Simon & Garfunkel - Bookends (1968). butchT Greatest Albums of all Time

Bookends is the fourth studio album by Simon & Garfunkel, released on April 3, 1968 by Columbia Records. It was produced by Paul Simon, Roy Halee and Art Garfunkel.

The songs of the first side of the album follow a unified concept, exploring a life journey from childhood to old age, while the second side contained unused songs intended for The Graduate soundtrack.

Bookends was a #1 hit on Billboard's (North America) Pop Albums chart, as well as in the UK. Four singles charted: "A Hazy Shade of Winter", "At the Zoo", "Fakin' It" and "Mrs Robinson," which peaked at #13, #16 and #23 and #1, respectively.

In 2003, the TV network VH1 named Bookends the 93rd greatest album of all time. In 2003, the album was ranked number 233 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 500 greatest albums of all time.[1]
The first side of the album is musically and thematically unified: it begins (and ends) with the brief guitar piece "Bookends Theme", evoking a "time of innocence", which moves immediately to "Save the Life of My Child" with the sound of a distorted bass synthesizer in the same key, played by co-producer John Simon and set up by Bob Moog himself.[5][6] The song features vocal asides and sound effects including synthesizer sounds, disjointed choral voices and a sample from their single "The Sound of Silence". This crossfades into "America", a tale of travelling young lovers that contrasts with the estrangement expressed next in "Overs". "Voices of Old People" is as it says, a collection of taped conversations leading into "Old Friends", an idyll of old age with powerful strings and horns, now stark, now sweet, that connect by a single held note to the final, vocal version of the "Bookends Theme". The whole side marks successive stages in life, the theme serving as literal bookends to the life cycle.

The second side features the single "Mrs. Robinson", famous for its inclusion in the film The Graduate and the accompanying soundtrack album. "Overs", "Punky's Dilemma", and "A Hazy Shade of Winter" were also written by Simon for The Graduate soundtrack, but the film's producers rejected them.[citation needed] The song is driven by congas and overdubbed guitar figures. "Fakin' It" and "Punky's Dilemma" also make use of sound effects, percussion loops and an interlude in an English shop featuring the voice of singer Beverley Martyn in the former, background voices and someone stamping downstairs and slamming a door over the walking bass of the latter. "A Hazy Shade of Winter" has an electric rock sound, seguing suddenly into the intimacy of tinkling bells and quiet finger-picking for "At the Zoo".
Released April 3, 1968
Recorded September 1966, January 1967, June 1967, October 1967 - February 1968
Genre Folk rock, psychedelic folk
Length 29:51
Label Columbia
Producer Simon & Garfunkel
Roy Halee

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