197. Simon and Garfunkel | Bridge Over Troubled Water (1970)

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Wikipedia Entry

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Tracks

1. Bridge Over Troubled Water
2. El Condor Pasa (If I Could)
3. Cecilia
4. Keep the Customer Satisfied
5. So Long, Frank Lloyd Wright
6. The Boxer
7. Baby Driver
8. The Only Living Boy in New York
9. Why Don't You Write Me
10. Bye Bye Love
11. Song for the Asking

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Bridge Over Troubled Water is a melodic album. The music is folk rock. This music is inoffensive, but that's nothing to be proud of.

This album is an improvement over their previous two albums. The music is more diverse and interesting. The lyrics are less condescending and pontificating, but still lightweight, frivolous and shallow. I can't believe Bob Dylan did a cover of The Boxer. Oh, how the mighty have fallen!

I'm more critical of the lyrics on Simon and Garfunkel albums because their lyrics are the main attraction. People listen to Jimi Hendrix because of his guitar playing and they listen to Simon and Garfunkel for the clever lyrics.

I do think this album is worth listening to, though. For two reasons, it's one of many entryways to the adult oriented style of rock that has plagued popular music ever since: the music is innocuous and the lyrics are vapid. I don't think it belongs on the 1001 Albums list because it's more like a loose collection of songs rather than an album.

The standout songs are: Bridge Over Troubled Water, El Condor Pasa (If I Could), Cecilia, The Boxer and Bye Bye Love.

★★★★★★★☆☆☆

125. Simon and Garfunkel | Bookends (1968)

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Wikipedia Entry

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Tracks

1. Bookends Theme
2. Save the Life of My Child
3. America
4. Overs
5. Voices of Old People
6. Old Friends
7. Bookends
8. Fakin' It
9. Punky's Dilemma
10. Mrs. Robinson
11. A Hazy Shade of Winter
12. At the Zoo

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Bookends is an uninspiring album. Most of the songs are pseudo-intellectual folk or folk rock.

The music is good enough and Simon and Garfunkel sing well and they sound especially good when they sing close harmony. And, maybe I just don't get it, but I think the lyrics are pretentious crap pretending to unveil universal or personal truths. Maybe wit is confused with wisdom. If you are going to be smart with your lyrics then be smart, otherwise don't. There is no directive for rock and roll music to enlighten the masses.

I can see why this album is on the 1001 Albums list, though. It's paving the way to that Hell also known as Adult Contemporary Rock. So, if you like that kind of music, this will be perfect and if you must listen to this album, the better songs are Mrs. Robinson and A Hazy Shade of Winter. America is a popular song but it epitomizes the pretentious crap that Paul Simon writes.

★★★★★★☆☆☆☆

71. Simon and Garfunkel | Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and Thyme (1966)

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Wikipedia Entry

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Tracks

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 Submission)
10. For Emily, Whenever I May Find Her
11. A Poem on the Underground Wall
12. 7 O'Clock News/Silent Night

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Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and Thyme is a lyrical album. The music is pleasant, soothing, and catchy. The lyrics seem clever and thoughtful. However, the songs also border on being vacuous and uninspiring–a lot of much ado about nothing.

I'm just not sure about this album. The songs seem to be very intellectual, but the more I listen to it, the more they sound like a poor man's Bob Dylan. At first, the songs sound very intellectual and enlightened, but then there seems to be pointless.

7 O'Clock News/Silent News captures the essence of the album really well. Sure, juxtapose a bad day's newscast with the lyrics of Silent News and it sounds profound, but there's nothing enlightening about that. Sure, life is terrible and life is beautiful, at the same time, no less. Humans have known that for millenia. Where's the insight into why?

The stand out songs are Scarborough Fair/Canticle, Homeward Bound, The 59th Street Bridge Song (Feelin' Groovy), and The Dangling Conversation.

★★★★★★ ☆☆☆☆