Simon & Garfunkel's BOOKENDS - Classic or Dud?

And lets not forget America, probably the best song in the world.

I like this album, but it's more of a sentimental sort of fondness than anything else - the kind of thing my mom would play on a rainy day when I was a kid. It is super maudlin, and I think there's a number of neat production touches on it.

And that Moog on "Save the life of my child" scared the poo out of me as a kid. I love the way it sounds like it was recorded down in an underground car park - a sound I never heard again until "Automobile noise" by the Blue Nile.

As an aside, the original versions of "Hazy shade of winter" and "At the zoo" were radically different on the singles - have these ever been issued on CD at any point?

It's so varied ... psychadelic bits, old people's voices, the proto-electro punk of Save the Life of My Child, Mrs. Robinson, beautiful melancholy of Old Friends.

It's a masterpiece.

Not *QUITE* sure that's accurate, but I like the sound of it. If memory serves, doesn't the bass intro (after the Moog burst) of "Save the Life..." sound quite familiar to the bass intro of "100,000 Years" by those fellow New Yorkers in Kiss?

Actually no-one's mentioned "Fakin' It" yet which is another classic off Bookends. I always wanted to hear an early 80s style synth pop cover of that. Wonder if it's possible to do it now, electroclash styleee

So anyway, I finally brought myself to buying an S&G album, seeing as they were going for real cheap at the shop, and I figured whut the heck, right? I picked Bookends since it seemed the rightfully hip choice and most importantly, MY DUTY! So I love how it can be alternately silly and dark, and all, very mellah. It's just a beautiful record that combines (some of) the best aspects of the VU, the Beatles, Dylan, and Brian Wilson's work. Old Friends seems to particularly haunt me these days, along with America. And it's short, which makes it even better in my book, of course.

"Save the Life of My Child" is incredible stuff.
Deceptively dark album.

I'm a hip hop fan who digs simon and garfunkel - my street cred is shot yo.

(i have to say I'm surprised by how many people on here dig this album!)

Man. The Moog intro totally makes that fucking song. Sounds like something outta Wendy Carlos' score for ACO. Eerie.

I dig most of this especially America and At the Zoo. Also, much love for Hazy Shade of Winter, which invents Belle and Sebastian. The bonus tracks are cool too, You Don't Know Where Your Interest Lies and the stripped-down Old Friends (really can hear those nice chord changes).

"Punky's Dilemma," OTOH, yikes! Paul must have smoked some shitty green before writing that one.

Punky's Dilemma is the best song on the album and I voted for it in the poll

at least, I coulda sworn there was a poll for this album... hmmm can't find it

POLL: The Essential Paul Simon & Art Garfunkel

Maybe

There was a poll for this; I think "America" won. Who knows what horrible title the poll was conducted under.

Found it:

Voices Of Poll People - The Bookends Poll

I just can't take the lyrics to Punky's Dileema, they ruin an otherwise good song.

Nobody likes "Fakin It"??

The transition from "Bookends" into "Somebody Save the Life of my Child" is jarring and scary. Aside from that, a great album.

Would be nice to see an ILM cage match between this and Tusk.

The lyrics to "Punky's Dilemma" are brilliant.

The transition from "Bookends" into "Somebody Save the Life of my Child" is jarring and scary. Aside from that, a great album.

It's supposed to be scary. And it's brilliant.

why is it supposed to be scary?

Man, it wasn't scary so much as WTF, and in a really awesome, fun way.

Plus "Save the Life" is a damn damn damn good song.

Bookends is absolutely classic in my book. When your talking about classic songwriting, Simon and Dylan were on incredible runs right up to the mid-seventies. I love the cover head shots too, very severe and classical. I'll bet Peter Saville has that same record cover.

"bookends" is great, but i prefer s&g at their most reverbed and arboreal folkie. listened to "parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme" today and oh my god what an album.

Bought this album yesterday after getting & enjoying 'Bridge Over Troubled Water' a week or so ago, and it's really quite a revelation how odd and dark and discordant and non-straight-forward this album is, but still with some totally killer songs ("America" natch). Very interesting.

Where do the bonus tracks come from? "You Don't Know Where Your Interest Lies" is a great song, so I'm just intrigued to know if it was an out-take or b-side etc? Will try and look it up myself...

OK, it was the B-side to the "Fakin' It" single. Easy enough.

Must admit, I've come around to Punky's Dilemma...

I wish Fakin' It didn't have that dippy tailor shop interlude.

comes out of nowhere dunnit. I forget what movie that's from

I heard it was a nod to Donovan. ("Good morning, Mr. Leitch. Have you had a busy day?")

Just put this on for the first time. When Save The Life Of My Child kicked in I thought it was a mispressed CD. Awesome.

The voice in the middle of "Fakin' it" is Beverley Kutner (also known as Beverley Martyn) who was friendly with Paul Simon during his London folkie days, and he invited her to New York for that recording and to perform at the Monterey festival. She had a solo career on Deram at the time, you know, first single written by Randy Newman, second by Donovan.

(I knew this before from somewhere, probably the sleevenotes to "Deram dayze" where her first single appears, but just confirmed it on Wikipedia)

Classic! Wish I still had my vinyl copy of this.

Just put this on for the first time. When Save The Life Of My Child kicked in I thought it was a mispressed CD. Awesome.

― Sick Mouthy (Scik Mouthy), Saturday, June 9, 2012 2:57 PM (5 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

It's great, innit? Love the way they sampled themselves by including a snatch of 'The Sound Of Silence' in there somewhere.

Just found out that the bass sound on "Save the life of my child" was programmed by Bob Moog himself. He was aiming for an immense bass sound to make an impact - it worked!

Glad I loved this album in 2003 (one of my earliest posts, I suspect).