This newly remastered and expanded edition of PSR&T is definitely overdue and most welcome. As was evident with the S&G releases of the past couple of years, "Old Friends" and "The Best of", the original master tapes are utilized in the digital transfer for this compact disc. In fact, a few tunes ("Cloudy", The Big Bright Green Pleasure Machine", "A Simple Desultory Phillipic" and "Poem On The Underground Wall") run several seconds longer than the original LP versions we've always been used to. And the sound quality is breathtaking! "Patterns", "Pleasure Machine" and "Phillipic" just jump out of the speakers. They're so clean and crisp and bright that it's almost startling! It's a great package too with all of the original artwork and liner notes reproduced, new photos and liner notes, and complete printed lyrics. It's the most exciting reissue I've heard this year.
As several others reviewers mentioned, this CD title (and also SG's "Sound of Silence") is not remastered from original analog master tape as advertised. This overpriced CD sounds exactly like the pre-remastered CD edition from the 1980's. It's atrocious!
What can anyone say about this album but WOW?! This is the best S & G album that they made, and although slightly lacking the power of "Bridge Over Troubled Water" it beats it by the sheer number of great songs on there. "Scarborough Fair" is without a doubt the best song on this CD, with the haunting anti-war lyrics. "Homeward Bound" will always stick out in my memory because of its catchy melody and chorus. "The Big Bright Green Pleasure Machine" is a nice break from the rather dreary songs in the beginning. "7 O'Clock News/Silent Night", while dated (people under 30 won't get the full effect), is the most powerful song on this CD, and is only rivaled by "Bridge Over Troubled Water" and "The Boxer". Definitely pick up this CD; it's their best.
Well, in my humble opinion this is one of the best of S&G's albums(so I will proceed to write a dreadfully overlong review.) It feels to me like a transition between their two first albums and their later ones, featuring a combination of the earlier-style folk and a very distinctive emerging style of Paul Simon. While there are one or two songs on here that I could live without, the vast majority of the songs on here are amazing, and this new version sounds amazing as well. Honestly, practically all of the beloved CDs I own are some form of Paul Simon, but I do love this album without TOO much bias. All right, enough of my ramblings, I'm sure it is quite apparent how much I love this music. About the songs:
1. Scarborough Fair--An intricate, timeless song. It's almost hypnotizing, and sounds eerily ancient, rich without being overly lush. "I LOVE THIS SONG!"-Arpi
2. Patterns--It's got classic S&G elements, these poetic and angst-laden lyrics and a strong but winding tune. I say angst, but it's not obnoxious or over-bearing in any way. Other than that, it's got very original instrumentals and is intriguingly understated.
3. Cloudy--It's a bit on the sweet side, at least in sound, with sugary-sounding parts, but they pull it off! It moves along, with a solid tune and interesting lyrics, especially by the middle.
4. Homeward Bound--It's just one of those songs that I adore. It's simple but it moves and is at once a folk song and a rock song. There's something about the tune (especially the very end) that is so poignant and interesting. (And if you feel the chorus is a bit rushed, check out "Simon and Garfunkel's Greatest Hits," which has a slower, more laid-back version.)
5. Big Bright Green Pleasure machine--Oh, look, another song I love. This is a great song, flat out. It's probably the most rock-like song on here, with those satirical, almost humorous S&G lyrics that tend to come around. It's also got really interesting and distinctive chords that complete the song. What does this all mean? It's the song on here that I have listened to ten times in a row and danced around to countless times. It's true.
6. The 59th Street Bridge Song (Feelin' Groovy)--Well...it's cute, it's palatable, and I like the words, but honestly it's not one of my favorites. But at least it's done by S&G. When done by someone else it could possibly get pretty painful. Actually, there's a version I much prefer on "Simon and Garfunkel's Greatest Hits." It's a bit less cutesy.
7. The Dangling Conversation--OK, I hate to admit this but I do NOT like this song. I want to, I really do, but it's ruined (in my opinion) by a Wall-of-Sound style string section. It's the only time on this album that they've used this, which I appreciate, but unfortunately it was enough to ruin one otherwise perfectly good song.
