The Columbia Studio Recordings (1964-1970)

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The Columbia Studio Recordings (1964-1970)
Box set by Simon and Garfunkel
Released 2001
Recorded 1964-1970
Genre Pop
Label Columbia Records

The Columbia Studio Recordings (1964-1970) is a 5-disc box set of Simon and Garfunkel recordings, released by Columbia Records in 2001. The CDs are packaged in miniaturized cardboard sleeves resembling the original vinyl record dust jackets, and a booklet containing photos and writing of interest is also included.

Four of the five discs are augmented with a few rarities, many of which made their debut on 1997's Old Friends retrospective, rendering the previous collection nearly (but not completely) obsolete.

Also made obsolete by The Columbia Studio Recordings is the 1990 anthology Collected Works. The two releases share the same fifty-eight recordings, with Columbia Studio Recordings adding ten bonus tracks for good measure.

Fans and completists should not mistake any Simon and Garfunkel anthology for being complete, despite the finality inferred by the title of either of these collections. The complete recordings have yet to be released in a single, concise package.

[edit] Disc and track listing

All songs by Paul Simon, except as indicated.

Disc One: Wednesday Morning, 3 AM (1964; Stereo)

  1. "You Can Tell the World" – 2:47 (Bob Gibson/Bob Camp)
  2. "Last Night I Had the Strangest Dream" – 2:11 (Ed McCurdy)
  3. "Bleecker Street" – 2:44
  4. "Sparrow" – 2:49
  5. "Benedictus" – 2:38 (Traditional, arranged and adapted by Simon and Garfunkel)
  6. "The Sounds of Silence" – 3:08
  7. "He Was My Brother" – 2:48 (Paul Kane*)
  8. "Peggy-O" – 2:26 (Traditional)
  9. "Go Tell It on the Mountain" – 2:06 (Traditional)
  10. "The Sun Is Burning" – 2:49 (Ian Campbell)
  11. "The Times They Are a-Changin'" – 2:52 (Bob Dylan)
  12. "Wednesday Morning, 3 A.M." – 2:13
  13. "Bleecker Street" [Demo version] - 2:42 [bonus track]
  14. "He Was My Brother" - 2:46 [bonus track]
  15. "The Sun Is Burning" - 2:46 [bonus track]

* Paul Kane is one of the aliases used by Paul Simon.

Disc Two: Sounds of Silence (1965; Stereo)

  1. "The Sounds of Silence" – 3:08
  2. "Leaves That Are Green" – 2:23
  3. "Blessed" – 3:16
  4. "Kathy's Song" – 3:21
  5. "Somewhere They Can't Find Me" – 2:37
  6. "Anji" – 2:17 (Davey Graham)
  7. "Richard Cory" – 2:57
  8. "A Most Peculiar Man" – 2:34
  9. "April Come She Will" – 1:51
  10. "We've Got a Groovy Thing Goin'" – 2:00
  11. "I Am a Rock" – 2:50
  12. "Blues Run the Game" – 2:55 (Jackson C. Frank) [bonus track]
  13. "Barbriallen" – 4:06 (Traditional) [bonus track]
  14. "Rose of Aberdeen" – 2:02 (Traditional) [bonus track]
  15. "Roving Gambler" – 3:03 (Traditional) [bonus track]

Disc Three: Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and Thyme (1966; Stereo)

  1. "Scarborough Fair/Canticle" – 3:10
  2. "Patterns" – 2:42
  3. "Cloudy" – 2:10
  4. "Homeward Bound" – 2:30
  5. "The Big Bright Green Pleasure Machine" – 2:44
  6. "The 59th Street Bridge Song (Feelin' Groovy)" – 1:43
  7. "The Dangling Conversation" – 2:37
  8. "Flowers Never Bend With The Rainfall" – 2:10
  9. "A Simple Desultory Philippic (or How I Was Robert McNamara'd Into Submission)" – 2:12
  10. "For Emily, Whenever I May Find Her" – 2:04
  11. "A Poem on the Underground Wall" – 1:52
  12. "7 O'Clock News/Silent Night" – 2:01
  13. "Patterns" (Demo) [bonus track]
  14. "A Poem on the Underground Wall" (Demo) [bonus track]

Disc Four: Bookends (1968; Stereo)

