You can now buy 'Patterns - The Alan's Album Archives Guide To The Music Of Simon and Garfunkel' in e-book form by clicking here!
S/G "20 Greatest Hits"
(Sony,
August 1991)
Wednesday
Morning 3AM/The Sound Of Silence/Homeward Bound/Kathy's Song/I Am A Rock/For
Emily Wherever I May Find Her/Scarborough Fair-Canticle/59th Bridge Street Song
(Feelin' Groovy/7 O'Clock News-Silent Night/A Hazy Shade Of Winter/El Condor
Pasa/Mrs Robinson/America/At The Zoo/Old Friends/Bookends Theme/Cecilia/The
Boxer/Bridge Over Troubled Water/Song For The Asking
"Time! Time! Time! See what's
become of me?"
An
unusual compilation this which, despite the title, isn't really about the hits
at all: there's no 'Fakin' It' for example, or 'My Little Town' or - well you
get the picture. Even treating this album like the other more
album-track-compilation friendly sets, though, this one seem highly random: no
'He Was My Brother', no 'Richard Cory', no 'Patterns', no 'Flowers Never Bend
With The Rainfall', not even 'Keep The Customer Satisfied'. Instead we get
filler material like 'Wednesday Morning 3AM' and 'Song For The Asking' , which make for
particularly weak opening and closing songs. The tacky packaging, with a most
peculiar shot of the duo at their Central Park reunion (that makes Art looks as
if he's about to throw up) doesn't help matters much either. There are far
better best-ofs out there, even cheap ones.
"Paul Simon's Concert In The
Park"
(Warner
Brothers, November 1991)
CD
One: The Obvious Child/The Boy In The Bubble/She Moves On/Kodachrome/Born At
The Right Time/Train In The Distance/Me and Julio Down By The Schoolyard/I Know
What I Know/The Cool Cool River/Bridge Over Troubled Water/Proof
CD
Two: The Coast/Graceland/You Can Call Me Al/Still Crazy After All These
Years/Loves Ne Like A Rock/Diamonds On The Soles Of Her Shoes/Hearts and
Bones/Late In The Evening/America/The Boxer/Cecilia/The Sound Of Silence
"These are the days of miracle and
wonder - the way the camera follows us in slow mo, the way we look to us all -
so don't cry, baby, don't cry"
Now this
is how concert albums should be made, with Paul's most exciting and vibrant
album of his long career delivered with spectacle, songs, special guest
musicians from across the length and breadth of his career and an awful lot of
drummers. Like the S and G reunion from a decade before, this is another free
'local concert' recorded before almost as large a crowd of music-lovers in
Central Park. Unlike that album though Paul is both firmly in charge, without
having to compromise to Arty's wishes, and in the mood to have fun, celebrating
his back catalogue in the company of a group of sympathetic musicians and
well-wishing fans. Many of his best songs are here covering a wide range of time:
five Simon and Garfunkel songs, seven from the 1970-1983 years, the better
songs from 'Graceland' and best of all six from his recent masterpiece release
'The Rhythm The Saints' which sound so different here, sounding like 'complete'
songs now that Paul isn't fitting lyrics to established rhythm tracks but
letting the compositions breathe as finished emotional works of art. The whole
is a sublime meeting of all the different Paul Simons: the troubled troubadour
of the earlier years, the thoughtful singer-songwriter of the 1970s and the
world music aficionado of the 1980s all together, performed by a mammoth multi-cultural
band who are all perfectly chosen and somehow manage to juggle every single one
of those elements and offering a
gorgeous new whole that sounds quite unlike any other album out there, heavy on
the drumming and big on the loving.
The
opening moment of 'The Obvious Child', Paul dwarfed by the Grupo Cultural
Olodum percussion band (who sound so much more vibrant live than they did on
record) is a hard moment to top, but Paul manages it anyway with several
highlights across the set: a lively, angry, restless 'Boy In The Bubble' that
knocks spots off 'Graceland' and merges an oh so West Coast bass solo with an
oh so East Africa accordion solo; a sweet 'Born At The Right Time' all the
better for the emotion pouring out of Paul's voice; a gorgeous reflective
'Train In The Distance' that finally slows the concert down after one of the
most energetic half hours in the AAA collection; a powerful 'Cool Cool River'
that leads to a spine-tingling peak of outrage and cymbal crashes, human and
hurting and oh so different to the 'serious' version heard on 'Saints'; a
never-ending 'Proof' that ends with solos from every percussion instrument
you've ever heard of and lots you probably haven't; a monster jam at the end of
'Diamonds On The Soles Of Her Shoes' that takes a full five extra minutes to
get back in it's shoe-box; an oh so sweet and fragile 'Hearts and Bones', alone
with an acoustic guitar that sounds so unbearably poignant after so much
raucous noise; a final encore of 'The Sound Of Silence' that's never sounded
sadder or more alone, with 'just' Paul on stage and some 500,000 people in the
park hanging on every word. Practically everything at this live show works (only
a slightly timid 'Boxer', a thrownaway over-gospelled 'Loves Me Like A Rock'
and a 'Bridge' that's powerful but not as radically different and gorgeous as
the one on 'Live Rhymin' let the side down - and not by much compared to other
live records), on what must surely be one of the top ten AAA live recordings of
them all.
It was a
cloudy day. 'Rhythm Of The Saints' hadn't sold as well as it deserved. Paul's
Graceland band in 1987 were, in truth, pretty hopeless the last time out. They
thought there was going to be a thunderstorm. And instead it's a beautiful
night in New York City. Also recorded as a TV concert (but strangely not out on
DVD yet - sign the petition if you feel as strongly about this as 'we' do!),
but fun as this show is to watch with multi-instrumentalist musicians endlessly
running around to swap instruments it's the soundtrack that matters. We don't
often say this about AAA live albums but you need to own this record, the high
point and peak of Paul Simon's 'second' career. Sadly in many ways it's also a
'last hurrah' - by the time Paul returns he'll be promoting a troubled and doomed-to-failure
musical that will shut after just a few shows, critically slaughtered. Hard to
believe after hearing him at the peak of his powers here. The only thing
missing is Art Garfunkel, who by coincidence happens to share a birthday with
this album (it came out on his 50th in fact: was the plan originally to release
it on Paul's a few weeks earlier?)
"The Definitive Simon and
Garfunkel"
(Sony,
November 1991)
Wednesday
Morning 3AM/The Sound Of Silence/Homeward Bound/Kathy's Song/I Am A Rock/For
Emily Wherever I May Find Her/Scarborough Fair-Canticle/The 59th Bridge Street
Song (Feelin' Groovy)/7 O'Clock News-Silent Night/A Hazy Shade Of Winter/El
Condor Pasa/Mrs Robinson/America/At The Zoo/Old Friends/Bookends/Cecilia/The
Boxer/Bridge Over Troubled Water/Song For The Asking
"What a dream I had, pressed in
organdy, clothed in clinoline of sunken burgandy"
The
first Simon and Garfunkel compilation of the CD era, this one is an 'old
friend' - a big seller that turns up a lot in second hand record fairs and
charity shops with two separate issues featuring the same photograph of the duo
in the studio in either white or tinted blue. It's an improvement on what came
before, without really coming close to the longer sets to come, extending a
typically 40-odd minute vinyl compilation to an extra quarter hour which is
good, but still leaving 25 odd minutes of a CD running time empty, which isn't.
The songs are a sensible if predictable selection, missing fan favourites like
'He Was My Brother' 'Anji' and 'Patterns' but it does at least include most of
the band's hits ('Fakin' It' and 'My Little Town' being the exceptions). The
set is also i the 'correct' chronological order, which is a good idea until you
come to the news-filled cover of 'Silent Night', a brave choice which sounds
more than a little out of place in the middle of the set. Be warned, too, that
both 'Kathy's Song' and 'For Emily' are live recordings taped during the 1983
reunion in Central Park, something the sleevenotes don't make clear (and which
seems pretty pointless - these are perhaps the two best recordings made that
night but neither come close to matching the originals). Not bad then, but not
that good either and certainly not definitive.
"Paul Simon 1964-1993" (Box
Set)
(Warner
Brothers, September 1993)
CD
One: Leaves That Are Green ('Songbook' Version)/The Sound Of Silence/Kathy's
Song (Live)/America/Cecilia/El Condor Pasa/The Boxer/Mrs Robinson/Bridge Over
Troubled Water (Demo)/Bridge Over Troubled Water/The Breaklup/Hey Schoolgirl/My
Little Town/Me and Julio Down By The Schoolyard/Peace Like A River/Mother and
Child Reunion/Congratulations/Duncan ('Live Rhymin' Version)/American Tune
CD
Two: Loves Me Like A Rock/Tenderness/Kodochrome/Gone At Last/Take Me To The
Mardi Gras/St Judy's Comet/Something So Right/Still Crazy After All These
Years/Have A Good Time/Jonah/How The Heart Approaches What It Yearns/50 Ways To
Leave Your Lover/Slip Slidin' Away/Late In The Evening/Hearts and Bones/Rene
and Georgette Magritte With Their Dog After The War/The Late Great Johnny Ace
CD
Three: The Boy In The Bubble/Graceland/Under African Skies/That Was Your
Mother/Diamonds On The Soles Of Her Shoes/You Can Call Me Al/Homeless/Spirit
Voices/The Obvious Child/Can't Run But/Thelma/Further To Fly/She Moves On/Born
At The Right Time/The Cool Cool River ('Central Park' Version)/The Sound Of
Silence ('Central Park' Version)
"Sometimes even music cannot
substitute for tears!"
Pricey
box sets were all the rage in the 1990s and Paul Simon was as deserving as
anybody, with all sorts of unheralded classics from his older albums made
available on CD - some of them for the first time. Any set including songs from
Paul's excellent set of early solo albums should have been a winner - so why
doesn't this set join our legions of classic AAA boxes from the same period?
Well, Warner Brothers' set is largely an exercise in money-making unworthy of
the star they're trying to promote. The box itself is cheap and shoddy, easily
open to breakages and tears while the CDs don't even come with pictures inside
the boxes. The track selection mainly concentrates on the albums where Warner
Brothers already own the rights, so there is almost a complete selection of
tracks from Paul's two most recent albums 'Graceland' and 'Rhythm Of The
Saints' and barely anything from all five Simon and Garfunkel records or the
classic string of solo records from 1972's 'Paul Simon' to 1983's 'Hearts and
Bones'. Given that this set sold for such a lot, you'd also expect there to
have been four discs in here, as per most sets, rather than just three:
goodness knows there's easily another 80 minutes of 'essential' Paul Simon that
isn't here (this is even worse on the two-disc version 'The Paul Simon
Anthology' released at the same time which cuts discs one and two down in size
and yet still features 'Graceland' and 'Saints' near-complete). Even the booklet,
though it features a rare interview with Paul and some lovely unseen
photographs, doesn't feel quite 'special' enough to deserve the price tag. And
why oh why did the marketing department let through a set that effectively
celebrates the '29th anniversary' of Paul's solo career (which they've counted
as starting from 'Wednesday Morning 3AM' even though the set includes 1957's
Tom and Jerry song 'Hey Schoolgirl') when they could have waited a year and
made this set a '30th anniversary' one? This set gets far too many things wrong
for something that's so obviously made for a 'luxury' market and for fans who
care about this sort of thing.
