Simon & Garfunkel 7: Old Friends

As they only had five albums, it had been easy for people to amass the Simon & Garfunkel catalog for years, particularly when most of the albums were available at the budget “Nice Price” tier. That didn’t stop the label from putting them all in a box called Collected Works; this 1981 release came with no frills but the music, although the eventual CD version cut it down to three discs by doubling up the first two pairs while adding a booklet of lyrics.

By the mid-‘90s the archival box set had been well established, so they were due, and Old Friends managed to outdo Paul’s skimpy offering of a few years before. Besides having a perfect title, this three-disc set served up music from their first Columbia sessions all the way to their last shows in the ‘60s, ending fittingly with “My Little Town”. For the most part, the music is presented chronologically, generally by recording date, which sometimes better reflects when certain singles appeared months before they were included on albums.

A lovely demo of “Bleecker Street” begins the set, followed by seven songs from the first album. Eight songs from the second are well spaced, so the single version of “The Sound Of Silence” doesn’t come too soon after the LP version. “Homeward Bound” was from those sessions, and it precedes their great take on Jackson C. Frank’s “Blues Run The Game”. Eight songs from Parsley, Sage lead into “A Hazy Shade Of Winter” and “At The Zoo” in place as singles. Five selections from a 1967 Lincoln Center concert provide new perspectives on oft-heard tracks, plus a harmonized rendition of “A Church Is Burning” from Paul’s then-obscure solo album and even “Red Rubber Ball”, which had topped the charts the year before by the Cyrkle. The trawl through what would become Bookends continues with “Fakin’ It” and its rare B-side, “You Don’t Know Where Your Interest Lies”. For some reason they recorded a couple of Christmas carols around this time; both end the second disc. Three songs from a 1968 concert include an earlier live recording of “Bye Bye Love”, followed by the rest of Bridge Over Troubled Water in order of recording. The duo’s demo of “Feuilles-O” appears, but not the notorious “Cuba Si, Nixon No”. Two performances from Carnegie Hall, these from late in 1969, include a medley of “Hey Schoolgirl” and “Black Slacks”, followed by “That Silver Haired Daddy Of Mine”.

As with most boxes of this ilk, Old Friends delivers a lot, but leaves the listener wanting more, such as the handful of album tracks not included. A few years later, The Columbia Studio Recordings expanded on the original idea of Collected Works by bolstering each of the albums with bonus tracks, repeating some (but not all) from the Old Friends set. (The expanded albums were all made available individually as well.)

Simon & Garfunkel Old Friends (1997)—3½
Simon & Garfunkel The Columbia Studio Recordings (1964-1970) (2001)—4