  1. "Bookends Theme" (Instrumental) – 0:32
  2. "Save the Life of My Child" – 2:49
  3. "America" – 3:08
  4. "Overs" – 2:14
  5. "Voices of Old People" - 2:09 (Simon & Garfunkel)
  6. "Old Friends" – 2:36
  7. "Bookends" – 1:16
  8. "Fakin' It" – 3:14
  9. "Punky's Dilemma" – 2:10
  10. "Mrs. Robinson" – 4:02
  11. "Hazy Shade of Winter" – 2:17
  12. "At the Zoo" – 2:11
  13. "You Don't Know Where Your Interest Lies" – 2:19 [bonus track]
  14. "Old Friends" (Demo) [bonus track]

Disc Five: Bridge Over Troubled Water (1970; Stereo)

  1. "Bridge Over Troubled Water" – 4:52
  2. "El Condor Pasa (If I Could)" – 3:06 (Paul Simon, Jorge Milchberg, and Daniel A. Robles)
  3. "Cecilia" – 2:54
  4. "Keep the Customer Satisfied" – 2:33
  5. "So Long, Frank Lloyd Wright" – 3:47
  6. "The Boxer" – 5:08
  7. "Baby Driver" – 3:14
  8. "The Only Living Boy in New York" – 3:58
  9. "Why Don't You Write Me" – 2:45
  10. "Bye Bye Love"* (Live from Ames, Iowa) – 2:55 (Felice and Boudleaux Bryant)
  11. "Song for the Asking" – 1:49
  12. "Feuilles-O" [bonus track]
  13. "Bridge Over Troubled Water" (Demo) [bonus track]

[edit] Missing Tracks

 This article or section may contain original research or unverified claims.
Please improve the article by adding references. See the talk page for details. (March 2008)

There are a few notable studio recordings which could have been included in this compilation. Some qualify as "fan wish list" items, while others are actual rarities that should have been released on The Columbia Studio Recordings:

The first and most obvious omissions are the early studio performances of Simon and Garfunkel recorded under aliases for different labels in the late 1950s, such as "Hey Schoolgirl" by Tom and Jerry. While these tracks, of which there are several, were neither recorded for Columbia Records nor recorded between 1964 and 1970, they do help to paint a more complete portrait of one of America's greatest singing groups.

The two Christmas-themed recordings from the Old Friends boxed set, "Comfort and Joy" and "Star Carol." These tracks originally appeared on the various artists compilation A Very Merry Christmas in 1967.

The film soundtrack for The Graduate includes several (six in all) alternate edits and performances by Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel, all of which are missing from The Columbia Studio Recordings (1964-1970).

"The Breakup" is a comedic skit that the artists recorded together to promote a Paul Simon release in the early Seventies. This recording is only available on the Paul Simon 1964/1993 boxed set and is not officially credited to Simon and Garfunkel.

Also missing are several single A- and B-sides: The monoaural single mixes of "At the Zoo" and "Fakin' It"; the single version of "Cecilia"; a mono version of "Baby Driver," which originally appeared as a single in 1970 (with the stereo mix on the flip side); and the 1975 reunion single, "My Little Town, the absence of which is explained by the title of the compilation. The single version of "Fakin' It" was subsequently re-released on The Best of Simon & Garfunkel in 1999, while "My Little Town" appears on both Paul Simon's Still Crazy After All These Years and Art Garfunkel's Breakaway (both 1975) and numerous S & G anthologies, including Best of. The mono mix of "At the Zoo," however, is a true rarity, as are the single versions of "Cecilia" and "Baby Driver."

Simon and Garfunkel regrouped in 1981-1982 and began an album originally entitled Think Too Much, which was shelved. The record was never completed and does not exist officially; however, tracks from this reunion are available on the black market. While it too falls outside the scope of this collection, one can only imagine how indispensible this boxed set would be had it included such a rarity.

Last but not least, the first four Simon and Garfunkel LPs were released in both monoaural and stereo configurations. Mono and stereo mixes frequently sound radically different, so having both versions of each record (which would have fit comfortably on the same disc as their stereo counterparts, considering the brevity of most Simon and Garfunkel albums) would have been a welcome addition for fans also.

The list above represents most, if not all, of the known studio rarities released during Simon and Garfunkel's career. It is likely that alternate takes and mixes of many released songs, as well as famously unfinished or unreleased tracks (such as "Groundhog" and "Cuba Si, Nixon No" from the Bridge over Troubled Water sessions), sit locked in the vaults.

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