Simon & Garfunkel's Song, Fakin' It

Who was Paul Simon addressing?

Preamble

This post is a transcription of a PowerPoint presentation complete with music links, that I developed. I will be presenting this as a zoom session in an upcoming Simon & Garfunkel series. Send me a note if you are interested in being invited to this and other sessions on music artists that I do. 

Note, this is not a formal writing piece. I do not include any footnotes though I have researched many reading materials and blogs that indeed deserve credit. Of course, I add my own insights. I do not intend to make any money distributing this. The intention for sharing this is purely for the entertainment and educational value. 

Fakin' It

Simon and Garfunkel were signed to a contract with Columbia Records that specified that the label would pay for all recording sessions and production costs. The year was 1967. They were about to record songs for their upcoming fourth studio album, Bookends. The duo were most impressed with what the Beatles were doing with their extended time in the recording studio, away from the constant touring. During the years 1965 to 1967, the Beatles released epic albums, Rubber Soul, Revolver, and Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. So Simon and Garfunkel decided they would take full advantage of their contract clause. This song and the full album, Bookends, was therefore going to take longer to complete than their previous albums did, partly because they had a hard act with the Beatles to follow. It was also true that Paul Simon was experiencing writer’s block during this period, but this could also be because of the pressure of higher expectations as a result of the new higher standard in music created by the Beatles.

The duo went all out and hired musicians playing viola, brass, organ and percussion for their studio recordings, on their part to create a more experimental and experiential album, like what the Beatles were doing. They became so mesmerized just by the sound of the musicians tuning their instruments before performing that they spent most of a night trying to derive from this, a unique rhythmic sound to use for their song. What came out of this was an ethereal sound to open Fakin'It. This sound is accompanied by a jangling of drums and hand clapping. Compare this to the beginning of the Beatles’ song, Strawberry Fields Forever (which was released well before Fakin' It), with its out of this world sound, quickly followed by a clattering drum beat and John Lennon vocals. Listen to at least the opening of Strawberry Fields Forever on YouTube:

Simon and Garfunkel would go on to follow the Beatles’ formula for creating the concept album, Sargent Peppers' Lonely Hearts Club Band. Side one of Bookends would also become a concept side. The concept side would, like Sargent Peppers' Lonely Hearts Club Band, also include a theme song to open the side and a theme song reprise to close the side.

Fakin' It is about a guy pondering over his own insecurities. He is covering up his shortcomings by faking it, maybe to meet societal expectations in order to belong.

In the first verse, the insecure song writer is uncomfortable with a girl relationship. The song narrator chooses not to be true to himself by adopting airs. She seems, by contrast to him, self-assured. He tries to fake it in order to get close to her, but appears to be failing:

“When she goes, she’s gone
If she stays, she stays here
The girl does what she wants to do
She knows what she wants to do
And I know I’m fakin’ it
I’m not really makin’ it”

It seems that the song narrator is uncomfortable in his own skin, so he goes on faking it.

Much the same in the second verse:

"I’m such a dubious soul
And a walk in the garden
Wears me down
Tangled in the fallen vines
Pickin’ up the punch lines
I’ve just been fakin’ it
Not really makin’ it
No, no, no”

The “dubious” or unsure song narrator is perhaps going to a garden party but for him it is tantamount to entering a jungle. A “garden” typically symbolizes a place of beauty and tranquility. Yet it requires a tremendous effort on his part to engage with other people in this social setting. Not able to be himself, it wears him down, and he feels socially inept like he is “tangled in the fallen vines.” He feels the need to steal punch lines or jokes to fill the void he can’t fill with his own genuine words. He has “just been fakin’ it.” However, he knows he is “not really makin’ it.” To top it off,  he is kicking himself for being so socially awkward with the ”no, no, no.”

Verse 3 and it continues to be painful for the song narrator:

“Is there any danger?
No, no, not really
Just lean on me
Takin’ time to treat
Your friendly neighbors honestly
I’ve just been fakin’ it
Not really makin’ it
This feeling of fakin’ it
I still haven’t shaken it”

In this verse, he is desperately trying to connect with someone by reassuring that person that he can be trusted. He says to that person unconvincingly, “Just lean on me/ Takin’ time to treat/ Your friendly neighbors honestly.” However, anyone can tell he is just faking it and he cannot get close to that person or anyone, because he is being the opposite of honest. He continues to beat himself up for it with, “This feeling of fakin’ it/ I still haven’t shaken it.”

