“simon_and_garfunkel”
This lavish three-disc boxed set, 59 track overview of the relatively short five year career of the Sixties’ most influential folk/rock duo has been a long time in coming. Even though all of these cuts from Simon & Garfunkel’s five albums have been previously remastered for CD release, this is the first time that the original masters were used (they were claimed as lost) and the difference is pretty astounding. The albums were always tremendously well recorded, but the sumptuous sound of these 20-bit SBM-treated songs is absolutely unbelievable. The interplay of the team’s vocals jumps into your lap for the first time since the original masters were used to cut early copies of the vinyl albums. To say that this stuff has never sounded better is an understatement. Even though it’s not like hearing these wonderful songs for the first time, there’s a sense of rediscovery here when you hear how much effort and artistry was put into the production of all of Simon & Garfunkel’s albums.
The box boasts a passel of 15 previously unreleased cuts (how the heck were these left collecting dust before this?), but the set starts out with an oddly glaring omission . Even though they were called Tom and Jerry at the time, the duo’s 1957 hit “Hey Schoolgirl” would have made an obvious choice for a leadoff cut. It does show up later (on the third disc) in a ramshackle live version, but the original single would have made a nice addition and its exclusion is odd. The set’s first song is an unissued demo of a song that turned up on the Wednesday Morning 3 AM album called “Bleeker Street”, a lovely melodic folk song that set the stage for the duo’s beautiful harmonies. Aside from another lost song, (a studio out-take cover written by a guy that Simon produced early in his career) tantalizingly called “Blues Run The Game” (disappointedly it’s not blues), the first disc is a fine compilation of the duo’s first two albums as they moved hesitantly from pure folk to a hybrid folk-rock synthesis best exemplified by the intense “I Am A Rock”. The song choices are fine, if a bit obvious, and even though the sound is marvelous, it’s not as revelatory as on the more intricately recorded selections on the following two discs.
Disc two is where the sonic difference really becomes noticeable as it covers the third and fourth albums, Parsley, Sage, Rosemary, and Thyme, and Bookends. These releases were where the production really geared up, although PSR+T was still a folk album gussied up with percussion, harpsichord, and bass. Still the attack of the sparse congas, bass, and subtle organ on “Patterns” will cause anyone familiar with the previously released version of this song to do a double take. The duo’s voices and acoustic guitar wrap themselves around the melody like dog huddled next to a fireplace on a cold night. Seven studio cuts are pulled from PSR+T (some others turn up in live versions) and although we could have done without the terribly dated “7 O’clock News/Silent Night” schlock, it’s a fine selection from a great album. The second disk also includes a lengthy 5-song chunk from an all-acoustic 1967 Lincoln Center Concert which shows just how incredibly tight these guys were when they sang live. Even when spitting out words fast and furiously like on “A Poem On The Underground Wall”, S&G’s split second harmonizing never wavered. The live recording is crystal clear and reveals the loveliness of their interlocking vocals. A live version of Simon’s “Red Rubber Ball”, a fluff pop hit he wrote for the money for a flash-in-the-pan ’60s group The Cyrkle is inconsequential but a nice rarity. It does show off the pairs direct Everly Brothers connection in a way that the more political, poetic, and personal songs don’t.
Disc two continues with the Bookends album, the first time that producer Roy Halee – who was to play such an integral part in the sound of “Bridge Over Troubled Water” – was utilized. One listen to the intricate production of “Save The Life Of My Child” (jagged synths, sound effects, and off-beat and often startling percussion) gives you an idea of how these guys had learned to use the studio in the year since PSR+T. Bookends also includes some of their best work. The sense of isolation and loneliness on “America” sounds just as relevant today as it did thirty years ago. The stark grayness of “A Hazy Shade Of Winter” cuts the poppy anemic Bangles hit version by miles. The melodies are tough and Simon’s poetic lyrics capture the songs moods perfectly. Only the “Voices Of Old People” cut is missing from the original album, and it’s not a major omission. The disc closes with two previously unreleased acoustic Christmas songs which are lovely but nothing you’d buy the set for.
It all comes together on disc three, though. Kicking off with the legendary “Mrs. Robinson” (never sounding more powerful than in this remastered version), and continuing though the entire Bridge Over Troubled Water album, the duo’s sound matured to almost symphonic proportions. The original sequence of the songs is jumbled (S&G did the track selection and running order, so they apparently wanted to rearrange things), yet the disc flows incredibly well. Fluff like “Baby Driver” doesn’t hold up, but the grand Phil Spector-ish approach of the title cut, the marvelous and sadly forgotten “Only Living Boy In New York”, and “My Little Town” (a post-_Bridge_ final song from the pair) shows just how far the two had come from their folk beginnings only four years earlier. You can also trace the inception of Simon’s later African/World Beat themes of Graceland and Rhythm Of The Saints to the Andean folk song “El Condor Pasa,” which along with the Latin touches of “Cecelia” adds another dimension to Bridge. An unreleased studio track left off of BOTW “Feuilles-O” is a short but telling African folk tune that later oddly turned up on a Garfunkel solo album.
Old Friends is an almost perfect box set. It traces, in roughly chronological order, the development of not only Simon & Garfunkel’s historic career, but simultaneously the path of popular music through the ’60s. Through all of the intensity of their most poetic moments, S&G never lost sight of the fun element in their work, or of the significance of their Doo Wop and Everly Brothers roots. The sound throughout is stunning, and hearing these wonderful songs some 30 years after they were recorded gives you an appreciation of the artistry and longevity of Simon’s work. Nobody ever duplicated their sound, or for the most part even tried, making Simon & Garfunkel truly a unique and legendary duo in the annals of ’60s music.
