Simon was not as immediately receptive, viewing movies akin to " selling out", creating a damper on his artistic integrity. Davis viewed it as a perfect fit and envisioned a best-selling soundtrack album.
#BOOKENDS LYRICS LICENSE#
After two weeks of this obsession, he met with Clive Davis to ask for permission to license Simon & Garfunkel music for his film.
Meanwhile, director Mike Nichols, then filming The Graduate, had become fascinated with the duo's past two efforts, listening to them nonstop before and after filming. Simon was distrustful of " suits" at the label on one occasion, he and Garfunkel brought a tape recorder into a meeting with Davis, who was giving a "fatherly talk" on speeding up production, in order to laugh at it later. Amid concerns for Simon's idleness, Columbia Records chairman Clive Davis arranged for up-and-coming record producer John Simon to kick-start the recording. Artists at the time were expected to release two, perhaps three albums each year and the lack of productivity from the duo worried executives at Columbia Records. He had hit a dry spell in his writing, which led to no Simon & Garfunkel album on the horizon for 1967. Simon began work for Bookends around this time, noting to a writer at High Fidelity that "I'm not interested in singles anymore". Similarly, they recorded "At the Zoo" for single release in early 1967 (it charted lower, at number 16). ĭuring the sessions for Parsley, the duo cut " A Hazy Shade of Winter" and decided to release it as a single then, where it peaked at number 13 on the national charts. The duo chose William Morris as their booking agency after a recommendation from Wally Amos, a mutual friend through their producer, Tom Wilson. Simon, then 25, felt he had finally "made it" into an upper echelon of rock and roll, while most importantly retaining artistic integrity ("making him spiritually closer to Bob Dylan than to, say, Bobby Darin", wrote biographer Marc Eliot). Following another release, Sounds of Silence (1965), the duo recorded and released Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and Thyme (1966), which brought new critical and commercial success to the duo. Simon & Garfunkel first burst onto the American scene when their hit single " The Sound of Silence" made waves on radio in 1965, during a period in which the duo had broken up due to the failure of their debut release, Wednesday Morning, 3 A.M. The album has continued to receive critical acclaim and is debated by critics as to whether it or Bridge Over Troubled Water is Simon & Garfunkel's best album.
Bookends was considered a breakthrough for the duo, placing them on the same level as artists such as the Beatles, Bob Dylan and the Rolling Stones at the forefront of the cultural movement in the 1960s. The album sold well in the US and in the United Kingdom, where it peaked at number one. Initial sales for Bookends were substantial in the US, and the album produced the number-one single " Mrs. The album was recorded gradually over the period of a year, with production speeding up around the later months of 1967. Much of the material was crafted alongside producer John Simon (no relation), who joined the recording when Paul Simon suffered from writer's block. Simon's lyrics concern youth, disillusionment, relationships, old age, and mortality. Side two largely consists of previously-released singles and of unused material for The Graduate soundtrack.
Side one of the album marks successive stages in life, the theme serving as bookends to the life cycle. The duo had risen to fame two years prior with the albums Sounds of Silence and Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and Thyme and the soundtrack album for the 1967 film The Graduate.īookends is a concept album that explores a life journey from childhood to old age.
Produced by Paul Simon, Art Garfunkel and Roy Halee, the album was released on April 3, 1968, in the United States by Columbia Records. Bookends is the fourth studio album by American music duo Simon & Garfunkel.
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