Shortly before Christmas, Sony Music attempts now with a new concept: This time there are all 11 official Simon & Garfunkel albums, studio and live, in a box. Fans have been waiting for ages that albums like the soundtrack "The Graduate" "The Graduate" with Dustin Hoffman, "Simon & Garfunkel's Greatest Hits" and were especially "The Concert in Central Park" finally remastered to the beautiful film; up to things, separate appearance they have to abide by the present box. For the publications of recent years, "Live from New York City in 1967", "Live 1969" and "Old Friends - Live on Stage" no Remaster were expected to be required.
Stay seven regular Simon & Garfunkel albums:
"Wednesday Morning, 3 AM" (1964) showed with Paul Simon an extremely promising songwriter. Still very strongly tied to the folk and recorded in accordance with two guitars and a bass (on one occasion heard a banjo) and Paul Simon on the right and Art Garfunkel on the left channel, you will hear a fantastically well-rehearsed or eingesungenes Duo with a clear vocal harmonies, the you can not buy, and not force by pure practice. It remains the most intimate studio album of the two and the only one on which no line of one of the two alone is sung practically. At The Times They are a-changin 'tried at that time, the Byrds; I imagine that the two in the face of youthful indiscretions such as Go Tell It on the Mountain before long rolled their eyes. The album was not a great success. Without Simon or Garfunkel to inform them, producer Tom Wilson The Sound of Silence was backed by electric guitar, bass and drums, and the duo helped thus to resounding success and the cornerstone of an ongoing international career.
This called for and allowed henceforth versatile studio albums ("The Sounds of Silence", "Parsley, Sage, Rosemary & Thyme" (1966), on which both thematically and musically its borders expanded greatly the duo. The experimentation culminated in " Bookends "(1968), which many appreciated; I think they have here sometimes a bit bogged down.
"The Graduate" (also 1968) was first considered as an official Simon & Garfunkel album. The recordings sound now super, especially Dave Grusin five movie songs, even if it is enough for me personally, to hear this in the film. The album begins with the single version of Sound of Silence, in the end we get a nice alternative acoustic version in two-track mix to hear guitar right, left singing. Even The Big Bright Green Pleasure Machine is a new addition. Although the songs are inextricably linked with the duo, it creates the soundtrack, the same while listening to the first sounds to lead the images of the film in mind.
"Bridge Over Troubled Water" (1970) was her most mature and versatile and at the same time their separation album with Paul Simon on the climax of his art of composition, which gives me even more became recognized as a friend once remarked that she had always thought it was a Greatest Hits album.
The real, "Simon & Garfunkel's Greatest Hits", should the fans 1972 consolation for the first pain of separation and was a huge hit; I myself was only one of millions who found access to them on this album. Mrs. Robinson was something hidden earlier, but the album scored with a beautiful remix of Bookends and to date elsewhere not available Live versions of Kathy's Song, feelin 'groovy, Homeward bound and For Emily, Whenever I May Find Her; "Kathy" and "Emily" in 2003 have already been received on "The Essential Simon & Garfunkel" remastered. Unfortunately, the accompanying booklet of the box does not reveal any information about the shooting data of the live songs; "Emily" appeared then 2007 "Live 1969" again. The song selection is put together quite turbulent, but okay, though the applause of some live songs were insensitive faded in the discreet opening chords of the sequence pieces. The album has been vastly improved from the Remaster; I was surprised about the new, somewhat bizarre quasi-mono mix of Cecilia, which merges in the resulting mix until 1:52 (fittingly, as Paul "Pick it up, pick it up!" calls).
"Live in New York City in 1967" (2002) was then the most intimate live album of the two, only Art Garfunkel, Paul Simon and his acoustic guitar. Some songs of the concert had already appeared on "Old Friends", for some reason were again not all of them packed on this CD. Was Paul Simon is the sole composer, Art Garfunkel took over entertaining and witty announcements to most songs, for example, when he, in view of the Philharmonic Hall, where the concert took place on 01.22.1967, in mock reverence ironically remarked: "Wow Carnegie. Hall! " It is not surprising that he is increasingly devoted to a career as an actor after the separation of the duo.
Although (from the usual "artistic differences") standing shortly before the separation, showed the first recordings with full band Instrumentation, recorded during a tour in late 1969, a professional and gutgelauntes Duo, the fully legitimate pride presented its latest, partly still unreleased songs ( "Live 1969"); Unfortunately, the sound quality is not always reached the level of "Live in New York City in 1967".
"The Concert in Central Park", recorded on 09.19.1981, reached over the years as a document of their first reunion a kind of cult status: A revitalized Duo, a dufte band and some Paul Simon solo songs in a duet that showed how Simon & Garfunkel effortlessly still could have sounded, it would not come to separate. The Remaster represents the initial CD towards an improvement, however, would still have been possible. After all, it runs a total of two and a half minutes longer, that you have left in terms of concert atmosphere here and there in full the applause, for example, after the boxer, which I welcome.
"Old Friends - Live on Stage" (2004) showed the duo reconciled again and reunited with another tour with strong tape and partially new song arrangements together with a guest appearance of her own youth idols, the Everly Brothers; However, it also laid brutally frank, like Paul Simon's voice had aged over the years.
The mandatory booklet is not exactly abundant, it offers a few pages accompanying text, a few photos and album information. I did not expect that the remasters would be to beat in 2001. As currently common practice (see. George Harrison's "The Apple Years"), the high places were for the new remasters with improved Kanalatrennung slightly withdrawn, as the overall volume level, a not quite comprehensible decision because already the first remasters got along without compression. Cloudy and feelin 'groovy now run for a few seconds shorter; such incisions are usually made only when tape copies or fear of band noise, which should have been done in 2014. The cases are modeled on the LPs, to inner linings, however, was doing saved to text booklets ("The Concert in Central Park") and booklets (eg "Old Friends - Live on Stage") therefore also - and unfortunately also in the bonus tracks from 2001 . With an average album Time of +/- half an hour it would have been easily possible to attach the respective Monomixe including bonus tracks, including the single mono mix of Fakin 'It. But who knows, it's not the last Christmas ...
One might therefore complain that the equipment is down somewhat spartan - Booklet, Case, bonus tracks ... And beware: the absence of appropriate backup CDs flutschen incorrect attitude ruckzuck out of the box. The Remasters now sound warmer an idea, but make - up on "The Graduate" and "Greatest Hits." - No spectacular improvement is there is no reason to separate from his old Remasters. BUT: the new ones are still very successful, and with a unit price from just under 5 Euro per CD (the last one is a double CD) This is a beautiful opportunity at a great price with all the regular Simon & Garfunkel albums with appealing LP optics and to supply in a very good sound.