That
said, especially at the time, there were still lots of good reasons for owning
this set. There were four tracks here that back in 1993 had either never been
released before or were impossible to get hold of. 'Hey Schoolgirl', for
starters, makes its long delayed appearance on an officially sanctioned Simon
or Garfunkel set and was good to hear at last (even if by rights it should be
at the very start, not twelve tracks in as a 'bridge over troubled water'
between the S and G and solo years). The 1972 comedy piece 'The Breakup', which
really was intended as a joke by the way, shows a whole new playful side to
Simon and Garfunkel as Paul produces Arty from the control room and tries to
get his partner to sound 'more serious' and 'slip in a bit about how I'll be
doing a college tour this fall!' The pair have never sounded more like 'old
friends' than here. There's also a quite gorgeous Paul-only demo of 'Bridge' as
the writer originally intended it, as a sweet but muted two-verse song heavily
in a gospel vein and you can entirely see why Arty was keen for Paul to sing
this on the record too, in a lovely falsetto voice. Surprisingly there's only
one solo rarity which comes as late as the 'Saints' period with 'Thelma' the unlucky track that got left
behind. It is perhaps not quite up to the best of that LP's standards but Paul
was on such a role in the early 1990s that even this song seems like a minor
classic, with a typical mix of groovy rhythms and fragmented poetic lyrics
wrapped around a poppier chorus than normal. It's good too to have a couple of
the live recordings here from different solo LPs and the non-album single 'Slip
Slidin' Away', but even with all that taken into account this set should have
been half the price and made with a little bit more love, care and attention.
"The Paul Simon Anthology"
(Warner
Brothers, '1993')
CD
One: The Sound Of Silence/Cecilia/El Condor Pasa/The Boxer/Mrs Robinson/Bridge
Over Troubled Water/Me and Julio Down By The Schoolyard/Peace Like A River/Mother
and Child Reunion/American Tune/Loves Me Like A Rock/Kodochrome/Gone At Last/Still
Crazy After All These Years/Something So Right/50 Ways To Leave Your Lover/Slip
Slidin' Away/Late In The Evening/Hearts and Bones/Rene and Georgette Magritte
With Their Dog After The War
CD
Two: The Boy In The Bubble/Graceland/Under African Skies/That Was Your
Mother/Diamonds On The Soles Of Her Shoes/You Can Call Me Al/Homeless/Spirit
Voices/The Obvious Child/Can't Run But/Thelma/Further To Fly/She Moves On/Born
At The Right Time/The Cool Cool River ('Central Park' Version)/The Sound Of
Silence ('Central Park' Version)
"Though you're nearer your
destination the more you keep slip slidin' away"
A
mini-version of the box set, which seems a bit pointless given that this set is
on two discs and the original only ran for three, but it was at least a lot
cheaper and more like half the price than two-thirds. Sadly, too, it's the more
interesting material that gets the push, with the first two discs squeezed
together and almost all the 1972-1983 material dropped to make room for an
almost complete run of the monstrosity that is 'Graceland' and which leaves the
Simon and Garfunkel years (which most people still rate as the most
interesting) reduced to just six tracks. In a sense this is the 'European'
version of the original set's 'American' appeal, missing out the songs that had
only been a hit in Paul's homeland but as such seems even more like a glorified
best-of than the original with less album tracks and even less rarities, with
only the rather sweet 'Bridge' demo and 'Rhythm Of The Saints' outtake 'Thelma'
intact. There are better Paul Simon sets out there - including the three disc
version, if you could afford it at the time.
Art Garfunkel "Up Till Now"
(Columbia,
October 1993)
Cryin'
In The Rain/All I Know/Just Over The Brooklyn Bridge/The Sound Of Silence/The
Breakup/Skywriter/The Decree/It's All In The Game/One Less Holiday/Since I Don't
Have You/Two Sleepy People/Why Worry?/All My Love's Laughter
"There should be laughter after
pain, there should be sunshine after pain"
When is a compilation not a compilation? When
It's 'Up Til' Now', a random assortment of one old established classic (though
thankfully it's the rarer acoustic version of 'Sound Of Silence' this time),
two modern solo favourites, two r-recordings (of 'All I Know' and 'All My
Love's Laughter'), one track from 'The Animals' Christmas' (which makes no
sense out of context), one recent TV theme tune ('Over The Brooklyn Bridge'), a
'comedy' Simon and Garfunkel moment from 1972 released simultaneously with a
Paul Simon box set and no less than six previously unheard songs (half of them
new, half of them outtakes from earlier Garfunkel records). This uneasy hybrid
does not a classic compilation make and it certainly does look like Columbia
patting Art on the back and telling him that he wouldn't be making a full album
this year (his last being five years old by this point) but they weren't going
to ignore him entirely.
However you'd be wrong. The 'Columbia
president' Arty thanks on the back sleeve for the 'concept' is not a Columbia
record label boss (where Arty has by now spent much of his life) but Mitchell
Cohen, a professor at Columbia University known for his collection of political
essays (and, quite possibly, one of Arty's old lecturers during his time there
studying architecture: in retrospect no wonder Arty, who has always said how
much he loved those years as a student, signed with a record label also named
Columbia!) Simon and Garfunkel's thoughtful branch of rebellion and revolution
make a natural pairing with many of his own views and - though both men have
remained quite on the matter - it seems quite likely that they'd have become
friends. Together with the sweet album cover (half of dad Arty cradling half
his new-born son James - the cover wraps around the back sleeve to make a
'whole') it seems that the high-falluting concept was, this time, more about
'before' and 'after' shots of Garfunkel's life. On those terms this album makes
more sense: we get the innocence of the original 'Sound Of Silence' before the
two singers know anything about what will happen paired with 'The Breakup' when
the pair are far enough away from their legacy to laugh at it for the first
time. We get 'All I Know', the launch of Art's solo career, not as a song of
hopeful longing but weary hoping, which isn't quite the same thing at all,
together with an older, slower reflection of a 'Watermark' song, both recorded
in 1989. We also get outtakes from album sessions for records like 'Scissors
Cut' as if we're getting a glimpse at an 'alternate' Art Garfunkel timeline
where hit albums are represented by unknown songs. I still don't know why we
get 'The Decree' from 'Animals' Christmas', however or where most of the 'new'
songs fit in mind so a bit of an on-sleeve explanation would have been nice!
(though the theme of 'Why Worry?' that life comes in cycles makes for a bit of
thematic sense).
Unfortunately, though, this concept doesn't
make for easy listening and a majority of Garfunkel fans will have bought this
album hoping for a more straightforward compilation without quite realising
that it's meant to be 'Art' in more than one sense of the word. The sad fact
remains as well that a lot of these tracks remain obscure for a reason: the two
re-recordings are intriguing, with Art singing lower and slower, but can't
match the pathos of the original versions; 'Brooklyn Bridge' is nice but at only a minute
long it's at least three too short to properly be called a song; Jimmy Webb's
breathy 'Skywriter' sounds like all the past breathy Jimmy Webb piano ballads;
'It's All In The Game' is slow pop pretty but also pretty forgettable; Stephen
Bishop's 'Scissor's Cut' outtake 'One Less Holiday' has some lovely words but
not much of a tune and was probably the right track to drop from the album; the
jazzy 'Two Sleepy People' from the soundtrack for forgotten film 'A League Of
Their Own' (about a female baseball team) is simply horrid and one of the worst
songs Art has ever recorded, faceless and vacuous and making poor use of his
talents. Only the new duet between Art
and James Taylor on Everly Brothers duet 'Cryin' In The Rain' and a quite
gorgeous ballad take on Dire Straits' neglected classic 'Why Worry?' are really
worth going out of your way to own and both have turned up on other easier to
find compilations since (plus the genuinely hilarious 'The Breakup' if you
hadn't bought that yet, though putting spoken word in the middle of an album of
music never works as an idea!) An album to admire, rather than to love, this
record doesn't really offer that much of a sense of where Arty is 'up to now'
and few of these revived recordings are worth making such a fuss about (a full
LP of more contemporary cover songs would have been a much better bet on the
back of 'Why Worry?'). Better that this album exists in some form than not I
suppose, but if you couldn't find it then you'll find it impossible today, but
why worry now?
"Old Friends" (Box Set)
(Columbia/Legacy,
November 1997)
CD
One: Bleeker Street (Demo)/The Sound Of Silence (Acoustic)/The Sun Is
Burning/Wednesday Morning 3AM/He Was My Brother/Sparrow/Peggy-O/Benedictus/Somewhere
They Can't Find Me/We've Got A Groovey Thing Goin'/Leaves That Are
Green/Richard Cory/I Am A Rock/The Sound Of Silence (Electric)/Homeward
Bound/The Blues Run The Game/Kathy's Song/April Come She Will/Flowers Never
Bend With The Rainfall
CD
Two: Patterns/Cloudy/The Dangling Conversation/Scarborough Fair-Canticle/59th
Bridge Street Song (Feelin' Groovy)/For Emily Wherever I May Find Her/7 O'Clock
News-Silent Night/A Hazy Shade Of Winter/At The Zoo/A Poem On The Underground
Wall (Live)/Red Rubber Ball (Live)/Blessed (Live)/Anji (Live)/A Church Is
Burning (Live)/Fakin' It/Save The Life Of My Child/America/You Don't Know Where
Your Interest Lies/Punky's Dilemma/Comfort and Joy/Star Carol
CD
Three: Mrs Robinson/Old Friends-Bookends/Overs (Live)/A Most Peculiar Man
(Live)/Bye Bye Love (Live)/The Boxer/Baby Driver/Why Don't You Write
Me?/Feuilles-Oh/Keep The Customer Satisfied/So Long Frank Lloyd Wright/Song For
The Asking/Cecilia/El Condor Pasa/Bridge Over Troubled Water/The Only Living
Boy In New York/Hey Schoolgirl/Black Slacks (Live)/That Silver Haired Daddy Of
Mine (Live)/My Little Town
"A time it was and what a time it
was, it was...A time of innocence, a time of confidences"
At last
somebody at Columbia realises that in the CD age they can release more than
just a half-hour material and the pile of Simon and Garfunkel compilations and
re-releases starts growing hugely from this point onwards. Sitting here in
2016, with so many better versions of this set around, it's faults are easy to
spot: at only three hour-long running discs this set could so easily have been
expanded to four full CDs containing everything that Simon and Garfunkel had
ever done quite easily and several key songs are missing ('The Times They Are A
-Changin' 'A Most Peculiar Man' 'The Big Bright Green Pleasure Machine'). The
discs are mainly in chronological order but contain some oddities, such as
ending disc one with 'Flowers Never Bend With The Rainfall' (which is
'orphaned' from its fellow 'Parsely Sage' 'herbs' on disc two). The packaging
includes some lovely and mostly unseen photographs but only the most basic of
essays, written in such a weird font printed on such a lot of colourful
backgrounds that reading it from beginning to end will give you a headache the
equivalent of listening to all the Tom and Jerry recordings in one go.
