“” ….can you imagine us years from today
sharing a park bench quietly,
how terribly strange to be 70.”

This is a line from the song “Old Friends” written by Paul Simon youtube.com and sung with his long time partner Art Garfunkel (who is a mere pup of 69 years 11.5 months). Many of us grew up with Paul Simon’s music. While his lyrics were not the revolutionary words of others, it was often some of the most beautiful, even elegant lyrics. So here are some questions about Paul Simon his life, words and maybe his partner. No multiple choice this week – you should be able to remember these.

1) The first big hit for Simon and Garfunkel, from the album “Wednesday Morning, 3AM,” begins with the haunting words “Hello, Darkness, my old friend.” If you can’t name this song, you may as well quit now.

2) Before the duo broke into the big time, Paul spent some time in England working and living with a girl who would inspire some of his best songs. One song is named for her and her name comes up in another from the 1967 era. What is her name?

3) 1968 and Simon and Garfunkel music is the music for a major motion picture. What motion picture is that?

4) Simon and Garfunkel first met in grade school in what city?

5) One of the duos early incarnations sounded like cartoon characters. What did they call themselves early on?

6) Paul Simon has been married 3 times. His second marriage was to a famous actress whose father was “a short Jewish singer, too.” Who was Paul’s second wife?

7) Who can forget the Senate Watergate hearings in 1973? This senator made headlines by reading the words to “Bridge Over Troubled Waters” before the hearings began one day. Who was that senator?

8) Simon and Garfunkel have split and reunited a couple of times. One reunion was a free concert that took place in New York’s Central Park in 1981. Approximately how many people attended this concert?

9) True or False – Paul Simon was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame both as a member of Simon and Garfunkel and as an individual performer?

10) Two of Paul’s songs became major hits for other groups in the late sixties. Can you name one and the group that recorded it?

In 2007 Paul won the first Library of Congress Gershwin Award for Popular Song. Well deserved. Before the answers let me leave you with one of his best lyrics from his short song “Bookends”

“Time it was, and what a time it was, it was
A time of innocence, a time of confidences
Long ago, it must be, I have a photograph
Preserve your memories, they’re all that’s left you”

1) “Sound of Silence” – I hope it is stuck in your head now.
2) Kathy Chitty. Paul wrote “Kathy’s Song” for her and mentions her a couple of times in America (“Kathy, I said, though I knew she was sleeping”)
3)”The Graduate” You remember Mrs. Robinson, don’t you?
4) New York City. Too easy wasn’t it?
5) “Tom and Jerry.” In the song “Only living Boy in New York” Simon refers to Garfunkel as “Tom.” (“Tom, get your plane right on time”)
6) Carrie Fisher, whose father was Eddie Fisher.
7) Sam Ervin of North Carolina.
8) 500,000 or so.
9) True – 1990 as a duo and 2001 as a solo.
10) “Red Rubber Ball” by the Cyrcle and “the 59th Street Bridge Song” (“feeling groovy”) by Harper’s Bazaar.

Enjoy some Simon and Garfunkel today.