This album is often
considered Simon & Garfunkel's first masterpiece. After the frantic rush to
put out their previous record Sounds Of Silence, to capitalize on the
title track's popularity, the duo exerted full control over this LP and took
more like three months to complete it. The time and effort they put into this album is instantly obvious on the opening track "Scarborough Fair / Canticle," a haunting pop masterpiece that infuses myriad vocal overdubs with the intricate sounds of a harpsichord. The rest of the album is not as imposing, but no less beautiful.
"Homeward Bound" is arguably the best song ever written about a musician's life on the road, and it was a Top 5 hit for the duo. The literary name-dropping and rich string orchestra accompaniment of "The Dangling Conversation" is just beautiful. I imagine this song being very popular on college campuses at the time, evoking images of graduate school couples drifting apart. Of course, it probably resonated more with English Lit majors, than, say, Physics majors.
The album ends with a grim and ironic portrait of the US in 1966. It's a sweet version of "Silent Night" over a news broadcast mentioning the death of Lenny Bruce, the escalation of the war in Vietnam and Martin Luther King, Jr.'s call for a Civil Rights march on Cicero, Illinois. This track does somewhat date the album, but then so does the use of phrases like "Feelin' Groovy."
Track Listing:
01. Scarborough Fair/Canticle
02. Patterns
03. Cloudy
04. Homeward Bound
05. The Big Bright Green Pleasure Machine
06. The 59th Street Song (Feelin' Groovy)
07. The Dangling Conversation
08. Flowers Never Bend With The Rainfall
09. A Simple Desultory Philippic (Or How I Was Robert McNamara'd Into Submission)
10. For Emily, Wherever I May Find Her
11. A Poem On The Underground Wall
12. 7 O'Clock News/Silent Night
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