However
at the time it wasn't just the best we had, it was the best we had by far. The
only CD re-issues of the albums at the time had been the bare-bones early 1990s
sort without bonus tracks and there were quite a few items released here for
the first time, even if they've been released on more fuller terms in the years
since. At the time though these outtakes were rather fabulous: 'Bleeker
Street', a demo of a Paul Simon original taped at the very start of the
'Wednesday Morning' sessions, is exquisite and should have made the album; the
sombre Jackon C Frank song 'Blues Run The Game' is better than the other covers
taped during the 'Sounds Of Silence' sessions; two lovely carols (recorded,
weirdly enough, around Easter 1967, between 'Parsley Sage' and 'Bookends' eras)
are gorgeous and though I'm not usually a fan of AAA Christmas records this one
sounds like it might have been an exception; of the studio tracks only a rather
boring take of traditional tune 'Fueilles-O' (re-recorded by Arty for 'Angel
Clare') disappoints. Then there's the concerts: three mini-shows of which two
are now available full-length(as 'Live In New York City 1967' and 'Live 1969),
but the three song show at Vermont in October 1968 (reviewed by us as a
'separate' concert) remains exclusive to this set. It's not the best, with
forgettable versions of 'A Most Peculiar Man' and 'Bye Bye Love' and a rare
'Overs', a song that doesn't really work live, but is an interesting curio to
own. The 'Red Rubber Ball' from the 'New York' gig is also exclusive to this
set, Columbia having run out of space for the full show when they came to
release the full CD and it's a good 'un, with Simon and Garfunkel in merry,
silly mood. Sitting here in 2016 'Old Friends' doesn't quite seem like the box
set that Simon and Garfunkel deserved and it's probably not worth your while
seeking out now if you didn't buy it at the time as there are so many better
sets out there (though it's nice to have it for the two Carols alone, which I'm
surprised haven't come out on anything since). At the time, however, 'Old
Friends' was better than anything Simon and Garfunkley we'd had before and a
cause for celebration.
Art Garfunkel "Across
America"
(Columbia,
May 1997)
A
Heart In New York/Cryin' In The Rain/Scarborough Fair-Canticle/A Poem On The
Underground Wall/I Only Have Eyes For You/Homeward Bound/All I Know/Bright
Eyes/El Condor Pasa/Bridge Over Troubled Water/Mrs Robinson/59th Bridge Street
Song (Feelin' Groovy)/I Will/April Comes She Will/The Sound Of
Silence/Grateful/Goodnight My Love
"Shadowed by the exit light his
legs take their extended flight"
Cashing
in on the success of the 'Old Friends' box set, Arty released his first full
length album in just short of a decade. However, far from showing Garfunkel in
his best light it showed him at his worst, his one and only live album showing
off the new frailties in his older voice with some really below par
performances you're surprised the perfectionist agreed to let through. The
title 'Across America' referred to not just the tour itself but what Arty had
been doing since his music and acting careers had begun to dry up: walking
across his home country one town, one state at a time, in bursts since 1985.
'America' was meant to be a 'celebration' of the fact that Arty had finally
achieved his goals, to the praise of much of the press when they found out, and
that the singer wanted to show 'us' some of the music that had been playing in
his head and the thoughts he had been thinking while he walked. Unfortunately,
by the time the album was released, it had been diluted into nothing more than
a 'greatest hits live' set that contained little that fans wouldn't have been
expecting anyway. And a badly performed 'greatest hits' at that with Arty
really struggling with some of the vocals and his backing band artificial and
stilted, lacking in passion and big on twinkly cutesy synth noises. Given that
Arty had long argued that Simon and Garfunkel should 'only' tour acoustically,
with one guitar and two voices, it's a real shame he doesn't take his own
advice here as it's those cosy and intimate song (eg 'April Comes She Will')
that work best here by far.
There
are, at least, a few surprises here: a cover of one of the few Paul McCartney
Beatles ballads only real fans know ('I Will' from The White Album), an
unexpected revival of S and G album track 'A Poem On The Underground Wall' and
two new songs: John Buccino's 'Grateful', which is rather too much like every
other piano-based Garfunkel ballad out there and 'Goodnight My Love', a much
covered song first released in 1956 by Jesse Belvin. All these tracks are nice
but none of them feel particularly 'special', while Arty's fading voice means that
his versions of old favourites we've heard lots of times can't compete with
earlier recordings of them. The worst casualty though has to be 'Feelin'
Groovy', adpated into a duet with his then-six year old and rather shrill son
James, which should have been a real 'ahhh!' moment but instead turns into an
'aaaagh!' moment (to be fair to the young lad thrust out of his comfort zone into
the spotlight, Arty's duet with James Taylor - also the album producer - on
'Cryin' In The Rain' isn't any better). Along with the unlistenable 'The
Animals' Christmas' this is Arty's worst record. He can do so much better than
this! Oddly 'I Only Have Eyes For You' was cut from the American version of the
record even though it's one of the better tracks here.
Art Garfunkel "Songs From A Parent
To A Child"
(Columbia,
June 1997)
Whose
Gonna Shoe Your Pretty Little Feet?/Morning Has Broken/Daydream/Baby
Mine/Secret O' Life/The Things We've Handed Down/You're A Wonderful One/Good
Luck Charm/I Will Lasso The Moon/Dreamland/Whose Gonna Shoe Your Pretty Little
Feet?/The Lord's Prayer-Now I Lay Me Down To Sleep
"Close your eyes and know you're
safe with me"
Arty finally became a father for the first time at
the age of 49 when his son (and double - as you can see from the album cover) James
was born in 1990 (with daughter Beau following in 2005). Understandably this
was a life-changing event for father Garfunkel who made a rare return to the
recording studio (his first 'proper' album in nine years) to celebrate the
fact. It's easy to be cruel to this well-meaning album, which is deliberately
sugary and sweet, allowing all of Arty's 'cuter' instincts to come to the fore.
After all, recording a bunch of nursery rhymes and children's songs is never
good for any rock and roller's career and in pure career terms for someone
struggling to get a record deal it seemed like career suicide. But there's a
genuine-ness and a joy about this album, the awe at something Art thought he
would never experience so openly in his voice, that makes it a very touching
record - if not an album you'll want to
play repeatedly too many times. Sadly Arty's voice has declined rapidly since
his last recordings (released on the hap=-hazard album 'Up Till Now' in 1993)
and it doesn't help that he's swathed the album in ever stronger and noisier
synthesisers than appeared on 'Lefty' in 1988. The sound of this album, coupled
with the often silly subject matters and the continuously slow tempos, is
enough to drive all but Art's most committed fans out the room. But unlike the
'Some Enchanted Evening' album to come, everything here is straight from the
heart and delivered with care and an awful lot of love that shines through the
speakers. If nothing else it's fantastic, after so many difficult years, to
report that Arty sounds truly happy and at pace with himself. On those terms at
least 'Parent To A Child' is a success, albeit one that simply through its
narrow line of subject matter automatically makes it less interesting than most
of Arty's records for anyone who isn't one of his children.
Arty's usually pretty spot on with his traditional
folk song covers but recording a version of 'Whose Gonna Shoe Your Tiny Feet?' without making you reach a sick
bag was always going to be a tall ask. A slow arrangement, syrupy strings and
an uncomfortable harmony part from wife Kim add up to one of the album's lesser
recordings.
A spirited 'Morning Has Broken' sung in the manner of 'Bridge Over Troubled
Water' fares better sung with the awe of someone who was never expecting to see
morning arrive. Not up to Cat Stevens' better known version perhaps, but lovely
nonetheless.
John Sebastian guests on his own Lovin' Spoonful
track 'Daydream' whose
bouncy nowhere-to-go energy recalls 'Feelin' Groovy' (if not quite as good).
'Baby Mine', from one of Disney's
greatest films 'Dumbo', should have been perfect: had it been written from a
human mother to a child rather than between two elephants this song would
surely have become a standard. Unfortunately adding a 'Lion King' style
fake-jungle effect out of synth percussion (a mistake heard on many period
recordings - cure you Elton John!) is a really bad idea and sounds very out of
place on what should be prime Arty ballad territory.
James Taylor oddly doesn't guest on his own 'Secret Life' despite his
long association with Arty and Garfunkel struggles to do anything with the
track except try and sing it like his friend did. Nice but, like many of
Taylor's songs, a little repetitive and anonymous.
Marc Cohn, championed by David Crosby for years, is
the modern day's Jimmy Webb full of descriptive prose and a natural songwriter
for Art to cover. 'The Things
We've Handed Down' is one of the better songs on the album,
concentrating less on children than on generations and the idea of genes and
ethics can be passed down for years to come.
Lamont-Dozier-Holland's 'You're The Wonderful One' doesn't really suit
Arty's purist voice but it does suit guest Billy Preston's gravelly growl. A
bit too clappy-happy for my tastes.
Seven-year-old James Garfunkel himself stars on 'Good Luck Charm' and copes admirably
well, though you sense his eighteen year old self would still have been very
embarrassed by it had his friends brought it out at a birthday party. Dad sings
softly in the background, content to give his lad centre stage. Harper Simon
and James Garfunkel? Well there might be an age gap but it's still possible,
both sons clearly have strong voices...
'I Will' is one of the prettiest Paul
McCartney Beatle ballads nobody knows, rattled off in between heavier songs for
'The White Album'. The younger Garfunkel would have served it well - the older
one sadly seems to be having a bit of a struggle to sing on the day of
recording.
