Bleeker Street

By Paul Simon

Fog's rollin' in off the East River bank
Like a shroud it covers Bleeker Street
Fills the alleys where men sleep
Hides the shepherd from the sheep

Voices leaking from a sad cafe
Smiling faces try to understand
I saw a shadow touch a shadow's hand
On Bleeker Street

A poet reads his crooked rhyme
Holy, holy is his sacrament
Thirty dollars pays your rent
On Bleeker Street

I heard a church bell softly chime
In a melody sustainin'
It's a long road to Caanan
On Bleeker Street
Bleeker Street

Notes

Simon and Garfunkel \ Bleeker Street

Played by Paul Simon for the BBC Five to Ten radio session on January the 27th 1965

“Bleecker street is a street in New York in Greenwich Village, and it's come to be more than just a street, it's come to be a metaphor for Greenwich Village which is unfortunate because Bleecker street is littered with bad art galleries and pizza stands and it obscures some of the good things, some of the creative things that are happening,”
(Paul Simon: Introduction to Bleecker street in BBC Five-To-Ten, 1965)

A fog's rolling in off the East river bank
Like a shroud it covers Bleecker street
Fills the alleys where men sleep
Hides the sheperd from the sheep

“It describes a street in New York's East Side, filled with people trying, but failing, to communicate with each other, and living in an environment of sterility and despair. As Art noted, 'It touches poignantly on human conditions of our time' - the first in a line of Simon compositions to do that,”
(Simon and Garfunkel . The Definitive Biography )
by Victoria Kingston, ©1996)

I confess that Bleecker Street (finished in October 1963), was too much for me at first The song is highly intellectual, the symbolism extremely challenging The opening line in which the fog comes like a "shroud" over the city introduces the theme of "creative sterility". But it is the second verse which I find particularly significant:

Voices leaking from a sad cafe
Smiling faces try to understand
I saw a shadow touch a shadow's hand
On Bleecker Street

The first line is a purely poetic image. The second line touches poignantly on human conditions of our time. To me, it shows the same perceptive psychological characterization as Sparrow - the "golden wheat" ("I would it I could but I cannot, I know"). The third line marks the first appearance of a theme that is to occupy great attention in later work - " lack of communication" .

The author says that the poets have "sold out" ("the poet writes his crooked rhyme"). The line "Thirty dollars pays your rent" reminds one of Judas Iscariot's betrayal of Christ for thirty pieces of silver. Admittedly, the song is difficult to understand, but worth the effort,
(Wednesday Morning 3AM album notes)
by Art Garfunkel, © 1964).