Individually gifted, Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel possess complementary talents—supple tenors, wry observational skills—that sound transcendent in harmony. An early pop collaboration laid the foundation for their late-'60s acme as purveyors of achingly poetic, hushed folk. With the breezy jangle and arch lyrics of “Mrs. Robinson”, the gentle bop of “Cecilia” and the plangent, soulful “Bridge Over Troubled Water”, the duo bridged coffeehouse folk and earthy rock, expressing the ethos of a generation that shunned the soft-focus conservatism of the '50s in favour of liberation and civil unease.