'Lasso The Moon' excited many fans when they
noticed the 'Simon' writing credit, but I'm afraid it's Billy Simon - a
songwriter specialising in film scores. This gently uplifting song about
setting your sights higher and believing in yourself proves that Garfunkel
still sounds best at singing Simon songs though on this album highlight.
Mary Chapin Carpenter's 'Dreamland' is another suitable cover, a cute
floating song based around the sort of darker minor key chords Arty loved using
on folk songs in the 1970s. He's in good voice on this one too.
Next up is a brief and rather pointless reprise of
'Tiny Feet' heard even
slower. Of all the songs on the album I wanted to hear a reprise of, this
wasn't it...
The album then ends on a rather sombre reading of 'The Lord's Prayer' which
sounds as preachy and unmusical as anything on 'The Animals' Christmas',
especially when Arty's wife starts warbling again. The song works better when
it segues into the traditional song 'Now I Lay Me Down To Sleep' though, which is a pretty lullaby
that works as a strong album closer.
The one obvious song missing from this collection
is Paul's own 'St Judy's Comet', the song of love for Paul's little boy that
would have suited Arty's pure and tender voice well. What is here instead will
split Garfunkel's followers into those who appreciate the worth of saccharine
when it's heartfelt and those who consider it torture. Art, though, had yearned
to be a family man for so long that when the chance finally came it's only
natural that he should want to celebrate with a self-indulgence like this; the
wonder is that a good half of the album is also pretty listenable for those who
don't have Arty as a dad. From a reviewer to a singer: Awwww!
Art Garfunkel "Simply The
Best"
(Columbia,
May 1998)
Bright
Eyes/Break Away/I Believe (When I Fall In Love)/Disney Girls/Miss You
Nights/When She Moved Through The Fair/Scissors Cut/Since I Don't Have You/Watermark/(What
A) Wonderful World/When A Man Loves A Woman/Looking For The Right One/I Only
Have Eyes For You/Crying In The Rain/Another Lullaby/99 Miles From LA/A Heart
In New York/Saturday Suit/Why Worry?/Crying In My Sleep
"My love must be a kind of blind
love, I can't see anyone but you..."
Despite
the tacky cover this is an excellent Art Garfunkel compilation that is probably
the best on the market, a mere 'Mary Was An Only Child' away from perfection. All
the biggest hits you'd want are here, though some of the minor hits (such as 'I
Shall Sing' and 'Second Avenue') relied on to pad out other compilations are,
perhaps thankfully, absent. This instead gives more room for classic album
tracks and most of the best ones are here, all showing off a fuller range of
Art's vocal skills than you would normally get, from the gorgeous Crosby-Nash
enhanced Californian breezy optimism of 'Break Away' to the gorgeous haze of
'She Moved Through The Fair' to the angry sorrow of 'Scissor's Cut'. There's
also the two best songs from the 'Up Til' Now' compilation of 1993 in 'Why
Worry?' and 'Crying In My Sleep', which will save you a fortune in tracking
down that rarer CD. Some sleevenotes would have been nice and the track listing
doesn't even come close to chronological order (until the last couple of songs,
strangely), but it still feels like a compilation that's been made with care
and the tracks largely segue together with some skill. All of which makes this
the Art Garfunkel in my collection that's been the most used by far. If you haven't got the time or the patience
to sit through endless Jimmy Webb compositions or to put up with the weird
experiments that other compilers think they're being 'daring' by including then
this is one of the two-stop places to go along with 'Everything Waits To Be
Noticed' (an album that, sadly, was released after this set came out!)
"The Best Of Simon and
Garfunkel"
(Columbia,
November 1999)
The
Sound Of Silence/Homeward Bound/I Am A Rock/The Dangling
Conversation/Scarborough Fair-Canticle/59th Street Bridge Song (Feelin'
Groovy)/A Hazy Shade Of Winter/At The Zoo/Fakin' It/Mrs Robinson/Old
Friends-Bookends/The Boxer/Bridge Over Troubled Water/Cecilia/The Only Living
Boy In New York/Song For Asking/El Condor Pasa/For Emily Wherever I May Find
Her/America/My Little Town
"We note our place with
bookmarkers that measure what we've lost"
A
straightforward twenty-track single disc compilation released mainly in America
(Europe will get their own version re-titled 'Tales Of New York' using the same
cover, a moody black and white shot of Simon and Garfunkel hanging round some
stone steps, a couple of years later). If you only want the most bare-bones S
and G songs then this is a good set to get including all the band's singles
(even legendary flop 'The Dangling
Conversation') in the 'right' order (if you count the single releases 'For
Emily' and 'America' after the duo split up). Sadly this doesn't leave much
room for album tracks and the lack of singles in the early days means that the
compilation is tipped heavily towards the 'Bookends' and 'Bridge' era. Still if
a cheap introduction is what you're after rather than a career overview then
this is a fair attempt at cutting Simon and Garfunkel's recordings back to
'essential'.
Paul Simon "Shining Like A
National Guitar - Greatest Hits"
(Warner
Brothers, May 2000)
Graceland/You
Can Call Me Al/Mother and Child Reunion/Cool Cool River/50 Ways To Leave Your
Lover/The Obvious Child/The Boy In The Bubble/Rene and Georgette Magritte With
Their Dog After The War/Late In The Evening/Bernadette/Slip Slidin' Away/Take
Me To The Mardi Gras/Diamonds On The Soles Of Her Shoes/Still Crazy After All
These Years/Kodochrome/Loves Me Like A Rock/Me and Julio Down By The
Schoolyard/Hearts and Bones/Trailways Bus
"My travelling companions are
ghosts and empty sockets"
Hello
everybody, I hope you've found this book to be your tastes so far and that it
shines like a national guitar. Whatever that means: by 2000 Warner Brothers are
clearly running out of potential album titles and are having to work that bit
harder for ideas. So, too, does the track selection which this time tries to
tell the story of Paul Simon across thirty solo years and a single disc
selection running time, so it was always going to have problems. Understandably
Warner Brothers spend a lot more time on the albums they own (and don't have to
pay for - they bought up Paul's first three solo albums from Columbia soon
after though so you wish they'd waited) but that makes for a very uneven set
dominated by 'Graceland', which is a pity when there are so many more
interesting Paul Simon records out there to own. There are oddities too that I
really don't agree with: almost every other song from 'Hearts and Bones'
deserves a place here but not the gauche and awkward 'Rene and Georgette
Magritte', while 'Cool Cool River' wouldn't have been my choice from 'Rhythm Of
The Saints' either. A need to promote the last Paul Simon album, oblivious of
whether it fits or how good it is, also leads to the most curious selections
from 'The Capeman' which really doesn't work outside the plot (or inside it
even, if you're in a grumpy enough mood). The end result might well be the
worst album out there with Paul Simon's name on it and one that fails to shine
like a wooden guitar, never mind a national one. Paul deserved better.
"Tales From New York - The Very
Best Of"
(Columbia,
March 2000)
CD
One: The Sound Of Silence/The Sun Is Burning/Wednesday Morning 3
AM/Peggy-O/Benedictus/He Was My Brother/We Got A Groovy Thing Goin'/Homeward
Bound/I Am A Rock/Kathy's Song/April Come She Will/Leaves That Are
Green/Flowers Never Bend With The Rainfall/The Dangling Conversation/Scarborough
Fair-Canticle/Patterns/Cloudy/For Emily Wherever I May Find Her/Save The Life
Of My Child/7 O'Clock News-Silent Night
CD
Two: A Hazy Shade Of Winter/59th Bridge Street Song (Feelin' Groovy)/At The
Zoo/Fakin' It/Punky's Dilemma/You Don't Know Where Your Interest Lies/Mrs
Robinson/Old Friends-Bookends/The Boxer/Baby Driver/Keep The Customer
Satisfied/So Long Frank Lloyd Wright/Bridge Over Troubled Water/Cecilia/The
Only Living Boy In New York/Bye Bye Love/Song For Asking/El Condor
Pasa/America/My Little Town
"Everything's the same in fact,
back in my little town"
This is
the 'British' version of last year's American-only best-of set, which is weird
given how much the compilation packaging and even the name insists on reminding
us every five minutes that the band come from 'New York'. Had this album been
released a year later you could excuse as a piece of post-9/11 solidarity, but
no: we're still 18 months away from that. At 40 tracks, this set is better than
average at diving into Simon and Garfunkel's canon and the track selection is
pretty good (only 'Sparrow' is missing from my usual 'compilation spot-checks'
test and even reunion single 'My Little Town' is here). What's more the track
listing has been made with care: everything in the right order, with a sensible
bit of slight tweaking to get 'Silent Night' at the end of disc one and the
explosive 'A Hazy Shade Of Winter' at the start of disc two (though why
'America' has been moved to the penultimate spot is beyond me). However with
minimal packaging this all seems a little bland and is rather overshadowed by
the chance to own all five original Simon and Garfunkel albums for roughly the
same price on 'The Collection' a few years later.
PS "On My Way, I Don't Know Where
I'm Going"
(**,
November 2002)
CD
One: Mother and Child Reunion/Me and Julio Down By The
School-Yard/Kodachrome/Something So Right/Loves Me Like A Rock/50 Ways To Leave
Your Lover/Still Crazy After All These Years/Late In The Evening/Slip Slidin'
Away/Hearts and Bones/Diamonds On The Soles Of Her Shoes/The Boy In The
Bubble/Graceland/You Can Call Me Al/Spirit Voices/The Cool Cool River /Adios
Hermanos/Love/Hurricane Eye
CD
Two: American Tune/Duncan/The Coast/Mrs Robinson/Bridge Over Troubled Water
"I seem to lean on old familiar
ways"
A
collection of some of Paul Simon's greatest solo songs (plus 'The Capeman'),
this is one of those 'hits plus history' CDs. It's a fair career overview,
especially the second half which includes some of the more unusual Paul Simon
songs out there. However it's still all far from perfect: why offer us a
'bonus' live disc that only lasts twenty odd minutes when there's so much more
that could have been here (and which makes a mess of the chronological order)
taken just from the 'Live Rhymin' album? (A whole disc of live tracks combined
with 'Concert In The Park' and the S and G live sets might have made for a
worthy disc). There's also far too much from 'Graceland' at the expense of
better albums, given a weird title (taken from 'Me and Julio') and a front
cover where Paul Simon doesn't look much at all like Paul Simon. This CD is
probably ultimately less interesting than the compilations that came before it
and most certainly the longer ones that came after, on its way but without a
clue where it's going. Avoid.