8. Flowers Never Bend With the Rainfall--Well I DO like this song, very much in fact. It's folksy; a good, catchy song. Listen to the lyrics, too--they're what make this song really interesting and powerful. The second verse gets me every time; it seems strikingly genuine.
9. A Simple Desultory Philippic (or How I was Robert McNamara'd Into Submission)--It's a skillful parody song, but it's also good on its own. This is an interesting maybe-partly-definitely-Bob Dylan parody, but it also SOUNDS great. (And in the third verse he does an impressive Dylan rendition.) How can you not love a song that manages to rhyme with "Garfunkel?" ("I've been Mothered, Fathered, Aunt and UNCled, been Roy Haleed and Art GarfUNKeled.") It's wonderfully dated, and it's interesting too if you take a bit too long to think about it. You've just got to hear it. "I've lost my harmonica, Albert."
10. For Emily, Whenever I May Find Her--This is probably the only sweet, Garfunkel-esque song that I really like a lot, and NOT just because I share a name with the title. The words are beautiful, it's really simply a poem set to a powerful tune and a great performance. It's passionate and sweet, but not sickly sweet. It feels real and genuine, and isn't overly lush for my taste.
11. A Poem on the Underground Wall--It's another song on this album that I love, and reminds me of "The Sounds of Silence," in the way it sounds. It's a great earlier S&G song, and if you listen to it enough to get the little vignette of a story, it's sad but not tragic, real and gritty but not grim.
12. 7 O'clock News Silent Night--What can I say about this song? It's more a piece of artwork, an interesting social commentary; turn it up and listen to the newscast sometime. It's not one that I would listen to ten times in a row, but it's interesting as a relic of the time, and a striking juxtaposition of blatantly opposing messages. It's been laughed at, but in honestly, I like this piece. It's distinctive.
This album is very meaningful to me (as if you couldn't tell), and if you're looking for an introduction to S&G, this is a good album to listen to. It is an interesting blend between the true folk of earlier S&G and the later, more distinctively Simon-esque folk-rock. It's eclectic, there's folk and rock, protest and traditional influences, poetry and social commentary. But it's held together by the intelligent but not presumptuous lyrics and musical integrity. Garfunkel's contribution really rounds this one out. Overall, this is an extremely worthwhile and enjoyable album.
And with the optimistic but still world-weary poetry of Paul Simon, this era in time took on some of the most beautiful music ever made, although this album seems to have both comedy and horror running through ballads and rock pieces that all seem to want to get to the same place but are in no particular shape to do so. It is a dated album, what with "7 O'Clock News/Silent Night" and "A Simple Desultory Phillipic", but that is not a bad thing when you consider the fact that Paul was creating an album for his time. Anyway, this music has a timeless universal quality, and the sounds are sublime. I personally always felt that "The 59th Street Bridge Song" was one of the most pleasant and joyously sentimental tunes that there ever was, and I was moved to tears by the song while listening to the Harper's Bizarre cover version (which I've always prefered to the version on this record). It seemed to say so much about the joys of life itself and seizing the day, while that generation and our nation was revelling in sexual freedom and warfare and seem-ripping, without apparently saying much at all. I remember thinking, what does the line "hello lampost, whatcha showin'?" mean? Was it silly or was it honest? Each morning that I awake after sleeping in I immediately understand what Simon was saying. And then there is a song called "Cloudy" which, if not exactly moving you to tears, will at least brighten your darkest and most unpleasant day, and that is a special quality for a song to have and a rare one at that (it is such a wonderous, but imaginative song, one that lets you escape while never leaving). I've heard "Homeward Bound" ever since I was at least seven and it still strikes me as one of the greatest songs ever. As an album it can get frustrating, with fuzzed out rock and roll compressed against sweet lyrical music poetry that is on display in the satisfying "For Emily, Wherever I May Find Her", but even if it doesn't stand up conceptually, the songs are good enough and the atmosphere accurate enough to make it an essential recording. BOOKENDS is better, but don't think you don't need this album--it comes as close to sonic Heaven as we are going to get, and now I don't think it is a joke that students look at Simon's lyrics more closely.
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