Maps of Music

Bookends (1968)

Where the lyrics of Bookends take you, and where it was really made.

Bookends came out just 24 hours before the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr., and Pete Fornatale saw it as comfort food for a nation in turmoil.

Key places

Columbia studio on 52nd Street (1968)

Recording site A&R Recording Studios — In October 1967 Morgan Ames of High Fidelity observed a session with the duo at Columbia's studio on 52nd Street. The exact building location is not asserted here. Google Maps · Apple Maps

How to get there: See the map for directions.

Album story

Overview

• Bookends: fourth studio album by the American folk rock duo Simon & Garfunkel
• Concept album that explores a life journey from childhood to old age
• Side one marks successive stages in life, with the theme serving as bookends to the life cycle
• Side two mostly consists of previously released singles and unused material for The Graduate soundtrack
• Lyrics concern youth, disillusionment, relationships, old age, and mortality
• Released April 3, 1968, in the United States by Columbia Records
• Produced by Paul Simon, Art Garfunkel and Roy Halee

Background

• The duo rose to fame two years earlier with Sounds of Silence, Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and Thyme, and the soundtrack for the 1967 film The Graduate
• Simon began work on the album around the time the single At the Zoo was released in early 1967
• Simon had hit a dry spell in his writing, so no Simon & Garfunkel album was planned for 1967
• The lack of productivity worried executives at Columbia Records
• Clive Davis arranged for up-and-coming record producer John Simon to kick-start the recording
• Director Mike Nichols, filming The Graduate, asked to license the duo's music for his film

Recording

• The album was recorded gradually over a period of a year, with production speeding up around the later months of 1967
• John Simon's first session with the duo was for Fakin' It in June 1967
• The duo were signed under an older contract that let the label pay for sessions, so they hired viola and brass players and percussionists
• The team spent over 50 studio hours recording Punky's Dilemma
• Vocal parts were re-recorded, sometimes note by note, until the duo were satisfied
• Harmonies gradually gave way to songs sung solo by each member
• The duo and Halee completed production themselves after John Simon left Columbia at the start of 1968

Cover

• Richard Avedon, regarded then as one of the best photographers, was commissioned to shoot the album cover
• When viewed closely, Avedon's reflection can be seen in Simon's irises

Sources: en.wikipedia.org · fr.wikipedia.org

Tracklist

Sources: musicbrainz.org

Artist

Formation

• Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel met in school in Queens, New York City, in 1953, where they learned to harmonize.
• As teenagers they performed as Tom & Jerry; their 1957 single "Hey, Schoolgirl" sold more than 100,000 copies.
• They regrouped in 1963 and signed to Columbia Records as Simon & Garfunkel.
• Their debut album, Wednesday Morning, 3 A.M. (1964), sold poorly.

Members

• Paul Simon: singer-songwriter and guitarist.
• Art Garfunkel: singer, with occasional percussion.

Career

• "The Sound of Silence" reached number one on the Billboard Hot 100 after a rock remix in 1965.
• The Graduate (1967) and Bookends (1968) made them the biggest rock duo in the world.
• Bridge over Troubled Water (1970), their final studio album, became one of the best-selling albums of all time.
• They split in 1970 and reunited several times, including the 1981 Central Park concert attended by more than 500,000 people.
• They won seven Grammy Awards and were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1990.
• They have sold more than 100 million records.

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

Reception

At release

• Reviews upon release in 1968 were largely positive
• New Musical Express critic Allen Evans gave the record four out of five stars and called it inspiring and descriptive
• Evans noted the album was imaginative and at times confusing about what the composer was getting at
• Melody Maker did not use a ratings system but called Bookends a thoughtful, clever and well-produced album
• Melody Maker reviewer Chris Welch criticized the songs as not particularly tuneful but praised the lyrics
• Rolling Stone reviewer Arthur Schmidt found the music questionable but admitted to liking it
• Schmidt wrote that the album exudes a sense of process and is slick

Reappraisal

• AllMusic writer Thom Jurek gave it five stars out of five
• Jurek said the album is stunning in its vision of a bewildered America in search of itself
• Pitchfork's Stephen M. Deusner said the duo were settling into themselves on the album
• The A.V. Club called it the group's most musically and conceptually daring album

Records

• Debuted on the Billboard Pop Album Chart in the issue dated April 27, 1968
• Climbed to number one and stayed there for seven non-consecutive weeks, with 66 weeks on the chart in total
• Number one in the United Kingdom
• Peaked at number three in both Australia and France
• Became the duo's best-selling album to date
• Initial combined sales with The Graduate soundtrack exceeded five million units
• Mrs. Robinson won Record of the Year at the 11th Annual Grammy Awards in 1969
• Mrs. Robinson was the first rock and roll song to win that award
• In 2000, voted number 338 in Colin Larkin's All Time Top 1000 Albums

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

Trivia

• Davis suggested raising the list price to $5.79, one dollar above the standard retail price, to pay for a large poster in each copy
• Simon was outraged and the duo instead signed a contract extension with Columbia that guaranteed a higher royalty rate
• The 45 RPM single of Fakin' It showed its 3:14 run time as 2:74 to get past radio programmers who applied the under 3 minutes pop single formula
• Released just 24 hours before the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr., which set off nationwide outrage and riots
• The Mrs. Robinson lyrics include a famous reference to New York Yankees athlete Joe DiMaggio
• Bookends was the last Simon & Garfunkel album to be mixed in separate mono and stereo mixes

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

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