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Bookends
 
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4.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (40 customer reviews) More about this product


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Product Details

  • Audio CD (October 25, 1990)
  • Original Release Date: March 1968
  • Number of Discs: 1
  • Label: Sony
  • ASIN: B0000024TQ
  • Also Available in: Audio CD  |  Audio Cassette  |  Vinyl
  • Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (40 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.com Sales Rank: #64,758 in Music (See Bestsellers in Music)

Listen to Samples and Buy MP3s

Songs from this album are available to purchase as MP3s. Click on "Buy MP3" or view the MP3 Album.

Samples
Song Title Time Price
listen  1. Bookends Theme (Album Version)0:34$1.29 Buy Track
listen  2. Save The Life Of My Child (Album Version) 2:48$0.99 Buy Track
listen  3. America (Album Version) 3:35$1.29 Buy Track
listen  4. Overs (Album Version) 2:13$0.99 Buy Track
listen  5. Voices Of Old People (Album Version) 2:12$0.99 Buy Track
listen  6. Old Friends (Album Version) 2:35$0.99 Buy Track
listen  7. Bookends Theme (Album Version) 1:19$1.29 Buy Track
listen  8. Fakin' It (Album Version) 3:19$0.99 Buy Track
listen  9. Punky's Dilemma (Album Version) 2:15$0.99 Buy Track
listen10. Mrs. Robinson (Album Version) 4:05$1.29 Buy Track
listen11. A Hazy Shade Of Winter (Album Version) 2:22$0.99 Buy Track
listen12. At The Zoo (Album Version) 2:22$0.99 Buy Track


Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com essential recording
Track for track, this is Simon & Garfunkel's best album. By 1968, Simon had shed his more precious tendencies as a songsmith. Meanwhile, the duo and coproducer/engineer Roy Halee had become adept studio technicians. "America" and "Mrs. Robinson" displayed the kind of sonic breadth that would flower even more fully two years later with "The Boxer" and "Bridge Over Troubled Water." Bits of whimsy ("Punky's Dilemma," "At the Zoo") and melancholy ("Old Friends," "A Hazy Shade of Winter") complete this autumnal album. --Steve Stolder

Product Description
Simon and Garfunkel's classic album Bookends, released in 1968, marked the duo's emergence as both a brilliant creative force and one of their era's biggest-selling recording acts.

Bookends, which arrived on the heels of Simon and Garfunkel's high-profile role on the soundtrack of the film The Graduate, is a brilliantly realized tour de force that captures the pleasures, tensions and fears of its era as vividly as any '60s album. Simon's literate, emotionally complex songwriting is matched by the ambitious production, which elevates the fiery folk-rockers "A Hazy Shade of Winter" and "Save the Life of My Child," the cinematic flights "America" and "Fakin' It," the intimate ballads "Old Friends" and "Bookends Theme," and the deceptively whimsical "Mrs. Robinson" and "At the Zoo."

Sundazed's exact vinyl replica of this harmony-rich classic is sourced from the original stereo master tapes, making this release an essential component of any '60s pop/rock collection. --This text refers to the Vinyl edition.


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Customer Reviews

40 Reviews
5 star:
 (29)
4 star:
 (4)
3 star:
 (4)
2 star:
 (3)
1 star:    (0)
 
 
 
 
 
Average Customer Review
4.5 out of 5 stars (40 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

 
13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars A Spellbinding Collection of Classic S&G Folk Rock Songs!, August 18, 2000
By Barron Laycock "Labradorman" (Temple, New Hampshire United States) - See all my reviews
(TOP 50 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   
...I do agree that this album showcases both Paul Simon's extraordinary talents as well as those of the amazing Art Garfunkel (remember him? He was half the incredible folk duo). From the haunting "Bookends Theme" to the funky and socially conscious "Save The Life Of My Child" to the evocative refrains of "America", all of us who lived through this CD while in undergraduate school in the late 1960s hold this effort by Simon and Garfunkel close to our hearts. With this song cycle, Simon had us all considering what it meant to grow old and feeble, and consider what the arc of our lives would mean. This was heavy stuff for 22 year olds.

Fifteen years ago a close friend gave me a finely lithographed set of the "Old Friends" lyrics after I shared his troubles when his mother died, telling me I was the guy he wanted to share the other end of the bench with at seventy. He's gone now, too, certainly gone too soon. A lot of the rest of the CD is interesting and spunky, but represents another side of the duo than from the thoughtful excursion into aging and what time means to us all that the original "A" side of the album represented. "Faking It" was an inside joke, using the name of British poet, singer, and songwriter Donovan Leitch (Mellow Yellow) as the tailor at the end. Simon was really expressing his amazement regarding the turn in his own life circumstances; Simon is serious, though, when he says "I have a tailor's face and hands" (his grandfather had been a Jewish tailor in Germany). Punky"s Dilemma" is a satiric look at the times, a la "A Simple Desultory Philippic" on the Parsley Sage album.

The rest of the songs included, "Mrs. Robinson", "A Hazy Shade Of Winter", and "At The Zoo", were all released as singles, and provided the staying power for the album's long ride in Billboard's top 100 albums. Of course, the fact that the smash movie "The Graduate" with a Simon & Garfunkel soundtrack was released at about the same time didn't hurt. This is a terrific album by the duo when they were at the peak of their popularity, and it is one every true-blue fan of folk-rock should have on his or her shelf. Do me a favor, though. Listen carefully to the first seven cuts and Paul's take on growing old. It is painful, elegant, and timeless, something well worth listening to again and again. Enjoy.

