I Own That CD! - Simon & Garfunkel

Released in 1968, the fourth album from duo Simon & Garfunkel, Bookends was a concept album that explores a life journey from childhood to old age. The album is full of emotive, cinematic lyrics. And while they had just blown up on the music scene with the albums Sounds of Silence and Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and Thyme and the soundtrack album for the 1967 film The Graduate, it was Bookends where it all came together for them. And it’s today’s feature on I Own That CD!

The second song, but somewhat true opening track is "Save the Life of My Child." A haunting, slightly electronic song that centers on a boy on a ledge, ready to jump, and the frenzy of activity around him.

Then comes, what I consider, a top five song of all-time (for me), “America”. The song was written and composed by Paul Simon, and concerns young lovers hitchhiking their way across the United States, in search of "America", in both a literal and figurative sense. It was inspired by a 1964 road trip that Simon took with his then-girlfriend Kathy Chitty. I can’t pick out my favorite lyric - maybe the opening lines, “Let us be lovers, we'll marry our fortunes together. I've got some real estate here in my bag”. I usually lean towards the simple end to one of the verses, “And the moon rose over an open field”, with the voices of Simon & Garfunkel melting into my heart. It’s Kerouac in song form.

The release is not as folky as their previous releases, it borders on pop-folk with more of the band playing electronic instruments backing them.

"Fakin' It" is one of the bouncy pop gems on the album, complete with classic Simon & Garfunkel foot-tapping acoustic guitars and handclaps. There is even a shadow of things to come in the duo's career here, as horns are briefly heard in the arrangement.

Bookends contains a slightly different version of the classic song from The Graduate, “Mrs. Robinson”. It may be the most recognizable song from their catalog and in some weird way, it may be one of the weakest numbers on this release.

The “rock” song, “Hazy Shade of Winter” (later covered by The Bangles as one of the greatest covers ever), is a stark contrast to the song “California Dreamin’”. “At the Zoo” shows Simon’s playful side, and on an album about the aging process, it’s a welcome change of pace, leaving the listener amused to close things out.

They only released one more studio album, Bridge Over Troubled Waters, which was of course great, but to me, nothing tops Bookends. It threw everything from their arsenal into a blender and what came out was perfection.