Sounds Of Silence (1966)

The Sounds Of Silence
Leaves That Are Green
Blessed
Kathy's Song
Somewhere They Can't Find Me
Anji
Richard Cory
A Most Peculiar Man
April Come She Will
We've Got A Groovey Thing Goin'
I Am A Rock
Written by: Paul Simon, except "Anji", by Davy Graham
Produced by: Bob Johnston
Thoughts: "The Sounds Of Silence" is one of the greatest songs of all time, but most of the material here doesn't live up to the enormous reputation that that title song gets. There's still some great vocal acrobatics by the duo, but Simon doesn't seem to have the skills just yet to write a fully developed album. I don't think his work blossoms until the unimaginable beauty of Parsely, Sage, Rosemary And Thyme.

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Parsely, Sage, Rosemary & Thyme (1967)

Scarborough Fair/Canticle
Patters
Cloudy
Homeward Bound
The Big Bright Green Pleasure Machine
The 59th Street Bridge Song (Feelin' Goovy)
The Dangling Conversation
Flowers Never Bend With The Rainfall
A Simple Desultory Philippic (Or How I Was Robert McNamara'd Into Submission)
For Emily, Wherever I May Find Her
A Poem On The Underground Wall
7 O'Clock News/Silent Night
Written by: Paul Simon; "Scarborough Fair/Canticle" arranged by Paul Simon & Art Garfunkel; "Silent Night", public domain
Produced by: Bob Johnston
Thoughts: It's very rare that you can call an album outright beautiful from start to finish. I remember the first time I heard this album and it was like hearing some of the most achingly beautiful songs ever written. The album starts with the haunting harmony exercise "Scarborough Fair/Canticle" that just wakes you up, drawing you in. "Are you going to Scarborough Fair?" Hell, yes.
"Patterns" and "Cloudy" are a duo of songs that pound on you, all building up to the first single, the wonderful "Homeward Bound". After a few surrealist lyrics, Paul asks us to come home with him, but first we have to take a detour. "The Big Bright Green Pleasure Machine", forshadowing the hilarious lyrics of "Baby Driver", blows up onto the stereo, flowing to "The 59th Street Bridge Song". Easily one of S&G's more famous tracks, the song is a drastic departure from the track that will end side two.
"The Dangling Conversation", another single, opens the second side. It has this beautiful melody and uncomfortable lyrics about a couple having no relation to each other: "Like a poem poorly written/We are verses out of rhym/Couplets out of rhyme/In suncopated time". On top of that, there is no resolution in the song - the narrator tells his lover "You are a stranger unto me." "Flowers Never Bend With The Rainfall" is quick, leading into Simon's rediculous "A Simple Desultory Philippic", which, though fun, is easily the worse track on the record, as it's just him name-calling popular culture of 1967.
"For Emily, Wherever I May Find Her" is just amazing. When I said this album is outright beautiful, this is really what I'm talking about. I mean, Garfunkel sings like his life is on the line and he just belts out some of the most heartbreaking lyrics Simon ever wrote. "A Poem On The Underground World" is like "Flowers Never Bend With The Rainfall", but a little quicker and a more interesting theme. The album ends with the almost torturous look at the tumultuous year of 1967, prior to the full-blown insanity of 1968, called "7 O'Clock News/Silent Night", where S&G harmonize the classic Christmas song over a news reporter reading headlines.
In the end, this is one of the best records from 1967 and probably from that entire decade and the whole thing is barely thrity minutes....

