Simon & Garfunkel - Bookends
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Artist: Simon & GarfunkelBrand: Bookends
Edition: Music CD
Format: Extra tracks, Original recording remastered
CD Release Date: 2001-08-21
Music Label: Sony
Soundtracks:
- Bookends Theme
- Save The Life Of My Child
- America
- Overs
- Voices Of Old People
- Old Friends
- Bookends Theme
- Fakin' It
- Punky's Dilemma
- Mrs. Robinson
- A Hazy Shade Of Winter
- At The Zoo
- You Don't Know Where Your Interest Lies
- Old Friends
Music reviews of Bookends
Music Review: The quintessential Simon & Garfunkel album
Rating: 5 Stars
"Bookends" shows a leap in creativity for Simon & Garfunkel, having been allowed more studio time by their record company, Columbia to really harness their craft and the end result is truly a work of art. Their first album, "Wednesday Morning 3AM" showed Paul and Art in a purely 1960's folk music light, while their next two albums, "Sounds of Silence" and "Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and Thyme" saw the duo enhance a "folk rock" style with some wonderful, sometimes whimsical melodies and beautifully poetic lyrics. Here on "Bookends" though, it feels as though Simon & Garfunkel have grown up. There's a more mature approach to the songwriting, the performances and to the production. They sound like young men with old heads on their shoulders, which could be seen as ironic as this album's theme (or at least side one of it) is one of aging. Paul and Art chose to start the album somewhat up tempo, moving to songs of reflection and ending with something slower and simpler, all in all to reflect the growing up and growing old in life while bookending the songs with a "Bookends" theme.
Following the short "Bookends" theme intro, the album bursts open with the vibrant "Save The Life Of My Child" before settling down with "America". The imagery created by the lyrics in this song is made all the more vivid by the soft tones Paul Simon sings it in before Simon & Garfunkel's unfailing harmonies crescendo to lead the song into an instrumental fade. The song is such a wonderful tale of a young, innocent, naive couple, clearly in love and looking for adventure with no real direction, while at the same time looking for themselves. You can really imagine the sense of fun and excitement the couple are having on the Greyhound bus they boarded in Pittsburgh when Paul sings, "Laughing on the bus playing games with the faces. She said the man in the gabardine suit was a spy. I said be careful his bowtie is really a camera". Towards the end of the song it feels as though the fun has subsided as something unpretentious makes Paul sing, "Cathy I'm lost I said though I knew she was sleeping. I'm empty and aching and I don't know why". Cathy was the name of Paul Simon's girlfriend at the time, so the song at that point really seems "first person" in narrative, perhaps based on a real life experience. It's a fascinating song whatever. "Overs" is a very simplistic song of dilemma. Simon feels his relationship with his girlfriend/wife has run its course after a long period of time ("We're just a habit, like saccharin", he sings), but each time he feels he has gained enough courage to break off the relationship he stops and reconsiders. Why he reconsiders is not clear. Perhaps after being in the relationship so long he's actually more afraid of being alone. The album's theme of growing older is addressed here with Art Garfunkel's beautiful bridge where he sings, "Time is tapping on my forehead, Hanging from my mirror, Rattling the teacups." "Voices Of Old People" is literally just that, with some quite strange comments made by the elderly voices recorded. This leads into "Old Friends" which is a perfect musical metaphor for slowing down, reflecting on life and now finding it "terribly strange to be 70". We all hope to reach 70 some day, but at the same time we can't really imagine ourselves being that age.
With the album's linking theme completed on Side One, Side Two continues with a very similar style in songwriting and sound. "Fakin' It" tells of Paul Simon's distrust of the 1960's "flower power" movement with the line, "And a walk in the garden wears me down". It has an infectious drum track at the end and features an interesting break in the song where, from out of nowhere, a girl with a Lancashire accent (from northwest England) is heard supposedly entering a shop and says, "Good Morning, Mr. Leech. Have you had a busy day?". "Punky's Dilemma" is a fun song and unavoidably comes across as such with lyrics like, "Wish I was an English muffin, 'Bout to make the most out of a toaster. I'd ease myself down, Comin' up brown". The album concludes with three very recognizable songs from the Simon & Garfunkel songbook - one of their biggest hits, "Mrs. Robinson" from the soundtrack to the hit movie, "The Graduate", along with "A Hazy Shade Of Winter" and "At The Zoo."
"Bookends" tends to get overshadowed by its follow-up, "Bridge Over Troubled Water" which went on to become one of the most successful and biggest-selling albums of all time and the winner of five Grammy awards. Whilst it deserved every bit of success and acclaim, the only minor criticism Paul Simon later leant to the "Troubled Water" album was that it might have been slightly overproduced. Compared to "Bookends" this does ring true and as a consequence it feels a little more "serious" in its approach. "Bookends" at least adopts more of an air of looseness and fun, despite not sounding as instantly commercial as the "Troubled Water" album. For me, "Bookends" is the quintessential Simon & Garfunkel album with the duo on peak form before their personal and professional differences interfered with their relationship. In 1968 they were riding the wave of their success through a collection of classic songs that perfectly reflect the time in which they were composed and recorded.
Description of Bookends
14 tracks including 2 bonus tracks. STILL SEALED but this has a small hole in the barcode art.Classic Rock CDs
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