"Essential Simon and
Garfunkel"
(Columbia,
October 2003)
CD
One: Wednesday Morning 3AM (Live)/Bleeker Street/The Sound Of Silence/The
Leaves That Are Green (Live)/A Most Peculiar Man (Live)/I Am A Rock/Richard
Cory/Kathy's Song (Live)/Scarborough Fair-Canticle/Homeward Bound/Sparrow
(Live)/The 59th Bridge Street Song (Feelin' Groovy)/The Dangling Conversation/A
Poem On The Underground Wall (Live)/A hazy Shade Of Winter/At The Zoo
CD
Two: Mrs Robinson/Fakin' It/Old Friends/Bookends (Theme)/America/Overs
(Live)/El Condor Pasa/Bridge Over Troubled Water/Cecilia/Keep The Customer
Satisfied/So Long Frank Lloyd Wright/The Boxer/Baby Driver/The Only Living Boy
In New York/Song For The Asking/For Emily Wherever I May Find Her (Live)/My
Little Town
"A poet reads his crooked rhyme, holy
holy is his sacrament, but thirty dollars pays your rent..."
Given
Simon and Garfunkel released five roughly half-hour records between them in
their career, plus a small handful of non album recordings and rarities, that
two full-running CDs should make for the perfect length to get to know the band
properly (assuming you're not the kind of fan who buys every album or rely on a
thorough compilation to inspire you to do so first). However, this isn't it.
Though 'Essential' does indeed include a pretty fine track selection, includes
all the tracks in the 'proper' chronological order and even includes some
pretty decent packaging for a relatively low budget release, there are two
fairly major faults with it. One is that this set is so short: at 97 minutes this
set leaves a full hour's owrth odf space across the two discs and no end of
classic tracks that could have been called on to fill things out. Worse yet
though, a good third of the CDs come from the previously released live
recordings the duo made, with several key album tracks recorded in great detail
by masterful musicians under perfectionist conditions replaced by
poorly-recorded one-shot live recordings featuring Paul gamely trying to tune
his guitar on stage. Though the live recordings are more than adequate, they're
not exactly 'essential' and to new-comers who might not have the originals
they're an insult: it's like replacing the famous version of The Beatles'
'Twist and Shout' with a poorly recorded version from Hamburg they recorded for
the price of a beer. That one fact casts a long shadow over this set, but in
truth the track selection is otherwise a little better than average, a little
low on poor 'Wednesday Morning' perhaps but pretty much spot on in
cherry-picking the later albums. It's also the first compilation to date to
include all 16 charting top 40 entries, which deserves some sort of praise I
suppose. The set even remembers to include the reunion single 'My Little Town'
and include it in the proper place at the end of disc two, where it makes for a
worthy finale. Otherwise, though, this is the weakest of all the Simon and
Garfunkel compilations on the market and best avoided (though at least, unlike
the 197* version, it really is Simon and Garfunkel on the cover this time!)
"PS "The Studio Recordings
1972-2000"
(**,
June 2004)
CD
One: Paul Simon plus bonus tracks: Me and Julio Down By
The Schoolyard (Demo)/Duncan (Demo)/Paranoia Blues (Demo)
CD
Two: There Goes Rhymin' Simon plus bonus tracks: Let Me Live In Your
City/Take Me To The Mardi-Gras (Demo)/American Tune (Demo)/Loves Me Like A Rock
(Demo)
CD
Three: Still Crazy After All These Years plus bonus tracks: Slip
Slidin' Away (Demo)/Gone At Last (Demo)
CD
Four: One-Trick-Pony plus bonus tracks: Soft Parachutes/All
Because Of You/Spiral Highway/Stranded In A Limousine
CD
Five: Hearts and Bones plus bonus tracks: Shelter Of Your
Arms/Train In The Distance (Demo)/Rene and Georgette Magritte With Their Dog
After The War (Demo)/The Late Great Johnny Ace (Demo)
CD
Six: Graceland plus bonus tracks: Homeless
(Demo)/Diamonds On The Soles Of Her Shoes (Demo)/That Was Your Mother (Demo)
CD
Seven: The Rhythm Of The Saints plus bonus tracks: Born At The Right
Time (Demo)/Thelma/The Coast (Demo)/Spirit Voices (Demo)
CD
Eight: The Capeman plus: Shoplifting Clothes/Born In
Puerto Rico (Cast Version)/Can I Forgive Him? (Paul Simon Version)
CD
Nine: You're The One plus bonus tracks: That's Where I
Belong (Live)/Old (Live)/Hurricane Eye (Live)
"The perfect circle marries all
beginnings and conclusions"
A sprawling
if handsome box set containing all nine Paul Simon albums released to date
complete with their respective bonus tracks, this is a nice set to own and is a
big improvement on '1964-1993', but it still could have been so much more.
Despite costing you a fortune there's no space in this set for several key
recordings such as hit single 'Slip Slidin' Away' (though both the demo and
B-side 'Stranded In A Limousine' are here), 'The Paul Simon Songbook' and all
the live recordings among them. What is here is of course largely superb and is
a welcome chance to revisit lesser known gems like 'One Trick Pony' and 'You're
The One'. Though actually all the CDs had been released individually with the
bonus tracks before this date, this seems a good opportunity to discuss those
as they're all gathered here in one place. Paul isn't the sort of writer who
changed his grand vision of songs too far from demo to finished product, so his
demos aren't quite the revelation they are for other songwriters. However it's
great to hear so many instances of a song that would later be given a massive
big band arrangement treated to just Paul's lone voice and guitar, offering an
extra level of cosyness to songs like 'Me and Julio', 'Slip Slidin' Away' or
'Born At The Right Time'. It's also fascinating to hear Paul alone on tracks
traditionally sung with others: a Phoebe Snow-less 'Gone At Last', a Los
Incas-less 'Duncan' or a Ladysmith Black Mambazo-minus 'Homeless' and 'Diamonds
On The Soles Of Her Shoes'. There aren't strictly any songs we haven't heard
before pre-Capeman, with the 'new' recordings included on the back of 'One
Trick Pony' and 'Hearts and Bones' early versions of songs that became
something else or, in the case of 'Soft Parachutes', is the sweet Vietnam
protest parody sung by Jonah Levin in the film ('Rhythm' outtake 'Thelma'
having already appeared on '1964-1993'). 'One Trick' fares best of the
re-issues actually, with the demos that are the most different to songs heard
on the album, while it's Paul's other ignored work 'The Capeman' that fares
second best, with one track sung by Paul on the cast album replaced by a
recording made by the actor playing 'The Capeman' and another recorded by the
actress playing his mother replaced by a lo-fi demo Paul made early on during
writing sessions. There's probably nothing here earth-shattering enough to make
it worth your whole re-buying all the albums again (and would it have hurt
Warner Brothers to have included 'Slip Slidin' Away' somewhere?!), but this
'celebration' of Warner Brothers buying up the rights to all the 'old' Paul
Simon albums from the 1970s as well as 'Pony' onwards made this sort of a set
too good an opportunity to refuse. A useful way of getting tonnes of sublime
music all in one go.
"Old Friends - Live On Stage"
(Columbia/Sony,
December 2004)
CD
One: America (Introduction Dialogue)/Old Friends-Bookends/A Hazy Shade Of
Winter/I Am A Rock/America/At The Zoo/Baby Driver/Kathy's Song/The Tom and
Jerry Story (Dialogue)/Hey Schoolgirl!/Everly Brothers (Dialogue)/Bye Bye
Love/Scarborough Fair-Canticle/Homeward Bound/The Sound Of Silence
CD
Two: Mrs Robinson/Slip Slidin' Away/El Condor Pasa/Keep The Customer
Satisfied/The Only Living Boy In New York/American Tune/My Little Town/Bridge
Over Troubled Water/Cecilia/The Boxer/Leaves That Are Green/Citizen Of The
Planet
"Preserve your memories - they're
all that's left you"
You can
feel the audience willing this tour to succeed. You can even hear Simon and
Garfunkel willing it to succeed, to not make the same mistakes of the past.
Certainly the signs for this unexpected reunion were good: compared to the
tensions behind the scenes at the Central Park reunion a quarter century
earlier, this tour was easy with both men getting their way: Paul got his
beloved band, Arty got the opening he wanted with just the two voices and a
guitar (singing 'Bookends' of all things, the twenty-seven-year old Paul's
musings on where the pair might be when they reach their 70s - which happened
for real in 2011, just six years on from this set). The affection from both
audience and singers is palpable, with the highlights of this set coming not from the music but the cosy and often
hilarious chat on stage: Paul and Arty chat about first meeting in the 'Alice
In Wonderland' play ('I was the White Rabbit' says Paul, 'A very important
supporting role!'), about using their real names back when it was unfashionable
('I always thought of us as Garfunkel and Simon!' deadpans Arty, 'We should do
that!' adds Paul), Paul debates where 'the woo-bop-a-loo-chi-ba' from 'Hey
Schoolgirl' comes from, mentioning 'scholars say...' and even talk about their
legendary disagreements ('We don't row anymore' says Paul to a huge round of
applause, 'Nowadays we just say 'that's your opinion and I respect that!', the
many repeats of this quote across the set showing that the pair can laugh at
how they still have disagreements over the set lists even now). Had the Central
Park reunion been given in the same warm affectionate funny atmosphere as this
one Simon and Garfunkel might never have broken up again and their discography
would be double the length.
Unfortunately,
though, the music doesn't fare as well, with both Simon and Garfunkel showing
their age with cracked voices and generally lethargic tempos (to be fair that's
more a problem with this 'official' CD rather than the tour itself, which
certainly started off with enthusiasm and gusto given the many bootlegs out
there). Arty's voice troubles, suffered since his 'Live Across America' album
in the late 1990s, are here in force, while Paul's guitar playing hand seems to
be giving him problems and he struggles to find a fit around his partner's
voice. Given that this set was released right in the peak period for S and G's
live archive sets, it simply showed up how much of a struggle suddenly is for
them both, after decades of singing being the most natural thing in the world
for both men. Unlike the 'Central Park' gig there aren't as many opportunities
to hear the duo play anything new either: 'Slip Slidin' Away' is the only solo
song to make the cut, while only a nicely rocky 'Baby Driver' (which sadly
strains the pair's voices even more) and a very shakey 'My Little Town' can't
be heard on any other S and G live album. That said, Paul's taken the
opportunity to re-arrange many of the old classics and far from being the
sacrilege it could have been these are the set highlights, with 'Homeward
Bound' expanded by several minutes thanks to some shimmering electric guitar
into a song that celebrates the fact that the two singers are 'home' at last,
back together where they should have been, while 'I Am A Rock' gets a heavy
rock makeover that works rather well, the metallic cell-door slam of the
guitars emphasising the alienation. This revival of 'Hey Schoolgirl' from 1957
(sadly cut short) is far more straightfaced and affectionate than the 'goofy'
version heard on the 'Old Friends' box set from 1969. There's also a 'four-way'
version of 'Bye Bye Love' sung with the real thing, as Simon and Garfunkel call
their support act The Everly Brothers back to the stage to sing along (even
though this CD largely dates from the end of the tour, when this has happened
lots of time, you can still hear the thrill Simon and Garfunkel have to be
singing with their heroes). The rest though is a struggle to sit through, with
a tone-deaf 'Hazy Shade Of Winter' and easily the worst (certainly the
flattest) 'Sound Of Silence' out there the most disappointing. In aesthetic
terms, then, 'Old Friends- Live On Stage' is the sweetest and most perfect of S
and G live albums, though in practice it's easily the weakest.
