Simon poured his frustrations with Garfunkel into some of his songwriting and music. In the song “The Only Living Boy in New York” are the lines “Tom, get your plane right on time / I know your part’ll go fine / Fly down to Mexico.” It’s pretty easy to see this is Simon dinging Garfunkel (AKA Tom) for ignoring his band duties for filming.
Garfunkel returned in September 1969, and work resumed on the album, recorded in Detroit and Wichita. Both members were exhausted, which wore nerves thin. Garfunkel even confessed that he was getting pretty upset with Simon.
The Jump to Film
As he was working on Nichol's movie, Garfunkel thought it would be fun to try acting. Any director would be a fool to turn down a name that would get so many eyes on his next project, which is why Nichols cast Garfunkel as Lieutenant Nately in his next film, "Catch-22".
Simon also got a role in the movie, but right before filming Nichols informed him that the role, a serviceman, had been cut from the final script. As you might imagine, it was yet another wedge driven between the two friends, all while they were still working on "Bridge".
A Partnership's Problems
While Garfunkel rose to fame as both a musician and an actor, Simon became resentful. As Garfunkel had the time of his life on set with actors and palled around with other celebrities, Simon stayed in New York writing material for the upcoming album.
Frustrations grew and expanded, and a pair of songs in particular really got them thinking about their future and relationship. We can certainly understand why when one member of a duo starts to get really famous, the other member can be resentful. It's happened plenty of times to plenty of artistic partnerships, musical or otherwise.
More Acting, More Problems
It turns out Garfunkel really enjoyed acting. He even took another role from Nichols, alongside Jack Nicholson in "Carnal Knowledge". Years later, Simon would admit he was so frustrated with Garfunkel for jetting off once again he started to really think about the future of their partnership.
He recalls asking Garfunkel, “Why didn't you tell me?” Garfunkel was afraid Simon would stop working on the music.” Simon was unhappy – disturbed was the word he used – with the choices Garfunkel had made, and it led to a big change in the future of their career.
Success With Failure
"Bridge Over Troubled Water" was a huge success. The addition of session musicians dubbed The Wrecking Crew – including Joe Osborn on bass guitar, Larry Knechtel on piano and organ, and Hal Blaine on drums – bumped the production to a new level. But the success of the album was just another wedge between the two.
Their partnership was falling apart, and Simon was even starting to hate the tours, especially when Garfunkel would do a solo rendition of the song “Bridge Over Troubled Water.” As the crowd went wild, Simon would be standing in the wings, looking on with jealousy.