The fourth and final verse may be personal with some self-referencing:

“Prior to this lifetime
I surely was a tailor
(“Good morning, Mr. Leitch
Have you had a busy day?”)
I own the tailor’s face and hands
I am the tailor’s face and hands
I know I’m fakin’ it, fakin’ it
I’m not really makin’ it
This feeling of fakin’ it, shaken it
I’m not really makin’ it
This feeling of fakin’ it, shaken it”

Maybe, the song narrator, or perhaps Paul Simon himself, is referring to his Jewish ancestry with, “Prior to this lifetime/ I surely was a tailor.” Paul Simon admitted that this part about being a tailor in a prior lifetime, came to him in the middle of a “hash reverie.” Paul Simon’s father had mentioned to him at one time that his grandfather, like many Jews of the time, was a tailor from the old country, and his name too, was Paul Simon. (Paul Simon was probably named after his grandfather, as is the Jewish Ashkenazi tradition, to be named after a close relative who has passed away). Could it be that Paul Simon feels guilty about not carrying on his Jewish heritage? Is he too, faking his real identity in the outer world, by pretending that he is not a Jew? In the same verse, there is a British woman who is entering a tailor shop and greeting the owner with, “Good morning, Mr. Leitch/ Have you had a busy day?” The British woman, Beverly Martyn, was a friend of  Paul Simon's. Simon met her during his earlier career days when he was making a go of it in England. Beverly Martyn is a singer, songwriter, and guitarist, who knew many music artists like John Martyn, (who she was married to), Dave Pegg, Richard Thompson, and Sandy Denny (from Fairport Convention), John Renbourn and Bert Jansch (from Pentangle), Levon Helm, Jimmy Page, Ralph McTell, and Davy Graham. She also knew Donovan Phillips Leitch, well known at the time simply as Donovan. Perhaps Simon is poking fun at Donovan. In a scene from Bob Dylan: Don’t Look Back, a documentary film directed by D.A. Pennebaker, about Dylan’s touring in England in 1965, Dylan meets Donovan in a hotel room full of guests just before or after a Dylan concert. Donovan performs a song to impress Dylan and his entourage, that sounds very ‘Dylanesque.’ Dylan then picks up the same guitar and blows Donovan away with It’s All Over Now, Baby Blue. Maybe it was a message from Dylan to Donovan that he cannot keep up with him. In fairness to Donovan, a lot of his contemporary musicians were copying Bob Dylan. Also listen to Donovan's Catch the Wind on the YouTube link:

Catch the Wind, to me, sounds like it was quite influenced by Dylan. Knowing this about Donovan, inserted as it is in this final verse, is Paul Simon saying he too, like Donovan, and virtually every artist, and for that matter almost everyone else, is ‘fakin’ it?’

You can even accuse Paul Simon and Bob Dylan of ‘fakin’ it’ or borrowing from other artists to compose their own respective music, especially during their formative years. However, there is a difference in art between ‘fakin’ it’ and ‘makin’ it.’ Bob Dylan and Paul Simon were, and are, very good at borrowing from other artists. Most importantly, when they borrow phrases and/or music styles from other artists, they take these elements and create something unique which they can call their own. Dylan’s and Simon’s ability to do this is what makes them great artists. They spent most of their career ‘makin’ it’. All art is derived from somewhere. No art is created from ground zero.

There is another faking part in the song, Fakin’ It. At the time, radio stations resisted playing songs that were longer than three minutes. Fakin’ It ran over the mark at 3 minutes and 14 seconds. Paul Simon had the playing time “faked” to read “2:74” on the single label, to help ensure it got better playing time on the air. It was released only as a single on July 7, 1967, but was later compiled onto the second side of the Bookends album. The song, today, many consider a masterpiece, only peaked on the Billboard Hot 100 at #23.

You can listen to Fakin' It from this YouTube Link: