Disco de Simon & Garfunkel: “Old Friends”

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.

I am not really one for compilations generally unless they are comprehensive like the "Message In a Box" compilation for The Police, but this one is just something else. Not only are pretty much all of the best songs by S&G included in the album (at least all my favourites are here so I am happy) there is a clutch of unreleased and previosuly unheard stuff like "Hey Schoolgirl" form their 'Tom and Jerry' days (although a later live version), the original cut of "Sound of Silence" without the drums and the electric guitars added on (which sounds ethereal).

On top of the superb selection of songs and the lovely packaging, there is the fact that the soudn quality is superlative. The songs have been taken off the original tapes and that gives the sound a clarity and vibrance which is sometimes missing form many S&G recordings floating around.

And oh yes it has "We Got a Groovy Thing Going Baby"!!

You couldn't go too far wrong picking the best of S & G, and Columbia did a good job on this one; they missed some of my favorites, but...you cannot please everyone, and I don't expect them to call me first. However, this is more than compensated by some of the new stuff, which is just tremendous; the live Poem on the Underground Wall is great. It really takes you right back to one of their concerts from that era. None of the reviews below, I think, mention the best revelation to this long time fan (my FIRST album was Parsley, Sage) and that is "Blues Run the Game". This song is from another songwriter (read the notes to get the heartbreaking story) and it is as good as anything S & G released in their heyday (OK, excepting The Boxer, but that WAS the best song anyone made in the 20th Century). It is a sad, beautiful tune, and I only wish we had had it available thirty years ago. If the rest of the box was garbage, it would almost be worth it for this one tune.

a brilliant value for money box set of a great selection of S&G`s from their very 1st recording in 1957 "Hey Schoolgirl/Black Slacks" through to such great classics like "Sounds Of Silence" "Mrs Robinson" the rousing "Bridge Over Troubled Water" & "The Boxer". Then there are some not so well known, but still worth a listen, tracks such as "My Little Town" & "The Only Living Boy In New York" & also live performances, such as "Overs" a song about 2 people whos relationship has finished but neither knows which way to go. There is also unissued studio recordings,so if you are a S & G fan, don`t pass this excellent box set up, from, in mine and many other S & G fans, pops most talented duo.

Having owned every LP (yea I'm that old) that Simon and Garfunkel ever produced and replaced them with CD's, it is nice to have a compilation of their entire collection on three CD's along with some interesting previously unreleased work. The collection comes in a nice hard booklet case with vintage photos and commentary, including frequent excerpts from past interviews. If you are as big a fan as I am, this is the ultimate collection. Although Simon and Garfunkel have long split (with an occasional reunion tour) their music lives on very nicely in this collection.