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Bookends (1968)

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
Written by: Paul Simon, except *Paul Simon & Art Garfunkel
Produced by: Paul Simon, Arthur Garfunkel & Roy Halee
Thoughts: With just a twenty-nine minute running time, two minutes of it devoted to heart-wrenching accounts from "Voices Of Old People", Bookends is another album that continues to astound me. You can listen to it over and over again and something different is going to effect you, even though it's the same, forty year-old music. What makes the album great is that it features a perfect mix of political/social commentary ("America", "At The Zoo" and "Mrs. Robinson") and fun, humerus songs ("A Hazy Shade Of Winter" and "Punky's Dilemma"). The tracks that stick out to me on this album are the most obscure...the ones that didn't turn into monster hit singles. "Overs" is an amazing, quiet and unassuming track that is quite hard to understand. It could be taken as a social commentary, complaining about how we continue to be fooled, despite all the recent political activities coming to a head with all that had happened in 1968. However, it could also just be about a love affair gone bad. "Save The Life Of My Child" is also a very challenging number. It crashes onto the stereo, surprising us after the quiet half-minute instrumental version of the "Bookends Theme" that opens the album. We are told of a story of a child attempting suicide when his mother, the press and everyone else gets in the way. In a way, it helps to tell the hip, drugged-out listeners of this LP what it felt like on the other side of the mirror, where our parents feel we are committing suicide ("What's becoming of the children?/People asking each other"). Yet, all we really want to do is get away from the world ("When the spotlight hit the boy/The crowd began to cheer/He flew away"). On the second side, sandwiched between a hit parade, sits "Punky's Dilemma", a track about a man in the midst of an identity crisis. The lyrics make the track funny, but the subject is much deeper than just a way to reference boysenberry jam. So if you look at the track list and say, "But I've already heard seven of the twelve songs on here a thousand times, I don't need this," just think of what I told you that you'd be missing.

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The Columbia Studio Recordings (1964-1970) (1999)

Wednesday Morning, 3 A.M.: You Can Tell the World [Bob Gibson & Bob Camp]/Last Night I Had the Strangest Dream [Ed McCurdy]/ Bleecker Street/Sparrow/Benedictus [Traditional, arranged and adapted by Paul Simon & Art Garfunkel]/The Sounds of Silence/He Was My Brother [Paul Kane]/Peggy-O [Traditional]/Go Tell It on the Mountain [Traditional]/The Sun Is Burning [Ian Campbell]/The Times They Are a-Changin' [Bob Dylan]/Wednesday Morning, 3 A.M./Bleecker Street [Demo]*/He Was My Brother [Alternate]*/The Sun Is Burning [Alternate] [Ian Campbell]*
Sounds Of Silence: The Sounds of Silence/Leaves That Are Green/Blessed/Kathy's Song/Somewhere They Can't Find Me/Anji [Davey Graham]/Richard Cory/A Most Peculiar Man/April Come She Will/We've Got a Groovy Thing Goin'/I Am a Rock/Blues Run the Game [Jackson C. Frank]*/Barbriallen [Traditional]*/Rose of Aberdeen [Traditional]*/Roving Gambler [Traditional]*
Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and Thyme: Scarborough Fair/Canticle [Paul Simon & Art Garfunkel]/Patterns/Cloudy/Homeward Bound/The Big Bright Green Pleasure Machine/The 59th Street Bridge Song (Feelin' Groovy)/The Dangling Conversation/Flowers Never Bend With the Rainfall/A Simple Desultory Philippic (or How I Was Robert McNamara'd into Submission)/For Emily, Whenever I May Find Her/A Poem on the Underground Wall/7 O'Clock News/Silent Night/Patterns [Demo]*/A Poem on the Underground Wall [Demo]*/
Bookends: Bookends Theme/Save the Life of My Child/America/Overs/Voices of Old People [Paul Simon & Art Garfunkel]/Old Friends/Bookends Theme/Fakin' It/Punky's Dilemma/Mrs. Robinson/Hazy Shade of Winter/At the Zoo/You Don't Know Where Your Interest Lies*/Old Friends [Demo]*
Bridge Over Troubled Water: Bridge Over Troubled Water/El Condor Pasa (If I Could) [Paul Simon, Jorge Milchberg & Daniel A. Robles]/Cecilia/Keep the Customer Satisfied/So Long, Frank Lloyd Wright/The Boxer/Baby Driver/The Only Living Boy in New York/Why Don't You Write Me/Bye Bye Love [Felice Bryant & Boudleaux Bryant]/Song for the Asking/Feuilles-O [Traditional]*/Bridge Over Troubled Water [Demo]*
*Bonus Tracks
Written by: Paul Simon, except where noted
Wednesday Morning, 3 A.M. Produced by: Tom Wilson
Sounds Of Silence and Parsley, Sage, Rosemary And Thyme Produced by: Bob Johnston
Bookends and Bridge Over Troubled Water Produced by: Paul Simon, Arthur Garfunkel and Roy Halee
Thoughts: Simon & Garfunkel's short career with Columbia, which ended with their break-up in 1970, spans just six years with five albums. This is a great box set, which doesn't complete the S&G catalogue, but is great to have if you have any familiarity with their hits. What's missing is various mono single versions and even the mono versions of the first four LPs, but that is essentially splitting hairs. Today's generation could care less about the differences between mono and stereo. Half the time, you'll probably encounter people who don't even know what mono is (and shame on them). In today's market, this is practically the only way to get their wonderful debut LP, Wednesday Morning, 3 A.M. as the stand alone CD release of that LP is incredibly hard to find. In fact, I don't think I've ever seen it outside of this box set, which is a shame. It's a wonderful LP, much in the style of Bob Dylan's self-titled debut. Plus, there truly is nothing like hearing the bare-bones acoustic version of "Sounds Of Silence". The electric version truly took all the heart out of the song. If you are thinking about getting S&G's catalogue, the smartest thing for you to do is just buy this box. It keeps going down in price (I think it's at $25 on Amazon) and is much cheaper than buying the five LPs separately for $10 a piece. As for the bonus cuts, they are useful, but most of them are acoustic demos of traditional material. Probably the most interesting bonus cut is the "Bridge Over Troubled Water" take, which features Paul, instead of Art, singing lead. Also, the wonderful B-Side to "Fakin' It", "You Don't Know Where Your Interest Lies" is included.
About The Artwork: I love the packaging design. The cover comes from the poster included with Bookends and is an awesome picture. The booklet is filled with the lyrics, the original liner notes and some great essays for each album. The only thing useful missing is probably a list of all the studio musicians who worked with S&G (you only get the list for Bridge Over Troubled Water because that was included on the liner of the original LP). Each CD is packed in cardboard sleeves, exactly replicating the original LPs.

