Before I start with my comments about what I learned here I have to share a story. A few years back my wife and I went to dinner with a friend and his new girlfriend and the subject of Simon and Garfunkle came up. I can't remember his girlfriend's name, let's call her Suzy. So Suzy says to me, "That guy must be the luckiest guy on the planet, I mean he really lucked out when Garfunkle came along." Thinking that she must have gotten them confused somehow and trying to give her the benefit of the doubt, I said "You mean Garfunkle was the lucky one when Paul Simon came along." She said, "No, Art is the one with the unbelievely beautiful voice what good was the other guy. He wouldn't even have had a carrer if Art hadn't come along." You could have knocked me over with a feather! This was probably the dumbest statements about music that I had ever heard in my life. I am usually a pretty reserved guy and I also value other peoples opinions. I try to be accepting and all of that. If she had said that she preffered Art over Paul, I maybe could have left that alone, but this was too much. I said, "Paul Simon is like one of the greatest song writers of the 20th century without him what exacty would Art sing?" Seriously this is more ridiculous that saying Jerry Lewis really lucked out when Dean Martin came along or Cher was really luck when Sonny came along.
Anyway, I had to get that out. For those that don't know, this was Simon and Garfunkle's last album together. It mealded elements of Rock, Folk, Jazz, Raggae, World and Classical. It is also quite dated. That the songs themselves, but the recordings scream of that late 60s early 70s art house vibe. Also, Art and Paul were not on the best of terms. Art was starting an acting carrer and left most of the work to Paul who was not to happy about it. I always thought that the cover photograph said a lot about the relationship, the way that Paul is in front and block part of Art's face...how this got to print is beyond me.
I have always thought of Simon and Garfunkle as a singles group and have never delved into the albums, but this is a quite consistant album and plays much better as one. The sum is greater than the parts and being that the parts conain the title track, which won 4 grammys and The Boxer and Cecilia, that's saying a whole lot. Actually it is amazing that any song can play next to those tracks and not be completely overshaddowed by them, but that is what happens here.
This excercise has brought so much great music into my life and has really opened up my mind to things that I have discounted for such a long time. I am so grateful that I dicided to do this. I only wish that more people would take the time to do this.
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