Old Friends [Box set, Limited Edition]

Simon & Garfunkel | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (November 4, 1997)
• Original Release Date: November 4, 1997
• Number of Discs: 3
• Format: Box set, Limited Edition
• Note on Boxed Sets: During shipping, discs in boxed sets occasionally become dislodged without damage. Please examine and play these discs. If you are not completely satisfied, we'll refund or replace your purchase.
• Label: Sony
• ASIN: B000002ABF
• Also Available in: Audio CD  |  Audio Cassette  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (34 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #58,599 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com essential recording

Perhaps sensing that their Collected Works felt a bit skimpy with only tracks from their five studio albums included, this collection features 15 previously unreleased tracks including live material, demos, and studio outtakes previously unreleased, alongside a substantial number of the duo's hits. Early demos point up Paul Simon's excellent acoustic guitar fingerpicking and emerging songwriting. "The Sound of Silence" is featured in its original undubbed form and the later overdubbed band version that became the hit. The duo's strongest work is all here and the addition of several B-sides left off their collected works makes this a helpful collection to have around. --Rob O'Connor

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

32 of 32 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Old Friends Are The Best, March 20, 2000

By 

Anthony G Pizza "trivialtony" (FL) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Old Friends (Audio CD)

It's hard determinining whether this outstanding Simon & Garfunkel box set succeeds or complements the earlier "Collected Works" box. That set gathered only commercial studio releases and offered only convienience to the fan already having the original albums.

"Old Friends" corrects that on disc one, track one: a demo version of "Bleaker Street" that introduces S&G's strengths: Paul Simon's folk guitar mastery and insightful, uniquely New York combination of discovery and disgust, joined to Art Garfunkel's cleansing tenor, superb folk-rock harmony and sense of rock n' roll structure.

Subsequent songs build from that discovery, supplemented by sound clarity missing from the original releases. You hear the original and "remix" of "Sounds of Silence," and the original holds more power in this context. The group's familiar hits are here (all in studio versions, unlike 1972's "Greatest Hits" set) with live tracks displaying S&G's informal performing style and constant acknowledgement of its influence. (Here, they cover the Everlys' "Bye Bye Love," Gene Autry's "Silver Haired Daddy," and their own "Hey Schoolgirl," first recorded as Tom & Jerry. Interestingly, no live tracks are from their Monterey Pop appearance.)

You see simple, striking folk covers and Simon originals from "Wednesday Morning 3AM" progress to the "Abbey Road" ornateness and power of "The Boxer" and "Bridge Over Troubled Water." Like the Beatles, S&G began simply, slowed and grew the recording process to create something brief but lasting, then saw personal and professional friendships fracture under the weight. "Old Friends" introduces that process to new fans and completes the story for longtime followers. Highly recommended.

17 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A well-intended, but frustrating, S&G overview., December 13, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Old Friends (Audio CD)

Why frustrating? Well, let's see: this set has great sound quality, there are a number of interesting rarities and live cuts that were not previously released, and the inevitable booklet includes a mean set of liner notes by David Fricke. The problem is, anybody who's into S&G enough to appreciate that sound quality, those archive tracks, and those liner notes would probably prefer to hear the original albums in their entirety, rather than a truncated selection such as provided here.

What Columbia/Legacy should've done was make this a four-CD set. Then all of the original studio albums could have been included, as well as all of the archival stuff, and probably a few other things as well. The live tracks from the GREATEST HITS album, for instance. Or a couple of tracks from the 1981 reunion concert in Central Park. Or songs from the long-out-of-print PAUL SIMON SONGBOOK album. Or mono single mixes of some songs.

As it is, this isn't a particularly bad compilation. It just could've, and should've, been a little bit better.

14 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The many faces of Paul Simon, songwriter.., February 22, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Old Friends (Audio CD)

This marvelous collection mangages to be a through overview of the duo's high-flying years, while at the same time being sympathetically sequenced and is highly listenable. It's all here, from Paul's slightly awkward early folk protestation, to their superb mid-sixties experimentalism (witness tracks like the delightful 'Fakin' It'), to the heights of super-stardom contained on the third disc. Perhaps grandest of all, the compilers, where possible, chose to include far superior live renditions. The folk backing may have provided S&G with their first true hit on 'Sounds Of Silence', but on many other album songs, it strangled them of their atmosphere. There's no comparison between the dramatic live reading of 'Blessed' and it's counterpart on the '..Silence' LP. Ditto for Simon's uninhibited live 'Anji' compared to the strangely restrained album version. The duo also finds the inherent loneliness in live versions of 'A Most Peculiar Man'.

In short, this is an eclectic, still-vital collection. It is music that a generation came of age to. They also came of age to Herman's Hermits and The Animals as well, but few of S&G's contemporaries of that era have aged as gracefully.