THE PAUL SIMON SONG BOOK
Album background
The Paul Simon Songbook was recorded while Paul Simon, who had previously worked
in the rock-'n-roll genre, was in Europe trying to make a living as a folk singer
in the mid-1960s. Simon made several trips to England in 1964 and 1965, spending
most of his time performing in small clubs and theaters. During 1965 he is known
to have played in Paris and Copenhagen, along with London and numerous other
locations in the United Kingdom.
In 1964, Simon and Art Garfunkel had recorded a folk-inspired album for Columbia
Records in the United States called Wednesday Morning, 3 A.M., as Simon &
Garfunkel. While Simon was touring and appearing on radio shows in England in
1965 (sometimes with Art Garfunkel), he began to receive attention from fans.
At the time Wednesday Morning, 3 A.M. had not yet been released in Britain (and
would not be until 1968). Simon's other recordings then available in Britain
consisted of about three 45 rpm singles released on various labels, two of which
were rock-'n-roll-inspired recordings with Garfunkel under the name Tom &
Jerry. The other was representative of his experiments in folk, but had been
released in 1964 under the pseudonym Paul Kane. He was still under contract
to Columbia, so he could record for their British label, CBS Records, and therefore
decided to record a set of tracks for release to his folk audience. The Paul
Simon Songbook was the result.
Recording and Releases
Simon recorded the album over several dates in June 1965. Most of the songs
required several takes. He only had one microphone for both his voice and his
guitar, which is why he can be heard stamping his feet to the rhythm on "The
Sound of Silence" as well the alternate take of "I Am A Rock."
There is nothing on the album that seems to immediately point to the producers,
Warburton and West, having anything major to do with it, musically. It seems
that almost nothing is known by the general public of Simon's relationship with
either one.
The album was released along with the single "I Am A Rock"/"Leaves
That Are Green," CBS 201797. The latter is the same version as that found
on the Songbook, but the version of the A-side is clearly not. On the A-side,
one can plainly hear Simon tapping his foot to keep a beat, a feature not heard
on the album's kickoff track. It has been speculated [1] that the version of
"I Am A Rock" on the single is actually the alternate take included
with the 2004 re-release of the Songbook.
Album cover and notes
The liner notes to the album, found on the back cover, are somewhat bizarre,
consisting of a few scripts for skits that Simon wrote, one of which parodies
his writing of the songs on the LP itself. At the end, he almost repudiates
his efforts, saying that "there are some I would not write today,"
and saying that they "played a role in the transition" to where he
is currently (summer 1965) as a musician. At the end he closes simply by saying
of the liner notes, "I won't reread them."
It's possible that Simon's flippant attitude towards the album continued for
much of his career, and could give credence to the notion that he eventually
requested that it be deleted.
The album cover shows Simon and his then-girlfriend, Kathy Chitty, sitting
on "narrow streets of cobblestone" in London, the city Simon had adopted
as his home. In the 1970s, the album art was altered: the picture of Simon and
Kathy was flipped horizontally, and the red script-like lettering eliminated
in favor of an album title in white block print at the top.
Subsequent history
The Songbook was rereleased in 2004 by Columbia/Legacy on CD. The quality of
the recordings indicate that a copy of the original recordings was used to master
these songs since quite a lot of background noise can be heard in all of the
songs. The CD features two bonus tracks, alternative versions of "I Am
a Rock" and "A Church is Burning" which were not part of the
1965 LP release.
The lyrics for the anti-war song "The Side Of A Hill" were incorporated
into the Simon and Garfunkel arrangement of "Scarborough Fair" on
Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and Thyme.
Later in 1965 and in early 1966, following the success in the USA of "The
Sounds Of Silence" as a single, Simon & Garfunkel re-recorded several
of the songs featured on The Paul Simon Songbook and released them on their
albums Sounds Of Silence and Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and Thyme.
Columbia – EL 11 1965 Canada
(Recorded In 1964) Japan LP
The Paul Simon Songbook
Track listing
All songs written by Paul Simon unless otherwise indicated.
"I Am a Rock" -2:52
"Leaves That Are Green" -2:41
"A Church Is Burning" -3:38
"April Come She Will" -1:55
"The Sound of Silence" -3:19
"A Most Peculiar Man" -2:26
"He Was My Brother" (Paul Kane*) -2:58
"Kathy's Song" -3:42
"The Side of a Hill" (Paul Kane) -2:28
"A Simple Desultory Philippic" -2:25
"Flowers Never Bend with the Rainfall" -2:27
"Patterns" -3:13
CD Bonus tracks (2004)
"I Am a Rock" Alternate Version -2:44
"A Church Is Burning" Alternate Version -3:10
* Paul Kane was a pseudonym used by Simon at this time, because of his fondness
for the film Citizen Kane.