Bookends [Bonus Tracks]

Simon & Garfunkel | Format: MP3 Download

Product Details

• Original Release Date: August 21, 2001
• Label: Columbia/Legacy
• Copyright: Originally Recorded 1968 & Released 2001, Originally Released 1966, 1967, 1968, (P) 2001 Sony Music Entertainment Inc.
• Total Length: 34:26
• Genres: Classic Rock/Compilations, Pop/Compilations, Pop/Oldies, Pop/Pop Rock, Pop/Singer-Songwriters, Rock/Compilations, Rock/Singer-Songwriters
• ASIN: B0018PZ8A8
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (47 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #7,047 Paid in MP3 Albums (See Top 100 Paid in MP3 Albums)
  • #9 in MP3 Downloads > MP3 Albums > Classic Rock > Compilations
  • #12 in MP3 Downloads > MP3 Albums > Rock > Compilations
  • #18 in MP3 Downloads > MP3 Albums > Pop > Compilations

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

33 of 33 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Tugs at your heartstrings, September 4, 2001

By 

Just Bill (Grand Rapids, MI United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Bookends (Audio CD)

I've always thought Simon and Garfunkel were one of the most beautifully arranged groups ever to record. Their voices are angelic. Their songs are often so emotional that I can barely stand to listen to them.

This album, Bookends, stands at the top of my list of favorite S&G recordings.

As the liner notes indicate, this is their fourth, "and arguably best, album"..."a meditation on the passage of life and the psychological impact of life's irreversible, ever-accumulating losses." That's probably what sets it apart from their other recordings to me. It's ambitious, and chock-full of import and meaning. If a progressive rock band would have attempted a concept like this in the 1970s, they would have been labeled "pretentious" or "bombastic." Yet, S&G got away with it.

Granted, there are tracks I don't like as well as others ("Save The Life Of My Child" for one), but tracks such as "America," "Voices of Old People," "Old Friends," "Bookends Theme" and "Mrs. Robinson" more than make up for the odd track or two that doesn't strike a chord within me. "Bookends Theme," alone, tugs at my heartstrings like very few songs do. And if any song seems to resonate with the spirit of the Sixties it's "Mrs. Robinson."

There really isn't anything else I can say about this album that you probably don't already know, or haven't already read in previous reviews.

Except for this: The remastering is outstanding. The voices ring out clearly, the acoustic guitars are crisp and bright and there are things going on in each track that you might not have noticed in previous editions of this album.

While S&G's previous release -- 1966's Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and Thyme -- contains many more sing-alongable songs, more that you probably know by heart, I think Bookends is their crowning achievement. If you don't yet own one of their albums, I suggest starting with this one. If this isn't available, try Parsley, Sage.

Oh, one more thing: If you can, listen with a good pair of headphones on to capture every nuance and note. You'll be amazed at the remastering, and captivated by the depth of their performances.

19 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Classic, August 14, 2006

By 

John P. Morgan "Light Coach" (Beautiful San Dimas, CA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Bookends (Audio CD)

My wife just bought me a new record player...yeah, you read that right. I don't need some crazy ipod that holds 3,000 of my favorite songs...just give me something simple...something uncomplicated...something that puts me in touch with my soul and I'm quite the happy guy.

This album is free from all pretenses. It's sad and yet it's beautiful. It's alive and yet it feels like death is its closest companion. I'm not being maudlin, here, that's the way it is. We go through so many mini-deaths during one lifetime. We make friends. We lose friends. We're riding high one moment and the next we're flat on our backs. But it's all part of the whole. Black and white with a million shades of gray in-between.

I put on this album that I've had since the fourth grade. The record cracks and creaks, it moans and groans...it's a lot like me...but just like this record, I'm always ready to start from the beginning and be me. Who else could I possibly be?

I'm tempted to buy a brand new version of this classic on CD, but I wait until the feelings pass and cling to something I've owned for the last thirty years. I don't have much left from those days gone by. But again, that's life.

This is probably the best album that Simon & Garfunkle put out. It caught them at a time when they, too, were going through changes and transistions, endings and new beginnings.

Life's a trip...pack accordingly.

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars S&G's Magumn Opus, June 9, 2003

By 

Thomas Downey "tommytoony" (Roseville, MI USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Bookends (Audio CD)

You know an album is good when one of the worst songs on it is the band's biggest single.

"Bookends" is Simon & Garfunkel, and 60's folk-rock, at their absolute best. While other bands were exploring complicted concepts and rock operas, S&G created a side-long song cycle about the simplest of ideas; growing up and growing old.

The album opens with a soft acoustic guitar line of the "Bookends Theme" which explodes into the psychedelic blast of "Save the Life of My Child", then fades into the glorious land and soul-searching ode "America". "Overs" deals with the subject of relationships reaching a stalemate, and "Old Friends" takes an elequent look at old age with beautiful vocals and melodies and stirring strings, and fades back into the original opening guitar line with ending coda "preserve your memories, they're all that's left you." Brilliant. And that's just the first half.

The second half, merely a collection of songs, is one of their stongest collections. The moderate hit "Fakin' It", the wry "Punky's Delemma", the rocking "A Hazy Shade of Winter" and the poppy Orwellian-with-a-twist "At the Zoo". The monster hit of "Mrs. Robinson" although brilliant in its own right, sounds almost out of place here, and ranks up as one of the weaker tracks.

The album covers a great deal of ground, musically and emotionally, and transports the listener...and does so in about a half an hour. Simon & Garfunkel do in 30 minutes what most bands can't do with a full-length cd.

At long last, this gem of an album is getting the credit it so deserves. This is (arguably) Simon & Garfunkel's greatest work as a duo, and perhaps one of the greatest albums of all time. Absoulutely essential.