Product Description

No Description Available.
Genre: Popular Music
Media Format: Compact Disk
Rating:
Release Date: 21-AUG-2001

Track Listing

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
10. For Emily, Wherever I May Find Her
11. A Poem On The Underground Wall
12. 7 O'Clock News/Silent Night
13. Patterns
14. A Poem On The Underground Wall

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #3405 in Music
• Brand: SIMON & GARFUNKEL
• Released on: 2001-08-21
• Number of discs: 1
• Formats: Extra tracks, Original recording remastered
• Dimensions: .24 pounds

Amazon.com essential recording
When a retrofit of electric guitars transformed "Sounds of Silence" into Simon & Garfunkel's folk-rock entrée, the partners and their label hastily followed with a like-titled album mixing Paul Simon's acoustic folk songs with plugged-in bids for radio play. By contrast, this successor, released less than a year later, more coherently and convincingly reveals Simon's broadening horizons as a writer and the duo's nascent studio perfectionism. The title song remains a haunting signature piece, relying on acoustic guitar and harpsichord to carry its contrapuntal marriage of English ballad and antiwar plaint; such acoustic delicacy prevails throughout and has proven more durable than by-the-numbers wattage. The first great S&G album, the set includes "The 59th Street Bridge Song (Feelin' Groovy)," "Homeward Bound," "Dangling Conversation," and Art Garfunkel's luminous solo piece, "For Emily, Wherever I May Find Her." (The 2001 reissue adds a pair of unreleased demos to the original work.) --Sam Sutherland

Customer Reviews

Sony/Legacy does great job of preserving a classic.
This newly remastered and expanded edition of PSR&T is definitely overdue and most welcome. As was evident with the S&G releases of the past couple of years, "Old Friends" and "The Best of", the original master tapes are utilized in the digital transfer for this compact disc. In fact, a few tunes ("Cloudy", The Big Bright Green Pleasure Machine", "A Simple Desultory Phillipic" and "Poem On The Underground Wall") run several seconds longer than the original LP versions we've always been used to. And the sound quality is breathtaking! "Patterns", "Pleasure Machine" and "Phillipic" just jump out of the speakers. They're so clean and crisp and bright that it's almost startling! It's a great package too with all of the original artwork and liner notes reproduced, new photos and liner notes, and complete printed lyrics. It's the most exciting reissue I've heard this year.

Simon & Garfunkle put together their first great album
"Parsley, Sage, Rosemary & Thyme" was the first big breakthrough album for Simon & Garfunkel as artists. Although their first two albums certainly showed promise, there was a big difference with this 1966 album. The difference was that this time Simon & Garfunkel, along with engineer Roy Halee, had total control in the making of the album. Given that their other 1966 album, "The Sounds of Silence," had been thrown together in less than a month to take advantage of the hot single, this makes a big difference. Just compare the horrible overdubbing of "The Songs of Silence" single with basically anything on this album, but especially with the opening track, "Scarborough Fair/Canticle."

This was an album that would appeal to college students, with the literary rock of "Dangling Conversation," the caustic commentary of "A Simple Desultory Philippic (or How I was Robert McNamara'd into Submission)," and the simple juxtaposition of the duo singing "Silent Night" to a piano accompaniment juxtaposed against the headlines from the Nightly News (including the death of Lenny Bruce and the escalation of the war in Vietnam) on the album's final track, "7 O'Clock News/Silent Night." College students would also appreciate the sentiments of "Homeward Bound," the attack on television as "The Big Bright Green Pleasure Machine," one of the decade's great feel-good songs, "59th Street Bridge Song (Feelin' Groovy)," and the drama of "Poem on the Underground Wall."

But as much as I like the opening track and "Homeward Bound," the song that puts this over the top is the simply beautiful "For Emily, Whenever I May Find Her." There was a time in high school when that was my favorite song, and I did not even know a girl named Emily. Along with "Bridge Over Troubled Water" and "All I Know," "Emily" is one of the songs that truly showcase's Garfunkle's soaring vocals, not to mention Simon's poetic sensibilities. As good as this 1966 album was, Simon & Garfunkle's next album, "Bookends," was even better, and the one after that was the best of all. But then discovered the magic formula here.

S & G's masterpiece
What can anyone say about this album but WOW?! This is the best S & G album that they made, and although slightly lacking the power of "Bridge Over Troubled Water" it beats it by the sheer number of great songs on there. "Scarborough Fair" is without a doubt the best song on this CD, with the haunting anti-war lyrics. "Homeward Bound" will always stick out in my memory because of its catchy melody and chorus. "The Big Bright Green Pleasure Machine" is a nice break from the rather dreary songs in the beginning. "7 O'Clock News/Silent Night", while dated (people under 30 won't get the full effect), is the most powerful song on this CD, and is only rivaled by "Bridge Over Troubled Water" and "The Boxer". Definitely pick up this CD; it's their best.