We also
get a rather curious 'extra' on the end, a studio recording named 'Citizen Of
The Planet'. Greeted as the first 'Simon and Garfunkel studio recording in
thirty years' ('My Little Town'), it's actually the first in eight, taped at
the start of the 1983 reunion sessions (that became 'Hearts and Bones') and the
closest any of the songs came to being finished with Garfunkel harmonies
(though the pair added a few harmonies here and there for this record, so I
guess it kind of counts). Unfortunately there's a reason Paul didn't include
this track on his finished album, unlike all the others Arty started with him:
it simply isn't good enough, a weak-kneed hippie song that's forgettable by the
pair's best standards. Oh well, it was a good try and fans would rather have
the duo around again than not even if the whole show smacks a little of
'pension plans' after a difficult decade for them both solo-wise. Isn't it
terribly strange to be seventy? Where did all that time go?!
AG "Some Enchanted Evening"
(Atco,
January 2007)
I
Remember You/Someone To Watch Over Me/Let's Fall In Love/I'm Glad There Is
You/Quiet Nights Of Quiet Stars/Easy Living/I've Grown Accustomed To Her
Face/You Stepped Out Of A Dream/Some Enchanted Evening/It Could Happen To
You/Life Is But A Dream/What'll I Do?/If I Loved You/While We're Young
"Gone is the romance that was so
divine, 'tis gone and cannot be mended"
Oh dear.
Oh dear oh dear oh dear. I'd really been looking forward to seeing what Arty
came up with next after his bravest, most creative solo album 'Everything Waits
To Be Noticed' - his first full album of originals perhaps? Or at any rate a
continuation of that album's autobiography and melancholy, both aspects of
which had worked so well and added so much weight and depth to Arty's material.
Instead he comes out with what surely must be his most pointless studio album -
a collection of 'American Songbook' compositions, concentrating mainly on
musicals, none of which match even Jimmy Webb's talent never mind Paul Simon's.
Had Arty recorded this in his prime or even given the arrangements a few new
twists (the way he had West Side Story's 'I Had A Love' on the under-rated
'Lefty') then 'Evening' might have still been worth a listen. But by 2007 his
vocals have lost that glossy natural feel and the breathy voice used across
this album suggests that singing is becoming more of a challenge than a
pleasure. Of course even at half-strength Arty still has a lovely expressive
voice and thanks to the wonders of studio re-takes he sounds an awful lot
better than on his live CD 'Across America' (he even sounds as good as the 'old
days' on album highlights 'I'm Glad There Is You' and 'If I Loved You'), but
there's no denying that this album lacks the magic of past efforts. Regular
fans will also feel my air of panic and nausea as I tell you that the dominant
instruments here are a very 80s synth and an even more 80s saxophone (neither
are, erm, my favourite sounds in the world) and both of which make this album
sound incredibly anachronistic for its release date. This record may well be
'enchanted' but spells can be bad as well as good - most fans agree that this
album is a bit of a mistake and have quietly filed it away, to never be played
again. Oh well, it's still better than Paul McCartney's 'crooning' album
released five years later and even Arty at his worst has a better voice than
Rod Stewart's similar 'American Songbook' albums when his was at a peak...
Johnny
Mercer's 'I Remember You'
has been covered by almost everybody since first being heard in obscure film
'The Fleet's In' in 1942, but rarely as clumsily as here. Arty drifts his way
through the song at an agonisingly slow tempo, accompanied by a godawful synth
part, some toe-curling harmonica parts and Steve Gadd's noisiest drums in years
(nobody seems to have told him that he's not doing '50 Ways To Leave Your
Lover').
George
Gershwin's 'Someone To Watch
Over Me' at least has room for some flamenco guitar, but like Gershwin's
worst songs this one sounds arch and insincere and an off-form Arty accompanied
by another ugly synth can't bring out even this lesser song's inner beauty.
Yuck!
'Let's Fall In Love' is a jazzy song best known from Ella Fitzgerald's cover and is a
chirpy upbeat carefree song that to be frank is blooming irritating whoever's
singing it (Ella's repertoire is nearly all made up of empty songs like these,
a waste of a good voice). Arty sings really poorly here too, so that you're
almost pleased when the saxophone solo comes in. And if a sax solo is the best
thing about a recording then you know you're in trouble...
I'm glad
there is 'I'm Glad There Is
You', if only because Jimmy Dorsey's song adds a bit of grit and realism
to the album, contrasting the bitterness of the narrator's life before meeting
his perfect lover. Arty finally gets a chance to show off how many notes he can
still sing on at full pelt, but the backing is if anything even more artificial
than usual with more clumsy drumming (played by a synth this time) and syrupy
synths.
Arty has
covered Carlos Jobim's deeply weird work before without much success, but at
least 'Quiet Nights Of Quiet
Stars' is a more fitting song to cover than 'Waters Of March'. Not that
this is in any way good: it's more 80s karaoke sung on one note, but hey at
least this time the melody actually has one note, that's an improvement!
'Easy Living'
is a 1930s jazz song, played with all the belief of a pub band and another
sleepy tempo that makes the whole piece drag like anything. Suddenly a whole
album of Jimmy Webb songs doesn't seem so bad.
Lerner
and Lowe's 'My Fair Lady' standard 'I've Grown Accustomed To Her Face' really doesn't work out of
context: it's meant to be the sound of a bully realising that he's actually in
love. Slowing the song down and adding what can only be described as a doorbell
while Arty struggles to breath in the right places, never mind sing, is really
not a good idea either. I've grown accustomed to his voice as it used to be,
even four years earlier - the rain on Arty falls mainly on our party.
'You Stepped Out Of A Dream' actually stepped out of my nightmares: Arty sings low and flat
to the sound of electronic panpipes and a drum machine. Which is a shame,
because this track from the musical 'Ziegfield Girl' is actually one of the
better songs here and the younger Arty would have nailed this song perfectly.
Title
track 'Some Enchanted Evening'
is the inevitable Rodgers and Hammerstein cover, frustratingly taken from
easily their weakest work 'South Pacific' where ugly bully sailors fall in love
with argumentative bossy islanders (it's one of those works where you want
everyone to drown by the end of the first act; how did the two men responsible
for the sublime 'Carousel' sink so low?) Arty sounds bewitched by the Wicked
Witch of the North (David Cameron), giving his all but getting nothing back
from the backing band. Excruciating.
Johnny
Burke's 'It Could Happen To
You' might have been nice with a bigger budget, but using a 1980s casio
keyboard to fill in for the strings and another drum track is really not a good
idea. Better than most on this album if only because it's unforgettable, rather
than lodging in your memory for all the wrong reasons.
The most
obscure song here by some margin, Raoul Cita's 'Life Is But A Dream' is better than the majority,
dropping the backing into the distance and turning Arty up full. Garfunkel is
born for cosily romantic songs like this one, which is one of three tracks from
this album you might actually enjoy, as Arty tells us everything that's great
about his lover.
Irving
Berlin's over-used 'What'll I
Do?' is again better than most songs here if only for emphasising Arty's
voice at the expense of the twee backing. However the 'push' in the middle
eight shows up how worryingly thin Arty's voice has become and again the
arrangement drifts where it should be knocking us out with the sadness and
grief of the lyric. Dean Parks, a future Crosby-Nash session guitarist, also
turns in a wretched guitar solo here devoid of all feeling.
At least
Carousel's 'If I Loved You'
gives a talented singer some deeper material to get his teeth into at last.
However this song too makes no sense out of context (this should be a duet, by
two people who are clearly in love but won't admit it - so this is a
hypothetical song about how they 'would' be feeling if they were in love -
which of course they secretly are). Arty takes the easy way out, staying
breathy rather than soaring on the long notes, but at least there's a lot of
him on this track and this sort of vocal-heavy arrangement should have been the
way to go.
Three
average recordings then, coupled with ten of the worst recordings made by any
of the AAA crew. Following the sublime danger and poignancy of 'Everything
Waits To Be Noticed' this album is a travesty in every conceivable way and is
one of the worst things Arty could possibly have done at this stage in his
career. Inevitably the record company got behind the 'wrong' album and left
'Noticed' to die a lonely inevitable while plugging this awful travesty
incessantly instead. The record business can be cruel. Don't be fooled though:
stick with Arty's previous record and only buy this one if you're masochistic
or about to do work experience in the music department at Guantanamo Bay. Some
enchanted evening? Really?!
"The Essential Paul Simon"
(Warner
Brothers/Legacy, June 2007)
CD
One: Mother and Child Reunion/Loves Me Like A Rock/Me and Julio Down By The
Schoolyard/Duncan/Kodochrome/50 Ways To Leave Your Lover/Slip Slidin' Away/Gone
At Last/Something So Right/Late In The Evening/Hearts and Bones/Take Me To The
Mardi-Gras/That Was Your Mother/American Tune/Peace Like A River/Stranded In A
Limousine/Train In The Distance/The Late Great Johnny Ace/Still Crazy After All
These Years
CD
Two: Graceland/Diamonds On The Soles Of Her Shoes/The Boy In The Bubble/You Can
Call Me Al/Under African Skies/The Obvious Child/Born At The Right Time/The
Cool Cool River/Spirit Voices/Adios Hermanos/Born In Puerto
Rico/Quality/Darling Lorraine/Hurricane Eye/Father and
Daughter/Outrageous/Wartime Prayers
"Long past the midnight curfew we
sat starry-eyed"
I
usually have a problem with compilations that call themselves 'essential' - as
you'll have realised long ago by now even an artist's lesser works are
'essential' if you really want to get to know and understand them, while my
idea of what's essential and a record companies are usually many light years
apart. This time, though, Warner Brothers largely gets the balance right,
offering us three or four songs from most of Paul's albums (although the
under-rated 'One Trick Pony' 'Hearts and Bones' and 'You're The One' continue
to get short shrift). This is particularly good news for fans curious to know
what Paul's later less well known albums like 'The Capeman' and 'Surprise'
sound like, with a good mixture from each (though 'Father and Daughter' remains
one of the few Paul Simon songs I can't stomach). There's also a rare chance to
hear both sides of the 'Slip Slidin' Away'/ 'Stranded In A Limousine' single.
