Flowers Never Bend With The Rainfall – Simon and Garfunkel

Back in the sixties I was very much into contemporary folk music – still am. I liked the poetry and stridency of Dylan, Roy Harper and Bert Jansch. I also like Simon and Garfunkel though I was a little snooty and thought that they tended to be too light and poppy.

Folk music had moved out of the realm of love songs and was talking about all manner of issues in novel, poetic ways. Nothing was taboo. Life, sex, race, war, religion and death were all fair game. The structure of songs was up for grabs too.

Paul Simon was a great songwriter. He had an ear for melody, a precision with words and his voice harmonised with Art’s perfectly. It created a very pleasing sound while the poetry provided grist for the mind to mill.

I loved Paul’s first solo album – The Paul Simon Songbook. It was more Paul with his guitar and basic production. Flowers Never Bend with the Rainfall was on that and it made me ponder. I was a young teenager at the time and these words spoke to me of the confusion I was feeling, who was I? What did I really Believe? What was life about? What was right and what was wrong? I was searching for meaning and still building my persona. It was a bit of the butterfly emerging from the chrysalis. I was young. Death was a long way off but I knew it was there. I’d already had friends who were gone. I was very idealistic and passionate. This is a song I used to put on in my room and listen to. It spoke to me and was beautiful.

“Flowers Never Bend With The Rainfall”