A one-trick pony with many lives

IF YOU DIDN'T GROW UP WITH A WELL-WORN COPY OF Sounds of Silence, Bookends, or Bridge Over Troubled Water among the LPs stacked near the family hi-fi, your parents or grandparents probably did. From the mid- to late 1960s, the sounds of Simon & Garfunkel were so ubiquitous you couldn't escape them if you wanted to. 

- STEPHANIE ZACHAREK

Their songs, not overtly political, dealt with everyday things like friendship, impending breakups, the simple pleasures of spending a day at the zoo, and their opaline harmonies had a soothing, shimmering quality. Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel-who'd been friends and musical compatriots since their childhood in Queens-broke up, somewhat acrimoniously, in 1970; it took fans ages to recover. While Garfunkel pursued acting, Simon soldiered on as a singer-songwriter, and the numerous highs-and occasional lows-of his career form the arc of Alex Gibney's perceptive and comprehensive two-part docuseries In Restless Dreams: The Music of Paul Simon.