ad4tise wrote: 
Came to the comments section to pretty much type what you did.

Some RPers hear Death Cab for Cutie; can't say I do. I like Death Cab but I get irritated halfway through "Codes and Keys": the singer's trying too hard to be clever and arch. Simon and Garfunkel may be tremendously dated--some critics say that they were falling out of fashion before "The Graduate"--but their voices are tremendously sincere and upfront. Maybe that's what's missing these days.  

This is as solid as a 10 gets.

 d-don wrote: 
Yep. Over-produced in places, but who can say? If that was the sound they were striving for, then exactly-produced. Some truly classic songs on this album, this being one.

 bachbeet wrote: 

Nope. Great.

 Ubaldo wrote: 
Well said

This is my favourite song ever. Has been since I was a kid. So simple.

Church chords!

Ahhh ... we humans, can make things that are so simple and beautiful ... this song is one of those things ... 

One of the best from the best of the best.

.

Oh the music. Yeah s and G are good news.

p 

this song breaks my heart. but in a good way.

 deepgaze wrote: 
I'm pretty sure its appearance in the Garden State soundtrack had a lot to do with its resurgence. That said, this has always been one of my fave S&G tunes.
From Wiki: "Simon wrote this as a thinly veiled message to Art Garfunkel, referring to a specific incident where Garfunkel went to Mexico to act in the film Catch-22. Simon was left alone in New York writing songs for Bridge over Troubled Water, hence the lonely feelings of "The Only Living Boy in New York." Simon refers to Garfunkel in the song as "Tom", referring to their early days when they were called Tom and Jerry, and encourages him to "let your honesty shine . . . like it shines on me".^<1> The background vocals feature both Garfunkel and Simon recorded together in an echo chamber, multi-tracked around eight times."

It struck me while listening to this song that it was years ahead of its time.  It has a current feel, sort of Death Cab For Cutie -ish.   It may have been one of those odd oversights, but I never heard this played on the radio back in the day.  It shows up quite a bit now. 

Hey! I've got nothing to do today but smile....    

amen 

I'd prefer Carter USM's "Only living boy in New Cross"...

 Orodrigues wrote: 

Great Song.  What happened to this type of MUSIC?

This song is soooo good for the ears...


 

One of the most beautiful songs of all times!

Gaw-DAMN, I love this song!
Sublime.

Paul Simon is like poison ivy - after enough exposure you can develop a sensitivity.

 kcar wrote: 
Yeah, I think they just used the background chorus, effective.

Loved the car commercial that featured this....thanks Bill for turning me on to the actual song!

Gotta be in my top 10 all time favorite songs. I never get tired of this song or S & G

Wasn't this used in a Honda ad still running on US TV? 

This and American Tune — My very faves from S & G

 birdland wrote: 
Agreed.

It's a good song but 8.7?  They have other songs much better than this one.  And, I got tired of this album and thought it was overrated.  Good, not great.

 Businessgypsy wrote: 
Thanks, I guess I left out the part that made it really special - we were from New York! (well, NY state. . .)  As you can imagine, it was the one song that really spoke to me while we experienced some pretty wild adventures (way) South of the border!