Ultradiscs are mastered from the original master tapes using Mobile Fidelity's proprietary mastering technique, then plated with 24 karat gold and housed in a stress-resistant lift-lock jewel box.
Simon & Garfunkel quietly slipped Bookends, their fourth album, into the bins with a whisper in March 1968. They are equal collaborators with producer/engineer Roy Halee in a multivalently layered song cycle observing the confusion of those seeking an elusive American Dream, wistfully reflecting on innocence lost forever to the cold winds of change. Bookends opens with an acoustic guitar stating a theme, slowly and plaintively. It erupts into the musical dissonance that introduces "Save the Life of My Child." Its uneasy rock & roll frames highly metaphorical and ironic lyrics and a nursery rhyme bridge. "America" is a folk song with a lilting soprano saxophone in its refrain as a small pipe organ paints acoustic guitars, framed by the ghostly traces of classic American Songbook pop structures. Two people travel the landscape by bus searching for the track's subject, eventually discovering that everyone else on the freeway is too. Its sophisticated harmonic invention is toppled by its message; "America" becomes an ellipsis, a cipher, an unanswerable question. "Overs," a study about the end of a relationship, contains Halee's ingenious use of sound: lighting a cigarette and inhaling and exhaling its smoke underscore the story told by the melody and lyrics. In a two-minute field recording of the voices of old people collected from nursing homes by Garfunkel, disembodied voices reveal entire lifetimes in a few seconds. "Old Friends" carries the message deeper. Simon's image of two old men sitting on a park bench sharing memories and their fears of the changes surrounding them is indelible. A horn section threatens to interrupt their reverie, reflecting the chaos they perceive, but is warded off as the gentle melody returns and fades into the album's opening theme. In "Fakin' It," Simon reveals the falsity inherent in modern life -- it's better to appear to have it together than reflect the struggle of not being able to: "This feeling of fakin' it/I still haven't shaken it/I know I'm fakin' it/I'm not really makin' it." The album's final three tracks, "Mrs. Robinson" (the iconic theme song from the film The Graduate), "A Hazy Shade of Winter," and the album's concluding track, "At the Zoo," offer a tremblingly bleak vision of the future rooted in the lives of everyday people who "fake it," living an illusory dream publicly while trembling with confusion and fear in private (no matter one's generation), subverting the Madison Avenue notion of the "generation gap" simply and honestly. Bookends' problematic, disillusioned themes, sometimes disguised in wry humor, striking arrangements, and augmented orchestral instrumentation, portray the sounds of people in an American life that they no longer understand, or understands them. Simon & Garfunkel never overstate; instead they observe, almost journalistically, enormous life and cultural questions in the process of them being asked. In just over 29 minutes, Bookends is stunning in its vision of a bewildered America in search of itself. ~ Thom Jurek
Recorded between September 7, 1966 and October 16, 1968.
Originally released on Columbia Records (9529).
Includes liner notes by Bud Scoppa.
+ 2 Bonus Tracks
Reissue producer: Bob Irwin.
Personnel includes: Paul Simon (vocals, guitar); Art Garfunkel (vocals).
Producers: Paul Simon, Art Garfunkel, Roy Halee.
Audio Mixers: Jen Wyler; Vic Anesini.
Liner Note Author: Bud Scoppa.
Photographers: Don Hunstein; Sandy Speiser.
Arranger: Jimmie Haskell.
Personnel includes: Paul Simon (vocals, acoustic guitar); Art Garfunkel (vocals); Jimmy Haskell (arranger).
Producers include: Paul Simon, Art Garfunkel, Roy Halee.
Q (Summer/01, p.126) - 4 stars out of 5 - "...Unfathomably moving..."
Uncut (8/01, p.92) - 5 stars out of 5 - "...Their masterpiece...brilliant....no aspiring songwriter should be without a thoroughly-played copy..."
Uncut (8/01, p.92) - 5 stars out of 5 - "...Their masterpiece...brilliant....no aspiring songwriter should be without a thoroughly-played copy..."
