Here is a greatest hits album that lives up to its name–a generous collection of 14 Simon and Garfunkel classics, from "The Sounds of Silence" to "Bridge Over Troubled Water." The only single hits not included are "A Hazy Shade of Winter," "At the Zoo," and "Fakin' It." In their place are a couple of earlier album cuts, plus excellent live versions of "For Emily, wherever I May find Her," "Kathy's Song," "The 59th Street Bridge Song (Feelin' Groovy)," and "Homeward Bound."
Why bother to review an anthology of such familiar material? In this case, it seems to me that Simon and Garfunkel deserve particular homage for their quiet but extraordinary accomplishment during the late Sixties–especially
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since there was a definite reaction against them. Perhaps it was simply that they became too popular, embraced by the middle class, praised by The New Yorker, and apotheosized by
The Graduate. At a time when it was hip to drop out and blow your mind, when the rhetoric of protest escalated into the rhetoric of revolution, when the communal idea began to spread, Simon and Garfunkel suddenly seemed old hat, even reactionary, to many people. Simon's songs were intellectual and meditative, hardly the right background music for manning barricades.
There was no cryptic psychedelia buried in their records. Nor did Simon and Garfunkel ever invoke sensuality. Indeed it was probably their image of chastity in an atmosphere of aggressive sexual ostentation that most set them apart from the vanguard counterculture. There they were, crooning to the dream figures "Kathy" and "Emily"–ideals that didn't so much stand for a type of woman or relationship as for virginal adolescent romanticism itself. The poignancy of unconsummated longing, so very un-hip, was made all the more acute by the purity of Garfunkel's voice and his angelic face. I recall reading sarcastic remarks about Paul Simon's "bridge fixation." Well, Hart Crane liked bridges too. And besides, the musical-cultural role of Simon and Garfunkel was precisely that of bridging gaps between styles.
I'm a little sorry that the cuts on this collection aren't arranged in 'chronological order so that we could trace directly Paul Simon's development as a songwriter. Unlike Dylan, who executed a series of dramatic stylistic changes, Simon's evolution has been subtle, but in the long run almost as significant. Though the distance he has traveled is far more apparent on his solo album than it is here, it is still very evident after close listening. Compare, for instance, "The Sounds of Silence" and "I Am a Rock," with "America" and "The Boxer." The difference represents a triumphant movement away from folk rock formalism and an academic poetic style toward a more relaxed, more assured narrative style with greater depth and range of expression.
The first Simon and Garfunkel hit, "The Sounds of Silence," appeared late in '64, a couple of months after Another Side
This set features a superb selection of hits, but listeners may want to check out The Best of Simon & Garfunkel instead, as that set holds six extra tracks and digitally re-mastered sound.
