Paul Simon was 23 years old when Simon & Garfunkel first split after Wednesday Morning, 3 AM failed to make much headway in the charts. In two years time, they would get back together after the sudden success of "The Sound of Silence," but until then, Paul was living in England with a girlfriend and playing for folks in folk clubs, reportedly loving his time there. Out of his stay in Britain came this album, a collection of 12 bona fide Paul Simon original tunes. A few were released on the first Simon & Garfunkel record, most were recorded after this album's released. In spite of these versions later being cleaned up on future releases, there's something deeply singular, personal, heartfelt, and beautiful throughout the entire record. The Paul Simon Songbook is filled with emotion, from the humorous to the heartbroken, the sublime to the sorrowful. In it's simplicity, Paul Simon's solo debut manages to match up with the heavyweights like Leonard Cohen and Bob Dylan - Simon can Lyndon Johnson them into submission with just one song collection.
Out of the 12 songs on The Paul Simon Songbook, 11 of them (more like 10.5, but I'll explain that in a minute) were released on Simon & Garfunkel records - "A Church is Burning" is exclusive to this record, while "On the Side of a Hill" was later reworked into the "Canticle" for the group's rendition of "Scarborough Fair." One common criticism I've seen of this record is that every song here sounds better on a S&G record - I'm not so sure. Moments like the neurotic opener "I Am a Rock" or the loneliness of "The Sound of Silence" almost operate better with a single vocalist, which mesh with the disheartening messages of isolation in both songs. This isn't say that Garfunkel ruins these songs, because of course he doesn't, but these more lonely takes give some weight to them. Many of these songs have renditions that feel more heartbroken, such as an ode to a suicide victim in "A Most Peculiar Man" or the continuous movement of time and ending of love in "Leaves That Are Green." Something about the solo recordings feels far more personal than any of their renditions on future S&G records.
While the album is largely a solemn endeavor, Paul's more warm and lighthearted side still shows. A love song to his then-girlfriend Kathleen Chitty, "Kathy's Song," is an impassioned song of longing to be with his lover yet again - one of his most heartfelt love songs. The most bumping side of Paul Simon is seen with "A Simple Desultory Philippic," a full-blown parody of Bob Dylan complete with absurd amounts of allusions and references to notable figures ("I've been Walt Disneyed, Diz Disleyed" is a golden line in my book). This version is closer to a song that would be on Dylan's Bringing It All Back Home in comparison to the version later on Parsley, Sage, Rosemary &Thyme, even at one point lifting a guitar riff from "It's Alright, Ma (I'm Only Bleeding)." It's a fun song that never fails to get a smile out of me. The blissful ignorance of "Flowers Never Bend With the Rainfall" is one of Simon's most beautiful melodies. All the sides of Paul Simon get a little bit of breathing room on this album, and each one shines in the stalwart simplicity of the record's performances and production.
By 1966, Paul Simon was back with Garfunkel, and this record would invariably fall into obscurity with the duo's newfound commercial success - it wasn't even initially released in the US. Even today, the record is seen as little more than a peculiarity, with much of the material readily available for your consumption with Art Garfunkel by his side, and still released before the real beginning of Paul Simon's solo career in '72 with his equally excellent self-titled album. Even still, The Paul Simon Songbook is ground zero for one of the brightest careers in music - a beautiful, often emotional experience, brilliantly executed and fantastic in its simplicity. In many ways, it's a lost folk masterpiece.
RATING: ✯✯✯✯✯✯✯✯✯✯
Listen to The Paul Simon Songbook.
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