I’m seriously old. When Art Garfunkel opened his XM Satellite Radio’s Artist Confidential with Paul Simon’s The Side of a Hill, I’m probably one of the very few people who not only joined in the song, but sang “Artie’s part” (Art sang the melody, which was written for Paul’s range - if you listen to Paul playing, you can clearly “hear” Artie’s harmonies in the chords). Paul recorded the song in the mid-1960’s on an acoustic album released in England (The Paul Simon Songbook) which a friend of mine working at a record store snatched from an import bin and gave to me so very long ago, so Side of a Hill is as well-known to me as Sounds of Silence may be to you.

It was realizing how very long I’ve known those songs that has me feeling a little meloncholy…