Simon & Garfunkel - Bookends Songs
| 1 | Bookends Theme
Garfunkel, Simon, Simon¦, Simon² | 0:32 | $1.29 | |
| 2 | Save the Life of My Child
Garfunkel, Simon, Simon¦, Simon² | 2:49 | $0.99 | |
| 3 | America
Garfunkel, Simon, Simon¦, Simon² | 3:36 | $1.29 | |
| 4 | Overs
Garfunkel, Simon, Simon¦, Simon² | 2:15 | $0.99 | |
| 5 | Voices of Old People
Garfunkel, Simon, Simon¦, Simon² | 2:07 | $0.99 | |
| 6 | Old Friends
Garfunkel, Simon, Simon¦, Simon² | 2:36 | $0.99 | |
| 7 | Bookends Theme
Garfunkel, Simon, Simon¦, Simon² | 1:20 | $1.29 | |
| 8 | Fakin' It
Garfunkel, Simon, Simon¦, Simon² | 3:17 | $0.99 | |
| 9 | Punky's Dilemma
Garfunkel, Simon, Simon¦, Simon² | 2:13 | $0.99 | |
| 10 | Mrs. Robinson
Garfunkel, Simon, Simon¦, Simon² | 4:04 | $1.29 | |
| 11 | Hazy Shade of Winter
Garfunkel, Simon, Simon¦, Simon² | 2:17 | $0.99 | |
| 12 | At the Zoo
Garfunkel, Simon, Simon¦, Simon² | 2:23 | $0.99 | |
| 13 | You Don't Know Where Your Interest Lies
Garfunkel, Simon, Simon¦, Simon² | 2:17 | $0.99 | |
| 14 | Old Friends
Garfunkel, Simon, Simon¦, Simon² | 2:11 | $0.99 | |
Bookends Music Review
Average Rating: (4.7 out of 5 stars)    List All 7 Reviews 1 of the best of all times
Too bad these two did not stay together for at least one more album after Bridge Over Troubled Water. There's talk of a reunion...too late, they screwed up.
'How terribly strange to be 70...? They are both approaching 70 and can only feel the shame and remorse for having squandered a great opportunity to produce more wonderful music as exemplified in the 5 Simon and Garfunkel albums...shame on them! Maybe in another lifetime...?
Submitted by faust8577 (Lorraine, Que. Canada)
Was This Review Helpful? Yes No 7 of 8 found this helpful.
Marvellous
I'm not a S&G fanatic, but this cd is marvellous.You just can't explain, you gotta get it and see it for yourself.
Submitted by zl177 (Italy) 
Was This Review Helpful? Yes No what a reminder
This reminds me of what once was.There aren't enough stars on the planet to give to this masterpiece.Might just be the best and most poignant album ever. Doug
Submitted by doug (canada)
Was This Review Helpful? Yes No  to answer the first reviewers question...
The Beatles recorded 'I am the Walrus' in 1967, and as far as I can tell, 'Mrs. Robinson' was recorded in 1968. But it's really a moot point, because the actual lyric in 'I am the Walrus' is 'Goo Goo G'Joob', whereas in 'Mrs. Robinson', it is 'Ku Ku Ka Choo' :)
Submitted by tobithompson (Canada)
Was This Review Helpful? Yes No
Black, White and shades of grey
Like the Richard Avedon photo on the cover, Bookends takes you through all the shades of Simon and Garfunkel's work from black through to white. What used to be the first side of the LP is probably Paul Simon's greatest songwriting achievement. Bookended by one of the most beautifully sparse songs he wrote are songs that take you through the spectrum of life from a suicidal adolescent (Save the Life of My Child), young adults seeing America (America), a middle aged couple breaking up (Overs) and the poignant beauty of 'Voices of Old People' and 'Old friends'. The second half may appear to be just a few of Simon's songwriting odds and sods, but some of these songs have more than stood the test of time - 'Mrs Robinson' and 'Hazy Shade of Winter' in particular. 'Faking it' and 'Punky's Dilemma' suggest to me so much of the late 60s US east coast ethos and 'At the Zoo' is one of the cutest songs ever written. An absolute gem with a real heart.
Submitted by Richard (Sydney, NSW, Australia)
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