Simon & Garfunkel Bookends by: Justin Pearsall Mon:28-May-07 Label: Sony Year: 1968 WB rating 91 out of 100

Bookends was a fitting name for what was both the beginning of the end for Simon & Garfunkel and a decisive step in a new direction for the band. While the album was widely successful -- which is partly unsurprising because of the number of hits it spawned including ‘America’, ‘A Hazy Shade of Winter’, ‘Mrs Robinson’ and ‘Fakin’ It’ -- its success was partly surprising because of the wide ambition in both Simon’s songwriting and the record's arrangements. In dealing with life-and-death themes, using passages of conversations and wider instrumentation, Bookends challenges the perception of the band as a simple harmony-driven, folk duo; securing their legacy along the way.

At the time this whirlwind of success and evolution proved too much for Simon and Garfunkel, their tour in promotion of this album was the start of their demise. But with the ability of hindsight, Bookends is the record that does the most to ensure the relevance of the band, its final three songs perhaps the greatest conclusion in rock music. From the bluesy lines and blue-eyed seduction of ‘Mrs Robinson’, to the urgency of ‘A Hazy Shade of Winter’ and the quiet opulence of ‘At The Zoo’, each track rejects the folk pigeonholing, experimenting with the slightly unconventional while keeping the duo’s timeless melodic sense.

Producing the album themselves, the pair’s restrained sensibilities capture the larger-than-life sentiments they were searching for, without heading into the tendency for grandiosity that affect many similar attempts. For every section of Bookends that utilises lush production, like the now humorous sounding synth of the turbulent ‘Save The Life Of My Child’ – which may have been an inspiration for Michael Jackson’s Thriller – there is a slice of untainted, seasoned songwriting such as ‘Old Friends’ and ‘America’, both accentuated by strings and rhythmic additions. The process of capturing the album’s diverse instrumentation was deftly aided by engineer Roy Halee, who fittingly places the instruments subservient to the vocals, allowing the dual-tracked Simon and Garfunkel to blend together in warm harmony – Simon, apparently so pedantic about the phrasing of these vocal performances that tracks are listened back to for the pronunciation of individual letters.

Proving that even landmark albums do not exist in a vacuum, Bookends borrows from fellow ‘60’s contemporaries The Beatles and Bob Dylan in their handling of this, their piece of essential golden era listening. The introductory lines of ‘Save The Life Of My Child’ “An old man who had fainted was revived/And everyone agreed it would be a miracle indeed, if the boy survived” are clearly influenced by the warble of Dylan, the extension of ‘agreeeeed’ and mid-sentence rise in pitch, typical of Bob at his most derisive. Similarly, ‘Fakin’ It’ employs the same twisted twelve-bar patterns and partially harmonised vocals that The Beatles explored on Rubber Soul and Revolver. The turning wheel of influence now seen in effect as modern artists like Elvis Perkins, Elliott Smith and Rufus Wainwright have all built aspects of their sound from the framework of Bookends.

Described by Paul Simon as the “quintessential Simon and Garfunkel album” any of the superlatives that could be draped on this record have probably been said before, most ringing true. As varied and innovative as it is just plain catchy, Simon’s natural inclination for delicate imagery and inspiring melody ensures that outdated synth and slightly stagnant sound bites do not distract from the legacy of Bookends as one of the brightest monuments to rock ‘n’ roll.