The Paul Simon Songbook

04/27/2004 8:00 PM, LAUNCH
Rob O'Connor

It seems Paul Simon was always looking to give Art Garfunkel the slip. Once it seemed their debut album Wednesday Morning, 3 A.M. wasn’t going to break them in the music world, Simon chartered off for England where he could re-record some of those tunes alongside some new ones and pretend the partnership had never happened. Except as fast as you could graft electric instruments atop “The Sound of Silence,” Simon was re-recording several of these tracks with his old friend and the solo album never needed a reason to be released back in the States. Simon’s never been overly enthused about his early work and while much of the lyric writing reeks of English major sincerity, the melodies are simply timeless throughout. What early Simon lacks in sophistication is made up for in unforced accessibility. The reissue includes two alternate takes, “I Am A Rock” and “A Church is Burning,” that evidence how well set the songs were by the time of recording. Perhaps now Simon should go about finding a way to remove Art from all existing S&G recordings and strike up a brand-new reissue program.