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Paul Simon (1972)

Mother And Child Reunion
Duncan
Everything Put Together Falls Apart
Run That Body Down
Armistice Day
Me And Julio Down By The Schoolyard
Peace Like A River
Papa Hobo
Hobo's Blues*
Paranoia Blues
Congratulations
Written by: Paul Simon, except *Paul Simon & Stephane Grappelli
Produced by: Paul Simon & Roy Halee
Thoughts: It was pretty clear that Simon felt a little confined in the Simon & Garfunkel duo, despite the fact that he was the songwriter. Remember, he had to write songs for two people, songs that he could sing and songs that Garfunkel could sing. For his self-titled debut, Simon only had to write songs that fit his singing style and he could do whatever he wanted with his songs.
Even though it opens with the rather adventurous "Mother And Child Reunion", the remaining tracks are understated, mostly acoustic and delicate songs. "Duncan" is a heartbreaking story of a fisherman, which is contrasted by Los Incas (who Simon used on "El Condor Pasa (If I Could)"). "Everything Put Together Falls Apart" and "Run That Body Down" are two songs about going until you break. "Armistice Day" is another beauty and I think it's probably one of the hidden gems here. The second side, starting with "Me And Julio Down By The Schoolyard" is great too. "Peace Like A River" is a great, prayer-like track and the "Papa Hobo"/"Hobo's Blues" sequence is another part that highlights the plight of those that the well-off really don't think about. "Paranoia Blues" is really awesome, especially with the Bottleneck guitar by Stefan Grossman. The album closes with the attack "Congratulations", where Simon congratulates his love about breaking his heart again, something that seems a little odd. You don't celebrate the fact that someone hurts you, but here Simon uses it as his closer to his first solo-LP. It's surprising, but that's the whole point of the album; doing things that no one really expects.

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