Jump to content

Only Living Boy In New York - Simon & Garfunkel


Carl

Recommended Posts

Hello.

Can anyone explain and confirm this one:

Song Name: The Only Living Boy In New York

Artist: Simon and Garfunkel

This song was in the movie "The Garden State". Simon and Garfunkel let writer/director, Zach Braff, use the song for the movie free of charge.

Thanks

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I found this on newyorkmetro.com. It doesn't really confirm the free thing, though. I'll keep looking.

"Braff is a bit emo himself. He really wants you to feel something; these songs are, after all, supposed to change your life. ?These were the songs I was listening to while I was making the film,? he says, ?and I just loved all of them.? Braff supersaturates his debut in the yearning, arpeggioed soundtrack of Iron & Wine, Remy Zero, even Simon and Garfunkel?s ?The Only Living Boy in New York? at the crescendoed kiss. (?I never thought we?d get it, but I just told them their music scored my childhood,? Braff says about appealing to the duo for the rights. ?They watched a clip and said yes.?)"

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Here's the entire answer to the interview question excerpted above. I found this at Static Mulitmedia

Interesting choice of music for that scene, the Simon and Garfunkle song "The Only Living Boy in New York." Everything else in the movie is contemporary.

Except for Nick Drake. I grew to Simon and Garfunkle. My parents listened to them. It scored my childhood. But I wanted to keep the obvious songs away. We've already had people comparing it to "The Graduate," which is weird for me because, other than a movie about a guy who's lost and comes home and falls in love, they really don't have any other overlaps. So I didn't want to put too much Simon and Garfunkle in the movie, but I heard that song late in life. I'd never heard it growing up, it wasn't one of their more popular songs, but I heard a couple years ago and I just fell in love with it. It strikes me as a song about loneliness so I thought it was appropriate to the movie. I know we wanted to put it in the movie but I didn't know where and my editor cut it into that scene and as soon as we saw it we were like, "There's no way we can put it anywhere else, it has to go there." I don't know if this is true, but I've heard that it is one of Paul Simon's fa vorites, so he doesn't often license it, but we showed them the scene and they agreed to let us use it.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

From the DVD commentaries:

"I should say Simon and Garfunkel were extremely generous in letting us have that song."

"It was just their management and thier agents and them being extremely generous and really being moved by the scene and allowing us to have it, 'cause we couldn't afford what they deserved for it."

and on the soundtrack album, thanks is given to artists who cut their fees dramatically. This all leads me to believe that they did indeed have to pay them, but not as much.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Please sign in to comment

You will be able to leave a comment after signing in



Sign In Now
×
×
  • Create New...