Paul Simon was married to Carrie Fisher??! I had no idea. Posted on January 28, 2004 to Research DayComments
Oh yeah. Fisher's the half-Jew mentioned in Hearts and Bones: "One and one-half wandering Jews/Free to wander wherever the choose." Her mom is Debbie Reynolds (not Jewish) and her dad was Eddie Fisher (Jewish). As the song makes clear, the marriage wasn't long for this world. Posted by: sandor on January 30, 2004 1:17 PMARG! You have debunked one of my favorite myths. Don't tell me Eye in the Sky isn't about the Devil looking down on puny Earth people! Posted by: Fueled By Satan on January 30, 2004 1:26 PMthe worst thing you can do Even weirder, now he's married to Edie Brickell. Posted by: Daniel Talsky on January 30, 2004 5:03 PMWow. weird. that's the second time I've seen that "Last Trumpet Ministries" website this week. I had to do a report on religious themes The Lord of the Rings, And I stumbled onto that website. HOLY CRAP!! that guy is a freak! (and this is coming from a devoted fundamental Christian here). Its actually quite funny. He calls LOTR a "witchcraft teaching material". And he seems convinced of this because of the occurance of the number 13, not in the book, but in a book ABOUT the book. Actually quite a good read: http://www.lasttrumpetministries.org/tracts/tract11.html Posted by: yeah, another Matt on January 30, 2004 5:35 PMYou didn't know Paul Simon was married to Carrie Fisher? For shame. Posted by: Greg on January 30, 2004 9:50 PMApparently CF said in an interview on WNYC the other day something to the effect of: "My mother married a short Jewish man and I made the same mistake." She's funny and kinda mean; I love her. Posted by: Ginger on January 31, 2004 2:35 AMMy college buddy went to boarding school at Putney with Paul Simon's kid and, apparently he was super loaded and would always splurge for beers. According to my friend, the boys at school would taunt him something fierce for having sucj a hot stepmom. Posted by: Ron Mwangaguhunga on January 31, 2004 1:39 PMLabasted their marriage (fictionalixed, somewhat) in her book Surrender The Pink. I don't know if the part about hiding in the ex's hall closet is true though. I doubt it. Posted by: Abigail on February 4, 2004 9:39 AMCarrie Fisher in the songs of Paul Simon Part 2: Haha. Hilarious. |