However there's far too much here from 'Graceland', which rather overpowers the
set (and which fan seriously wanted 'That Was Your Mother' over, say,
'Homeless'?) while the running order is only 'loosely' in chronological order,
making a mess of the 1970-1983 run (to be fair if it was left as it is here the
first disc would have ended with lots of slow ballads together, but that's not
necessarily a bad thing).Still, this is probably the best Paul Simon
compilation yet, thorough without getting unwieldy and affordable rather than
cheap and tacky or hideously expensive. A 'deluxe' edition was also released
with a bonus third disc, a DVD containing extracts from The Dick Cavett Show
(where Paul asks for 'help' with a new song he's stuck on named 'Still Crazy
After All These Years'), five music videos, the 'Father and Daughter' clip from
'The Wild Thornberrys' film and three of the four of Pauls performances on
Saturday Night Live including the George Harrison duet on 'Homeward Bound'
(sadly there's no 'Here Comes The Sun').
"The Collection"
(Columbia,
November 2007)
CD
One: Wednesday Morning 3 AM
(Bonus
tracks: Bleeker Street/He Was My Brother (Alternate Take)/The Sun Is Burning
(Alternate Take))
CD
Two: The Sounds Of Silence
(Bonus
Tracks: Blues Run The Game/Barbri-Allen/Rose Of Aberdeen/The Roving Gambler)
CD
Three: Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and Thyme
(Bonus
Tracks: Patterns (Demo)/A Poem On The Underground Wall (Demo))
CD
Four: Bookends
(Bonus
Tracks: You Don't Know Where Your Interest Lies/Old Friends (Demo))
CD
Five: Bridge Over Troubled Water
Feuilles-O
(Demo)/Bridge Over Troubled Water (Demo))
DVD
Six: The Concert In Central Park
"Wherever I have played, wherever
I roll those dice, the blues have run the game"
The
Simon and Garfunkel albums had all been re-released on CD in 2001 with a short
but intriguing pile of alternate takes before being collected together in this
box set in 2007 in a set that represented staggering value for money. For the
price of £15 (a single CD by a new and almost certainly inferior modern artist)
you could own five important milestones of musical collection, by one of the
1960s best writers and sung by one of the 1960s best harmony duos, plus a DVD
of the full 'Central Park' reunion gig. Of the 'bonus tracks' that hadn't
appeared before they were a mixed bunch, disappointing on the early years with
two 'Wednesday Morning' alternate versions were near-enough the same as the
finished album takes anyway and the three new 'Sounds Of Silence' folk songs in
the style of the first record didn't add a lot. However the later albums fared
better, with the two brief demos from the 'Parsley' era were fascinatingly
sparse alternate readings, an intriguing
snippet of 'Old Friends' and a rehearsal take of 'Bridge' that's a tad slower
and softer than the finished version.
There
was nothing here that major fans hadn't already bought separately on the individual CDs of course and the
packaging left a little to be desired, with no real sleevenotes, just a booklet
featuring the track listings in larger print. However even there this set did
what it needed to, with a rather classy silhouette of Simon and Garfunkel, instantly
recognisable despite being an unusual white on blue, on the side of the set and
some nice reproductions of the original album sleeves included as stand-alone
CDs inside the box (which, in their new smaller size, makes the original
sleevenotes impossible to read but never mind - better the packaging look like
this than mess around with it in some way). If only the set could have included
a seventh disc, rounding up all the oddities from other releases (the
'Graduate' soundtrack, the 'Old Friends' Christmas carols, the still unreleased
six songs set from the Monterey Pop Festival in June 1967 where Paul is clearly
'stoned' yet the pair still sing like angels) this would have been perfect.
However, at the original price at least, 'The Collection' remains a top drawer
re-issue that manages a rare combination of being both affordable and looking
like it was made by somebody who cared about the product. Highly recommended.
"The Collection"
(Columbia,
November 2007)
Bridge
Over Troubled Water/The Boxer/I Am A Rock/America/Leaves That Are
Green/Wednesday Morning 3AM/At The Zoo/Fakin' It/So Long Frank Lloyd
Wright/April Come She Will/Richard Cory/Scarborough Fair-Canticle
"I have squandered my resistance
for a pocket full of munbles, such are promises"
A curious
collection, which reduces the usual Simon and Garfunkel compilation running
order to a mere 12 songs and yet still has time for relative oddities like
'Richard Cory' (good idea) and 'So Long Frank Lloyd Wright' and 'April Come She
Will' (less so). This compilation basically finds the space by axing some of
the usual standards so that, for instance, there's no 'Homeward Bound' here or
'Mrs Robinson' while this set must surely be unique in not containing any
version of 'The Sound Of Silence'. Which makes it rather pointless as a
best-of, while if this set was intended to be more of a career overview
concentrating on rarer material you have to ask why it starts, like so many
similar collections do, with 'Bridge Over Troubled Water'. Together with the tacky
picture collage of Simon and Garfunkel displayed on the 59th Street Bridge
(another track that's missing by the way!) this set has 'avoid' written all
over it.
"Playlist: The Very Best Of Art
Garfunkel"
(Sony,
July 2010)
Al I
Know/Sail On A Rainbow/Crying In The Rain/Disney Girls/Grateful/My Little
Town/The Promise/Bright Eyes/99 Miles From L.A./The Perfect Moment/A Heart In
New York/(What A) Wonderful World)/I Only Have Eyes For You/Barbara Allen
"I know that if you love me too
what a wonderful world this would be"
Regular
readers will know that I'm quite fond of Sony's 'Playlist' series, which aims
to offer an 'alternative' to the usual greatest hits collections for most of
the artists on their label and its subsidiaries (though they haven't got round
to doing Paul Simon yet...) and which offer a cheap and environmentally
friendly (the sleeves are all made of recycled cardboard) way of deciding
whether you like an artist enough to dive headlong into their albums, with at
least one track from every studio Garfunkel album. Goodness knows there are
enough gems to choose from in Arty's catalogue away from the hits and a good
deal of them are here, with some excellent selections from the unsung classic
albums 'Lefty' and 'Everything Waits To Be Noticed' as well as excellent covers
of 'Disney Girls' '99 Miles From L.A.' and 'A Heart In New York'. There's also
two out of the three Paul Simon reunions from the mid-1970s with not just 'My
Little Town' but '(What A) Wonderful World' here too (though sadly no sign of
'In Cars'). Admittedly the three hit single choices of 'All I Know' 'Bright
Eyes' and 'I Only Have Eyes For You' is a bit of a shame when we could have had
braver, better choices ('I Believe' 'Scissors Cut' etc) and Sony could have
easily doubled the length of tracks and still fitted everything onto a single
CD, but hey ho. This is only meant to be an 'introduction' after all and it's a
rather good one at that.
PS
"Songwriter"
(**, November 2011)
Disc One: The Sound Of Silence/The
Boxer/Bridge Over Troubled Water/Mother and Child Reunion/Tenderness/Peace Like
A River/American Tune/Kodachrome/Something So Right/Late In The Evening/Train
In The Distance/Hearts and Bones/Rene and Georgette Magritte/Still Crazy After
All These Years/Diamonds On The Soles Of Her Shoes/The Boy In The
Bubble/Graceland
Disc Two: The Obvious Child/Further To
Fly/The Cool Cool River/Spirit Voices/Born In Puerto Rico/Quality/Darling
Lorraine/Look At That/Senorita With A Necklace Of Pearls/That's Me/Another
Galaxy/Father and Daughter/Rewrite/Love and Hard Times/So Beautiful Or So What?
"Mistaking
value for the price"
Yet
another two disc Paul Simon set, this one concentrating on Paul's efforts as a
'songwriter' apparently, an odd idea which seems to have been designed solely
to enable him the use of 'Bridge Over Troubled Water', a track long missing
from solo compilations as Paul barely features on it as a singer. Only, perhaps
making a point, Paul includes not Arty's version of the song but Aretha
Franklin's cover of the song. That's the most important part of a compilation
that otherwise is business as usual and to be honest is pretty interchangeable
with 'The Essential Paul Simon', with the set now split so that disc one ends
with 'Graceland' (which had appeared at the start of disc two) with extra room
found for three songs from Paul's latest album 'So Beautiful Or So What?' (and
not the three I'd have chosen either...) At a push the other track selection
was better though, with this set containing too many woeful songs from the
post-'Rhythm' albums (trust me all four studio albums Paul has released since
then have been better than how they're represented here - yes even 'The
Capeman'). They're here instead of several songs you'd really expect to find a
two disc compilation by the way: 'Slip Slidin' Away' 'You Can Call Me Al' and
even '50 Ways To Leave Your Lover'. Did they not count as peak 'songwriting'
for whatever reason? A bit of a mess really, which needs a 're-write'. Best
avoided.
PS
"Live From New York City"
(**, September 2012)
CD One: The Obvious Child/Dazzling
Blue/50 Ways To Leave Your Lover/So Beautiful Or So What?/Mother and Child
Reunion/That Was Your Mother/Hearts and Bones/Crazy Love/Slip Slidin'
Away/Re-Write
CD Two: The Boy In The Bubble/The Only
Living Boy In New York/The Afterlife/Diamonds On The Soles Of Her
Shoes/Gumboots/The Sound Of Silence/Kodachrome/Gone At Last/Late In The
Evening/Still Crazy After All These Years
"You
feel like swimming in an ocean of love when the current is strong, but all that
remains when you try to explain is a fragment of song"
This
marks the third time in thirty years that Paul Simon had released a live
recording taped in his home town. Sadly 'Live From' had a much smaller impact
than the Simon and Garfunkel reunion or the freebie gig Paul played in 1991.
What's more if you already own either of those earlier sets you pretty much
know what these songs all sound like live anyway: the best this set offers in
terms of 'new' material is a handful of songs from his most recent album 'So
Beautiful Or So What?' which, for the most part, aren't really born for the
live arena: they're largely a bunch of thoughtful and intimate songs not built
for the roar of a live band, though a rather nice take on 'Dazzling Blue' is
worth a listen a least. Elsewhere we get the Graceland revival tracks nobody
was calling out for ('That Was Your Mother' 'Crazy Love' and 'Gumboots', the
three songs nobody remembers off that album), a noisy 'Gone At Last' revived as
a sweet tribute to original co-singer Phoebe Snow but without her presence
sounds even more irritating and pointless than the original and only a rather
sweet but also rather worryingly fragile 'The Only Living Boy In New York'
making it's long overdue live debut is really worth going out of your way to
listen to.