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6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars This is a really amazing album, December 20, 1999
By Laura P. (Philadelphia, PA) - See all my reviews
This album was released simultaneously with the Graduate soundtrack in 1968. Funny I know such strange facts considering I'm 16, but I really love Simon and Garfunkel. Anyway, this album is amazing. The songs are all really different, but they all reflect S&G's amazing talent and also the times around them. "Overs" and "Punky's Dilemma" were originially written for The Graduate, but Mike Nichols didn't feel that they fit into the film. Whatever, I love the movie too so I'm not complaining. America is about an empty man (who may have returned from the Vietnam War, I don't know) who is going to "rediscover" himself and America, for both have changed for him. Voices of Old People is the only one I skip over because its just shady. Hazy Shade of Winter and Mrs. Robinson are the best (and actually, the Graduate soundtrack doesn't even have the full song Mrs. Robinson-- how ironic). Anyway, I've talked long enough. So, this is a really beautiful album and you should buy it even if you're not a big Simon and Garfunkel fan because there's something for everyone.
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Preserve your memories-- they're all that's left you, December 25, 2006
By Annie Van Auken (Planet Earth) - See all my reviews
(TOP 50 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)      
As has been stated repeatedly here, BOOKENDS (released in 1968) is the greatest of all Simon & Garfunkel albums, and one of the best records made in the 1960s.

Tonight, Christmas night, I've been thinking about Christmas of 1968-- I was 14 then. That was an awful year to live through for anyone, especially a kid. The Vietnam War, the assassinations of public figures, and seeing part of my city burn the previous summer during riots-- it was a lot to handle.

The song "Save The Life Of My Child" from BOOKENDS was in my head all throughout 1968. I identified with that frightened boy standing on the ledge, while a crowd below urged him to jump. His final thought as "he flew away" was "...I got no hiding place." That was exactly how I felt in those days.

What a powerful and unforgettable way to begin an album. The moods of BOOKENDS reflect so well the troubled times of the late '60s, with its anti-war sentiments (Punky's Dilemma), and its tales of love and love lost (America, Overs). The original first side of the record ends with the sad longing and fears of Old Friends, who sit on a park bench and reminisce together. But this bittersweet song has a deeper message. These old men were survivors-- if they were supposed to be elderly in 1968, then they made it through the Depression, and two world wars, and if they were the youth of 1968 projected into the future, well they too made it through trials by fire.

And so have I made it through! I'm in my 50s now and headed for that park bench one day. The fears and sadness of 1968 are long past, but a final memory remains:

As I lay in bed early that Christmas Eve, the colored glow of tree lights seeped into my room. Off in the distance were disembodied television voices of Apollo astronauts circling the moon-- they read passages from the book of Genesis, and wished well the "people of the good Earth." It was a peaceful and hopeful ending to a terrible year.

Very few albums truly encapsulate a moment in time. Even fewer connect deeply with listeners in ways they may not realize until decades into the future. Simon & Garfunkel's BOOKENDS is one of those rare examples. It is paradoxically timeless and a reflection of its time.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews

4.0 out of 5 stars Here's to you Mrs. Robinson
Bookends is 29 minutes and 13 seconds and released April 3, 1968. Bookends reached #1 on the U.S. Billboard 200 Albums Chart and went Double Platinum. Read more
Published 2 months ago by Michael Patrick Boyd

5.0 out of 5 stars "How Terribly Strange To Be Seventy" - Paul Simon
November 2, 2008
Simon and Garfunkel's Bookends was a perfect album, no cherry picking necessary. Read more
Published 8 months ago by Jay R. Adler

5.0 out of 5 stars Bookends is top-shelf
This is one remarkable recording done in 1968. The songs flow like a moving river. I recommend this for anybody that wants to get a good earful of Simon and Garfunkel.
Published 13 months ago by Robert C. Burns III

5.0 out of 5 stars Definitely Their Best
I agree with Mr. Flaherty that this is a better album than Bridge. I got this album around the time it came out. I also got Bridge when it came out. Read more
Published on October 27, 2006 by Ron Toigo

5.0 out of 5 stars Much more than just Mrs. Robinson to be discovered here...
I have a couple of confessions here. My familiarity with Simon and Garfunkel has been incredibly shallow, first through their greatest hits album and then their placement of... Read more
Published on May 7, 2005 by A. Ort

5.0 out of 5 stars How can you NOT rate this 5 Stars?
This is definately one of the great pop albums of all time. To compare this album (a concept album) to "Bridge Over Troubled Water" is a joke. Read more
Published on September 28, 2004 by Michael E. Flaherty

3.0 out of 5 stars Some Good Moments But Quite Bleak and Bare
Don't get me wrong. There are several strong songs on Bookends such as Mrs Robinson, Fakin' It, Hazy Shade of Winter, America, and At The Zoo. Read more
Published on October 18, 2002 by G. J Wiener

5.0 out of 5 stars Powerfully ecclectic
From the driving rock of "Faking It" and "Hazy Shade of Winter" to the feel-good ease of "Punky's Dilema" and "59th Street Bridge Song" this is an album that runs an impressive... Read more
Published on July 28, 2002 by Ruth Wade

5.0 out of 5 stars An old Friend-Bookendz
Bookends is one of the greatest alums of all time, although it does not apper in any of the top lists and I feel it is unjustly reveared and underacknowledged. Read more
Published on October 17, 2001

5.0 out of 5 stars A Time of Innocence
Well, this very well might be Simon and Garfunkel's finest hour. Or in this case, I guess I should say half-hour. Read more
Published on September 29, 2001

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Bookends opens new browser window by Simon & Garfunkel opens new browser window is mainly Soft Rock, quite Folk, with hints of Pop”

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