CD: Simon & Garfunkel - Columbia Studio Recordings 1964-1970 (5 CD Box Set 2001)MINT

Mint Condition!

Though the American folk movement of the early ’60s would influence bands like the Byrds and Buffalo Springfield and a score of oh-so-sensitive ’70s singer-songwriters, its two most looming successes during the decade--Bob Dylan and Simon and Garfunkel--couldn’t have seemed more disparate. While Dylan turned hard-left, outraging many a folk purist by zealously embracing rootsy blues-rock and its electrified cacophony, S&G veered toward the center, equally infuriating snooty pundits by embracing a Top 40 pop sense whose ostensible shallowness often belied its rich musical diversity. In retrospect, Simon and Garfunkel’s career as a duo was remarkably brief (five albums in six years), if no less commercially potent (a slew of Top 40 singles, two Number One albums, and the requisite handful of Grammy Awards). This box set compiles digitally remastered versions of the original S&G albums, each expanded to include bonus tracks (mostly previously unissued demos with a few scattered outtakes, the quartet on Sounds of Silence the best of the lot) and a booklet featuring new notes for each album and song lyrics. It’s a rewarding journey, wending from the almost slavish folk devotion of Wednesday Morning 3 AM through the greeting-card iconoclasm of Sounds of Silence, the madrigal-pop of Parsley, Sage, Rosemary, and Thyme to the increasingly impressionistic lyrical landscape of Bookends. It also covers the rich musical tapestry of Bridge over Troubled Waters, which foreshadowed Simon’s own diverse solo career by embracing everything from the Everlys and Jan & Dean to Andean folk and R&B.

Wednesday Morning, 3 A.M., 1964
1. You Can Tell The World
2. Last Night I Had The Strangest Dream
3. Bleecker Street
4. Sparrow
5. Benedictus
6. The Sound Of Silence
7. He Was My Brother
8. Peggy-O
9. Go Tell It On The Mountain
10. The Sun Is Burning
11. The Times They Are A-Changin’
12. Wednesday Morning. 3 A.M.
13. Bleecker Street (Demo)
14. He Was My Brother (Alt. Take 1)
15. The Sun Is Burning (Alt. Take 12)

Sounds Of Silence, 1966
1. The Sound Of Silence
2. Leaves That Are Green
3. Blessed
4. Kathy’s Song
5. Somewhere They Can’t Find Me
6. Anji
7. Richard Cory
8. A Most Peculiar Man
9. April Come She Will
10. We’ve Got A Groovy Thing Goin’
11. I Am A Rock
12. SBlues Run The Game
13. Barbriallen (Demo)
14. Rose Of Aberdeen (Demo)
15. Roving Gambler (Demo)

Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and Thyme, 1966
1. Scarborough Fair/Canticle
2. Patterns
3. Cloudy
4. Homeward Bound
5. The Big Bright Green Pleasure Machine
6. The 59th Street Bridge Song (Feelin’ Groovy)
7. The Dangling Conversation
8. Flowers Never Bend with the Rainfall
9. A Simple Desultory Philippic (Or How I Was Robert McNamara’d Into Submission)
10. For Emily. Whenever I May Find Her
11. A Poem on the Underground Wall
12. 7 O’Clock News/Silent Night
13. Patterns (Demo)
14. A Poem on the Underground Wall (Demo)

Bookends, 1968
1. Bookends Theme
2. Save The Life Of My Child
3. America
4. Overs
5. Voices Of Old People
6. Old Friends
7. Bookends Theme
8. Fakin’ It
9. Punky’s Dilemma
10. Mrs. Robinson (From the Motion Picture "The Graduate")
11. A Hazy Shade Of Winter
12. At The Zoo
13. You Don’t Know Where Your Interest Lies
14. Old Friends (Demo)

Bridge over Troubled Water, 1970
1. Bridge Over Troubled Water
2. El Condor Pasa (If I Could)
3. Cecilia
4. Keep The Customer Satisfied
5. So Long. Frank Lloyd Wright
6. The Boxer
7. Baby Driver
8. The Only Living Boy In New York
9. Why Don’t You Write Me
10. Bye Bye Love
11. Song For The Asking
12. Feuilles-O
13. Bridge Over Troubled Water (Demo)