Which
is not to say that this is a bad album: Paul's 2011 band is one of his best, a
streamlined group compared to glory years gone by who are almost all multi-instrumentalists
and Paul has put together a band mainly made up of old friends from different
periods working together for the first time, which gives this album a nice
New-York-via-England-Africa-and-Brazil vibe that can cope with covering all
periods of Simon's muses and music. There are some pretty-near definitive
performances of old friends too: a classy 'Mother and Child Reunion' that gets
more and more bouncy with age, a groovy 'Late In The Evening' that works better
for having less going on to distract us and a nice expressive version of
'Hearts and Bones'. That said 'The Obvious Child' sounds weak without the
massed sea of drummers, 'The Boy In The Bubble' is awfully limp and 'Slip
Slidin' Away' is on auto-pilot. I think my real disappointment is knowing how
great so many dates from this tour truly were, with Paul on unusually chatty
form and delivering some pretty powerful versions of songs that for whatever
reason weren't played at this New York gig: 'Love Is Eternal Scared Light'
beats the album version by light years, while a rare revival of 'Peace Like A
River' and unique covers ofThe Beatles'
'Here Comes The Sun' and Bo Didley's 'Pretty Thing' are far more
interesting than anything Paul delivers here. Right band, right ideas, right
tour - wrong gig. There is also a DVD available in the 'deluxe' version
containing all the performances on one disc, though as this is a low-key
intimate it's not as essential viewing as either 'Concert In The Park'.
AG
"The Singer"
(Sony, October 2012)
CD One: Bridge Over Troubled Water/All
I Know/The Perfect Moment/For Emily Wherever I May Find Her (Live)/Crying In
The Rain/I Only Have Eyes For You/99 Miles From L.A./What A Wonderful
World/Bright Eyes/Two Sleepy People/Skywriter/Scarborough Fair-Canticle/Some
Enchanted Evening/The Promise/The Thread/Lena/Barbara Allen
CD Two: Kathy's Song (Live)/Long Walk
Home/Scissors Cut/The Sound Of Silence/Break Away/So Long Frank Lloyd
Wright/Waters Of March/The Decree/I Wonder Why/Disney Girls/My Little Town/O
Come All Ye Faithful/A Heart In New York/I've Grown Accustomed To Her Face/Mrs
Robinson/When A Man Loves A Woman/In Cars
"It's
early nights and pillow fights and your soft laugh"
A
long overdue compilation, extending Arty's usual best-of line ups to a second
disc and including his best Simon and Garfunkel performances alongside his solo
work. The title of this work seems in some ways a 'touche' to the recent Paul
Simon compilation 'Songwriter' and concentrates on what Arty does best,
offering his gorgeous voice on what Arty considers his 34 best performances.
Naturally we don't agree on some of them: how anything from the wretched 'Some
Enchanted Evening' or the proto-rap 'The Waters Of March' ended up on a best-of
is beyond me, the gorgeous original 'All I Know' has been replaced by the
bastardised re-recording from 'Up Till Now', 'For Emily' and 'Kathy's Song' are
both inferior live recordings and two of Arty's greatest performances on 'Mary
Was An Only Child' and 'She Moved Through The Fair' are conspicuous by their
absence. Even so, though, this is an intelligently chosen album that passes by
some of the obvious inclusions (no 'I Am A Rock' 'Homeward Bound' or 'I
Believe') in favour of some lesser known album tracks which deserve the
recognition.
Tracks
like 'The Perfect Moment' 'The Promise' and Paul Simon reunion 'In Cars' (which
makes for a lovely nostalgic finale) are worth a hundred of these and it's a
welcome chance for collectors to re-discover some of the rarities in
Arty's discography featured on sort-of
compilation 'Up Till Now', left hanging on single-only releases or in the case
of 'O Come All Ye Faithful' were only ever released on a charity multi-artists
compilation that disappeared quicker than a Christmas pudding. It's good to see
so many songs from the un-sung 'Lefty' and 'Everything Waits To be Noticed' in
the listings and the choice tracks are included from most of Arty's 70s sets
too. Even the handful of new recordings sound far more palatable than Arty's
recent pair of albums, with 'Lena' especially suggesting hope that Arty's
recent struggling voice was a temporary dip and he's finally regained his old
power. Together with Arty's own sleevenotes, full of memories for all the songs
included (a mixture of the highly revealing, some over-used old stories and the
truly impenetrable; this is 'When A Man Loves A Woman': 'I found a woman in the
crevice of the globe, a corner of the Roman Coliseum who taught me a new way to
fight and re-write 'The Book Of Job'. Display your pain in an open wound
museum, make it personal and bleed with all your might') this is a terrific set
that goes a long way to proving Art as one of his generation's greatest,
purest, loveliest, instinctive, natural vocalists. Paul's set may have
songwriting on his side, but this is actually by far the more enjoyable
compilation.
'Wednesday Morning 3AM' (SG, 1964) http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2009/08/news-views-and-music-issue-42-simon-and.html
'Sounds Of Silence' (SG, 1966) http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2013/09/simon-and-garfunkel-sounds-of-silence.html
'Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and Thyme' (SG, 1966) http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2008/07/review-7-simon-and-garfunkel-parsley.html
'Bookends' (SG, 1968) http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2010/10/news-views-and-music-issue-78-simon-and.html
‘Still Crazy After All These Years’ (PS, 1975) http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2012/11/paul-simon-still-crazy-after-all-these.html
'One Trick Pony' (PS, 1980) http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2008/07/review-78-paul-simon-one-trick-pony.html
'Hearts and Bones' (PS, 1983) http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2008/07/review-85-paul-simon-hearts-and-bones.html
'Rhythm Of The Saints' (PS, 1990) http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2012/05/review-94-paul-simon-rhythm-of-saints.html
‘Surprise’ (PS, 2006) http://www.alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2013/05/paul-simon-surprise-2005-album-review.html
'So Beautiful, Or So What?' (PS, 2011) http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2011/07/news-views-and-music-issue-107-paul.html
A NOW COMPLETE LIST
OF SIMON AND GARFUNKEL AND RELATED ARTICLES TO READ AT ALAN’S ALBUM ARCHIVES:
'Wednesday Morning 3AM' (SG, 1964) http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2009/08/news-views-and-music-issue-42-simon-and.html
'The Paul Simon Songbook' (PS, 1965) http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.com/2017/01/the-paul-simon-songbook-1965.html
'Sounds Of Silence' (SG, 1966) http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2013/09/simon-and-garfunkel-sounds-of-silence.html
'Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and Thyme' (SG, 1966) http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2008/07/review-7-simon-and-garfunkel-parsley.html
'Bookends' (SG, 1968) http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2010/10/news-views-and-music-issue-78-simon-and.html
'Bridge Over Troubled Water' (SG, 1970) http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2016/04/simon-and-garfunkel-bridge-over.html
'Paul Simon' (PS, 1972) http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2011/12/news-views-and-music-issue-124-paul.html
'There Goes Rhymin' Simon' (PS, 1973) http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2008/07/review-56-paul-simon-there-goes-rhymin.html
'Paul Simon' (PS, 1972) http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2011/12/news-views-and-music-issue-124-paul.html
'There Goes Rhymin' Simon' (PS, 1973) http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2008/07/review-56-paul-simon-there-goes-rhymin.html
'Angel Clare' (AG, 1973) http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2014/07/art-garfunkel-angel-clare-1973-album.html
‘Breakaway’ (AG, 1975) http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2008/07/review-68-art-garfunkel-breakaway-1975.html
‘Still Crazy After All These Years’ (PS, 1975) http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2012/11/paul-simon-still-crazy-after-all-these.html
'Watermark' (AG, 1977) http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.nl/2016/09/art-garfunkel-watermark-1977.html
'Fate For Breakfast' (AG, 1979) http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2015/07/art-garfunkel-fate-for-breakfast-1979.html
'One Trick Pony' (PS, 1980) http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2008/07/review-78-paul-simon-one-trick-pony.html
‘Scissors Cut’ (AG, 1981) http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2017/03/art-garfunkel-scissors-cut-1981.html
'Hearts and Bones' (PS, 1983) http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2008/07/review-85-paul-simon-hearts-and-bones.html
‘Graceland’ (PS, 1986) https://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2017/10/paul-simon-graceland-1986.html
'The Animals' Christmas' (AG, 1986) http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.com/2013/12/art-garfunkel-animals-christmas-1986.html
'Lefty' (AG, 1988) http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.com/2016/11/art-garfunkel-lefty-1988.html
'Rhythm Of The Saints' (PS, 1990) http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2012/05/review-94-paul-simon-rhythm-of-saints.html
'Songs From The Capeman' (PS, 1997) http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2015/10/paul-simon-songs-from-capeman-musical.html
'You're The One' (PS, 2000) http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2015/01/paul-simon-youre-one-2000.html
‘Everything Waits To Be Noticed’ (AG, 2002) http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2012/09/art-garfunkel-with-maia-sharp-and-buddy.html
‘Surprise’ (PS, 2006) http://www.alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2013/05/paul-simon-surprise-2005-album-review.html
'So Beautiful, Or So What?' (PS, 2011) http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2011/07/news-views-and-music-issue-107-paul.html
'Stranger To Stranger' (PS, 2016) http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.com/2016/06/paul-simon-stranger-to-stranger-2016.html
Every Pre-Fame Recording 1957-1963 (Tom and Jerry,
Jerry Landis, Artie Garr, True Taylor, The Mystics, Tico and The Triumphs, Paul
Kane) http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2017/03/simon-and-garfunkel-every-pre-fame.html
The Best Unreleased Simon/Garfunkel Recordings http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2014/07/simon-and-garfunkel-unreleased-tracks.html
Surviving TV
Clips 1966-2012 http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2017/04/simon-and-garfunkel-surviving-tv-clips.html
Non-Album
Recordings 1964-2012 http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2017/04/simon-and-garfunkel-non-album.html
Live/Compilation/Film
Soundtrack Albums Part One: 1968-1988 http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2017/03/simon-and-garfunkel-livecompilationfilm.html
Live/Compilation
Albums Part Two: 1991-2012 http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2017/04/simon-and-garfunkel-livecompilation.html
Essay: Writing
Songs That Voices Never Share https://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.com/2018/06/simon-and-garfunkel-essay-writing-songs.html
Landmark Concerts
and Key Cover Versions https://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.com/2018/07/simon-and-garfunkel-five-landmark.html
