Simon & Garfunkel Album: “Wednesday Morning, 3 A.M.”

Wednesday Morning 3 A.M., Simon and Garfunkel's debut album, is a far cry from Bridge Over Troubled Water. It's a traditional folk album, entirely acoustic, consisting of traditional folk and gospel songs with a few Simon originals. It's very different from the more pop-oriented folk rock that would come later, but this is a very good debut. If you like folk music, and/or the beautiful harmonies and Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel, you should like this album. But beware it's probably not as accessible as Bookends or Bridge Over Troubled Water.

We do not really think of Simon & Garfunkel as being a folk group, mainly because when "The Sounds of Silence" became a big hit and a signature song of the 1960s it had been electrified. But when you listen to their first album, "Wednesday Morning, 3 A.M.," it becomes clear from the opening track, "You Can Tell the World," that they were a folk duo. Of course there is the obligatory Dylan song, "The Times They Are-A Changin'," Sixties songs like "Last Night I had the Strangest Dream," and traditional songs like "Go Tell It On the Mountain" to add to the folk song bona fides of the album.

In retrospect what is interesting is Paul Simon's attempt to write folk songs, a category into which "The Sounds of Silence" does not fall. Of those original songs, "He Was My Brother" is the one most in keeping with the spirit of the Sixties, while "Bleecker Street" evinces the delicate music he could write. But Simon is still learning his craft, as evidenced by "Sparrow," which tends to be a bit pretentious. Then there is Simon & Garfunkle's rendition of the traditional song "Benedictus," which gets a bit electrified as well. There is a real sense that the duo are still learning their craft and just beginning to find the sound that would define them.

In addition to be digitally remastered, this version of "Wednesday Morning, 3 A.M. includes a trio of bonus tracks, which consist of bare boned demo version of Simon's "Bleecker Street" and alternate takes of his "He Was My Brother" and the cover of "The Sun is Burning." But even with those additions this remains an interesting but not great debut album by a duo that would continue to improve with each and every album they put out until they reached the pinnacle with "Bridge Over Troubled Water" and then called it quits when they were literally on top of the music world.

(Actually, 4.5 stars)

This is a really sweet acoustic folk album from a bygone era of idealism, folk-singing bards in Greenwich Village coffee shops, and sweeping social change. Even if only five songs on here are originals, it's still sweet soft music, the type you could lull a baby to sleep with. Two of the songs on here, "Sounds of Silence" and the title track, were later reworked for the SOS album; I don't really have a preference between the electric or acoustic version of "SOS," but I like "Wednesday Morning, 3 AM" over what later became "Somewhere They Can't Find Me." The genesis of that song is softer, gentler, and seems to emphasis how sad he is over having to leave his girlfriend, whereas "STCFM" focuses more on how he's committed a crime and has to escape before the police find him; there the part about having to leave the girlfriend seems more secondary and not as prominent.

My favourites on here are "Sparrow," the cover of the Dylan song "The Times They Are A-Changin,'" the gorgeous Latin Mass chant "Benedictus" (even if it is sung by two nice Jewish boys), the title track, "Bleecker Street," and "He Was My Brother." You just can't recapture this era in time, before folk music went electric and socially-conscious songs became largely a thing of the past.

The only people I'd ever shared space with were my family, so going away to college was quite literally opening the doors to the world. I had two roommates my freshman year, one of whom was a true original. Among her many standout attributes was tremendous taste in music, a fevered obsession with Paul Simon in particular. All I really knew of Simon and the guy with the unusual last name of Garfunkle was that my older cousins had loved the Greatest Hits album. Uber-fan Kimmy had their entire catalogue, plus Mr.Simon's solo albums. She had all her vinyl, but unfortunately, no stereo. I had a stereo, but was just a neophyte collector (money for books was hard enough to scare up), so the beginnings of a "beautiful friendship" took root over a lot of Ramen Noodles and Spaghettios cooked on our illegal hotplate. Kimmy's copy of "Wednesday Morning, 3 a.m." got the needle dropped on it and I was so charmed by how young S&G looked and sounded. The strongest memory of that first listen was hearing how absolutely stunning "The Sounds of Silence" was in acoustic form. I never liked the re-recording of it after that. It was haunting and gentle with only the vocal harmonies and guitar, and the lyrics became much more clear and poigniant, foreshadowing Paul Simon's incredible narrative gifts. The rest of the album was very folky in the Peter, Paul and Mary manner, stuff that my parents had loved, and I really enjoyed it, but it served to really whet my appetite for the rest of S&G's evolution, both as a duo, and into their respective solo careers. "Wednesday Morning" seems kind of innocent, now, but I have it in CD form and I remember those first listens, with the little nicks and pops and hisses of vinyl, and I fall in love with Paul and Art's beautiful young voices and tight harmonies. And I get a craving for Spaghettios. Thank you, Kimmy!

To me, Simon and Garfunkel will always epitomize the ultimate New York group. After all, they're both New Yorkers by birth--unlike other great New York acts to follow such as Bob Dylan, The Echoes, etc.

This debut album gives hints of even greater things to come, and of course we all know the story of how S&G were going their own ways before a DJ added electric instrumentation to "Sounds Of Silence" which would lead to both a glorious folk-rock career and even better follow-up LP!

Only with acts such as The Everly Brothers, Gram Parsons and Emmylou Harris, and Teresa and Mark of The Echoes have I heard such a beautiful blending of voices. (okay... Peter, Paul, and Mary were great, too, but I'm thinking more along slightly harder-edged lines here!)

Paul's writing is very strong and moving in his early, albeit more politically-oriented folk years. The title track would be revamped on the follow-up album, too, under another name, but I still prefer the moving quality of this LP, its sincerity, and its honesty.

A great welcome to the world of Simon and Garfunkel!