Simon & Garfunkel - The Best of Simon & Garfunkel
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Free Music Notes for The Best of Simon & Garfunkel
Free Music Review: Infinitely Better Sound Than The Prior Greatest Hits
Hit: 5 Stars
I purchased this album because I noticed that all of the songs had been digitally remastered. What a difference that makes! Compared to the Columbia "Greatest Hits" CD which was unlistenable, this album is far superior. Moreover, this album has many more songs which better represent the talent of Paul Simon, as songwriter and musician. As for the songs themselves, they are timeless, such as "The Sounds of Silence" (which, thankfully, is clearer and absent that annoying tape hiss), to "The Dangling Conversation" (with its snippets of poetry), to "Mrs. Robinson" (I have never heard more detailed guitars and better stereo separation) to "Bridge Over Troubled Water" (which was clearer but still a disappointment in the arrangement, with its Spector-like wall of sound). By definition, any greatest hits album will omit songs that one thinks are critical to such a compliation, but on the whole, this is a fine effort.
Free Music Review: Great!
Hit: 5 Stars
I liked it very much. It contains many of their greatest songs. They sound as good as ever after all these years. The CD takes you back in time!Free Music Review: It only took 35 years, but CBS/Sony finally got this right.
Hit: 5 Stars
Of the "major labels," CBS is probably my least favorite. They have long been known for poor or inaccurate album documentation, cheesy marketing, endlessly reshuffling their catalog with numerous redundant compilations, and even lousy cover art. Amazon has killed several of my past reviews, due to my not sticking to the album in question, by criticizing recording labels' marketing of their albums...but, like it or not, this can be a factor in deciding whether or not to buy an album.
When Sony took over the CBS catalog, I think it was in the late 1980's, a lot of music collectors seemed to be worried that it was going to have an adverse effect on the marketing of CBS' albums, esp. their back catalog. On the other hand, I was actually hopeful that Sony would come in and clean up CBS's act...but they didn't. In fact, if anything, the endless reshuffling of artists' back catalogs has gotten worse: look at how many different Miles Davis compilations they have, for just one glaring example.
The main Simon & Garfunkel compilation prior to the present "Best of" was the ubiquitous Greatest Hits, which had some glaring song omissions, and should've been reduced to mid-price a long time ago.
Well, hats of to Sony, they finally got it right with the present compilation...better late than never. While a few other S&G fans might have some quibbles with the song selection, everything I--and my wife--want is right here. Pick up this and Negotiations and Love Songs and you've got one helluva great set!
Free Music Review: all of the S&G you need
Hit: 5 Stars
This is one of the best "best of" collections on the market from one of the greatest folk/pop acts of the 20th century. You truly get your money's worth on this collection. The songs are well mastered and sound extremely clean, which brings Paul Simon's wonderful songwriting to the front, with excellent Travis-picked guitar. These songs are great to study if you are a new guitarist and are interested in Travis picking, which is used on pretty much every song.
The songs are known for their ability to appeal to all ages of people. The great thing about S&G was their ability to really bring people together with their music. They saw the idiocy in boring wealthy activities, and there is an undercurrent of that in most of these songs (just check out "dangling conversation" for a great example of this!) I think that most of their albums had filler tracks, but this really does not have any "miss" tracks at all. The best song is easily "America," which you can listen to over and over without losing interest. Or maybe "The Boxer," which I recited when I did a presentation on Paul Simon in english class (a lot of girls like this song a lot!). If anything, this deserves 20 stars. You absolutely cannot miss this. I am listening to it right now as I write, and you should be listening to it now also. GO GET IT!! (Ignore the people who say Dylan is better)
Free Music Review: Oh my grace, I've got no hidin' place.
Hit: 5 Stars
....no hidin' place.... that's a line from Save The Life Of My Child which is NOT on this collection. It's one of their best songs and it's not represented!? What is that! Well, in reality, my complaint is not that many worthy S & G compositions are not on the collection (I mean, if you never hear Save The Life Of My Child or you never hear The Boxer, you'll be more unhappy without the latter) it's just that if you are interested enough to buy this record then I recommend that you buy the actual albums instead! There's no reason not to(except for money) the albums are filled with unknown classics such as Save The Life Of My Child and are highly enjoyable. It's not like the non-hits suck or are radically different from the hits, it's Simon And Garfunkel for god's sake, what's gonna change? There's a reason why practically every album they made is considered a classic-their good ALL the way through. It's like The Beatles. You have no where near a complete idea of the best of The Beatles if you only own Beatles's 1. But, we gotta remember collections have their reasons.
So, as a collection does The Best Of Simon And Garfunkel work and work well? YES!! Greatest Hits has traditionally been flaunted as a definitive collection.... why? Well, there a number of good reasons but The Best Of Simon And Garfunkel now replaces that album as the best S & G collection. For one thing, at a local Wal-Mart this thing costs JUST AS MUCH as greatest hits. This doesn't mean much until you put in the fact that The Best Of has every song Greatest Hits has (with the exception of the unessential Kathy's Song) plus a few sorely needed tracks. Yes, but even THIS doesn't mean a great deal... I mean, who wants to listen to a 2-hour long best-of by anybody? Not ME! Because that WAS part of the appeal of Greatest Hits-it was of modest length. And here's the kicker...... wait...... wait..... wait..... Ka-BOOM! I just kicked you with the fact The Best Of Simon And Garfunkel is definetely within a listenable length and is really not much longer than Greatest Hits, which, actually is a bit too short.
There you have it, if you KNOW that you only want to buy ONE Simon And Garfunkel product-this is the album for you! BUT, if you are actually interested in these guys buy the albums, I garuntee that if you like ANY of their collections you'll like the albums a lot. So why waste the money or time.... unless you have no problem with doing so..... then go and buy this anyways.