Classic 60's Albums: Simon & Garfunkel "Sounds Of Silence"

SIMON & GARFUNKEL-"Sounds Of Silence" U.S. Columbia LP CL 2469 (mono) LP CL 9269 (stereo) January 17, 1966

SIDE ONE:

1. "The Sounds of Silence" (P. Simon)

2. "Leaves That Are Green" (P. Simon)

3. "Blessed" (P. Simon)

4. "Kathy's Song" (P. Simon)

5. "Somewhere They Can't Find Me" (P. Simon)

6. "Angie" (B. Jansch)

So here's how this goes...two New Yorker's, (Paul) Simon and (Art) Garfunkel cut a few folk LP's and eventually get pissed off at each other and go their separate ways.  One (Paul) runs off to England for a month or so and immersers himself in the British folk scene and comes back (with a nice British accent). AND because there's this thing happening called "folk rock" in his absence, the canny folks at CBS records have slapped the same sounds you heard on Mr. Zimmerman's brilliant "Like A Rolling Stone" onto some of their previously issued Simon & Garfunkel tracks like "The Sound Of Silence" (re titled "The Sounds Of Silence") the kids are buying it faster than ice cream. Folk rock is a hit and by September of '65 it's burning up the pop chart where it will eventually reach #1! And where there's a hit, there needs to be an LP....

Enter our LP in question which was released on January 17, 1966. And for all of my jaded observations on the commercialism and cynicism about the the heartless, clueless and shameless U.S. record industry I love this album.  Was it a big attempt to cash in on "folk rock"?  Of course it was.  But once in awhile the suits get it right and come up with something that sounds great and this was one of those times.  And being a 60's Anglophile it's been a base for a mother load of covers by British artists, in most cases hot on the heels of it's release (more on that further down)!

The LP kicks off with the somber "The Sounds Of Silence".  I can remember tramping around a snowy sidewalk in the West Village (that's NYC) at about 2 or 3 in the morning in the late 80's with this playing in my head .  It was one of those perfect moments for a perfect song. There were no iPhones or Androids or earbuds, iPods or even CD Walkmans in existence then so I had to play it in my head.  Like a great deal of the tracks on this platter this is one of what I call "the table for one" soundtrack numbers that seem to reflect isolationism, disenchantment and unintentional solitude (see "I Am A Rock" below). Next up we have "Leaves That Are Green", a harpsichord laced happy go lucky shuffle that's full of optimism.  "Blessed" is another one that evokes all of that black/bleak negativity. All the name checking NYC places reminds me of the gritty Big Apple you saw in "Midnight Cowboy" film that was still fairly visible when I was in my youth pounding the pavement's of NYC at ungodly hours and in (now gentrified) ungodly neighborhoods back in the mid/late 80's. "Blessed" best line for me is:

"I've got nowhere to go, I've walked around Soho for the last night or so..."

Of all the album's tracks this rates as one of my faves because it also evokes a nihilism fueled cynicism in it's lyrics that 58 years later still have an acidic bite to it:

"my words trickle down from a wound I have no intention to heal.......I have tended my own garden much too long"

"Kathy's Song' bounces back to the evergreen, sunny acoustic folkie thing singing about England and some gal over there, clashing with the gritty B-movie sound of... "Somewhere They Can't Find Me". This is one of my other choice favorites from this elpee.  It's lyrical imagery is that of a part time crook on the run leading a double life is so perfect it could have been a movie. It is interwoven with some groovy Fender Rhodes noodling and subtle trumpet care of Hugh Maskella (or so I've heard) and brilliant words from Rhymin' Simon before he became the musical vampire of the Third World in later years:

"oh baby you don't know what I've done.  I've committed a crime I've broken the law.  But when you were here sleeping and just dreaming of me I held up and robbed a liquor store..."

It's intro is a melody nicked from a track called "Anji" written by our eternal hero Davy Graham, whom Simon was presumably turned onto during his brief U.K. sojourn.  Originally copies of the LP incorrectly credit Bert Jansch with writing the track.   Which leads us to..... a note for note cover version of Graham's acoustic instrumental "Anji, which though lacking the nimble fingers of the original still comes off pretty well and gets an A+ for probably being the first Americans to cover the master.  There are more bits of "plagiarism/inspiration". 

Side Two:

1. "Richard Cory" (P. Simon)

2. "A Most Peculiar Man" (P. Simon)

3 "April Come She Will"(P. Simon)

4. "We've Got A Groovy Thing Goin'" (P. Simon)

5. "I Am A Rock" (P. Simon)

The next side's opener "Richard Cory", is lifted from a poem by American poet Edwin Arlington Robinson in title and story line, though Simon adds some gritty industrial realism with his lyrics while a groovy little three chord "Memphis" style lick shuffles in the backdrop amongst the "Highway 61 Revisited" style organ/guitar/bass/drums. Our song's protagonist is a wealthy industrialist/philanthropist (who in a touch of 1966, has orgies on his yacht) but whose money can't buy him happiness so he goes home and puts one in his brain. All of this is seen through the eyes of a prole eking out a meager existence in one of his factories.  The suicide topic continues with a social observation on "A Most Peculiar Man" (pre-dating Ray Davies similar topic "Did You See His Name"), about a loner who ends it all as seen through the eyes of of his fellow apartment dwellers (one can easily imagine a 1960's NYC apartment building with gossip on the stoop on through an open first floor window onto the pavement below).  There's some brilliant stuff going on in this one, especially the discordant acoustic guitar slashes when the actual suicide is touched upon in the song and faint keyboards that sound like chimes. "April Come She Will" is another one of those upbeat acoustic numbers that seems to kill the bleak/cynical groove (much like "Leaves That Are Green"). Next up...the groovy "We've Got A Groovy Thing Goin'", which takes Nat Adderley's "Work Song" (made popular with rock n' roll crowd via fellow Columbia artist and Uber cool jazz hipster Oscar Brown Jr. who added lyrics to the Adderley instrumental) and rearranges a few notes and adds new lyrics BUT still it's a "groovy little" number!! The heavy drum hitting intro is HEAVY care of session man Hal Blaine and there's jazzy horn bits thrown in as well.   "I Am A Rock" closes the album.  It's perhaps the greatest misanthrope anthem of all time.  Again the groovy "Highway 61 Revisited" arrangement brings it all back home, again (dig Larry Knetchel's organ trills) and once again, one can't help but conjure up seedy images of the old Big Apple before Disney/Giuliani wiped away the filth and of an individual who doesn't want to move beyond the four walls that safely surround him from the cold light of day and the garbage both human and manufactured:

"I have my books and my poetry to protect me.  I am shielded in my armor. Hiding in my room, safe within my room, I touch no one and no one touches me"

Wow, solid stuff. A misogynistic/misanthropic mantra for the ages indeed!

Of course our pals across the pond wasted precious little time getting in on the "Sounds Of Silence" bandwagon. In the U.K. The Hollie's cut "I Am A Rock" on their January '66 LP "Would You Believe" (Parlophone PMC 7008), Justin & Karlsson cut a decent version of "Somewhere They Can't Find Me" in February '66 (Piccadilly 7N 35295), Adam, Mike & Tim served up " A Most Peculiar Man" in April '66 (Columbia DB 7902), Them released their final single with Van Morrison, a rocking version of "Richard Cory" in May '66 (Decca F 12403) and The Kytes released "Blessed" in June of '66 (Pye 7N 17136). And someone named Ruth Veldon cut "A Most Peculiar Man", resplendent in a baroque backing care of the great Ivor Raymonde. Of course none of these made any chart impact whatsoever as the originals were riding high in Britannia. While over in Sweden Ola & The Jangler's cut a half decent version of "We've Got A Groovy Thing Goin'" in their mother country as the flip side to "Poetry In Motion" (Gazell C-186) in '66.

For more Paul Simon adoration check out this post on 10 Simon & Garfunkel cover.